Reddit reviews The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed (Marlowe Diabetes Library)

For excellent technical discussion of type 2 in language I can understand I recommend these two books:


The First Year, Type 2 Diabetes, An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed. Author: Gretchen Becker. ISBN 1-56924-646-0

Blood Sugar 101, What They Don't Tell you about Diabetes, by Jenny Ruhl, ISBN-13: 978-0-9647116-1-7.

First off welcome to the club no one wants to be a member of. I myself was diagnosed at 28, (I just turned 32) and I remember being really overwhelmed and having a TON of conflicting feelings and emotions kind of wash over me. It's frustrating and I still hate being a diabetic, but you can live with it. My father was diagnosed in his 50s...he's 70+ years old now and doing fine.

Now THAT A1c isn't too bad. When I was diagnosed I was at an 11.3! My initial fastings were like 150-175. However the past few months the two pills I take have not been functioning as well as they were since I was diagnosed so I may have to find other ways to treat what I have. You're definitely a diabetic, the fasting test is pretty good at determining that. Now Vitamin D isn't always the best indicator because usually we're ALL deficient in that. I high level IS controllable without meds, but it can be difficult. You have to adopt a very low-carb diet or supplement your diet with exercise.

So here's my suggestion...

Get this book. Seriously it was the best thing and made it easy to understand why things were happening the way they were, what I needed to do, and when to do it. You'll want to do the following kind of in brief:

• Get and read that book
  
• Approach friends/family for support. Even here on /r/diabetes will help you get through some of the things. I like www.diabeticconnect.com as well.
  
• If you haven't enrolled in a diabetes education class yet, do so ASAP. Most hospitals offer one, and there are usually diabetic centers by county. Insurance should cover it.
  
• Find an endocrinologist or specific diabetic doctor. You need to assemble your "team" of doctors and care specialists. This usually consists of a general practitioner, Endocrinologist, Opthamologist/Optometrist (I recommend Optha instead of Opto, they're better for diabetics and test and monitor more things with your eyes/vision), a podiatrist and a dietician/nutritionist.
  
• Once you receive a blood glucose meter, start testing. Before and after every meal, and snack if you can afford strips to do so. I went nuts after I was diagnosed. I tested before and after everything. Biggest tip I can give you...set the needle depth on the finger lancer to the lowest setting lol, then work up. I use a "3" but when I started it was like at a 8 and ouch that hurt lol, now I can't even feel a thing. Test often. Log all the food you eat in a journal. This will help when you hit a nutritionist or dietician, even your diabetic doctor.
  
• Learn what foods are good/bad to eat for diabetics. I can recommend this Calorie King book for learning how to count carbs, which can be awesome for controlling your in take etc.
  
• Take a breath.
  
  Diabetes isn't a death sentence, and eventually you'll come to look at it as just a forced healthy life change. All in all it's actually a blessing you got diagnosed. Sure we would love NOT to have diabetes, however having it and being undiagnosed can be dangerous. Diabetic complications are slow and happen over time...and usually when your blood sugars are elevated over a long period of time. They are completely controllable, and it's likely you will never have any neuropathy or retinopathy BECAUSE you caught it so young.
  
  Losing weight is amazing. Even 10 pounds. However starving yourself won't help. You will read a lot about being able to "reverse" diabetes but really there is no such thing. You can make it so you don't require meds, but you'll always have to watch. Don't sweat it, there's LOTS of us out there and it doesn't impact your life as MUCH as if you were a Type 1 and required insulin.
  
  D