Newly diagnosed

[Lene-Alice]

Just got diagnosed with diabetes type 2

I’m in hospital I’m just wondering how much all this

Is going to cost me I need one of those blood sugar check thingy and and test strips and needles are those on prescription?

[Praveen55 Star]

Home Glucometers are not that expensive. I believe the test strips may be available on prescription, if your Doctor asks you to monitor blood sugar at home, However, you will have to confirm this with your health care provider.

Wish you all the best.

[Vicky68]

Mine were all on prescription. Hope you are doing better today.

[blizzard2014]

It can be expensive if you do not have insurance, depending on what kind of medication you will need. Metformin is like 11 bucks for the generic, cash. You won't need needles unless you have to use insulin, which can be expensive without insurance. The cheapest is 25 dollars a vile for Novolin R or N at Wal-Mart. Needles run about 35 bucks for 100 of them. Make sure your doctor prescribes the maximum number of test strips per day that your insurance will cover. You need to test your blood sugar a lot in the beginning in order to figure out what kind of foods spike your blood sugar levels. Most docs only prescribe one test strip a day and tell their patients to check their BG in the morning only. This is not good. If you can change your diet, you might be able to manage your diabetes with diet alone for quite some time. I could not stick with a low carb diet, so I opted to eat regular foods (within reason) and use fast acting insulin to cover the carbs. Every person manages this disease in different ways, but low carb diet is the easiest way. Using insulin can be a hassle worrying about overshooting and having lows, of which I had a bad one last week down to 50 and eyesight blacking out for 15 mins. But that only happens every so often. I eat under 100 carbs per day, I just do it all at once so I don't have to use insulin more than for one meal a day. I fast for up to 18 hours in between meals and that manages to keep my fasting BG numbers in check. But you need to follow a treatment plan that you feel is right for you and one that you can stick with long term. I know this is a lot to take in being newly diagnosed. It will take some time to get used to changing your lifestyle and it doesn't have to happen overnight. You can do it in increments. I was already sick and on hard core meds, so jumping right to insulin for me was not a hard choice. I hope you're feeling better. Welcome to the group.

[Vicky68]

How are you doing now?

[Lene-Alice in reply to Vicky68]

I’m doing ok just shaky whenever my blood sugar levels changes.

[Vicky68 in reply to Lene-Alice]

It’s funny how we feel that way a lot before diagnosed and just keep moving through, but we are more aware after diagnosed.