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

Numbers creeping back up

luceeloo

luceeloo

Well-Known Member
Messages
677
Location
Rowley Regis
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
I was diagnosed a month ago with Type 2. I'm 33, overweight, and have a strong family history of both T1 and T2.
I was put on Metformin, initially 1000mg, a week later it was upped to 2000mg. At diagnosis my magic number was 19.1 and during the first week of Metformin came down to between 10-12. After the metformin was upped I seemed to be getting somewhere and was getting readings of around 6 or 7 before a meal, and 8 to 9 two hours after.
I've been low carbin it, taking regular exercise, and have lost 12lbs or so. However, during the last 5 days my fasting levels have been around 9, and two hours after eating I'm back up to double figures (anywhere from 10 to 13.5). I haven't changed anything diet-wise, so I'm trying to figure out what's going on.
I haven't been feeling great over the last few days - I did think that I was coming town with a cold, but it never happened. I don't know whether I just feel cruddy because my numbers are higher, or whether my numbers are higher because I feel cruddy.

Does the body get used to the metformin? Is this kind of pattern normal in a newbie type 2?
 
I'll 'bump' your post up in the hope that other type 2's might reply.
 
Hi luceeloo,

Although u said u are overweight u are still rather young for typical type 2 diabetes. If type 2 meds, diet and exercise, as well as weight-loss are not seeing a gradual continuous drop in ur levels I would request full bloods to be done to test for antibodies as u might be slow-onset type 1... The amount of people wrongly diagnosed is staggering and getting the right diagnosis before complications set in is paramount. I would ask ur GP for a c-peptide and an antibody test at ur next appointment to find out for sure what type you are. Metformin can work for slow-onset for a while as it is working for me at the moment so it's not just a type 2 medication like many think it is :-) Hope this helps.


Diagnosed with GD in 2010, Completely disappeared postpartum. Re-diagnosed December 2012 with type 1.5 diabetes, age 26, BMI 23 currently controlled by only Metformin, 500mg twice a day.
 
Hi Elaine,

Thanks for your reply. I saw my DSN yesterday and she seems to think that it's worth sending me for further blood tests to rule out the possibility of being LADA. I'm going on holiday soon, so she wants me to wait until I'm back, then we will go down that route.
She doesn't think that my numbers are particularly bad for someone newly diagnosed, but as weight loss isn't bringing the numbers down, she wants to be thorough.

Since reading your reply and talking to my cousin, who is 10 years older, but was diagnosed at exactly the same age as I am, and has had a big struggle with achieving stable blood sugar. I seem to be following the same pattern that he did, whereas my other type 2 relatives are all diet controlled. The only way he can keep his blood sugar reasonable is by heavy work in the gym on a daily basis, max metformin, chromium picolinate supplements, and an extremely strict diet. It makes me wonder whether he could be type 1.5 too.

Being diagnosed has certainly opened my eyes to the complexities of this disease!
 
He may well be!

Admittedly diabetes is far from black and white but for the most part the different types are two totally different things! Type 2 is a condition where type 1/1.5 is a disease.

Type 2 is where u are producing alot of insulin but due to excess weight you're body can't use it properly and becomes resistant to it due to the elevated levels. So losing weight almost always will have an effect on the BS of people with type 2.

Type 1/1.5 is autoimmune and so therefore type 2 treatment and diet may work for a while but ultimately it will stop working and insulin will be needed.

Its good that u have such an understanding DSN as many HCPs would look at ur BMI and make assumptions that could well be wrong. It's the same with GD. All women who have had GD who then develop diabetes are told automatically its type 2 yet more and more cases are appearing where they aren't type 2 at all but slow onset type 1/1.5. Pregnancy may even be some sort of trigger though there isn't any research on this... They should maybe do some! Lol


Diagnosed with GD in 2010, Completely disappeared postpartum. Re-diagnosed December 2012 with type 1.5 diabetes, age 26, BMI 22 currently controlled by only Metformin, 500mg twice a day.
 
Ive never known any type 2s that werent overweight apart from ones that were misdiagnosed in the first place or have now lost weight but have also lost beta cells thru exhaustion and so need insulin.

There are always exceptions though, like people who suffer from other medical conditions as well as diabetes and I did say 'almost always'.

I would be interested in other HCPs explanations as to how someone who is not and has not been overweight can be type 2 because when I was wrongly diagnosed and told I was type 2, the answer I got was 'some people are unhealthy and have fat on the inside but are not fat on the outside and fatty deposits around organs can cause cells to get blocked and therefore cause insulin resistance just as if u were overweight'.

I wasnt convinced at the time but I guess it makes sense a bit.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
elaine77 said:
Ive never known any type 2s that werent overweight apart from ones that were misdiagnosed in the first place or have now lost weight but have also lost beta cells thru exhaustion and so need insulin.
Click to expand...

Around 80% of T2 are overweight at diagnosis, therefore 20% or roughly a fifth of all T2's are NOT overweight at diagnosis, that means hundreds of thousands of T2's who were never overweight.

Its bad enough that the ill-informed press label all T2's as obese but diabetics really should know better.
 
I was diagnosed with type 2 after having the second of two Strokes I had 2 weeks apart. After the first Stroke I had all tests done whilst in hospital and bg normal. 2 weeks later after second one and back in hospital tests come back at 7.9. .
I think everybody's story is different. I have never been I'll in my life before this always been fit active and followed a healthy diet .

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Sid Bonkers said:
elaine77 said:
Ive never known any type 2s that werent overweight apart from ones that were misdiagnosed in the first place or have now lost weight but have also lost beta cells thru exhaustion and so need insulin.
Click to expand...

Around 80% of T2 are overweight at diagnosis, therefore 20% or roughly a fifth of all T2's are NOT overweight at diagnosis, that means hundreds of thousands of T2's who were never overweight.

Its bad enough that the ill-informed press label all T2's as obese but diabetics really should know better.
Click to expand...

You missed off the part where I clearly said "losing weight almost always helps BS" emphasis on the ALMOST always so no I shouldn't know better as I was referring to type 2 diabetics that I know not every type 2 diabetic in the world! I also didn't say anywhere that all type 2s are obese either.

Also, of that 20% how many are wrongly diagnosed? You don't know do you as it's an out of date statistic!! How many people on here alone have not been overweight at diagnosis of type 2 and then surprise surprise they have antibodies or MODY? Plenty! So if you are going to start throwing round accusations alongside your statistics then at least make sure they are both correct.

I also referred to exceptions that have had OTHER MEDICAL CONDITIONS or problems which could explain the type 2 and unfortunately Connie suffered strokes prior to diagnosis. Hope you are well now Connie.

So take the misdiagnoses off that 20% and then take the other medical issues off that 20% and what would u be left with??? Probably something a lot lower than 20% but since I don't have an official up to date percentage I won't quote one.


Diagnosed with GD in 2010, Completely disappeared postpartum. Re-diagnosed December 2012 with type 1.5 diabetes, age 26, BMI 22 currently controlled by only Metformin, 500mg twice a day.
 
Back
Top