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Advice for my newly diagnosed husband please

R

Rosethistle

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Hi there, I’m looking for some advice for my husband who has recently been diagnosed with type 2. He had shingles in mid-January and the pain from that led him to go to the GP who subsequently diagnosed type 2 diabetes, he had no obvious symptoms apart from the awful shingles pain.

he has been put on metformin, initially the standard release tablets which gave him constipation and bloating, so the GP changed it to slow release, 2 in the morning and one at night, however these also seem to be giving him the same symptoms.

Due to the ongoing shingles pain he was also given co-codamol, and when these didn’t work he was given gabapentin. The pain from the postherpetic neuralgia he’s been left with is being aggravated by the bloating from the metformin, and it’s really starting to affect his sleep and his mental health.

we have had an abdominal ultrasound to rule out kidney stones, gallstones, liver problems etc. and are still waiting to see anyone at the diabetic clinic to be able to help us.

I’d be grateful for any advice on whether he needs any extra tablets to help with the bloating, is there anything I can buy to help with it, do we need to tell the GP these latest tablets are also causing bloating, are we being too impatient after just three weeks of the slow release, and just how can I help him as I feel awful seeing him in so much pain and his previous upbeat mood has disappeared. I don’t want to be a nuisance to tge GP but this is affecting his quality of life and I want to be able to help with both the neuralgia pain and the diabetes.

thanks in advance
 
Sounds very much like metformin doesn't agree with him.
Its effects on blood sugar levels are relatively limited so in his shoes I'd look at dietary changes to control the T2 rather than medication. Cut carbohydrates to a minimum (as close to zero as possible).
Is your husband checking blood glucose levels regularly? If not I'd heartily suggest getting a meter and doing that too.

I had dreadful problems with metformin so binned the pills and changed what I ate dramatically.
6 years later still in remission.
 
Hi @Rosethistle and welcome to the forums. Your husband is lucky to have such a caring partner.

I'm going to give you my favourite link to low carb and T2.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog/jokalsbeek.401801/

Rosethistle said:
do we need to tell the GP these latest tablets are also causing bloating, are we being too impatient after just three weeks of the slow release,
Click to expand...
If he's still got bad symptoms after three weeks I'd personally tell the GP. No point in suffering in silence.

Do you know what his initial level of diabetes was? His doctor/hospital probably did an hba1c test with a number between 48 and 120 (or a % between 6.5% and higher). 48 mmol/mol or 6.5% is the dividing line for diabetes and the nearer you are to that the easier it tends to be to reduce your levels.

I would recommend that you acquire a glucose meter and see how his meals affect his blood glucose levels. If the level goes up by more than 2mmol/L 2 hours after a meal then the chances are that the meal was too carby for your husband to cope with.

Some people find they can reduce their blood sugar levels by just cutting the carbs a bit, others need to go near keto as @bulkbiker suggested, others still need the help of some medication. You won't really know unless you test. And if your husband is carrying a lot of weight then reducing that is another option for reducing blood sugar levels, though a lot of people find that they naturally lose weight on a low carb diet.

Good luck.

ps Your husband is very welcome to come and post here himself, both for advice and for moral support.
 
Hi @Rosethistle .

Welcome to the forum.

I'd agree fully with @EllieM
He's very lucky indeed.

The fact you found this forum is another godsend for him.

@bulkbiker is spot on, with Metformin.
Diet is much more effective then the Metformin.

And a METER is INVALUABLE.
Test BEFORE eating
Test 2 hours AFTER eating

If the rise is above 2.
He either ate the wrong foods (too carby), so...

Check & adjust food choice/s next time
OR
Portion size was too big.
Adjust and make smaller plate next time


I found when I came here looking for help, the very idea a change in diet could have such outstanding results seemed unbelievable

Yet as I tentatively followed the advice and meal choices of others, at each step I saw positive improvements & proof, low carb higher fat, worked for me too.

I now eat very well, 1-2 meals a day. Fully sated at most meals & that persistent hunger between meals has disappeared.

Upshot is I now believe:
We are what we eat,
put poor quality food in, expect poor quality results & health issues.

It did take a leap of faith to overturn all that I had been told about foods ..low calorie, low fat better for us

I tried that diet for over 8 YEARS before being diagnosed as type 2 HBA1c of 57mmol.

All my blood tests over all that time showed minimal improvement.( I had like many, simply taken the doctors word all was ok, but on coming here, I rechecked any blood tests taken a the way back to 2010...:wideyed: )

At DX (diagnosis 2018) I starved myself , afraid to eat anything ,. Sticking to the low cal/low fat diet.

And next test got worse, HBA1c went to 58.

Desperate I found this forum.
Slowly began copying others with low carb higher (aka better) fat diet

In six months EVERY Blood marker improved especially my triglycerides. From a scary 6 down to 1.2

Bottom line, LCHF worked for me, despite all I'd previously been told about food.

And THAT diet for me, came down to:

MEAT. That looked like Meat
VEG. That looked like veg.
SPICES/HERBS that I added.

Then cooked by me .too simple right ?
yet worked wonders for me.

Meat without the fat trimmed off.
Butter not Marge or spreads.
Olive oil for cooking wherever possible.
Cheese's/full fat choices where possible/ nuts.


It must be awful having to watch him suffer or struggle, but we're here to help him & YOU.

Many men, will ignore issues or avoid help.

Yet if he's working, he uses all the personnel and tools at his disposal for advice and ways to sort a problem or complete a project/task, right ?

We're just like that.
He's the project & the task is better health.

You're here for him, but great as a team effort is, he'll get more out of this if he came on here himself.

But that's not to say, YOU don't also need the support .

Partners are often over looked,
they worry and carry a lot of weight looking after another.

So please don't disappear if he does join.

Best wishes He/You find a way that works for him.
 
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Metformin side effects can be disabling in some people. There is no need to suffer from them if they are that bad. Try Low Carb the probability of it working is about 50% - higher than almost any medication). Then even if that doesn't work for your husband, there are other medications that may be more suitable for him.
 
Hi @Rosethistle I can only add to the wise words above, to make sure your husband takes the Metformin straight after eating, NOT before to minimise adverse reactions, and also be aware that Gabapentin can have nasty mental and physical side affects, I took it for nerve pain a few years ago and it made me feel a million times worse, so might not be the best to be on whilst trying to come to terms with his diabetes diagnosis.

I wish you both the best of luck, I am (currently) a non-insulin dependent T1, but going low carb and the folks on this site have been a godsend to me:)
 
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your guidance. We went back to the GP on Friday and now have some sachets to sort the constipation and they think the bloating won’t be helping the neuralgia pain. Hubby had yet more bloods taken as they want to check out some microscopic blood in his urine, although doctor says he’s sure it’s fine. Will look into the monitor and will no doubt be back with more questions. Thanks again
 
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