Understanding Type 2 Diabetes: Symptoms, Causes & Management

Question
My husband was just diagnosed with diabetes, he is tired
all the time, eats like a horse, overweight, and both of
his parents are diabetic type 2, type 2 is what the Dr. says
he is.
But we are TERRIBLY confused.  One of his main symptoms
that lead him to the Dr. was his legs hurt very bad.  The Dr.
said that is because when you are Diabetic you body isn't
using the water properly so he is dehydrated. (or something
like that)
Anyway, his blood sugar was not too high then but they
performed a HBA1C I believe and said it showed diabetes I
guess.  Also they took urine and something else and said he was
very low on protein. (another sign of diabetes?)
The Dr. put him on metformin for 30 days to regulate his
sugar.   We bought him a monitor and this morning with no
food in him his sugar was 110, sounds good to me, right?
I am so confused about all this.  Everytime we take his
blood it is fine, but that is with him being on the medicine
of course.  We also asked them to send us his lab results
to better understand what they saw.
Can a diabetic test ok when they test at home?  Anything
you can tell me in plain English would be much appreciated,
thanks."

Answer
That is a long and complicated subject.... if you test a diabetic and the sugars are 110 or so 2 hrs after a meal, then you are doing great.... there is so much to DM, it is hard to tell you about it in one email.   Protein in the urine is a sign of longstanding DM, and some really early kidney problems (15 years early) and the leg pain may or not be related to the DM.   hope this helps..