Allergic Reactions and what to do?

[Essex386]

Hello All,

New to this forum so bear with me but was just looking to get some opinions from others regarding any possible allergic reactions that people may have had to Diabetic meds, specifically Metformin and Alogliptin?

I was in hospital about 6 months ago (inc various different Antibiotics) and whilst in there I was diagnosed as Type 2 (unknown for how long, could be years) due to very high blood sugar scores taken via A&E. The Diabetic specialist nurse at the hospital saw me whilst admitted and said they were putting me onto Metformin 500mg twice a day and also Alogliptin 25mg once a day, which I took from there forwards.

All seemed well for a while, but then after some time I had what I believe was Hives come up on my upper legs - the large raised more lumpy pink/white non itchy kind, not the small red ones. Showed them to a few people, who all dismissed as don't worry about that. They started on my right side then slowly spread to the left, but subsided and seemed to go away after a few weeks with Anthistamines etc. Some subtle underlying lumpiness may remain though.

I have sort of the same thing on my forearms now, which doesn't seem to go away ever - smaller, to the point i'm not sure if they are above or below the surface, white blotches essentially, but i've never had this before either..

I've also suffered from feeling cold inside, like Chills I guess, which isn't normal for me - I don't get them often, but sometimes.

I've started to notice high pitched noise in my ears, which some days was there more than others, but now seems to be with me every day. I should probably point out that I have been under a lot of personal stress over the past 8 months or so for various reasons, and I don't do change well.

A while after starting the pills I started to notice I guess what you would call burning, started on the left foot, but has slowly got worse across both sides, am very aware of my big toes and ankles etc, much like a 'pressure' I guess you could say. I never had this before bringing my sugars down and taking all the medication. My feet also don't take well to being downwards for too long, they want to go to sleep, feel more pressured etc - essentially I am far worse off now than before I started even though my lifestyle is vastly improved!

My HBA1C after initial three months came back at 40mmol/mol which I believe is good, and I currently randomly test myself at home, mostly at any given random point i'm somewhere in the mid six's, so again pretty good I think - last night two hours after eating I was showing 7.7 for example. Usually I still read as below 9 anytime I eat a meal, although I don't test too often.

I don't know what to think - i've currently stopped all meds about two weeks ago (chills have gone) to get things out of my system and try to hit the reset button, to see if things settle and go away, as I seem to be able to control my levels ok without them, but my symptoms show no change so far, if anything my feet and ankles get slowly worse....is it a time thing for the body to realise the meds are gone and calm down, inflammation possibly? A Hypersensitivity reaction? I did not have any of these issues before I started taking the pills and dropped my sugars..

Has anyone else had similar experiences and if so what did you do yourself to try to resolve it? (My doctors aren't that great I should point out at this stage!)

Thanks!

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hi @Essex386 ,

Could be your feet were suffering from periferal neuropathy.... Loss of feeling there. Once blood sugars come down, the damaged nerves start healing themselves, and that can hurt. A lot. I always thought my burning and red, swollen feet were due to my thyroid, wasn't until much, much later that I realized it was nerve damage. @Jim Lahey has more experience with that than I do though, so I'm tagging him in. In the meantime you might want to get thiamine supplements (Which is Vitamin B1, and helps the healing process along) and maybe discuss going on Amytriptiline with your doc. It's an antidepressant, but it also happens to help with neuropathy issues. (Would mean another pill though, and contrary to the B1, it would probably have side effects). As for the ringing in your ears, it's called tinnitus, and is a common issue for T2's. https://www.signiausa.com/blog/diabetes-subjective-tinnitus/ I have a feeling that that may have been caused by prolonged high blood sugars rather than the meds. Now, the hives are side effects that are both mentioned in the leaflet for Met as well as Alo, so they're really, really not suitable for you. Feeling cold and having chills could be another blood flow issue (Reynaud's, possibly), which should improve as your blood sugars are down longer.

How are you controlling your blood sugars now, without medication? Because if you want to stay off of the stuff, and not have the T2 take over again, you'll have to make a bit of a lifestyle change.. (You could call it a diet, but those sound temporary... This is a for life thing, if you want to stay off of medication). https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html is a jumping-off point that might help. As would dietdoctor.com and this forum's website, diabetes.co.uk (not .org!).

Mind you, I'm saying a whole lot, but I can't diagnose (forum rules, plus, I'm not a doctor). But it's something to go on, maybe.

I hope you feel better soon!
Jo

 

[DCUKMod]

Hello All,

New to this forum so bear with me but was just looking to get some opinions from others regarding any possible allergic reactions that people may have had to Diabetic meds, specifically Metformin and Alogliptin?

I was in hospital about 6 months ago (inc various different Antibiotics) and whilst in there I was diagnosed as Type 2 (unknown for how long, could be years) due to very high blood sugar scores taken via A&E. The Diabetic specialist nurse at the hospital saw me whilst admitted and said they were putting me onto Metformin 500mg twice a day and also Alogliptin 25mg once a day, which I took from there forwards.

All seemed well for a while, but then after some time I had what I believe was Hives come up on my upper legs - the large raised more lumpy pink/white non itchy kind, not the small red ones. Showed them to a few people, who all dismissed as don't worry about that. They started on my right side then slowly spread to the left, but subsided and seemed to go away after a few weeks with Anthistamines etc. Some subtle underlying lumpiness may remain though.

I have sort of the same thing on my forearms now, which doesn't seem to go away ever - smaller, to the point i'm not sure if they are above or below the surface, white blotches essentially, but i've never had this before either..

I've also suffered from feeling cold inside, like Chills I guess, which isn't normal for me - I don't get them often, but sometimes.

I've started to notice high pitched noise in my ears, which some days was there more than others, but now seems to be with me every day. I should probably point out that I have been under a lot of personal stress over the past 8 months or so for various reasons, and I don't do change well.

A while after starting the pills I started to notice I guess what you would call burning, started on the left foot, but has slowly got worse across both sides, am very aware of my big toes and ankles etc, much like a 'pressure' I guess you could say. I never had this before bringing my sugars down and taking all the medication. My feet also don't take well to being downwards for too long, they want to go to sleep, feel more pressured etc - essentially I am far worse off now than before I started even though my lifestyle is vastly improved!

My HBA1C after initial three months came back at 40mmol/mol which I believe is good, and I currently randomly test myself at home, mostly at any given random point i'm somewhere in the mid six's, so again pretty good I think - last night two hours after eating I was showing 7.7 for example. Usually I still read as below 9 anytime I eat a meal, although I don't test too often.

I don't know what to think - i've currently stopped all meds about two weeks ago (chills have gone) to get things out of my system and try to hit the reset button, to see if things settle and go away, as I seem to be able to control my levels ok without them, but my symptoms show no change so far, if anything my feet and ankles get slowly worse....is it a time thing for the body to realise the meds are gone and calm down, inflammation possibly? A Hypersensitivity reaction? I did not have any of these issues before I started taking the pills and dropped my sugars..

Has anyone else had similar experiences and if so what did you do yourself to try to resolve it? (My doctors aren't that great I should point out at this stage!)

Thanks!

Hello there, have you discussed any of these issues with your Doctor, or had a Goggle for side effects of the meds you are on, plus an you other meds you might be taking? Those two things would be my starting points.

Edited to make sense!

 

[Member496333]

Thanks for the tag @JoKalsbeek. Yes indeed I experienced sickening and distressing neuropathy pain in my feet after diagnosis and bringing my glucose levels down. Random, hot stabbing during the day. Cramping, throbbing and burning at night. With extreme dedication to ketogenic eating things eventually settled down. Now my feet are completely normal. I don’t mind admitting that I had sometimes wished someone would cut them off...you’d be amazed at the motivation you can muster in those circumstances

PS. I may sworn once or twice during this time in my life

 

[Essex386]

Hi @Essex386 ,

Mind you, I'm saying a whole lot, but I can't diagnose (forum rules, plus, I'm not a doctor). But it's something to go on, maybe.

I hope you feel better soon!
Jo

Thanks for the reply

The odd thing with the Hives ( I guess that's what they are) is that they went away, but once I initially stopped taking the pills, started to make themselves known again - the body detecting a change I guess - nothing like as serious as before, but definitely there just a little. My forearms are different, they never seem to change. They are not large lumps like my legs were, much more subtle, but definitely there. OTC Antihistamine's don't seem to help them. I am quite sensitive to things anyway, been that way all my life, nut allergies etc.

Been off the Alogliptin for about 2 weeks now, and the Metformin maybe about 3 weeks. How long would you think for any adverse body reactions to clear and start to reverse and settle, any ideas?

Since deciding to stop the meds for now, that's when i've been making sensible changes and monitoring things with my home meter, and so far so good from what I can tell in terms of range. I do see the odd high number when i've been bad, but I would expect that. From what I understand of it all, where I generally see readings in the 6-7 range before I eat, and usually no higher than 8-9 afterwards, that is classed as pretty good isn't it? And my HbA1C coming back at 40mmol/mol is also what would be deemed as Normal isn't it?

Prior to going into hospital and then coming out with the new meds, my only issues were some slight sensation loss on my feet and ankles, to things like water temperature, but that's all. All of this worsening has come about new, and I have much much more trouble now than before, which seems like one step forwards and five steps back!

Right now I wish I hadn't been given them and took them like a good boy for months, and had been instead advised what was going on and that I needed to try to bring things down naturally without drug intervention, because it doesn't seem to have worked out well for me so far at all!

 

[Essex386]

Thanks for the tag @JoKalsbeek. Yes indeed I experienced sickening and distressing neuropathy pain in my feet after diagnosis and bringing my glucose levels down. Random, hot stabbing during the day. Cramping, throbbing and burning at night. With extreme dedication to ketogenic eating things eventually settled down. Now my feet are completely normal. I don’t mind admitting that I had sometimes wished someone would cut them off...you’d be amazed at the motivation you can muster in those circumstances

PS. I may sworn once or twice during this time in my life

Thanks Jim - for me i've gone from essentially slight sensation loss which was fine, to now my feet feeling very 'pressured' I think would best describe it, maybe sort of a burning or tension feeling could also be accurate, big toes, top of foot, ankles etc - I did not have ANY of this before going on the pills, and making an effort of bring my blood sugars down naturally a lot! - I seem to basically sit in the 6 to 7 range during the day, at least that's what i've seen so far since stopping my pills to try to stop my body from rebelling against them.

I am far worse off now than before it would seem and all i've done is change things for the better!

 

[lucylocket61]

Are you on any other meds - statins, bp meds, anything else which might be interacting?

A visit to the GP is a good idea. It may be something unrelated to diabetes, that just happened to coincide with the pill taking.

 

[Member496333]

Thanks Jim - for me i've gone from essentially slight sensation loss which was fine, to now my feet feeling very 'pressured' I think would best describe it, maybe sort of a burning or tension feeling could also be accurate, big toes, top of foot, ankles etc...

Sounds familiar. At night, my feet used to feel like they were about to explode. Punctuated by searing, stabbing pain that could, and sometimes did, make a grown man cry.

I should stress that as far as I'm aware my experience was not related to any reactions to medicine, and was 'just' nerve damage caused by glucotoxicity.

 

[Essex386]

Are you on any other meds - statins, bp meds, anything else which might be interacting?

A visit to the GP is a good idea. It may be something unrelated to diabetes, that just happened to coincide with the pill taking.

No nothing prescription, only things at home like Ibuprofen or Paracetamol every now and then, plus i've been taking some vitamins etc to give myself a boost in case there's anything lacking in there.

My concern with the GP visit is frankly, there are a bit useless. The same problem that a lot of people have sadly. No real proper input or interest in what's actually going on, just a casual here take this and see if it helps type attitude. Especially now that they have me down as Diabetic, they'll look to just write everything off as a symptom or issue caused by that.

For example, for months my regular meds were just the Metformin and Alogliptin, then all of a sudden recently, Simvastatin has popped up on there too, dispensed, sent to the Pharmacy etc, yet nobody has mentioned this to me whatsoever, no text no phonecall and most importantly no consultation as to WHY i've now been prescribed this too, and i'm sure as hell not about to start taking that either without a VERY good reason! I only even know it's there because I saw it myself online..

My one and only HbA1C came back slightly high on the bad Cholestorol side, but not by a huge amount, and that was before i've had any real time to try to bring it down through lifestyle changes.

See what I mean about poor?

 

[Essex386]

Sounds familiar. At night, my feet used to feel like they were about to explode. Punctuated by searing, stabbing pain that could, and sometimes did, make a grown man cry.

I should stress that as far as I'm aware my experience was not related to any reactions to medicine, and was 'just' nerve damage caused by glucotoxicity.

May I ask what kind of timeframe did yours take, how long to go from the initial no problems, to getting the problems that you had, and then back to having no problems again?

 

[Member496333]

May I ask what kind of timeframe did yours take, how long to go from the initial no problems, to getting the problems that you had, and then back to having no problems again?

The pain came in a matter of weeks and got steadily worse over the course of several months whilst still negotiating with carbohydrate. I then discovered ketogenic grain-free eating, stuck to it religiously, and the pain dropped off a cliff fairly quickly. Of course there's no way to ever know whether or not my feet would have healed of their own accord.

In summary - the better my blood sugars initially became, the worse the pain got. I put his down to the feeling coming back and revealing the pain. Ketosis fixed it all. That is my interpretation of events, but of course we never really know exactly what's going on under the hood. The body works in mysterious ways