Oral Meds nightmare

[gaismith]

I was diagnosed 4yrs ago. My GP has done very little to help me until the last year when the neawly trained diabetic nurse got involved. This time in 2015 my sugar was on avergage 37 throughout the day. Metformin worked for a while and got it down to around 9 but then stomach issues started. I am a veterinary nurse and the pain an nausea was just crazy and diarrhoea would hit without warning....like when i was monitoring an animals anaesthetic. I am IBS but these meds without doubt make it worse. I switched to slow release and it did not improve. Eventually it got so bad the nausea, pain and diarrheoa was not condusive to a normal life. Pulled out th metformin and the gastro symptoms immediately improved. Went to insulin and duglatide. In the last few months my BGS is creeping up and dispite 42ui of insulin at night i cannot get my BG in the AM below 10 or 11. Daytime and evening has creeped back up to 9-12

So saw the disabetic nurse and we added Jardiance which i am supposed to take once a day. Within two hours the exact symptoms i had with the metformin are back

Im scared to take any oral meds now and I cannot live a normal productive life with those side effects

HELP? (

 

[Bluetit1802]

May I ask if diet forms part of your self management?
What you eat, and what you don't eat, are as important as any medication.

 

[Freema]

I was diagnosed 4yrs ago. My GP has done very little to help me until the last year when the neawly trained diabetic nurse got involved. This time in 2015 my sugar was on avergage 37 throughout the day. Metformin worked for a while and got it down to around 9 but then stomach issues started. I am a veterinary nurse and the pain an nausea was just crazy and diarrhoea would hit without warning....like when i was monitoring an animals anaesthetic. I am IBS but these meds without doubt make it worse. I switched to slow release and it did not improve. Eventually it got so bad the nausea, pain and diarrheoa was not condusive to a normal life. Pulled out th metformin and the gastro symptoms immediately improved. Went to insulin and duglatide. In the last few months my BGS is creeping up and dispite 42ui of insulin at night i cannot get my BG in the AM below 10 or 11. Daytime and evening has creeped back up to 9-12

So saw the disabetic nurse and we added Jardiance which i am supposed to take once a day. Within two hours the exact symptoms i had with the metformin are back

Im scared to take any oral meds now and I cannot live a normal productive life with those side effects

HELP? (

it is hard to give you any suggestions on meds..
but to most type 2 it is possible to get a much lower blood glucose than you have just by counting the number of grams of carbs one eat in a day , and preferably try to eat a breakfast almost without carbs... are you counting the number of grams of carbs you eat in a day.

have you tried to go under 100 grams of carbs in day in total ?

 

[gaismith]

May I ask if diet forms part of your self management?
What you eat, and what you don't eat, are as important as any medication.

I do watch my diet and have lost 2 stone since this all started. I avoid sweets and high sugar items. I do not take sugar in tea and drink water or diet drinks. No fruit juice. My appetite is very poor atm but i do try to adhere to low carb, low GI low sugar. I also go to the gym but today my plans were crushed as i felt so bad.

 

[Daibell]

Hi. I suspect you are having too many carbs? Set yourself a target of perhaps 150 gm day'ish. You should have had Metformin SR (Slow Release) and not the plain version you may have been prescribed. Ask the GP for that to try. If you are not overweight then suspect being T1 which would need two insulins (Basal/Bolus) and probably no other drug apart from Metformin but I'm guessing weight is part of the problem?

 

[azure]

Are you only taking a basal insulin? Perhaps you need a bolus insulin to cover your meals too @gaismith ?

 

[noblehead]

Im scared to take any oral meds now and I cannot live a normal productive life with those side effects

Ask your gp to refer you over to a hospital diabetes clinic if they are stuck on how to move forward with your treatment plan.

 

[Mep]

I was diagnosed 4yrs ago. My GP has done very little to help me until the last year when the neawly trained diabetic nurse got involved. This time in 2015 my sugar was on avergage 37 throughout the day. Metformin worked for a while and got it down to around 9 but then stomach issues started. I am a veterinary nurse and the pain an nausea was just crazy and diarrhoea would hit without warning....like when i was monitoring an animals anaesthetic. I am IBS but these meds without doubt make it worse. I switched to slow release and it did not improve. Eventually it got so bad the nausea, pain and diarrheoa was not condusive to a normal life. Pulled out th metformin and the gastro symptoms immediately improved. Went to insulin and duglatide. In the last few months my BGS is creeping up and dispite 42ui of insulin at night i cannot get my BG in the AM below 10 or 11. Daytime and evening has creeped back up to 9-12

So saw the disabetic nurse and we added Jardiance which i am supposed to take once a day. Within two hours the exact symptoms i had with the metformin are back

Im scared to take any oral meds now and I cannot live a normal productive life with those side effects

HELP? (

Can I ask has your medical team done diagnostic tests on you? Eg. did they do them initially and have they done them again recently? The tests I'm referring to are the GAD test and the c-peptide test. Any time you can't get control with medication it should be that they're doing these tests to check what is happening. Eg. if they find you no longer produce sufficient insulin then you're going to need to be on full time insulin therapy which is both bolus and basal insulins. I hope they have done this for you as if they haven't that could be why things aren't working for you at the moment as your treatment isn't right. As others have mention diet is important too.... although if you don't have the insulin you won't be able to control with diet either. I wish you the best.

 

[berylc]

Hi. I suspect you are having too many carbs? Set yourself a target of perhaps 150 gm day'ish. You should have had Metformin SR (Slow Release) and not the plain version you may have been prescribed. Ask the GP for that to try. If you are not overweight then suspect being T1 which would need two insulins (Basal/Bolus) and probably no other drug apart from Metformin but I'm guessing weight is part of the problem?

I was given Slow Release metformin and I had exactly the same symptoms for 4 yrs! Stopped them eventually, with diabetes nurse's approval and am now diet alone and now no rushing to the loo for around 18 months. I asked a nurse friend why it was prescribed and she said because it works AND although they know the side effects can be awful it's a cheap drug!