greetings from spain

hi all, I am new to this and to diabetes though I imagine it has known me for quite a while. I am 62 and live in spain, inland from malaga, and I was diagnosed type 2 on december 28th 2010, quite a shock as I had not recognized my symptoms - no energy, difficulty sleeping and aching legs. blood test showed glucose level of 484 (26.8) although HBa1C 14 done on jan was 11.8. I was put on metformin but this was changed on the 24th jan to Eucreas 50/850 which I take twice a day. there is a very good support group here but nobody has heard of Eucreas so I wondered if anyone here could help me with their experience or knowledge of it. It is manufactured by Novartis Europharm Ltd who are based in sussex, UK. it contains metformin and vildaglipin.
I am also taking gemfibrozilo 900 once a day plus medication for hypertension.
I have just had abdominal scan and ECG doppler, plus MAPA where I was wired up for 24 hours to BP monitor plus 4th set of blood tests so I return next week to doctor to discover results of all tests, so my fingers are crossed that no damage has occurred in the past whilst I was blissfully ignorant of my condition. my diary was once filled with social activities now it is full of medical appointments!
I would like to say thankyou for such an informative and useful site, it has helped me a lot.

hi again, looked at my posts and thought I had preiously replied and thanked you for your response at the time but it seems not. I think I was in complete shock but am now fairly ok with it, all meds seem to suit me well. I do have a couple of questions, the first of which I think was covered in the 2009 link that I was referred to, however I wondered if anyone had a different experience in being prescribed Eucreas.
I am prescribed Eucreas on the spanish natioanl health system, it gives me no side effects, very good levels and also weight loss. therefore could I be prescribed them on the uk national health when I return there. I was changed to these as metaformin alone was not working so well for me. they are far more expensive than metaformin.

my other question is, as a type 2 diabetic with previously extremely high levels is it more or inevitable that my condition will worsen in time, i.e. if I do not sucumb to any other malady or get hit by a bus, that I will eventually end up with liver, renal disease, retinopathy or neuropathy? just wondered what the odds are.

thanks pianoman, I found the link you gave re what is an A1C very informative. in december mine was 11.2 and in april 7.2, I am due to have this done again in the next couple of weeks.