Do I need medication? Undecided.

[miriamy]

13.5 after 4 days of taking this seriously and eating properly. I think I might go to the doctor and say yes to the drugs. What do others think?

 

[miriamy]

Hi @miriamy. When your numbers don't play ball it can be very demoralising. To be fair, after just 4 days of "eating properly" your body is still adjusting. But I can understand your disappointment at not seeing your BG go down. If diet & exercise alone isn't working for you, and your BG is consistently running high, perhaps it IS time to discuss medication with your GP or DSN. Personally, I'd rather do that than risk the complications of Diabetes associated with elevated glucose levels. There's no shame in accepting medication. Many of us need to do so after all. This is a nasty, lifelong disease, so take all the help you need hun. You would accept medical intervention for other disorders I'm sure....so why not this one? Concentrate on getting better control of your BG, with less stress & reduced associated risks. I wish you well. X

Thanks Alison. I'll call the Dr today. Feel so depressed.....

 

[Alisonjane10]

Thanks Alison. I'll call the Dr today. Feel so depressed.....

Believe me @miriamy, what you're feeling is quite normal under the circumstances. If you think your mood is becoming an issue in itself though, then talk to your GP about it when you go about medication for your Diabetes. Why don't you take a look at the forums information on emotional issues at http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-and-depression.html You're not alone hun. Good luck. X

 

[MosheBenYehuda]

13.5 after 4 days of taking this seriously and eating properly. I think I might go to the doctor and say yes to the drugs. What do others think?

I would fully agree with Alisonjane10, most of us here stay in tight control by meds and diet. It works, and when you have stabilised your levels, you can cut back on meds
Take care,
Moshe

 

[miriamy]

I would fully agree with Alisonjane10, most of us here stay in tight control by meds and diet. It works, and when you have stabilised your levels, you can cut back on meds
Take care,
Moshe

Thanks Moshe, it's helpful to have the wider perspective. I am not someone who takes drugs for anything as I often have strong reactions to them.

 

[AndBreathe]

13.5 after 4 days of taking this seriously and eating properly. I think I might go to the doctor and say yes to the drugs. What do others think?

Miriamy, could I ask you what sort of things you've actually been eating over the last four days? I'm absolutely not doubting your statements that you're ".... taking this seriously and eating properly ....", but all that does is allow each of us to assume what that means.

I know when I started ".... taking this seriously and eating properly ....", I was at the begining of a voyage of discovery that helped my understand that whilst I had indeed been taking the conditions seriously, my earliest views of eating properly needed a bit of tweaking, because of the numbers I too was throwing up on my meter.

It could just be a bit of tweaking could make a difference.

The other thing to consider is that our bodies like to run in a routine, and our digestions like to know what's coming their way. Routinely, our digestions are ready to digest the sorts of things we're used to eating, and when we don't feed them our usual way, our bodies still try to create the outputs we are used to, but utilising various body resources. Your body might be hanging onto those higher levels for dear life, but only continuing would prove that or otherwise.

Certainly, I think it's worth sorting out an appointment with your Doc, but keep exploring in the meantime. The early days of changing things can be very disspiriting. I do understand, so don't give yourself too much of a hard time, or you're feeding the spiral..

 

[miriamy]

Miriamy, could I ask you what sort of things you've actually been eating over the last four days?.

Thanks for asking.
We grow and prepare from fresh, a lot of our meals at the moment.

B. Scrambled egg.no milk or oil. Fried mushrooms with a few sprays of olive oil or 1oz cheese. 1/2 slice home made spelt bread. Or a vegetable omelet with a bowl of Salad leaves with squirt of salad cream. Coffee.
Sn. A peach or nectarine and coffee with milk and 1tsp xylitol.
L. 1/2 plate of Steamed veg- carrots, cabbage, green beans. A fried or roasted courgette. 2 med or sm boiled potatoes. 1oz of cheese or poached fish or egg and spinach. or peanut or white sauce.
Sn. Nectarine or apple or orange and coffee.
T. Large mixed salad. Large portion of steamed veg. Sautéed veg in a sauce. Potato salad.
Sn. Handful of nuts.
Last food or drink by 9pm.

 

[AndBreathe]

Thanks for asking.
We grow and prepare from fresh, a lot of our meals at the moment.

B. Scrambled egg.no milk or oil. Fried mushrooms with a few sprays of olive oil or 1oz cheese. 1/2 slice home made spelt bread. Or a vegetable omelet with a bowl of Salad leaves with squirt of salad cream. Coffee.
Sn. A peach or nectarine and coffee with milk and 1tsp xylitol.
L. 1/2 plate of Steamed veg- carrots, cabbage, green beans. A fried or roasted courgette. 2 med or sm boiled potatoes. 1oz of cheese or poached fish or egg and spinach. or peanut or white sauce.
Sn. Nectarine or apple or orange and coffee.
T. Large mixed salad. Large portion of steamed veg. Sautéed veg in a sauce. Potato salad.
Sn. Handful of nuts.
Last food or drink by 9pm.

Thanks for that.

I'd be inclined to see what happens if you could shun the fruit, or swap for something berry based, like unsweetened raspberries. The potato and potato salad would have done for me, in the early days, and it may be worthwhile looking at any sauces, if you use flour or another grain based thickening agent.

There could be things to try before going straight to meds, if you really would rather not take any medication. Once your levels are in a great place, you can always try some of the troublesome things again. Personally, I found my body could cope with some of these foods a lot better once I'd got my bloods in scope, and has lost some weight.

Good luck with it all.

 

[miriamy]

Thanks for that.

I'd be inclined to see what happens if you could shun the fruit, or swap for something berry based, like unsweetened raspberries. The potato and potato salad would have done for me, in the early days, and it may be worthwhile looking at any sauces, if you use flour or another grain based thickening agent.

There could be things to try before going straight to meds, if you really would rather not take any medication. Once your levels are in a great place, you can always try some of the troublesome things again. Personally, I found my body could cope with some of these foods a lot better once I'd got my bloods in scope, and has lost some weight.

Good luck with it all.

Thanks for your suggestions.
I tried a low carbon diet before but I was unable to sustain it. It was great while it lasted -3 months - and I lost weight but my bs rarely got lower than 8-9.
I'm not constitutionally or temperamental suited to extreme and sudden changes so I've avoided the ND.

 

[Murph28]

13.5 after 4 days of taking this seriously and eating properly. I think I might go to the doctor and say yes to the drugs. What do others think?

Hi Miriamy. I don't know whether this will help or not, but it took me 2 weeks to get some control over my bs levels and I spent a lot of time reading the posts of others on here. It's tough at the beginning but if you can stick to it, it does work! Good luck with whatever you decide to do x

 

[miriamy]

Hi Miriamy. I don't know whether this will help or not, but it took me 2 weeks to get some control over my bs levels and I spent a lot of time reading the posts of others on here. It's tough at the beginning but if you can stick to it, it does work! Good luck with whatever you decide to do x

Thanks for your. Good wishes Murph. I'm sadly not a newbie but a "Dropoff" as in off wagon. I'm going to go with the metformin starting today and hope to feel better and able to change my lifestyle before my feet drop off and my eyes close!

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Hi miriamy your bg levels do look like they need a little help but Im not convinced that metformin will drop your levels sufficiently as even the max dose of 4 x 500mg a day will only generally drop levels by a point or two so you may find that you need some different medication, but do try the metformin first and see what it can do for you its well worth a try and do try it with an open mind as thousands take metformin daily without problems.

Generally people start off with one tablet a day and eat it with food, not before food or after food but actually with food as this helps reduce any possible side effects, after a week or so it is increased by another tablet and so on and so forth until the max dose is reached, the trick is to start on a small dose and increase it slowly and always take it with food, actually in the middle of a meal so it is digested with your meal.

LCHF isnt for everyone and many like myself manage with just a reduced carb diet and a minimum of meds, others need a little more help but it isnt a failure it is common sense.

If you have a headache you take an aspirin or paracetamol etc and if you have high bg levels that cant be brought down with diet alone you need to take medication that is designed to help that.

Good luck with your doctor and I hope things work out for you.

 

[miriamy]

Hi miriamy your bg levels do look like they need a little help but Im not convinced that metformin will drop your levels sufficiently as even the max dose of 4 x 500mg a day will only generally drop levels by a point or two so you may find that you need some different medication, but do try the metformin first and see what it can do for you its well worth a try and do try it with an open mind as thousands take metformin daily without problems.

Generally people start off with one tablet a day and eat it with food, not before food or after food but actually with food as this helps reduce any possible side effects, after a week or so it is increased by another tablet and so on and so forth until the max dose is reached, the trick is to start on a small dose and increase it slowly and always take it with food, actually in the middle of a meal so it is digested with your meal.

LCHF isnt for everyone and many like myself manage with just a reduced carb diet and a minimum of meds, others need a little more help but it isnt a failure it is common sense.

If you have a headache you take an aspirin or paracetamol etc and if you have high bg levels that cant be brought down with diet alone you need to take medication that is designed to help that.

Good luck with your doctor and I hope things work out for you.

Thanks Sid. Just off to get the prescription now

 

[dannyw]

Hi Miriamy, my opinion is pretty much the same as Sids really, just a slight difference. If you can't follow a particular diet or you need meds, it's an easy answer, take the meds. One thought though, as an analogy to Sids headache reference. If every time you ate a piece of bread, you got a headache, would you avoid the bread ? Or take the drugs ? That's still a choice you can make. In real life, a lot of people cannot avoid getting headaches so meds are a no brainer. Raised BG levels are a slightly different story. You do have some control. Anyway, the choice is yours. Lifestyle or drugs, or a combination.

 

[Totto]

Thanks for asking.
We grow and prepare from fresh, a lot of our meals at the moment.

B. Scrambled egg.no milk or oil. Fried mushrooms with a few sprays of olive oil or 1oz cheese. 1/2 slice home made spelt bread. Or a vegetable omelet with a bowl of Salad leaves with squirt of salad cream. Coffee.
Sn. A peach or nectarine and coffee with milk and 1tsp xylitol.
L. 1/2 plate of Steamed veg- carrots, cabbage, green beans. A fried or roasted courgette. 2 med or sm boiled potatoes. 1oz of cheese or poached fish or egg and spinach. or peanut or white sauce.
Sn. Nectarine or apple or orange and coffee.
T. Large mixed salad. Large portion of steamed veg. Sautéed veg in a sauce. Potato salad.
Sn. Handful of nuts.
Last food or drink by 9pm.

Hi @miriamy that is fairly high in carbs and very, very low fat. Why not try a bit more fat and skip the nectarines and potatoes? Give it a week and see where it takes you.

 

[miriamy]

Thanks for your advice. I will cut out the yellow fruits and replace with apples and nuts. I'm just rebuilding my diet and exercise behaviour. It'll take a while.....

 

[Totto]

Thanks for your advice. I will cut out the yellow fruits and replace with apples and nuts. I'm just rebuilding my diet and exercise behaviour. It'll take a while.....

I'm really sorry to have to tell you this. Apples may be quite as bad. Sorry.

Do you test? BG testing is such a good tool.

Don't be afraid of fats, good fats that is, organic butter, olive oil, coconut oil, goose fat, duck fat, lard etc.

 

[ButtterflyLady]

Nice to see so many comments about it being ok to use meds in conjunction with lifestyle approaches. Not everyone can go without meds and IMO there is no shame in utilising what is available. The most important thing is to get those numbers down to a fairly consistently safe level, while having a lifestyle you can live with. Personally I have not had any bad side effects from Metformin, but if you get any, there is plenty of info and support on this forum to tweak things (such as getting the longer acting form) so you can still get the benefits of this med. Good luck.

 

[miriamy]

I am testing. Fbg and 2hrs after meals until I get my bg down again. This week readings are all high 12 - 20. I think I knew about apples being bad... a handful of nuts is better.
Are you suggesting I take the coconut oil to bring down the bg? What are VCO's?
These comments are so helpful. Thank you. I'm feeling quite scared.

 

[ButtterflyLady]

I am testing. Fbg and 2hrs after meals until I get my bg down again. This week readings are all high 12 - 20. I think I knew about apples being bad... a handful of nuts is better.
Are you suggesting I take the coconut oil to bring down the bg? What are VCO's?
These comments are so helpful. Thank you. I'm feeling quite scared.

Miriamy, you are getting there, please try not to worry... Rome wasn't built in a day and all that. Someone else with more knowledge than me will be able to tell you how long you might expect it to take for the changed eating and the meds to make a difference to your BG results. There is no need to feel scared, because high BGs for a few more days or weeks will not have a serious impact on the risk of diabetes complications. Your body took a long time to get to this state and it will take more than a day or two to get out of it.

To give you an example... a couple of years ago I thought to myself - gee my blood pressure is not that bad now, it's always about 107/78 or something, I could try going off my 5mg a day Quinapril (Accupril) ACE inhibitor medication. I had read something online saying if your BP is too low that can cause some problems. I checked with my doctor at the time and he agreed with me trying it...

Well, at my next scheduled blood test a couple of months later, everything was up - HbA1c, cholesterol and for the first time, signs of declining kidney function. That was alarming. I went straight back on my meds and the next blood test showed things were back to the level they should be. That med was protecting my kidneys, and also indirectly treating my diabetes, as I understand it...

The moral of this story is that even if we make a mistake and do something that makes our body at increased risk of complications, in all likelihood we can get things back in line fairly quickly. Not in days but in weeks or months. So please relax a bit, you are on the right track and I am sure you will see the benefits in a while. Of course, if you don't, after sufficient time, eg 2-3 months, then maybe ask for a specialist referral to see if there is something else going on.