• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

greetings from spain

C

chayla

Newbie
Messages
4
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 Chayla and welcome to the forum :) As you are new to diabetes you might find this information helpful which was written by the forum monitors. Please ask all the questions you want and everyone will be pleased to help you. Here is the link:

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17088#p155405
 
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.
 
chayla said:
... 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 succumb 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.
Click to expand...
Hi chayla and welcome :) While there are no guarantees, I am confident that by doing the best I can to safely and reasonably maintain near-normal BGs, I am giving myself the very best chance to be complication-free for a long and healthy life. So no I do not think that this is inevitably a progressive disease.

By safely and reasonably I mean that I aim for near normal BGs -- even if I don't always achieve them -- but I am not so focussed on lower is better that I increase my risk of hypos or so obsessed that I forget to live my life along the way :)

A1c as a measure of control, seems to bear out my confidence in this approach. As Dr Ian Blumer explains...
...the landmark UKPDS study showed that if you drop your A1C by one percent (which is equivalent to about a 2 mmol/L drop in your average blood glucose level), you will reduce the likelihood of many diabetes complications by almost 40 percent! Therefore, even if you aren't yet at the target A1C (and indeed even if you never reach target) it is important that you know that any reduction in your blood glucose (and, hence, your A1C) will substantially reduce your risk of diabetes damaging your body. So if your A1C was 10 and you get it down to 9 pat yourself on the back; you've just reduced your risk of eye and kidney damage by almost 40%!
Click to expand...
http://www.ourdiabetes.com/faqs.htm#What_is_an_A1C__and_what_should_my_A1C_be__

Please stay around, read, share and ask questions :D
 
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.
 
Back
Top