[garlicdiabetes]

Thanks for looking at my thread and leaving some advice.

I was originally given a prescription for Metformin to prevent me from getting diabetes. The Metformin was giving me terrible flatulence and I asked my doctor for something else. He prescribed Glumetza and it has been working out and my stomach has been reacting better to it. Thing is, I just ran out of Glumetza and it will take a couple days to fill a new prescription and I was wondering if it would be okay if I used my left over Metformin until the Glumetza arrives. Is this a bad idea?

 

[diabetes86]

No Met and Glumetza are different drugs and do different things. It can take 6 weeks before the met starts to work up to speed.

And met does not prevent diabetes nor does Glumetza.

 

[moon]

It won't hurt you, except you'll be back to the gastric effects you left when you went to the slow release. How much glumetza are you taking?

You could take a lower dose of the metformin and perhaps get away with it not being as severe as it was before. I take 2000 mg extended release and if I ran out and only had the regular metformin, I'd probably try to take 1000 mg split in 2 doses AM/PM. But this certainly is a YMMV sort of thing.

 

[garlicdiabetes]

It won't hurt you, except you'll be back to the gastric effects you left when you went to the slow release. How much glumetza are you taking?

You could take a lower dose of the metformin and perhaps get away with it not being as severe as it was before. I take 2000 mg extended release and if I ran out and only had the regular metformin, I'd probably try to take 1000 mg. But this certainly is a YMMV sort of thing.

500MG for the Glumetza and the Metformin was 500mg as well.

 

[moon]

500 mg metformin is the lowest dose available, and if that gave you gastric problems, then I'd just skip it. Two days isn't long to be off that small a dosage, and wouldn't give you enough benefit to make the side effects worth it.

 

[garlicdiabetes]

500 mg metformin is the lowest dose available, and if that gave you gastric problems, then I'd just skip it. Two days isn't long to be off that small a dosage, and wouldn't give you enough benefit to make the side effects worth it.

it's the lowest dose! :boom:

im basically ****ed...

thanks for the info though

 

[moon]

Why do you say that? Hey, I wish I only needed 500 mg metformin - that's terrific! And you don't say what your blood glucose runs, but if your doc said it was to 'prevent' diabetes, my guess is you're what's classified as pre-diabetic, and honestly, nothing will happen to you if you miss a couple of days of such a low dose of medication.

Depending on your diet, eating minimal carbs (i.e. no to minimal bread, potato, cereal, grains, sweets, fruit) would do far more for your blood sugar than 2000 mg of metformin could.

What is your concern? Do you test your blood sugar?

 

[Shanny]

The difference in your drugs is that apparently your metformin is the regular version. Glumetza is simply the extended-release version of metformin.

If we're talking about only a few days, forget about using your old prescription - just wait for the new one to come. OR - go ahead & use it - if you don't have diarrhea or cramping with it, only flatulence, that isn't so bad compared to the misery some people have with met.

Welcome to DF!

 

[jwags]

Since metformin builds up in your system it will stay in for at least a month or so. So you should be ok with skipping it for a few days. As said they are both metformin except the Glumetza is the extended release version and prevents the GI side effects that many get. I take 2550 mg of the regular metformin and had side effects for a month or so and then my system got use to the dose.

 

[garlicdiabetes]

thank you everyone.

As for my being ****ed comment I just meant that I have uncomfortable side effects at the lowest dose so if i ever need to increase it It's going to suck big time.

I feel increasingly motivated to eat better not because it's what I should be doing but because I want to get off this pill.