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New to site type 2 out of control

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gillian1975

Newbie
Messages
4
Location
N. Ireland
Hi people
I'm Gillian. I eventually registered after reading through some sound advice from this site on a few occasions. I am type 2, diagnosed February 2008. however was borderline for few moths before. My GP keeps increasing the meds and is threatening insulin. I currently take 3 x 750mg metformin, 1x 30mg Actos, 1x 4 mg Amaryl, for the diabetes obviously and also take 1x 20mg Lipitor and 1 x 5mg Ramipril, to protect kidneys, daily. The meds make me feel sick ( yes, still) it's usually the amaryl and metformin. I had to get anti sickness tablets of GP for first few months but now he just expects me to have got used to the medication without feeling sick. However this is not the case and it gets me down. I now dont take my 3 metformin til tea time so I dont feel as sick all throughout the day. Any advice on stopping or even reducing nausea feeling would be most appreciated. My BG is usually between 14 and 16 but can be in the 20's at times. I felt so fed up with being sick all day every day I stopped meds for 3weeks recently. This resulted in BG constantly 18 - 26 and one evening after meal out with friends BG was 31 which scared me. I felt a bit sicky and tipsy even though I had no alcohol that evening. I am back on meds and feeling sicker - my fault for stopping I assume. I am really trying to turn this around. I do not want to wake up some morning blind, unable to look at my beautiful daughter again..Nor do I wish to take a stroke and scare her. I have started walking with a friend and her dog . We walk a hilly forest walk each morning, which takes approx 35mins. My BG is 12/13 at present but after exercise today was 18.5! :shock: This suprised me as I thought would help bring it down any advice or help there would be most appreciated. I have also bought Gems carb counter and am attemting to change my entire diet as have weight to lose and think low carb is the way to go to lower test results but am new to carb counting and would apprecaite advice there also. My last HBA1c was 11.8 not good, GP was not pleased that was 2 month ago. Hope to turn this all around and get control once and for all, think have been in and out of denial for too long thinking it will all go away or get better if i ignore it but i now know it wont.

Gillian :D
 
Welcome to the forum Gillian,you have taken the best step yet by coming here and I hope that we can help you get those numbers down and help with your diet.
Take it in small steps,do not try and change everything at once.If you look at your carb counter book you will see which of the foods that you usually eat are high in carbs.Try either cutting theses down drastically or doing without them altogether.Try this with one food at a time ,as I said take it slowly.You will get there.
Ask doctor for the modified realease Metformin to help with sickness.explain to him about continued sickness and that ,as a result you are not taking your meds properly.
 
Hi gillian.
Welcome.
A lot to deal with so I will start with your meds. You said:
My GP keeps increasing the meds and is threatening insulin. I currently take 3 x 750mg metformin, 1x 30mg Actos, 1x 4 mg Amaryl, for the diabetes obviously and also take 1x 20mg Lipitor and 1 x 5mg Ramipril, to protect kidneys, daily. The meds make me feel sick ( yes, still) it's usually the amaryl and metformin. I had to get anti sickness tablets of GP for first few months but now he just expects me to have got used to the medication without feeling sick. However this is not the case and it gets me down. I now dont take my 3 metformin til tea time so I dont feel as sick all throughout the day. Any advice on stopping or even reducing nausea feeling would be most appreciated.

First of all, are you taking ALL the Met at the same time ?
Was this on Dr's orders or your own initiative ? I know you are not feeling good but changing dosage etc without discussing this with your GP is not a good thing. That dosage of Met is NOT recommended all at once !! It should be spread out over meal times.

Is the Met you are on Slow / Modified Release or just standard Metformin ? This can have a great deal of influence over how you feel sick all the time ?

I await your response.
Ken.

Sue - you beat me to it. But what the hell. :lol:
 
Try rigorously avoiding carbs *at the same time* as the met, that may help. As may the extended release version.

Your best bet though is to take a good look at your diet

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/d-day.html

some people do better by reducing their carb gradually but from your symptoms I suspect you would improve radically by dropping them out, then gradually reintroducing them until you are balanced against your meds. Always keep some glucose tabs fruit juice etc. on hand in the event of hypos.

Have a look round the Sticky threads for more sources of information
 
Just to reiterate what the others have said - ask GP for slow release Metformin - thats what I take - I would also say that you should not be taking all your normal metformin in one go. When you do take them take them in the middle of your meal - that will give the best protection for your stomach. I have chronic IBS and I cope fine with the SR Metformin.

There is a relatively new drug called Byetta - it is not insulin but it does have to be injected. There are several people on this board taking it - so if your GP goes on about insulin ask about the Byetta. There is a very long thread on the first forum entitled "anyone on Byetta" - that might help you.

Jude
 
Hi Gillian
2 questions, are you overweight?
what do you eat?
There may be a way of helping a bit if we have the answers
Sorry
another question 750mg Metformin? are you sure? isn't it 850? or is it already a slow release?
 
Hi guys

Thnks for replies, advice and questions. I am already taking the slow release metformin. I also have IBS and sometimes slightest thing starts stomach off. Another question I was asked is am I overweight to which the answer is yes. The GP thinks metformin is best for me as I also have PCOS and apparently metformin is great for helping to reverse or reduce symptoms of that also. I am taking all 3 met at once usually before my dinner, now thinking maybe should wait until after have eaten meal or half way through as one of you suggested. I was just 3lb off 20 stone at one stage there, (around Christmas time) have now lost nearly 2 1/2 stone so far through cutting out junk food, like takeaways, and also by using a lateral thigh trainer step machine and walking. I obviously have a long way still to go though. I understand it will all take time but if I can get results down would feel happier. The GP said insulin can put weight on which I have not known before this being why he decided not to put me on it and give me another chance to drastically change my diet etc. The awareness of how much carbs I eat is scary. I now realise I eat too much mostly through bread, potato and rice. I have decided to cut the bread out. Im finding that breakfast is difficult to go low carb as most cereal I have seen or previously eaten is high in carbs and the other thing I would of had in mornings was toast which again is bread & high in carbs. Any idaeas?

Gillian
 
Anything low in carbs,bacon and egg for instance.i like an apple and cheese.Doesn't sound very filling but it keeps me going till lunch time!!Scrambled eggs is another one.
 
Hi Sue,

Thanks for suggestions. I still think my mind is thinking too much what is low fat as opposed to low carb. I know I dont want to be eating lots of high fat food either but need to get used to low carb at minute. I look at cheese and think nice but fattening. Love apples so that is option am too used to ceral or toast need to retrain and adjust. Well Rome wasnt built in a day so hopefully will get easier as I get use to new habits. Appreciate all the advice on here stops me feeling so alone in all this. Thanks. :)

Gillian
 
gillian1975 said:
Hi Sue,

Thanks for suggestions. I still think my mind is thinking too much what is low fat as opposed to low carb. I know I dont want to be eating lots of high fat food either but need to get used to low carb at minute. I look at cheese and think nice but fattening. Love apples so that is option am too used to ceral or toast need to retrain and adjust. Well Rome wasnt built in a day so hopefully will get easier as I get use to new habits. Appreciate all the advice on here stops me feeling so alone in all this. Thanks. :)

Gillian
Click to expand...

I don't eat lots of fat either but I do like full fat cheeses which I find I can tolerate.Fats eaten in conjunction with low carbs do not seem to affect weight lose ,I have lost nearly 3 stone doing this.
 
Hi Gillian. Welcome to the forum. I'm a Gillian too. :D It doesn't necessarily have to be the case that you'd put on weight if you go on insulin. I've actually lost a stone and a half whilst on insulin but I put that down to reducing the carbs in my diet but I am on very small doses of insulin. Like you, I'm a cereals or toast kind of girl and I still find breakfast the hardest to meal to give up my carbs. BUT I do have smaller portions than I used to. If you test your blood sugars, then trial and error is the name of the game. You might find your body can tolerate only very low carbs. or you might find you are a bit luckier and can have a small bowl of porridge or one slice of bread for instance. We are all different and have to find our own level of carbs. You will get there though, so take small steps and keep testing those B.S. to see what suits YOU.
All thebest, chocoholic.
 
Hi chocoholic

Ta for the advice. Sorry have not been on for days was in Scotland for a week. I am definately the cereal and toast girl. I adore toast so its the hardest thing to cut back on. I also enjoy porridge. I have previously been eating very high amounts of carb, not actually realising just how much until bought the Gems book. At present I have cut down to low to moderate carbs to see how I get on and to get used to it. The dinners I find ok. I will eat chicken or fish with vegtables. This is mostly what I ate before only I am cutting out the potatoes I would of had then. One of the new GPs at my surgery asked if any other doctor in the surgery had ever stopped to consider that I may be diagnosed with the wrong type of diabetes, to which I could only answer, no. :!:

I felt he wasnt convinced but whether he is right or wrong remains to be seen. My regular GP usually threatens insulin even going to the extent of making the nurse show me an insulin pen and how to inject myself, but then they decided they would add yet another tablet before taking the insulin. He has now retired and well, I kind of feel he is the only one who really knew me, so I dont know what to expect when I go back or who I will see. Usually they give off to me about my high test results and keeping giving the tablets. I feel very frustrated and that I am getting nowhere at times. :( It is good to have people who understand on here to offer advice and support. Its also great to hear from another Gillian lol. :D

take care

Gillian
 
hi gillian welcome!
i thought i would just like to give you a little advice that i have learned over the past few months. i look after my mum who is type 2 witinsulin and now byetta.when my mum was first diagnosed with diabetes in 1998 she was told to take a diet high in carbs and take her metformin just after or during meals and nothing else no other advice at all. at the time she didnt have to take insulin and wasnt overweight at all in fact she was slightly underweight! my son was a toddler at the time and i didnt really discuss the diabetes with her except to ask how she was, thinking the doc,s were looking sfter her.to cut a long story short!!
mum now takes insulin and the byetta and the metformin her bg levels last year were so high the blood monitor could not register it\1 it never went lower than 15 and nearly always above twenty. she was severly overweight over twenty stone! Then i found this foram! i immediatly put her on a low carb diet and started demanding help from doc,s that she had never had sshe had no help from diaticians ect ( still struggling with that one ). she has now 6 months on is 13 stone her bg levels are hardly ever above 6 and often 5.4 and 4.6! she does struggle with breakfasts as she loved cereal aswell but she now has scrambled egg ans turkey rashers. she does not worry about the fat content of things so long as they are natural source eg meat and diary. her colesterol level are the lowest they have ever been! so please to avoid going on insulin at all costs, change your diet now do the low carb dont worry about the fats so long as you cut out the white flour and processed foods.if i could have got to mum sooner she too could have avoided all her current problems. its not a cure but diet helps enormously. listen to everyone on here, they helped me , and mum wouldnt be where she is today without their help. and dont believe everything the doc,s tell you! good luck :D p.xx
 
paganlass said:
its not a cure but diet helps enormously. listen to everyone on here, they helped me , and mum wouldnt be where she is today without their help. and dont believe everything the doc,s tell you! good luck :D p.xx
Click to expand...

Outstanding!

But isn't it sad that so often such successes are despite rather than because of medical advice?
 
hi i am new to this site but have been reading some very interesting stuff, i am 31 year old lady and have been on insulin since march this year. i am over weight at 17 stone and struggling to lose weight. i went to see doc at he hospital today and have been given byetta to start along with my insulin and was told it should help with my weight. i am very nervous about taking it and will now mean 6 injections aday but i have to say reading all the diffrent advice and posts on here has given me a lot of help. so glad your helping and supporting your mum xx joanna xxx :D
 
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