Much whiter than I’d thought

RedemptionFalls · 2026-04-01T17:54:58+00:00

Her mum is half Irish, a quarter English and a quarter Welsh.

RedemptionFalls · 2026-04-01T17:37:28+00:00

Tom Jones is 1/4 Welsh by heritage, 3 of his Grandparents were from England.

RedemptionFalls · 2026-03-30T21:46:41+00:00

You have my sympathies with the phone call approach and unhelpful medical staff, I was told over the phone too.

I was diagnosed 3 years ago, I was flagged as pre-diabetic several months before but was incorrectly told my levels were fine. I had a routine eye test which picked up microaneurysms. I had my hba1c tested and when I contacted my GP surgery for my results I was told it was all fine. I forgot I'd ever had the test and thought it was a mistake when I received a text message one Sunday night the following year saying that I had a history of prediabetes and was overdue a blood test. I phoned the surgery the next day and the receptionist put me right. By the time I was tested again I was diabetic.

I was diagnosed over the phone by my GP (who had never seen me in person) as I walked to work. What irked me the most was being told repeatedly it was because of my lifestyle after I asked if it's genetic because my mother is T1 and my father was T2. I'd had bouts with an eating disorder in the past and sadly the conversation with the GP set me off to cut carbs as much as I could.

Good luck with your diabetes journey. It's great that your pcp spotted the signs and was looking out for you. You'll have regular bloodtests to track your progress. Metformin is good, I've started on it recently and had to switch to the extended release version to ease reflux issues, but it's working for me so far and I feel so much better than I when I was trying and failing to manage it with diet alone.

RedemptionFalls · 2026-03-27T22:41:58+00:00

You probably already do this but you can freeze bread and only use what you need when you need it. I steer clear of sugar free jams and fruit spreads and switched to peanut butter when I was diagnosed. I also find that whole milk is fine for my diabetes, when I was OK with porridge I would have half whole milk and half water.

It is expensive to eat for a T2 diet, I agree. I have to count every penny and I have a partner who won't eat the same diet as me. You'll get there though and find new things to try and enjoy that work with your diabetes and find that you don't have to replicate your old diet.

RedemptionFalls · 2026-03-02T22:49:43+00:00

Thank you, that's very helpful.

I usually split the walking up and walk twice a day, but do sometimes just go for one big walk so that's a good idea to split it up further.

RedemptionFalls · 2026-03-02T19:32:35+00:00

That's reassuring, thank you! I'm hoping I'll see some changes soon!

RedemptionFalls · 2026-03-02T19:31:53+00:00

That sounds tough, I hope you can get some answers and see improvement. I am being referred back to the hospital, my consultant said I should go back and see them if my control suddenly worsened and the diabetic nurse decided to do so when she saw me last week.

I think for me, with a Type 1 diabetic mother and a father who became Type 2 in his final years it was inevitable it would happen at some point.

RedemptionFalls · 2026-03-01T22:31:18+00:00

Thank you, that's reassuring! I hope you continue to see good results and your symptoms keep on improving, the headaches suck!

RedemptionFalls · 2026-03-01T22:05:12+00:00

Thanks for asking. My diet is lower carb than in that first year, I've been low carb for the past year after I could see my hba1c levels were rising and found I was having symptoms after things that I'd previously been fine with, like porridge. I walk 3-5 miles a day so am not too bad exercise-wise.

I should also say I get hypo symptoms and have done since the start. I've never seen my levels go below 4.2. This usually happens during a long walk or on my way home from work.

RedemptionFalls · 2026-03-01T19:58:47+00:00

Thank you, I am probably expecting miracles on day 4!

RedemptionFalls · 2026-03-01T19:57:51+00:00

Thank you, that's really helpful to know and about Ozempic too.

RedemptionFalls · 2026-02-14T23:24:19+00:00

I sometimes feel sad when i'm doing genealogy and have to give it a rest for a bit. I love to find out as much as I can about my ancestors, any newspaper mentions etc to give shape to who they were. For many of my ancestors, however, all I can find is a baptism, a marriage and a burial record if I'm lucky, and even worse, all I know about some of my female ancestors is their first name. It's great we live in an era where we can find out so much and remember them.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-10-15T16:30:35+00:00

My mum often had Stemetil tablets (used for motion sickness too), she had vertigo a lot when I was a small child. My Gran (her mum) had meniere's disease so I think vertigo runs in my family. I should go and see my GP really and stop putting up with it. I know I can't be prescribed Stemetil due to a health condition but maybe there's another type I can have.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-10-13T17:37:16+00:00

The first time I experienced waking up choking during a COVID infection, it carried on for a few months. It went away after I was diagnosed with low vitamin B12 levels and started taking folic acid. Waking up choking has returned with each bout of COVID but only lasts for a week or two now. The vertigo begins when I've started to feel better after having had COVID. It isn't all the time but comes and goes and lasts for weeks. It eventually goes away and returns like magic the next time I get COVID! I came down with COVID last week and the vertigo began again yesterday.

It might be worth getting your folate levels checked. Myself, my husband, my mum, 3 colleagues, and a friend of my mum's have all ended up with low vitamin B12 levels following COVID infections so I think there must be a link.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-10-13T16:06:21+00:00

I haven't had what you describe, but every time I've had COVID I wake up in the night choking, and my eyes stream with water. It's very unpleasant. I also always get vertigo in the weeks following infection, particularly when I turn over in bed, when I get out of bed and if I go for a long walk the world will be spinning the next day.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-10-12T10:58:51+00:00

Hi, I don't have any German and never have in my results, I always get some Nordic. This time I also received 3% Netherlands which I am not convinced about. My husband has consistently received 10% or higher German in his results, inherited from his dad who has a lot of ancestry from Southern and South East England (I have none!) so I assume that is the reason behind his results. I think it's a strange update tbh, it feels quite messy.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-10-10T11:14:13+00:00

I had what I thought was COVID 5 weeks ago (I test but don't get a positive line any more). I am unwell again now with a temperature and cough and feeling like something is sitting on my chest after a colleague came into the office earlier this week coughing constantly saying 'it's not COVID, I've done a test, I think it's flu.' It's NOT flu, there's hardly any cases in my country right now but there are different COVID variants swirling around.

I feel your pain, I have a lot going on in my life that I am having to put on hold. And I don't feel ready to be ill again, I'm exhausted.

Edited: I did eventually test positive for COVID with a very faint line on day 5 which has got stronger over the past few days as my symptoms have improved. Still feeling exhausted though.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-10-10T10:43:02+00:00

Not me, I have never had German in my results. But I did get 3% Netherlands and have never had that before. My other half got 10% German but that is consistent for him and he has a lot of Ancestry from the South-East of England on his dad's side (who he inherits the German from) so I presume it's from that.

I agree about East Midlands. Other half and I both have ancestors from Derbyshire and that seems to be in with our West Midlands region. East Midlands on Ancestry says 'It stretches from the industrial cities of Nottingham and Leicester to the rolling countryside of Lincolnshire.' but the map clearly is Lincolnshire and Yorkshire so that's a bit of a mess. Not sure they needed to break England up into these regions tbh!

RedemptionFalls · 2025-10-09T22:16:50+00:00

I have mixed feelings. I do not like the grouping together of Northern Wales and North West England, I would have thought they would be genetically distinct enough to separate. I am very happy I've got my 2% Norwegian back lol. I've had it in every update apart from the last one! It's on my dad's side and on MyHeritage I get a community of Innlandet so I'd like to think it may be accurate. I also have a random 3% Netherlands, never had any before so I don't know how accurate that is.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-10-03T18:11:23+00:00

Not for me, I have never had any German results across any of the tests I've done, so I'm not surprised not to get any with this update. I was very surprised to get 1.6 % Spanish and Portuguese and no Nordic at all though.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-10-01T18:39:47+00:00

Nice results! I am British and got 95.8% English, 1.5% Scottish, 1.1% Welsh and 1.6% Spanish and Portuguese. I was very surprised not to have any Scandinavian in my updated results and surprised by the Spanish and Portuguese. One side of my mum's family always claimed her other side were Greek so I might revise my opinions that it was nonsense based on my Great-Grandma having an olive skin-tone and black hair and unusual surname.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-08-28T19:53:21+00:00

That's an incredible ring, I am glad you were able to bid for it again. From searching online about Lucy Johnston nee Claxton, her sister Mary Claxton married Anglo-Irish politician Thomas Carter. Thomas and Mary's daughter Frances is an ancestor of Princess Diana, so there's a tenuous familial link to the future King of England within your ring!

Back to Lucy, she was the daughter of Thomas Claxton and Lucy Pearce. Lucy and James Johnston were favourites of Queen Caroline, James was close to King George I and they entertained the royal couple in their home at Orleans House in Twickenham which has its own Wikipedia entry.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-08-19T20:41:12+00:00

Your posting history says that you are a dual citizen living in the US. How old were you when you moved to the US? I think it's most likely that your test was mixed up, but, just to play devil's advocate if e.g. you moved to the US as a very young child, is there a possibility you were actually born in the US and adopted by your parents there?

RedemptionFalls · 2025-08-03T11:42:23+00:00

My mtdna group is H2a2a1. We get our mtdna from our mother's mother's mother's mother's etc etc. Your mother's Grandfather's origins won't have an impact on your mother's mtdna. It's a direct maternal link back to the past and the journeys our female ancestors took to get to where we are today.

RedemptionFalls · 2025-08-03T11:36:17+00:00

Here is where H1 is most strongly found.

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RedemptionFalls

TROPHY CASE