How Many Times ??

[DRAGON76]

How many times should I be testing my blood. I have been told I have Type 2 and I have been put on Metformin 500 mg x 2 per day. First Doctor told me I don't need to test just take the tablets and it be fine. He also states that if I lose some weight then it will go away ??.

Now the Nurse as said that I should keep my levels between 4-7 before meals & no more then 8.5 2 hours after meals. and she said test about 3 times per week but how do I know if I am within the right range without testing more.

When I got my blood test GTT done at the Doctors fasting was about 7.1 / 7.3 then 2 hours after the drink they gave me it was about 9.5 .

Taking the Metformin seems to take my BG down faster then without taking it once it went down to 3.5 as I done a test because I felt that I needed to eat fast and I did not feel right.

I really am stress out what to do for the best as I don't want to get all the others problems you can get with diabetes..

Somebody please help me out ... Thanks

 

[pav]

In ideal situations as a starting point would be to test on waking ie pre-breakfast then 2 hours after breakfast. Then the rest of the day is pre-meal times then 2 hours after a meal, with a last test at bed time. After a while you probably would end up tweaking when you test as you get to know the foods that effect you.

For type 2's this can be a night mare as the post code lottery will determine if your GP will support you in providing strips on prescription. To test how I restarted testing requires the use of a lot of test strips and even with some doctors they might not provide enough test strips to enable you to test at this rate.

The other option if strips are rationed is to pick a meal out a day and test pre and after meal, noting what you have eaten, so eventually you build up a picture of foods and levels.

As a newbie to the world of being a diabetic you need to learn how foods react with you, and which ones can make you go high and without a meter and strips you cant tell. As newly diagnosed your GP or DN should be supporting you at least for the first few months with the provision of strips.

Once you are a diabetic you are a diabetic, getting down to the ideal weight and by eating all the right foods, taking exercise etc for some they can get back into the none diabetic range of BS. If you then fall of the wagon you will be back in the diabetic range of BS.

Metformin is seen as a safe drug in that it normally does not cause hypos, which is one of the reasons GP's say rely on us to test one, if they are not testing your HbA1c at least every 3 months its a long time to wait and problems can develop.

I gave in to the Docs requests not to test and rely on the annual HbA1c test, if I had ignored the feelings that there was some thing wrong a month after my annual HbA1c test and waited until the end of this year, I would of been right in the mire as my BS jumped (or slowly crept up) into the high teens and 20's without knowing it at the initial point of re-starting testing, now back down to more reasonable levels.