[SandraO]

Well, I started on this journey approx. 1 month ago. Before seeing a meriad of "professionals" who are supposed to be looking out for my better interests, I took it upon myself to stop eating white, watch my carbs, stick with full fat products such as cheese, mayo, etc. and up my intake of water, as well as make sure I get daily exercise.

At my last visit to my family doctor, he decided that even though I had brought my BG numbers down from 270 to the 140 to 160 range, it wasn't good enough and increased my Metformin to 3 x 500mg per day from 2 x per day.

Well, since this time my numbers have increased, I feel like crap and I'm ready to say "#%@^ it!". For breakfast this morning, I had 2 poached eggs on a bed of spinach, a breakfast sausage and a bit of cheddar cheese grated on top of my eggs. For lunch I had a green salad with a bit of tomato, another small sprinkle of cheddar cheese and a cup of green tea. So far my BG for today has ranged from 160 to 180. WTF?????? This was also in amongst an hour walk and cleaning our motorhome from top to bottom.

Ready to give up!

 

[Joshua Shorter]

I know it is difficult and the only way to conquer this beast is one day, meal and test at a time. You can get through this if you keep trying. I have faith that you will not give up.
Sometimes there are additives in the breakfast sausages that cause BG to rise. Is this a possibility here?
Please don't give up. Your life depends on it. You can make it through this and you can get this under control. Your numbers are much better now than they were, keep reminding yourself of that fact.

 

[Patdart]

It will work, don't give up! It took me months to bring my fasting down and a month is no time at all (altho' it feels like a century ). You are doing really well, and as Joshua says, it's one day, one meal and one test at a time.

 

[Shalynne]

What Josh said.

Plus, I've been in this for almost 2 months, and I had to adjust my meds, and the way I taken them, several times.

I don't know anything about Metformin, but is it supposed to work immediately, or build up over a period of time?

After some frustration, I emailed my doc to ask:

1. When I could expect improvement;
2. How much improvement to expect in that time;
3. What I could do if there was no improvement, or too little improvement.

Can you email or phone your doc for advice? I have a nurse/counselor now, and while I listen to my meter for diet, she's been extremely helpful with my dosing strategy (she's Type 1).

 

[Grif110]

I'm just starting this high fat low carb thing with Atkins. The other day I went to a breakfast buffet and ate eggs, bacon and sausage like I had before without incident. This time I decided that I should add a few foundation carbs gulped down some cherry tomatos (I ate seven of them). Turns out I can't really handle tomatos as my after meal BGL went up 24 points higher than normal after a similar meal without tomatos the week before! I have since started Dr. Bernstein's book and learned that tomatos are a no no, which I apparently found out the hard way.

 

[SandraO]

What Josh said.

Plus, I've been in this for almost 2 months, and I had to adjust my meds, and the way I taken them, several times.

I don't know anything about Metformin, but is it supposed to work immediately, or build up over a period of time?

After some frustration, I emailed my doc to ask:

1. When I could expect improvement;
2. How much improvement to expect in that time;
3. What I could do if there was no improvement, or too little improvement.

Can you email or phone your doc for advice? I have a nurse/counselor now, and while I listen to my meter for diet, she's been extremely helpful with my dosing strategy (she's Type 1).

I do have a nurse practitioner that I have seen once and he seemed to be really happy with the way my numbers were slowly coming down and this was before I saw my family doctor. The nurse practitioner said that if I kept on this right track as he could see I was, he wouldn't see a need to raise my Metformin.

I then went to see my doctor and first of all, he didn't even look at my blood work results. He looked at the sheet I had logged all of my BG testing on and said it still needed to come down and therefore he was going to up my meds and if that didn't work, he would up them again in two weeks and if that didn't work, I would have to take insulin at bedtime. At that point my fasting number was around the 170 mark at the highest point.

I really feel like two weeks really wasn't enough time to see if improvements would continue without raising meds. Two weeks was hardly enough time to digest the diagnosis, let alone lose weight, change my diet and deal with the carnage. Then at the end of two weeks, boost the meds and threaten insulin!

I know most of you are going to say "find a new doc". Well, unfortunately none of the doctors in our area are taking new patients and our health care system is not the best.

I had an ex husband that was diagnosed with type II diabetes several years ago, and before any meds were prescribed he was told to watch his diet, keep track of his BG and exercise. Over a 1 year period he changed his diet, starting walking every night with the dog and to this day he is still not on meds. His original fasting BG was close to 400 at diagnosis. His doc gave him the chance to do things on his own without pushing the meds.

I am very tempted to throw the metformin in the garbage, watch what I eat, monitor my BG and take things into my own hands. I really, really believe that these medical people are pushing the meds to keep the drug companies in business. I refuse to up the metformin anymore and insulin will not be an option.

I am determined to beat this thing with diet and exercise, if I have to walk 10 miles a day!! I have no idea how long it takes metformin to work, but I'm guessing it doesn't work overnight and that it takes time to see results. Two weeks is definitely not long enough!

I would love to call my nurse practitioner and talk to him, but unfortunately he's on vacation until the second week in June.

 

[Joshua Shorter]

I can't give you any advice on met but I think you have the right attitude about beating this disease. You will lose a few battles but we need to stay and win the war.

 

[Shanny]

That's the spirit, Sandy! You are absolutely right, your metformin at the original dose is just now kicking in and it's idiocy to raise it already, let alone threaten another raise plus insulin in two more weeks. What the heck is he thinking?!

Because metformin takes the pressure off your pancreas, I would say continue the dose you've been taking as long as you haven't had gastric symptoms from it. I would also continue just as you've been with diet/exercise, and get with your NP when he gets back. You can work with him, and then just smile & nod on the occasions when you're forced to see the doctor. It appears that this doc knows next to nothing about diabetes, when he can't even read what's printed right in front of him.

 

[jwags]

I also take metformin 3 times a day, but I have to take 2550 mg in order to get my bgs where I want them. I also had to experiment when I took my doses. Taking at meals didn't work for me. The new dose may not kick in for awhile, so don't be discouraged. My first 2 years of diabetes I was plauged with "liver dumps". Whenever my bg would get to 110-120, I would get a 60 point spike bringing me up to 170-180. It was very frustrating. One of the tricks I found was to eat 6 small meals or snacks throughout the day. This way you are constantly keeping food in your system , so liver never percieves you are low and dumps glucose. The other thing I found was by dropping carbs, there was less glycogen in my system to be converted to glucose. But this didn't happen overnight. Give it time and don't give up.

 

[Strawberry]

I am type 1 so my experience with Metformin is a little different than yours. However, recently after I had been trying for weeks to lose weight, I complained to my CDE that in spite of trying to eat low carb I had not lost but several pounds. He then asked me to send him a week of my food diary that I had been keeping.

My breakfast and lunch meals were very much like yours and my BG were still going too high. The CDE told me that "in the absence of carbohydrates in your meal the body will happily use protein and/or fat and turn it into sugar". His advice to me was to have 1/2 slice of toast along with the breakfast. I also checked the ingredient list on my sausages and 'yep'.......there was glucose listed among the ingredients of the sausage links (they are sneaky little fellows).

I also take Metformin to help with insulin resistance and it took me at least 5 weeks to notice any improvement............so don't give up. You will need to be more patient and maybe smile and nod when you go to the doctor. It is after all, your body, not his, that is benefitting from the good efforts you're making.

 

[ThoseBackPages]

Keep up the walking and try to cut down on those portions!

 

[Shanny]

The CDE told me that "in the absence of carbohydrates in your meal the body will happily use protein and/or fat and turn it into sugar".

That poor CDE . . . wonder if he STILL believes that fats can convert to sugar.

 

[Gizmo]

My fasting bg started out at only 127. It took me a month of eating 10 carbs per day to get it down to 100. One time, I got so frustrated that I didn't eat a single carb for 3 days, and that still didn't bring it down, so I added the carbs back in and kept at it, it finally got down there. It's frustrating, but you just have to keep at it.

 

[Guest]

My FBS started out at 124/129 and despite docs keenness to sell pills to me I resisted and resisted and resisted. 10 weeks down the line and just lifestyle/diet changes and trying the "unconventional" I got it down to 60. He still thinks i am taking some pills ... but who really cares what he thinks. My random numbers were 92 per last lab report.

If i feel low ever i just listen to this and get back on track:

Even eliminating stress (mental) also helps a great deal. Staying happy is the key to staying away from stress. I practice breathing control exercise (part of Yoga) and not watch any violent movies. In fact was contemplating even having the Cable disconnected so as to get those MTV crap eliminated besides of course those sickening McD and KFC ads which are aired on all channels.

 

[Guest]

(((Sandra)))) you can do it I've had diabetes 13 years now and to be honest with you it's not all smooth sailing. Rusticguy is right, you have to not stress about it. It doesn't help one bit! Everytime you look at the meter you are either going to be smiling or frowning. It's a daily battle and it continues that way for the rest of your life.... there's no cure as yet. I figure if this is a long term thing I have to learn to grin and bear it and not fuss too much about the numbers I don't like... other than fix what may need fixing. With metformin I found it doesn't lower BGLs that quick. Give it a go though. If I had my way again I'd probably opt for the insulin as it's kinder than the other orals drugs that stress out your pancreas. Keep on keeping on.... we're all here doing the same.

 

[Strawberry]

That poor CDE . . . wonder if he STILL believes that fats can convert to sugar.

TAGgers UNITED - TuDiabetes

If you think my CDE is wrong, then he has a lot of company. There are those of us who use insulin that bolus not just for carbohydrates, but also for the protein and fat content.

 

[fgummett]

Dietary Carbohydrates can be either directly digested into Glucose, or indirectly (in the case of Fructose for example) stored as Glycogen and later released as Glucose, or indirectly stored as Fatty Acids. BUT there is no metabolic pathway for converting Fatty Acids into Glucose... there is no need as the body can use Fatty Acids as an energy source in its own right.

Some Amino Acids (Protein building blocks -- either from dietary sources or lean tissue) can be converted by the Liver into Glucose by a process called Gluconeogenesis (Glucose-new-creation).

I agree that it is often required to bolus for not just dietary Carbs but also Protein and Fats as these can all factor into the BG following a meal for various reasons: such as Fats can affect the absorption rate of the other nutrients and because we rarely eat just one of these macronutrients at a sitting (with the possible exception of refined carbohydrates).

I see this misunderstanding about Fats converting back to Glucose often and suspect it has much to do with the similar misconception that Glucose is our primary or preferred fuel source.