Will I die if I don't change?

[hadntbeen]

I'm a 30 year old female. Full disclosure - my eating is out of control. Full of carbs, sugar and I drink a lot, and I mean a lot of semi skimmed milk which is just full of sugar. I am 5 foot 4 and weigh around 15 stone.

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes around 2 years ago when I started to become very sleepy throughout the day.

My hba1c results in October were 8.0 so not too bad, however, I hadn't been taking the 2000 mg metformin that was prescribed to me. I was honest with my doctor about this and so she told me to just take 500 mg and we would do another test in January.

I didn't do that - I honestly don't have any other reason for it other than the tablets make me feel sick and I don't like swallowing them. I've noticed over the last month that I have been urinating a lot more. I just got my hba1c results back and they are now 9.6.

I'm quite worried by these results as my diet hasn't changed since my last results in October but still my sugar levels aren't even staying the same they are just rising.

I'm scared to talk to my doctor. My plan from today is to start taking my one tablet 500 mg of metformin and to cut out the milk. I literally drink about 2 litres a day.

Is it reversible still at this point? If I continue the way I am, what can I expect going forward?

Every part of my life is going so well, I just can't quite get a grip of this.

I guess I need some horror stories/cold, hard facts to shock me into action.

You need therapy. Overeating is a psychological problem, not a physical one.

You are damaging your health beyond the point of no return.

When I read your post what occured to me is that you write as though you are not the person making the decisions. You talk about how your diet hasn't changed, you know the only person who can change it is you right? I think you have to change your mindset a bit and "own it".

And yes, I expect you will do yourself some damage if you don't change things. Maybe you won't die, but I expect old age won't be amazing for you if you carry on the way you are.

pick one thing to change at a time ie. Portion size, snacks. Milk is only part of the bigger issue. Do you exercise at all?

You are doing a lot of harm to your body and organs (which will get to the point of no return even if it does not kill you) but like PP said, it is not as simple as needing facts to shock you into it or you don't have willpower. It is a genuine medical problem which needs treating with therapy.

I also suspect you need more than metformin 500mg to address the issue and improve the insulin resistance. Be honest with your doctor so they can get you the help you need

I assume you've written this thread to get a lot of replies saying 'yes, you need to change now' for some sort of kick up the arse.

Well ok, if that's what helps: 'yes, you need to change now.'

Just so you know - metformin is not the only treatment available for type 2 diabetes. It is also available as modified release tablets which means they release into the body slower and are less likely to cause the nausea you are experiencing. There are other treatments too if you don't want metformin at all. But the GP needs to know that these aren't working in order to help you.

The biggest help is addressing the overeating and drinking which it is clear you know but need help with the action part

Very dramatic to say u will die
but carry on as you are and your health will decline

Diabetes is always reversible in that you can control your blood sugars with diet. It's not reversible as in cured and you can eat what you like.

The metformin they start you on is the very cheapest. It can cause horrible gastric upset.

If you are finding this please please go back and ask for another brand.

It's so very important to get your sugar under control, for now yes, but so much more for the future.

For every day you are over 5.5 mmol you are sustaining internal damage to your blood vessels, to your kidneys to your eyes. Ultimately in time you'll not be able to see, you'll go into renal failure and possibly lose sensation to your extremities. It's so not worth it.

Get those metformin changed to better ones. And start slowly to reduce your carb consumption. You don't need to reduce other things, that will come automatically in time.

A few small changes today mean your body can recover.

It's not just about dying, you could be wrecking your body so as to live in pain. I have peripheral neuropathy due to not taking my diabetes seriously. I have had ketoacidosis twice. I spend a lot of time in really bad pain, movement is hard at times. It feels like I'm dying slowly, not something I'd wish for anyone to go through

Do you want to die?
Is your reluctance to do anything about your health a slow motion act of self harm?

Have you got any support for your mental health?

Sounds like you are a food addict? Addicts know they will stand a high chance of dying early, but they carry on regardless.
Being heavy will be so bad for your joints as well..Try lifting several stones, it's a big load to lift..Your joints are straining under this excess weight.
Arthritis is no joke.
Try to get help with food compulsion.

Don't try and wean yourself into metformin. Be honest that you've not been taking it. The GP is probably confused why it isn't working. Be honest, be adult enough to admin you've not been following the dose, any why. The doctor can either reassure you how long it might take for initial side effects to disappear, or could switch you to a different medication.

And 8.0 is bad. You sound like a teenager trying to make excuses for themselves. I was worried when mine was 4.3.

milk is not full of sugar like other drinks there is a natural sugar in it called lactose but it is a very small % I somehow doubt that the milk is the problem it is more likely to be all the carbs though it is a lot of milk to drink

you need the correct dietary advice even if not reversable it will lower the need for increasing doses of metformin and make it easier to control, but form what you are saying you need counselling as no lifestyle change ( it needs to be permanent bnot a temporary diet) will continue unless you are commited and know why you want to make the change and then how you actually do change

You say ‘my diet hasn’t changed’… why? You need to change your diet.

You must make the changes you know you need to make.

But more importantly, you can make those changes. No-one else is going to do it for you. Take control!

Diabetes may not kill you, but complications can, or at best make your life extremely difficult. I lost my Grandma after a diabetes complication where she had gout and was told she needed to have her foot amputated and she refused. Her sister, my great aunt, was found several days after she passed away, alone in her house, after going into a diabetic coma.
My mum cannot get her sugars under control and is doing very little to change. She's been told repeatedly she needs to change her diet urgently. She's at the stage now where she is just a walking heart attack waiting to happen. She's close to losing her sight too, also from diabetes. She was much older than you when she was diagnosed, which was about ten years ago in her 60's. She's just been put on insulin a few months ago after she had ignored the diagnosis for long enough and her sugars are just going up and up.
You are only 30, so young, with your whole life ahead of you. Own it and change now because you will regret it when it's too late.

I guess I need some horror stories/cold, hard facts to shock me into action

My 38 year old friend is now almost blind, is on dialysis for 7 hours a day, has a colostomy bag, can't walk as she has no feeling in her feet and has been waiting for a kidney transplant for years.

Milk has a large amount of carbs. It's hidden and not something people think about.

It's 17/19 grams of carbs for a single latte! That's half a low carb daily intake.

Maybe try to make a structural change to your diet first of all. It can be easier than trying to make all the changes at ones.

3 meals, at meal times. No snacks in between those times, ever.

And another changed would be to only drink water. Cut out everything else, permanently, unless it’s a small drink that’s part of a meal.

I think given your age, you probably could have a good go at getting the diabetes under control and into remission.

like a pp has said, it’s not really about dying. It’s about things like having body parts cut off. Eg your foot/feet. And then living like that. Or your sight being damaged to the point you can’t drive or do whatever you need to do. Diabetes does all sorts of things to the body. So definitely try your best to stop it.

The trouble with these things isn't the dying, it's the irreversible damage and not dying that's the hard part.
My sister is a physio who deals with amputees, most of her patients are smokers or diabetic. They lose a foot or a leg (after they've gone gangrenous usually), then she might see them again later when they lose the other foot or leg.
Life gets harder and harder and more and more unpleasant, whatever small joys they had become more difficult to achieve.
I know a chap who lost all feeling in his feet due to diabetes, this made him fall because he couldn't sense his steps properly, he fell down the stairs and suffered brain damage. He's not dead but no one knows if he wishes he was, as he can't really communicate any more.
It's serious stuff.

But pp is right, you need support to make changes to maximize your chance of succeeding.
Some rare people can break habits through sheer will power, but most find a bit more is needed especially if they want to stop one thing and not just replace with another equally unhelpful thing.

Get any help you can and grasp it with both hands.

It’s really not too late. You’re only 30, a family member of mine with diabetes a lot older than you lost a lot of weight and was able to stop medication control theirs with diet only. But you have to want it op. It’s really not enough for other people to tell you what to do. You are the one making those choices, we can’t cook and shop for you. Would you consider a slimming group if you don’t feel you can do it alone? I feel the accountability of someone weighing me each week keeps me on track. Best of luck op.

Your post is very sad. You are only 30, you should be feeling great at this point in your life. I would either pay privately for or ask for a referral to therapy so you can try and nail down why you think that this is all that you deserve. You are purposefully sabotaging your health and you need help to try and figure out why.

In contrast, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, my bmi was 24 but I lost a stone anyway to try and lighten the load on my joints and I have taken up yoga to try and help because I want to be healthy, I want to feel good and know that I deserve to. You deserve to feel good in your body too.

Bit how would other people's horror stories help? Why is it that which would make the difference?

I could say that my sister was in your position and died after suffering horrible side effects from her unmanaged diabetes, so you need to sort yourself out or that will happen to you. But how would that actually influence your behaviour? You already know that things could go very badly for you or you wouldn't have posted.

I think you need to examine why you haven't changed your diet at all, in the face of advice from Drs. Is it addiction? A sort of 'self destructive' desire? A lack of support? The only way you can change your behaviour is to understand why you are behaving a certain way in the first place.

I just did a quick Google using search

Type 2 diabetes remission stories

Loads of inspiration there. Remission is possible.

there is very little if any difference in carbs ( milk sugars) between natural ( full fat) milk and semi skimmed roughly 4.6g per 100g so yes if you drink 2 litres that is a lot of sugar but there is likely to be even more sugars in the biscuits, toast etc you have with the milk