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New Diabetic
| Sat, 10-20-2007 - 11:41am |
I just found out I have Diabetes. I spent Thursday night in the hospital, my bs was 1000. They gave me 2 prescriptions, and I have to follow up with the doctor within 2 weeks. I'm completely overwhelmed. The info they gave me ( diet, carbs, bs readings, etc.) is all confusing. My bs was 290 this am, I don't know if I should eat something or even what to eat. Any advice or help anyone has would be very much appreciated. What to eat, when to eat. This is going to be hard as I've always been a big eater. Help...
Thank you for listening,
Terry
tpickett001@sc.rr.com

Hi and welcome to the board!
Cheryl,
I am on :
It is too bad that you had to learn the 'hard way' that you are diabetic.
2sweet02
Cheryl,
Once again, thank you for your help.
Hmmmm
Hi Terry,
That is a strange dose for the metformin. Isn't it 750mg twice a day? I sincerely hope you aren't starting on that dosage because it will make you sick as a dog. It takes about two weeks to become used to the metformin and the recommendation is to start slowly with like 250 twice per day. Also make sure that you have food in your stomach before you take the metformin. Do not take it on an empty stomach.
How much were you told to eat? Because I have problems with keeping my blood sugar up between lunch and dinner I eat my fruit about 10am in the morning. The important thing about snacks is that they are part of your meal not in addition to your meal plan. What this means is that if you want to have a snack them you remove it from what you are going to eat that meal and eat it later as your snack.
Please pull up a chair and join our conversation. We have all been where you are and so we understand what is happening with you. It took a while for your blood sugar to get as bad as it was and it will take a while for it to get back down to a normal level. You will have various symptoms while your body adjust to not swimming in sugar. Your brain cells are very sensitive to your sugar levels but soon you will be back to a more normal level. You will have to change your life style to eating better and losing weight and exercising but this more healthy way of living will become second nature to you.
Sure you can have a snack between meals BUT you need to take that into account as far as carbs (and calories to lose weight). You can't have 5 *meals* per day but 3 meals and a couple snacks is fine. And, for some diabetics, having smaller amounts more frequently works better at keeping things on an even keel than having larger, more spread out amounts. For instance, for me (YMMV), having roughly 20-25 carbs for breakfast, 25-30 carbs for lunch and dinner, and 15 or so carbs in snacks mid morning and afternoon is how I feel best (and my bs numbers stay within sane bounds). A beginning rule of thumb might be to have a carb + protein snack, such as 2 graham crackers and some all-natural (no sugar added, no hydrogenated fats added) peanut butter. That would come out to 25 carbs roughly for regular old grahams but you can find lower carb stuff or just have one graham (which would be 13 or so carbs). Protein and fat, as well as fiber, slow digestion of the carbs which slows down how fast it hits the bloodstream. So, whole grain bread, grahams, celery, apple slices, etc with PB would hit slower.
--Deb
I checked the label and it does say 850mg twice a day.