Yoghurtget: I know exactly how you're feeling and I'm really shocked that you're not getting more support from the diabetics team at your hospital. Although, maybe if they're not rushing you through it might mean your readings weren't too worrying and only slightly above what they should have been...do you know what they were?
If you've read my above posts you know that I'm new to all this as well so can't in any way claim to be an expert or a scientist but I can tell you what I've learnt through process of elimination and reading old threads on here if it will help you.
I have to test 4 times a day. Once when I get up (the fasting reading) and this should be less than 5.5 and then once an hour after each meal which should be less than 7.8. They gave me a booklet to record these numbers in but I've also bought myself a little notebook so that I can keep track of everything I eat at each meal with a note of the subsequent reading after it to see if it helps me identify any "triggers".
What I've found out so far:
Avoid like the plague - white bread - or anything resembling white bread, pasta, potatoes, cereal, fruit juice.
Make sure most meals are based around vegetables and protein with just a small serving of a "good" carb on the side (such as basmati rice, wholemeal pasta, cous cous.
Walking after each meal and before the next reading seems to help. SO if you can, even if it's just a ten minute stroll around the block, try and do some kind of gentle exercise between eating and testing. When it was pouring down the other day I was even marching on the spot in front of the tele with cans of soup in my hands!
My tips:
I can't tolerate many carbs at all at breakfast so I've been having omelettes bulked out with veg and cheese. In the last few days, however, I've found Tesco do a Stoneground Wholemeal Bread and I can tolerate one slice of that, toasted, with bacon and eggs.
Good snacks I've found are nuts (almonds especially), oatcakes or carrot sticks with cream cheese, houmus or peanut butter, and some of the "breakfast bars". NOT the Belvita ones, but the Weetabix equivalent don't seem to affect me. Boiled eggs are also good.
Lunches have been mainly wholemeal pitta bread stuffed (and I mean stuffed!) with ham, cheese and salad, or tuna and salad and then an extra bit of salad on the side for good measure. Or a box of salad with grated cheese and boiled eggs. Yet for some bizarre reason a bowl of homemade vegetable soup, even without any bread to go with it, raised my readings! There really doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it!
For evening meals, if you like your potatoes, try replacing them with mashed carrot and swede or with roasted sweet potatoes instead. I haven't really changed our evening meals that much, just changed what we have with them. So we have things like chilli (bulked up with yet more veg!), pork stroganoff, chicken in mushroom sauce, cheesy vegetable and sausage bake, but I now make sure that at least half the plate is veg...get ready to prepare and chop more veg than you ever have in your life!
Oh, and randomly semi-skimmed milk is better than skimmed in tea or coffee!
I hope all of this helps you. As time has gone on I've realised how little advice/information I was given at the diabetic clinic. Things like does a high reading at breakfast still influence the other readings taken later that day? Or should your levels drop immediately below the recommended levels or do they take a while to stabilise? All things that as a complete novice who was very upset and a bit in shock at the time of the appointment I had with the nurse didn't even think of asking. I now think (although in no way claim to be a scientist!) that yes, a high breakfast reading does impact on other readings that day, although if you eat properly they shouldn't be as high and no, the levels don't drop immediately back into "acceptable" levels but do take some time to stabilise. My readings were all over the place for the first week but now, on days 8 and 9 they have been a lot more stable and very close to, if not within, the targets set.
I'm sorry this has turned into a mammoth post but it's a subject that's very close to my heart at the moment and if I can help one person feel more hopeful and less like I was feeling for all of last week then I'll be happy.
My one final piece of advice (until I think of something else at least!) is try not to let a high reading get you down too much. Just keep a diary of what you've eaten and see if you can identify what might have triggered it. But on the other hand, try not to get too excited and hopeful when you have a low reading either, because if the next one is higher again it just hurts all the more!