Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Taking husband to doctor tonight, His blood sugars this past 5 days 350! He hasn't felt well. He is type 2 diabetic and I fear insulin in his future. He has to loose weight too. His eating habits have been slightly better last 2 weeks.
I hope your husband is feeling better. I felt sick when my bs goes up into the 200 range I cant imagine what its like that high.
As for me, I've seen my doctor a few times since last time and he just gave me the typical talk about eating in moderation, counting carbs etc and most importantly to lose weight and ultimately get to a healthy goal weight, it could make all the difference. In the meantime, I am counting carbs. In a normal week, my diet mostly consists of veggies and protein and although it doesnt fill me up like carbs does, I never have a problem with my bs spiking. Some days, my husband would ask me to make specialty dishes that are high in carbs due to the rice content. After slaving over the stove for 2 hours plus, its really not fair it I dont get to taste my own cooking, so in those cases I do eat carbs but CONSCIOUSLY. I have to keep reminding myself about being conscious. I eat a tiny, tiny amount of rice noodes (its more for the taste, and 1/2 of the serving size whereas it take 2 servings at least to fill up a normal person). If I stick to that plan, eating 1/2 serving size my bs does not spike but is able to stay in the normal range.
Everyone is different, you just need to find the foods that work best for you and the amounts that will not spike up blood sugar. Fortunately for me, my last a1c test was 6.0 so I am still not a full blown diabetic so if I dont have to completely eliminate everything, but I still need to watch what I eat.
Are you getting the strips via a health insurance plan?
Try the Relion products from Walmart. A meter is, about $15, and strips are $9 for a box of 50! You do NOT need an RX to purchase them, so, you can buy as many as you want. Strips are so expensive, and you can't always ration them to an amount determined by an insurance company. Sometimes you need to test more in a given day, and, many times, the strips simply don't work! Despite your best technique, it just errors out.
I went round and round about this with a previous doctor, and before I discovered the Relion strips. She prescribed 50/month, then told me I should test 2x/day When I pointed this out, 2x30=60, well, then, she prescribed 60/month, which leaves me no room for error. She told me if I had an unusual result, to re-test, but, hey, I then would run out of strips Then, when I pointed out sometimes the strips would error out, she had me come in for "patient education" to be instructed on the proper technique. Hey, I KNOW how to use them, they just sometimes error. Then, the little office gal who was there to "educate" me, had to use three strips because the first two were duds. Thus enlightened, I should never have a problem testing and everything should work out perfect....
A box of Relion strips at Walmart is cheaper than the copay for most other brands paid via insurance and you don't have to jump through hoops to get them!
I am very lucky my diabetic meds and strips are free through my insurance, though I still have to pay my copay each time I go to my doctor.
Last edited by retired2014; 12-22-2016 at 06:05 PM..
Reason: forgot something
Paying for the meds associated with diabetes can be a very expensive proposition if you dont have insurance coverage or you don't live in Canada. if i had to pay for all my diabetic related supplies i couldnt afford to be diabetic.
Diabetes is a progressing disease,you can hold off the effects by proper diet and exercise but its still there, if hubby is not taking the disease seriously insulin will eventually need to be prescribed however it isnt something to be feared its just another medication to combat diabetes.
Long term blood sugar readings in the 350 range will produce devastating health issues,usually accompanies high blood pressure and high cholesterol and obesity resulting in high risk for stroke or heart attack.I'd recommend he get some diabetic and nutritional education through a local diabetic clinic.
Thanks, some good news and bad news. Bad new was his A1C was 11! good news he is on Glimepiride 4 mg 1 x a day along with the metformin he was already taking. Since my last post his sugars have been between 150-165. he's already lost about 30 pounds too. His eating habits have improved and he has stopped snacking on junk food. Oh and one other thing which could have been part of his out of control diabetes is an inflamed liver. We go back January 9th to see the doctor again. Most of the signs and symptoms of this inflamed liver he had. They are subsiding.. One day he was vomiting a lot he broke a rib! He's still healing from that (2weeks ago.) He had pain on the left side so we went and had a CT scan and it showed he broke 1 rib. Thankfully he's on the mend and getting his diabetes under control. I thin this was a wake up call for him.
I hope your husband is feeling better. I felt sick when my bs goes up into the 200 range I cant imagine what its like that high.
As for me, I've seen my doctor a few times since last time and he just gave me the typical talk about eating in moderation, counting carbs etc and most importantly to lose weight and ultimately get to a healthy goal weight, it could make all the difference. In the meantime, I am counting carbs. In a normal week, my diet mostly consists of veggies and protein and although it doesnt fill me up like carbs does, I never have a problem with my bs spiking. Some days, my husband would ask me to make specialty dishes that are high in carbs due to the rice content. After slaving over the stove for 2 hours plus, its really not fair it I dont get to taste my own cooking, so in those cases I do eat carbs but CONSCIOUSLY. I have to keep reminding myself about being conscious. I eat a tiny, tiny amount of rice noodes (its more for the taste, and 1/2 of the serving size whereas it take 2 servings at least to fill up a normal person). If I stick to that plan, eating 1/2 serving size my bs does not spike but is able to stay in the normal range.
Everyone is different, you just need to find the foods that work best for you and the amounts that will not spike up blood sugar. Fortunately for me, my last a1c test was 6.0 so I am still not a full blown diabetic so if I dont have to completely eliminate everything, but I still need to watch what I eat.
It's good that you've discovered that cutting back on carbs works to control blood sugar, OP. Keep up the good work. Your body will adjust to the low-carb diet so that you will no longer feel hungry on that diet; it takes a couple of weeks, but after that, you won't be able to eat a 1/2 serving of noodles or rice without feeling overly full. Try sticking with the diet for a few weeks (without the occasional splurge) and go to the gym 3 x/week, and you'll see some real momentum with the weight loss. It can be very motivating to see that kind of progress.
Also, building lean muscle mass REALLY helps your body metabolize carbs! You'll notice that your bs doesn't spike like it used to, after you trim up.
Good luck. Enlist your husband's support, so he doesn't request carby dinners too often. He can add his own carbs to meals with bread/toast, maybe he can keep a bowl of cooked rice in the fridge to ladle out to himself and heat up as a side dish for his dinners.
I saw some of you mention noodles. I recently found this and I can't say enough about it. It is zoodles. it is Zucchini noodles and they are every bit as good or better than regular pasta. The machine starts at about $20 for a decent one. I like them with just olive oil, garlic and Parmesan cheese and you can add some shrimp scampi over the top. There are a lot of ways to cook them. You can do Asian style as well or anything else you like.
Lubby - glad to know that your husband is doing better! As horrible as it is, at least its a wake up call for him and I am pretty sure that if he sticks to his plan, his a1c will be down in no time.
Ruth4Truth - thanks for your words of encouragements. You always have such wonderful things to say to me! Diabetes or not, I find that the low carb diet is the fastest way to lose weight. I successfully did the low carb diet a decade ago when I was in my teens. Ahh, teenagers and their determination, I wish I could find that in me again. Anyways, I was 148 I think and in 4 months I was down to 116. Of course I had less than 40 lbs to lose so it was much easier. Now I have 80 lbs to lose. The problem now is that I feel like I am in a "rush" because all this excess weight is hindering me from obtaining optimal health. As you can see, I already have prediabetes as a result I honestly dont think this would've happened if I wasnt this big as diabetes doesnt run in the family. Anyways, my doctor really hope I can get to a healthy weight at some point, he's also wants to know what my blood sugar will be like if I get back to a healthy weight. He said he's seen younger patients who lost a lot of weight and their bs went back to normal, doesnt happen to everyone but you never know unless you try. I am pretty sure even at a healthy weight, I will pretty much maintain this way of eating, but at least I dont have to worry every second of the day.
I also heard yam noodles are supposed to be good...so I will probably try that out.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When I pointed this out, 2x30=60, well, then, she prescribed 60/month, which leaves me no room for error. She told me if I had an unusual result, to re-test, but, hey, I then would run out of strips
Then, when I pointed out sometimes the strips would error out, she had me come in for "patient education" to be instructed on the proper technique. Hey, I KNOW how to use them, they just sometimes error. Then, the little office gal who was there to "educate" me, had to use three strips because the first two were duds. Thus enlightened, I should never have a problem testing and everything should work out perfect....
good news he is on Glimepiride 4 mg 1 x a day along with the metformin he was already taking. Since my last post his sugars have been between 150-165. he's already lost about 30 pounds too. His eating habits have improved and he has stopped snacking on junk food. Oh and one other thing which could have been part of his out of control diabetes is an inflamed liver. We go back January 9th to see the doctor again. Most of the signs and symptoms of this inflamed liver he had. They are subsiding.. One day he was vomiting a lot he broke a rib! 
He's still healing from that (2weeks ago.) He had pain on the left side so we went and had a CT scan and it showed he broke 1 rib. Thankfully he's on the mend and getting his diabetes under control. I thin this was a wake up call for him.
