[apjones]

I am type 2, for probably a long long time but only confirmed a year ago.
What i find interesting is people talk about correcting their low sugar levels , didn't think that applied to type 2.
How do u know if u r low or even high.
I'm 57 year old man, who still manages to do hard physical labour for a living, should i not be falling down all over the place!
I sometimes feel dizzy in the mornings, but i put that down to lack of sleep. Is it a low sugar thing?
I know nothing of these matters. Perhaps ignorance is bliss?
Alan

 

[breezeonby]

I am type 2, for probably a long long time but only confirmed a year ago.
What i find interesting is people talk about correcting their low sugar levels , didn't think that applied to type 2.
How do u know if u r low or even high.
I'm 57 year old man, who still manages to do hard physical labour for a living, should i not be falling down all over the place!
I sometimes feel dizzy in the mornings, but i put that down to lack of sleep. Is it a low sugar thing?
I know nothing of these matters. Perhaps ignorance is bliss?
Alan

Hi Alan! Are you checking your blood glucose with a meter? That is really the only way to tell if you are low or high. You should be between 70-130 fasting and before meals. You should be at 140 or lower 2 hour post meal. Do you take insulin? You need to check your blood glucose when you are dizzy, then you will know if it is related to your blood glucose.

 

[Shanny]

Welcome back, Alan.
Looking at your previous posts, you mention being on meds & wanting to get off them. Have you stopped those meds now?

If you don't have a meter, you need to get one. As Breeze says, it's the only way to know if you're low or high.

For type 2 diabetics who don't use insulin, diet & exercise are the primary tools for "correcting" our sugar levels.

Give us a better idea of what meds you take and what your meals are composed of. For persons with diabetes, ignorance is absolutely NOT bliss, and worse - ignorance can set you up for some really serious complications that most of us try to avoid at all costs.

I am type 2, for probably a long long time but only confirmed a year ago.
What i find interesting is people talk about correcting their low sugar levels , didn't think that applied to type 2.
How do u know if u r low or even high.
I'm 57 year old man, who still manages to do hard physical labour for a living, should i not be falling down all over the place!
I sometimes feel dizzy in the mornings, but i put that down to lack of sleep. Is it a low sugar thing?
I know nothing of these matters. Perhaps ignorance is bliss?
Alan

 

[apjones]

alan

Hi Alan! Are you checking your blood glucose with a meter? That is really the only way to tell if you are low or high. You should be between 70-130 fasting and before meals. You should be at 140 or lower 2 hour post meal. Do you take insulin? You need to check your blood glucose when you are dizzy, then you will know if it is related to your blood glucose.

The nurse just checks me once a year, i take metformin 500mg. thats about it.

 

[apjones]

Hi i'm on metformin 500mg twice a day. apparently everything about my type 2, has cleared up,, i did lose some weight, but also muscle at the same time. Not purposly. The muscle that is. So back to my question i don't have any meters and am due to see the nurse yearly. But on occasions i do have a bad day, very dizzy, but i manage. I work as a gardener, maybe i should get an easier job, (rich widows aren't that common.) But i suppose i'm just lucky!

 

[fgummett]

I can't even imagine only testing Blood Glucose once a year... to me that would be like driving down the highway but only looking out the windshield once every 100 miles or so

 

[Shanny]

You really need a meter, Alan, because checking once a year doesn't cut it. Your dosage of metformin is quite low, and unless you think you've been misdiagnosed, you are going to be type 2 diabetic for the rest of your life - it doesn't "clear up" or go away.

You're still a fairly young man and accustomed to physical labor. These bad days & dizzy spells might be related to diabetes or a dozen other things. If you get a meter & check your blood a coupla times a day (and especially when you start feeling woozy), you'll at least know whether it's related to your blood sugar level!

Meters come fairly cheap . . . stores like Krogers, Target, Walmart have their own brands and strips for about half the price of name-brand meters. Please consider getting one and taking control of your health. Let me repeat: Ignorance is NOT bliss.

 

[fgummett]

I can't even imagine only testing Blood Glucose once a year... to me that would be like driving down the highway but only looking out the windshield once every 100 miles or so

OK... maybe not my best analogy with driving you are likely to quickly find out if you stray off course

Instead consider that you are responsible for a greenhouse full of priceless, exotic plants... there are sprinklers that turn on and off every day at the same time, based on your pre-set timings... the air vents open and close on a similar schedule, heating and cooling also.

Now consider that once (and only once) each year you visit the greenhouse, measure the temperature, humidity etc... and base the system settings for the entire next year on that single set of readings. How healthy do you think those plants will be in 12 months when you visit them next?

---

If you have Diabetes and want to control it (in order to avoid serious long-term complications), then you need to test your BG.

 

[breezeonby]

Only testing once per year just isn't going to get the job done. You should be checking at least once per day and you could stretch that out to every other day, but you do have diabetes and you need to know if your Metformin is working for you. I have never heard of anyone diagnosed with diabetes only testing once per year. Get a meter and start testing, you have nothing to lose but a few dollars to buy the test strips.

 

[apjones]

You talk a lot of sense, i do wonder about the diagnosis. But you gotta trust these people!!
Thanks
Alan

 

[apjones]

Yeh this once a year thing bothers me as well. First of all it was going to be every three months.
It was almost like being given the all clear!
The nurse told me all my stats, were perfect, keep it up. Well u can't argue , with that.
Asked the doc he said i was only just type 2, hmmm, he said.
I said did i need to take pills if alls well. Hmmmm, he said, he'd never taken anybody off pills before.
Come back in three months, presumably that will coincide with him being on holiday, and someone else can make the decision!
Well apart from a bit of dizzyness i do feel great, i'm sure i had type 2 , as i do feel 100% different now, so maybe just do as i'm told. I've seen first hand what untreated diabetes can do, with the aboriginal population in Australia, don't wanna go there.
Al

 

[apjones]

I think i must be so borderline type 2 that they not worried , they r pretty good at looking out for people my age in Uk, i can go back with any probs, so if this dizzyness persists, i will. Could be my diet, do often eat irregulary, and then sudden bursts of hard graft that most youngsters would find hard to do.
I think thats when i get caught out!
But i have no meters, never been reccomended any by medics.
Perhaps i'm just lucky, as usually i'm fine, can walk Welsh mountains, 12 miles, next day 10 miles.
Hope it lasts.
Al

 

[apjones]

But from the small print on the metformin instructions. It says that i cannot hypo on metformin.

 

[fgummett]

Bottom line is that you have no way of guessing what you BG is doing.

If you don't have Diabetes you don't need Metformin... if you do have Diabetes there is no substitute for BG testing... assuming you want decent BG control that is

You cannot possibly know how good (or otherwise) your BG control is from a single lab test once a year... that would be like saying you have a good handle on the British weather for the whole year; by looking out the window once, at 10am, on a Tuesday morning, in April.

---

As I recall although it is rare, Hypoglycemia is listed as possible side-effect of Metformin. It is also possible to go Hypo through physical activity and/or diet if you already have an impaired Glucose (BG) management system.

 

[apjones]

I must say none of the Gps or nurses have said anything about testing my blood sugar levels, or attached any importance to it. I have type 2 because after being on metformin for a year now i can say i feel a lot better. I thought maybe i didn't but i had numbness in my hand for years, i thought it was just getting older, but thats gone, no tiredness in the legs. Got to be the drugs kicking in.
Maybe in Uk they don't think its apprpriate for me to test my blood. Its certainly a puzzle. I will have to tackle them about it.
Alan

 

[Shanny]

The thing to remember is that YOU are the one in control of this, not your docs or their nurses. They don't have to suffer the neuropathy/fatigue/dizziness if your diabetes is not well controlled. As I've said before, you're a fairly young man still, and physically fit. There's no need for you to be ailing & developing complications in your later years just because the medical community didn't admonish you to take better care of yourself. You can take much better care of yourself if you know your blood sugar levels from day to day. And, NO, you don't have to trust the docs . . . honestly - some of them are not to be trusted! Others are trustworthy enough, but know very little about diabetes - just enough to be dangerous.

Your diabetes is not going to go away, but you can manage your blood sugars and it will prob'ly restore the strength you've lost, and you can stop feeling like an old man! You aren't even 60 years old, Alan! You shouldn't be feeling dizzy/weak/tired!

 

[apjones]

Ok you r right. I will got to docs monday hopefully and get it sorted.
Like i say i don't do too bad a lot fitter than many youngsters. But some days i do feel knackered.
I will go to see the man and ask why this is the case ?
He's a nice guy. But i sometimes wonder?
Al