Welcome to the diabetes forum if you haven't received a formal welcome before this. We are glad you found HealingWell and hope we can help you with the way you handle your disease. We also would like to learn from you about
what you do to keep your sugars in control, shortcuts for following your food program and other health issues that affect us all. We have found that if we pool our knowledge we can all benefit from our shared experience.
We are all about
sharing and education here... so anything you can share will be welcome. We do like to have our posts be diabetes-related but heaven knows it's affecting every aspect of our lives so that pretty much leaves the discussion topics wide
open. Also, be careful about
sharing too much personal stuff for your own security and safety. If you want to post an email address it will be shielded from spam robots on your personal page or you can use this format -> jeannie143 at healingwell dot net (that's mine.)
If you are a newly diagnosed Type 2 read back in the posts and find out what you can from others in how they handle their diet, exercise and medication needs.
REMEMBER!!! Regardless of how you cope with the disease the bottom line is blood sugar control! Don't get sidetracked by 'cures', herbals, or people selling stuff 'that the doctors don't want you to know about
'! Every day, every day, you want to keep the sugars under 150 maximum any time more than 2 hours after a meal.(If you're an American.) Alternative numbers are 8.3 mmol/L if you use the Eu. scale. If your doctor has given you a different set of numbers to work with, fine.. just keep on getting those sugars in line. Many of our Type2's here try to eat less starch and do more exercise rather than add more medications. This may work for you, or as Warren, a member would say, "Your mileage may vary."
If you are Type 1 or a LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults) also known as a 1.5, please note that in your subject line so the other T1's will see your post and respond. There are fewer of you than us other guys and your needs are radically different from the Type 2's so be sure that you accept advice from people who understand your diabetes is Type 1 or 1.5. Your sugar control, diet and complications are different because you produce
no insulin so don't get confused by advice for Type 2's that is not intended for you. And as always, when in doubt... ASK!
Those of you who have been told your are Pre-Diabetic or reactive hypoglycemic are in categories all of your own. We may not be clear on all of your needs but we will certainly try to help you find answers to the best of our ability.
Diabetic education is a must. If your insurance covers a meeting or class with a dietician GO FOR IT! They know their stuff and the training will cover many diabetic topics from food portion sizes to foot care. If you have food, exercise, health or medication questions you can ask on this forum and we can usually help out. No question is too dumb.
Ask anything you like and if it's something that you don't want to discuss on an
open forum you may email any of us. Clicking on any of the mods names will take you to our personal page with our email address. Just remember, none of us can substitute for your doctor. That is the person you are entrusting your health care to, so consult with the person with the diploma on the wall in all things important. We can only help educate and offer moral support.
Don't be surprised if you go through a period of mourning before you finally get a handle on this disease. It is normal to go through the grief process before we finally get to the point of accepting and living with our diabetes. There is a website about
coping with a new health concern that I found especially helpful.
One of our former mods, Warren, has found some excellent web info on new diabetes studies and results out of Harvard. Check out
his post here and see if you don't learn something very useful about
how we acquire diabetes and some new treatments that may be in the future.
Diabetes is a bit scary at first so read all you can here and get some books at the library as well. You can also find lots of good information at the
American Diabetes Association website. Just don't take anything from any source as gospel. Each person reacts to the disease differently and has to tailor their own treatment plan according to their own numbers. We don't all follow the same food/exercise/medication regimen and often mix and match what we learn from our fellow forum members. Please come back and share often so we can learn from each other and try out different avenues of diet and care. Sometimes diabetes is a pain in the patootie but by making some new friends who understand your feelings and thoughts maybe it won't be as tough as all that.
These links are to help you find your way around the site:
Site Navigation 101: A quick tutorial Chat 101 ~ How to chat And finally, one of our members signature contains a really useful idea. Phishbowl says,
"What's Not Measured Is Not Managed" and that just about
says it all. Keeping a journal of your food plan, exercise, blood glucose readings and medications will help you learn how your body is handling this disease and make it easier for you and your doctor to plan a course of action. Finally, if you are new to the diagnosis TEST, TEST, TEST! The more you learn about
your body and the way it handles glycemic loads the easier it is to acquire the weapons you need to battle this beast. Test first thing in the morning, test before a meal, test two hours after sitting down to a meal, test if you are feeling strange, test, test, test. The knowledge you gain about
YOUR diabetes will help you learn to treat yourself better and improve your chances of dodging the nasty complications that come with this disease.
Anyway, welcome and take care.
Jeannie143
Post Edited (Jeannie143) : 9/16/2008 10:03:27 AM (GMT-6)