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recently prescribed metaformin

D

Dingoh

Member
Messages
6
Hello everyone

I too am new at this and am a recently diagnosed type 2 and have just been put on metaformin, mainly because of a mixup three years ago I did not receive the care that I should have received but its all water under the bridge and I am not bitter about it, after all these things happen don't they?

I am resisting taking statins, as that was another medication that was suggested to me and am at the moment choosing to alter cholesterol through modifications in my diet and exercise regimes. I have always shied away from doctors and until very recently never had any complaints worth mentioning.

I will seek info through the forums and not bother anyone unless I get stuck lol though I do have one question that has me perplexed and it is about self testing, my healthcare team, based in Suffolk, are against personal testing because as they say it can give rise to false readings and give an inaccurate picture to someone in my position. To clarify I am not against their ideas but I have friends who are type 2 in the same County and the advice they are getting differs widely from my own, it is something that I have found through trawling the world wide web that information is very conflicting.

Thanks in advance for any guidance that you send my way

Best regards

Dingoh

Put all this down because I have seen others do it and not sure if it would help or not, oh well here goes nothing lol

Results 05/03/2012

HbA1c 6.6
Cholesterol 4.42
HDL 1.08
LDL 2.89
Triglycerides 0.97
 
Hi Dingoh, dont worry about bothering anyone here, they love it :lol: . My cholesterol is higher than yours and there is no way I'm taking statins. There is plenty of people who do take it but that stuff scares me. I watched my dad crippled up on them and will only consider it now if it was litterally a matter of life or death.
 
Just for a balancing view - I take statins and have done for about 18 months. They started me on Simvastatin and I got almost immediate aches and pains (a known side affect for some) so they moved me to Atorvastatin and it's brought my cholestorol down to 3 - which I'm told is good.

On a wider note I think that blokes in particular tend to not visit their GP as quickly as they should. I was much of this persuasion, but I've now built up a good and regular relationship with the practice staff and corrected a load of things that I thought were there to be put up with - many of them turned out to be related to my diabetes. I now feel I can ask my GP or the nursing team if I'm concerned about something without worrying that I'm being a nuisance.
 
Thanks for replying Swimmer2

Hope everything goes well for your regime, I cannot swim myself but i can cycle and do that most days and am feeling much better because of it.

I still have this question unanswered though and that is to do with self testing, prior to you being put on insulin were you encouraged to self test, indeed is everybody else normally encouraged to self test, I am not bothered that I do not it is just I would like to clear up this confusion for my own part.

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies to this thread

Best regards

Dingoh
 
Hi Dingoh

My surgery don't give out testing equipment to Type 2s and don't advise self testing either......but I do test, of course, having got my meter free and bought strips/lancets. How else are we going to know what foods spike our BG and monitor things ourselves? In common with a lot of people, I believe the main reason that our health care professionals don't provide equipment or encourage self testing is down to COST.
 
Hi Sooliz

Thanks for replying so quickly.

The reason why my healthcare team said that it was not important to test was that (she explained the thing with the sine waves and how diabetics are prone to larger sine waves than non diabetics) and that if I self tested I would not know where I was on the course of the 'wave' so to speak and it could give me the wrong indications and I could place too much emphasis on these indicators.

For my part, I do not have a problem with foods in general, and only eat what i prepare myself i.e.; no processed foods which makes it easier I guess to monitor what I should be doing without testing. I have looked at the food exchange calculator and left a comment on its use as I have no idea how it is supposed to be used.

I have found that when using the internet a lot of the information is confusing and sometimes quite contradictory, I am sure that with the help of people like yourself I will be able to sort it out and make sense of the amount of information on here.

Take care now

Best regards

Dingoh
 
Hi Dingoh,

I do wish the medical community would get their act together! One says one thing, another says something else. However, I'm lucky in that my GP prescribes my testing strips, to the tune of 2 tubs per month. I just wish everyone could be so lucky.

I think it's imperative to self test. Sooliz is right - it's down solely to costs. I think when your healthcare team start banging on about 'sine waves', it's purely a distraction meant to confuse. I'm probably being totally thick here (not a difficult thing! :lol: ), but I've never heard of 'sine waves', but it hasn't stopped me from finding out whether an orange is going to spike me through the roof, or not have much effect at all. How could I know that half a baguette with tuna mayo doesn't have much effect on me if I don't test to find out?

I know the testing strips are expensive, and the other unfortunates like yourself who have to buy their own will be able to tell you the best buys, but for a while at least, look for free offers on bg testing machines, as they usually come with around 10 or so free strips (the machines are free because they want you to start buying the testing strips, which is where the profit comes from).

Best of luck.
 
I've never heard of sine waves before. lol. I'm type 2 and initially I was told to only test twice weekly. But seriously, you fair much better regularly testing throughout each day to get an understanding of how food, emotions, etc. impact on your BGLs. For example I find that my BGL can skyrocket just from being upset about something, or from pain.... nevermind food. There is so much focus on food all the time which is a great start.... but diabetes management is more than that from my experience. If you're stressed at all.... expect high BGLs. If your body doesn't like heat or cold, expect high BGLs. I could go on. But you get the idea. I also agree that the medical world needs to better equip people to take care of themselves correctly. Thanks to forums like this you get to learn what works for others too. I have to test quite regularly throughout each day anyhow now because I'm on insulin injections. Wishing you all the best. :)
 
Hi dingoh
Re test strips and meters as said before some meter manufacturers will send you a free meter ,some have sent for a new meter called codefree which you have to pay for but the strips are cheaper than others.When you get your meter the temptation is to measure your BGs often and randomly because you want to know what is going on,but the best thing to do is to test before a meal and then 2 hours later and make a note of the food you eat ,if you can restrict yourself to doing this once a day maybe at different meals you will start to build up a picture and learn when it is good to test and so you wont waste strips
Some people test every morning (fasting) but others like myself have quite erratic fasting levels and so just get frustrated.
Hope this helps
CAROL
 
Hi Dingoh,

in answer to your question, I was encouraged to test from day 1 - when I was just on Metformin and I have always been prescribed as many test strips as I want and when I've changed meter they've happily changed the prescription.

The reason given for testing is that you need to, to avoid hypos. If your medication doesn't cause hypos (like Metformin) then qed you don't need to test. This is rubbish of course, as reducing your carb intake can reduce your dependence on medication, a dependence that is likely to increase over time, but how can you regulate your carbs without testing.

Everyone has an opinion about low carbing but I'm type 2 and living a low carb lifestyle - and to be frank it's blinking hard at times (like walking past a tea shop :( ) - but because of the regime I've chosen I feel better, I've lost weight, my numbers are much improved and I'm reducing my medication. It would be a very brave non-diabetic nurse who tried to tell me that a low-carb diet isn't suitable for me.

My opinion is if it's suitable for me - it might be suitable for other type 2's and since the results are almost immediately apparent - why wouldn't anyone try it?
 
Dingoh

If testing is wrong or inaccurate why do the UK N.I.C.E guidelines recommend that as a Type 2 diabetic you should test? If you're wondering why if that is the case you were not given a meter it's because a gp can ignore the guidelines. Roughly 95% of gp's (and other HCP's) seem to be ignoring that guideline at the moment across the country. It is the reason that there is a forum petition to sign as forum members are trying to raise the issue of testing for Type 2's with the government.

Type 1 diabetics who need to test their blood sugars (my son included) use exactly the same meters made by the same manufacturers and use the same test strips as meters that ARE given to a Type 2 diabetics in other parts of the country. Surely with all the risk of Type 1's having dangerous hypo's they need accurate meters?

I live in your part of the world where I was told straight upfront by my diabetic nurse that I wouldn't be prescribed test strips because it cost too much full stop. I was also told the same thing when I asked for some pretty standard tests to be carried out regarding my diabetes. At least she was honest with me. You would be amazed at the wide range of excuses we have all heard on this forum about why testing is being denied, sine waves is just another. If it were a valid point I wonder why the HCP's who post here, the experienced forum moderators or the long term incredibly experienced insulin using diabetic members haven't ever once mentioned it in their advice.

The vast majority of forum members including the HCP's who post on the forum would recommend that you test your own blood sugars. How else will you know if you're controlling your condition and making sure what you eat is keeping you safe. It is that simple.

Like swimmer2 I have taken Simvastatin for over a year and it has more than halved my dangerously high Cholesterol level. You do realise that some of the major causes of death in Type 2 diabetics aren't just from diabetic complications arising from high blood sugars but from heart attacks and strokes?
 
Hi Marti

Yes I agree with you it is a great board to get info and good info at that, everyone on here has been most encouraging and has turned what can seem like a daunting period of your life into one of hope and understanding.

Thanks again all who contributed to this and in the words of 'The Terminator' "I'll be back"

Dingoh :D
 
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