Probably many of you don’t remember. But I was diagnosed about 3 months ago and at that time I had a BG of 300. That doctor never took an base Ha1c so I have no idea what it was at that time but knowing what I used to eat, I would guess it probably wasn’t so good.
So I had some major problems with that Dr. He told me to never come back to this forum and not to listen to anything I read here. (That was a whole other thread a few months back). He didn’t approve of low-carb diets and said they aren’t sustainable and questions the results of them. He didn’t like me monitoring my BG several times a day. And his basic idea for treatment was lot of exercise, eat a well balanced diet, and if your Ha1c is up next time I’ll increase your meds. That was his plan.
There were a host of other reasons I didn’t like that Dr. too. So I decided to get a 2nd opinion. I got an appt. at one of the premier hospitals in the nation (OHSU) with an endocrynologist whose specialty is diabetes and today was my first meeting with her. Coincidentally, it’s been just over 3 months so it was time to check my Ha1c too.
Well…… I got a 5.8 guys! Woohoo! I’m lovin’ it! 😀
Thanks in large part to what I read here and some of the concepts I got from you all (eat to your meter, low-carb, etc.) It really worked! My doctor was very happily surprised. She said I was the lowest one she’d seen in a while. And for having just recently been diagnosed she was shocked that I had it under such good control this quickly.
She took me off the glyburide and put me on Metformin (sp?). And explained the difference between the way those two drugs work too. I really prefer the way metformin works. I hope I will get even better control (and maybe be allowed to eat a few more carbs) with this new med.
After talking to the Dr. for a whole hour (Really? I didn’t know doctors actually spent that much time with patients anymore!!!) and also talking with the Diabetes Educator / Dietician for another hour, I feel like I really got a lot better understanding of how the disease works and how to control the effects. But basically, they said, if I can keep my numbers this low it could be a long long time or maybe never that I would see any neuropathy from the disease. And that’s my goal. So whooooohoooo!
I still need to drop some weight and get involved in exercise. And, it turns out, I need to probably introduce a few more carbs into my diet – slowly. But that’s cool. I’ll find a balance. I’ve been keeping to pretty much no carbs or very little anyway. So it will be nice to play with that a little and allow myself a tad more and see how my numbers play out.
Anyway ….. 5.8 on my first one …. I was stoked!!!! Feel like a king tonight!