2 weeks of my head in the sand

Hi Smartie, sorry to read of your troubles but glad you've realised it's your body and your diabetes and you need to get a grip on it cos nobody else will. I would normally advise to discuss things with your doc but I guess that's the last thing you want to hear. Is there a different doc or surgery you can attend ? If you regularly hypo, increasing carbs is not really the answer. The cause of the hypo's will be the meds. Diabetes does not cause hypo's, quite the reverse. It's the miscalculation of meds that make us go low. If it was me, I would be looking to lower the Gliclazide and monitor, however, I'm no doc and I don't think a forum is the correct place to tell someone to adjust their meds. Hope you get back on track !
Mo

Smartie I am NOT telling you to adjust your meds, only giving you some hints how you could adjust it (with HCP assistance).
I asume your Glic is in the form of "zircron" 40mg tablets. these are not MR and can easily halved with a pill cutter to give 20mg doses so you can easily have 20,40,60mg doses. I (and my pharmacist) am happy with halving non-MR tablets but quartering would not be appropriate unless pre scored for quarters.
As for testing try googling "SD Codefree" for cheaper strips if the GP will not oblige (meter~£11, strips ~£7/50)

FergusCrawford said:

Smartie I am NOT telling you to adjust your meds, only giving you some hints how you could adjust it (with HCP assistance).
I asume your Glic is in the form of "zircron" 40mg tablets. these are not MR and can easily halved with a pill cutter to give 20mg doses so you can easily have 20,40,60mg doses. I (and my pharmacist) am happy with halving non-MR tablets but quartering would not be appropriate unless pre scored for quarters.
As for testing try googling "SD Codefree" for cheaper strips if the GP will not oblige (meter~£11, strips ~£7/50)

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Was just going to suggest the sd code free! Go onto ebay and you can get them really cheap. The strips are £7 as opposed to £25 for 50 of accu check. What about LCHF? Not to everyone's taste but works for me! Good luck!

Smartlady - I don't have enough experience to offer advice - but I just wanted you to know that I know exactly how you feel.

Last week I felt so alone, unsupported and upset by the whole thing that I also stopped taking my meds for three days. After all, it wasn't working so what was the point? (Oh and I was very stressed and depressed because I had to have my dog put to sleep, but that's another story)

But I've found my support on here, just reading how others cope has helped me immensely. Sometimes just letting off steam is good too. There's always someone on here who understands x


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Thinking of you smartie, stay positive and take care .....love Kat x

I know that you are angry with the doc but can't you go to your local diabetes clinic at the local hospital? When it comes to strips the clinic should sort that for you as well


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I'm not a qualified doctor and can't advise on medication per se, but fine-tuning existing medication to keep BGs stable and avoid hypos is a different matter. MY DN and diabetes consultant have always been happy for me to adjust the size and timing of my gliclazide doses as I find it necessary, and as a result I have virtually got rid of hypos altogether. When do you tend to hypo? If in the afternoons, then consider using a pill-cutter as Fergus suggests and beginning the day with 20mg rather than 40mg. If fasting levels rise, then tweak your evening dose higher. You will find out what works best for you. Don't increase general carb consumption to avoid hypos -- that will just make things worse in the long run. Good luck!

Have you considered the possibility of working with your doctor and taking the prescribed medication and instead of cutting carbs to a ridiculously low level that will require you to take supplements of vitamins and minerals and become even more sensitive to carbs just reduce the carbs to say 100g a day or there a bouts that way you will gain the benefit of the meds that you clearly require and not have the risk of going hypo.

Of course Im not a qualified doctor but your doctor is...

You could ask for a referral to your local diabetes centre to get official advice on how to cut pills in half and then test your bgs at appropriate times. The sd codefree is an excellent choice although I'd give your bgs a bit of leeway with any meter if you are on glic.

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There are certainly some people here who should know better.

None of us is medically qualified to instruct people to lower their medication. This should be done with the consent of the OP's Dr. and if she cannot get along with him then I suggest she asks her surgery for an appointment with another Dr. to discuss the possibilities of lowering her medication.

Sid Bonkers said:

Have you considered the possibility of working with your doctor and taking the prescribed medication and instead of cutting carbs to a ridiculously low level that will require you to take supplements of vitamins and minerals and become even more sensitive to carbs just reduce the carbs to say 100g a day or there a bouts that way you will gain the benefit of the meds that you clearly require and not have the risk of going hypo.

Of course Im not a qualified doctor but your doctor is...

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Sid, I think it is clear from the OPs post that she has a 'lower carb' rather than a 'very low-carb' diet (as you do). There is no hint that she is missing out on vitamins, minerals or anything else. By all means ask questions about how low in carbs her diet is if it helps you to help her, but I don't feel you had any intention of helping her in this post, so I'm afraid I have to agree with Desi.

Smidge

CC
I agree that we should try to work with the advice of our HCPs but THEIR CONSENT: that is just patronizing! THEY operate with OUR consent not the other way round!

I think you misunderstood my post or perhaps I did not make it clear enough.
Dr. patient relationship should be such that you can discuss lowering your medication and the reasons why. By consent I meant that the Dr could agree or disagree and explain why he feels as he does. Nobody has to take medication if they do not want to.
I would rather a patient consult their GP than decide to take the advice of anonymous posters on a diabetes forum who have no responsibility if anything goes wrong.

I don't mind having my wrist slapped if people think I was wrong to make a direct suggestion about medication -- I thought I had put in sufficient qualifications, and I have posted this many times before on this forum with no complaints, but if I was wrong then I apologize.
But I don't see why I should have to accept spiteful attacks on my medical condition (which is what the remarks about vitamins and minerals presumably intended -- these are major heath concerns of mine, for God's sake) -- I would have thought that that warranted some comment and reproof too.

smidge said:

Sid, I think it is clear from the OPs post that she has a 'lower carb' rather than a 'very low-carb' diet (as you do). There is no hint that she is missing out on vitamins, minerals or anything else. By all means ask questions about how low in carbs her diet is if it helps you to help her, but I don't feel you had any intention of helping her in this post, so I'm afraid I have to agree with Desi.

Smidge

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Well at least you can disagree with me without resorting to the ignorant rudeness that Desi did, thank you for that smidge.

Many people read this forum and many comments on this forum seem to say that you should not trust your doctor and you should not take their advice and I think that advice is wrong and dangerous and the best advice I can give to anyone is to develop a good working relationship with their doctor, you dont have to agree with their every word but at least have the courtesy to listen to their advice and then explain calmly why, if you disagree and calmly give your reasons, whether or not you take your doctors advice is up to you but to be antagonistic towards someone who is trying to help you is closing a very important door and helps no one.

Vulnerable people on this forum who are scared and worried and looking for answers will see the advice given by those people who seem to get lots of "likes" and may that means their advice is correct and then they read that doctors dont know what they are talking about and the only way is xxx xxxx, it isnt it is stupid and potentially dangerous advice. No one wants to help anyone who is antagonistic towards them do they?

I get angry when people take low carbers advice to low carb often not fully understanding the diet and all the implications of it and disregard their doctors advice to the point of arguing with them and then post that it has all gone wrong.

I wont even engage Desi as he/she is obviously just looking for an argument with me but he/she will not get one, anyway anyone who has to resort to childish insults and ridicule has already lost the argument.

catherinecherub said:

There are certainly some people here who should know better.

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Posting overt medical advice is against the rules. If anyone has done anything wrong then I would expect admin or the mods to delete or edit the offending posts and then take appropriate action against the poster.

The OP specifically asked for forum members advice on altering their medication. The OP is not a newbie having made nearly 100 posts so would presumably be well aware of how forum advice should be viewed. I took all of that into account prior to posting my suggestion to get a referral to a diabetes centre and getting an SD Codefree

Sid Bonkers said:

I wont even engage Desi as he/she is obviously just looking for an argument with me but he/she will not get one, anyway anyone who has to resort to childish insults and ridicule has already lost the argument.

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If you weren't trying to engage you wouldn't have written that sentence would you Sid?

Cue the standard Sid response of "Don't you tell me what I'm thinking."

"Meet the new Sid the same as the old Sid ... " to paraphrase one of your favourite songs.