[unaluna]

Originally Posted by BethRags

Anyway, I'm here to ask for any experiences with taking Metformin. Doctors never seem to know the truths of medications that patients know.

Do you know how to do Advanced Search here on PC? I think there have been a few posts about metformin, but i dont remember in what forums.

[*Beth*]

Originally Posted by unaluna

Do you know how to do Advanced Search here on PC? I think there have been a few posts about metformin, but i dont remember in what forums.

Thank you! I will check that out.

[possum220]

@BethRags How is is going on the Metformin? I have been taking Galvumet 500mg in the morning and 500mg at night which is combination of Metformin and Vildagliptin. It kept me stable for years. I am also on 200mg per night of Seroquel which I have tried to wean off but I havent managed it. How did you manage to get off Seroquel if you dont mind me asking? My weight is an big issue. Recently my bsls have increased so have now added Trulicity which is great for turning down the appetite. It also decreased my average bsls.

Having said that I am due to get a blood test soon for my bsls and report in to my gp. I am uncertain that this time will be as successful but I never can tell.


@Marilyn I am sorry to hear that you have pain. I do wish you the best of luck with the nurse on Monday. Sugar cravings are hard to stop when they get going. I love my chocolate but it doesn't like me either. Good on you for giving it up.

[*Beth*]

Originally Posted by possum220

@BethRags Hi possum
How is is going on the Metformin? I have been taking Galvumet 500mg in the morning and 500mg at night which is combination of Metformin and Vildagliptin. It kept me stable for years. That sounds excellent.
I am also on 200mg per night of Seroquel which I have tried to wean off but I havent managed it. How did you manage to get off Seroquel if you dont mind me asking?

Ugh, Seroquel. I was on it for about 7 years. I cannot recall my original dose, but I think it might have been at about 350mg. A few years ago I dropped it down to 75mg because it wasn't doing anything positive for me with the exception of helping me to sleep.

I was on the 75 for about a year. Then dropped it down to 50mg. I couldn't see any reason to stay on 75 just for sleep, so dropped the dose to 50mg, then just a few months later, to 25mg. (I wish I'd dropped it to 50 much sooner.)

I remained on 25 for a few months. Again saw no reason to take 25 when Seroquel for sleep is most effective at a very low dose. Went down to 12.5mg. That dosage definitely helped me sleep, but I kept gaining weight. Finally, I insisted that my pdoc allow me to stop taking the Seroquel altogether.

I tried to stop and ended up being unable to sleep for more than 2 hours at a stretch. Absolute torture. It was that way for a month and I was desperate to stop the Seroquel, but still be able to sleep.

Then I started taking the 12.5mg Seroquel at night prn. So if I felt especially wired I'd take it (about every third night). At that point, I felt like I'd never be able to go off the stuff. Plus, I was having some manic/delusional symptoms. So my pdoc prescribed Zyprexa. So far, so good. I haven't taken the 12.5 Seroquel in 5 nights, and my sleep has been very good. If I have a night in which I am completely unable to sleep, I do have some Seroquel left. I'd take the 12.5 in that case. But I hope to never take it again.

I apologize for making this post so long; I wanted to detail my "miserable Seroquel journey" to you. I hope it is helpful. The bottom line is that Seroquel was very difficult (for me, anyway) to stop taking. It needed to be done patiently, bit by slow bit. Very frustrating - but it can be done.

As for the Metformin, I've taken only 2 doses thus far. But the day after the first dose my appetite was back to the way it had been all of my life before Seroquel. "Normal" I think. I didn't awaken feeling like I wanted to eat 3 breakfasts! Same thing today. I am ecstatic and have my fingers and toes crossed that the Metformin will help me lose weight. I'm exercising some in physical therapy (injured achilles tendon). So if I can drop even 15lbs I believe that I will be able to start walking for some distances again. Right now my weight is causing chronic pain issues.

Originally Posted by possum220

My weight is an big issue. Recently my bsls have increased so have now added Trulicity which is great for turning down the appetite. It also decreased my average bsls.


That is wonderful!

Having said that I am due to get a blood test soon for my bsls and report in to my gp. I am uncertain that this time will be as successful but I never can tell.

I wish you all the best with the blood test. And with getting off Seroquel. I hope I have been of some help; please don't hesitate to ask me about my abandonment of Seroquel if you have any other questions.



@Marilyn I am sorry to hear that you have pain. I do wish you the best of luck with the nurse on Monday. Sugar cravings are hard to stop when they get going. I love my chocolate but it doesn't like me either. Good on you for giving it up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[possum220]

@BethRags I am pleased that you have had good results with the metformin. Thank you for the detailed response. You pushed through and got the job done. I bailed when I got to 50mg. Too many of my anxiety issues resurfaced and my Tics got worse. I need my sleep. I wish I could get off it though. I have tried Zyprexa but I can't remember it's side effects. Suffice to say that if there was no side effects I would still be on it.

Today's and yesterdays reading was 13. My Dr gets worried if it is over 8. I can relate to your comment having 3 breakfasts though. I am not helping myself though and I frustrate myself. Eating carbs for every meal is probably not helping. I am a true living couch potato. Living on my own doesn't help. Sorry I am having a whine. I have given up trying to go for walks due to the back pain.

[*Beth*]

Originally Posted by possum220

@BethRags I am pleased that you have had good results with the metformin. Thank you for the detailed response. You pushed through and got the job done. I bailed when I got to 50mg. Too many of my anxiety issues resurfaced and my Tics got worse. I need my sleep. I wish I could get off it though. I have tried Zyprexa but I can't remember it's side effects. Suffice to say that if there was no side effects I would still be on it.

I am immensely grateful for your support. possum.

Today's and yesterdays reading was 13. My Dr gets worried if it is over 8. I can relate to your comment having 3 breakfasts though. I am not helping myself though and I frustrate myself. Eating carbs for every meal is probably not helping. I am a true living couch potato. Living on my own doesn't help. Sorry I am having a whine. I have given up trying to go for walks due to the back pain. |

Chronic pain would keep anyone on the couch. I go to physical therapy for a chronic pain issue with my achilles tendon. So far, I can't even walk around the block, the pain is so severe.

And that hunger that results from medication - please don't blame yourself! The meds literally change our brains to make is feel like we need more food. That sensation is frustrating beyond belief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Marylin]

I am now realising after several weeks feeling very ill due to high blood sugars that I am the only one can stop the vicious cycle of sugar addiction.

I lacked energy and I couldn't stay awake I was so tired and drowsy I felt like I was dying. It is my choice what I put in my body and what I choose to eat determines whether I will stay ill and get worse or whether my body gets healthy.

These last two days I got my blood sugars down from 452 to 180 that's 24mmol/L to 10mmol/L.I feel so much better and more energised. I only eat natural sugars in fruit now, I have more energy and I am not so tired and the neuropathy in my feet and arm has subsided.

I have started a calorie controlled diet to begin the long weight loss journey that I am now on. I want to quit sugar or rather stop it like I gave up smoking 22 years ago,
no added sugars for the rest of my life. Keep meals healthy and small and within acceptable calories. High protein , low carbs and low fat.

So I will focus religiously on the results of my regular blood tests and try to get my numbers to where they should be.

I have to continue the good habits I am administering now and make this a permanent lifestyle change. Take control of my body and my health ,Heal, cos if I depend on the doctors it's just more of the same medications that causes side effects and need for more drugs that keep you sick for ever in a vicious cycle cos the drugs are to make profit for Big Pharma not to heal me. Big Pharma is interested in profit not ending the disease.

I have learnt enough about diabetes now to know it is curable. It is caused by fatty liver and pancreas, lose the fat and the diabetes gets reversed.

I have the knowledge now I have to use my personal power to get my body healthy and healed.No more vicious addictive cycles.Break the spell and come into a sensible and caring realistic attitude. Do not eat foods that are bad for you. Simple as that.

I have been a slave to the pleasure that my neurotransmitters in the brain registers every time I gave it a hit of sugar but one hit was never enough I always had to eat the whole box of chocolates and the whole packet of biscuits always had to have a muffin with my coffee or a slice of syrupy caramel flapjack.
High in sugar and calories.Always I preferred to eat at the pub instead of eat before I went out healthy foods at home.No more.My priority is my health and to eat healthy.

[Marylin]

I am still on track, continuing my calorie controlled no sugar diet, I feel better physically and now I have to get my moods
in check so I stop getting depressed. That is much more difficult.
I think exercising might help.

[possum220]

Good on you Marilyn for sticking with eating well. Keep up with it.

I just got back from the gp. He said that my average bsl was 7.5 over three months which he is okay with. I had been testing myself and my readings were twice that. He explained that my meter is probably faulty. I first got it in 2011. Yay! Happy days.

@BethRags how are you faring with the Metformin now?

[*Beth*]

Originally Posted by possum220

Good on you Marilyn for sticking with eating well. Keep up with it.

I just got back from the gp. He said that my average bsl was 7.5 over three months which he is okay with. I had been testing myself and my readings were twice that. He explained that my meter is probably faulty. I first got it in 2011. Yay! Happy days.

@BethRags how are you faring with the Metformin now?

Thank you for asking, possum. So far, so good! I haven't had any side-effects from the Metformin except that my appetite is normal. It feels fantastic to not crave food the way I have on AP's.

[Marylin]

I craved sweet stuff today so I had some raisins, and the cravings passed. It's been very cold today so I allowed myself
an extra bagel toasted. I will eat less tomorrow to make up for it. Generally its going well I'm sticking to low calorie daily intake and
I should lose a good amount of weight by next visit to diabetic nurse and weigh in on December 4th.
I feel confident that I will stay off the sugar and stick to the diet.
It's all going good.
Blood sugars are mostly single figures before food 7-9mmol/L and between 10-15mmol/L after food.

[Tamster]

hi ,
I am a newly dx diabetic. Its all new to me!
over the past 2 months i have been on Metformin, Metformin ER, Glypizide and actos.
I was too sensitive to the metformins and had horrible GI problems. I have done well on the glypizide and only on actos 4 days.
The endo said she thinks i am insulin resistant and we will need to use Lantus soon.
My blood sugars range from 200-350 depending on the day. I have pretty much given up on sugar. And start diabetes education dec. 6. for 3 weeks for a total of 10 hrs.
I am amazed at the upward learning curve.
Any ideas or help appreciated.
warmest regards, Tams

[Marylin]

Originally Posted by Tamster

hi ,
I am a newly dx diabetic. Its all new to me!
over the past 2 months i have been on Metformin, Metformin ER, Glypizide and actos.
I was too sensitive to the metformins and had horrible GI problems. I have done well on the glypizide and only on actos 4 days.
The endo said she thinks i am insulin resistant and we will need to use Lantus soon.
My blood sugars range from 200-350 depending on the day. I have pretty much given up on sugar. And start diabetes education dec. 6. for 3 weeks for a total of 10 hrs.
I am amazed at the upward learning curve.
Any ideas or help appreciated.
warmest regards, Tams

Stay off all the sugar foods, cakes, chocolate, ice crème etc. Avoid eating anything containing white flour. Eat more protein than carbs.

[Tamster]

finally my sugar has trended down to as low as 95 and no higher than 161. I am on glipizide 10 mg morning and night and also with the addition of 15 mg of Actos. I have my blood work next week and i will find out where my A1C is.
Marilyn , I have stopped all sugar and i hate it!!! but i am getting used to meat and veggies and water.
I start me diabetes education dec. 6,13 and 20th 3 hrs each time.
thanks , Tams

[Marylin]

I am staying off the cakes and chocolate and ice crème, got to eat less bread, that is making my readings higher than they should be.
But overall I am doing better than I was .My average readings are 270 or 15mmol/L but they should be 90 or 5mmol/L.I will get there, got to tweak my diet
and make the necessary changes and eat less than I am now. With winter and the bad weather I need to eat.

[unaluna]

I have been following weight watchers, green plan, for almost three weeks. I lost 17 lbs on this plan three years ago, then gained it all back, of course im almost back to that loss now, yay. My blood sugar is averaging 155 (american!) fasting. I am getting better at eating regularly timed meals, which prevents me from getting crazy hungry and then overeating sweets. Altho it always seems like im eating too EARLY. But the strategy is working. I must have been a very inconvenient child.

[Marylin]

I also noticed I eat less if I eat regular and my blood sugars stay lower too if I don't eat between meals. I got my sugars in the blood down from 490 to 280 but need to get
it down further to 90....in mmol /L that is a high of 28 and lower to 15 but need to get down to 5.
Got a way to go but as I lose weight, which I am very overweight, my blood sugar will come down more, so got scope for good progress. Going to a weight management class, last 90 minutes to learn how to eat to lose weight and study the psychology of weight loss. It is every week for 12 weeks starting January 9th,2020.

[possum220]

I have attended WW for at least one decade. I cannot face the thought of writing my points/food down to save myself. Having said that I did lose weight and lots of it.

I have been struggling with over eating for a few days in a row. The Trulicity that I am on means that food stays in my stomach for much longer. Therefore a half binge of previous times will make me feel very ill. Why do I do it to myself? Damage is halved.

Least this week I have managed to got more exercise in this week. The front garden looks better. I count movement in general as a bonus. Today is cold and I am bunched up under a blanket.

Good luck with this new learning course Marilyn.
Way to go unaluna.
Meat vegies and water with the occasional herbal tea Tamster? You are doing good.

[Marylin]

I lost 4kg in a month, That means I am down from 22 stone seven pounds to 21 stone and ten pounds, a loss of nine pounds. Down from 142kg to 138kg or from 319 pounds to 304 pounds. It isn't a massive weight loss but I wasn't able to get my calories down as much as I could have. Try harder this next month. My blood sugars are coming down nicely though, the nurse is pleased that I made such good progress in a short amount of time.

I want to do much better and impress her I had an average of 15mmol/L which is 270mg,my lowest readings were around 8mmol/L which is 144mg and my high readings I had around 5 of them in a month due to eating white flour products not white sugar products was 22mmol/L which is bad and is 396mg,I want to eliminate those high readings completely, even 15mmol/L is too high, got to get them right down to below 8mmol/L,I want to get readings consistently at 5mmol/L or 90mg.I am trying my best but will do better. I don't want to eat foods that are bad for me so will do all I can not to. Before I started eliminating cakes etc from my diet my readings were as high as 38mmol/L or 684,so I have improved. When I went to my diabetic macular check she said the eyes showed an improvement to what damage was showing previously,so I am doing good.

[possum220]

Marilyn you are doing great. 4kgs in a month is a sustainable and healthy way to do things. Improvement in your eyes is commendable. You rock.

[Guiness187055]

Congrats Marilyn. Keep up the great work!

[Marylin]

Thanks for your encouragement folks! Today my readings are 9.1mmol/L or 163mg so going in the right direction.

[Marylin]

By the way can you believe it? The diabetic nurse told me to have cakes and chocolate at Christmas, cos it's Christmas and I need to enjoy myself. WTF!!! Why is not overeating sweet treats and not having alcohol and sweet sugar laden drinks the road to misery. She insisted I wouldn't have fun and enjoy myself without those things. I told her I didn't want them,that I had been addicted to sugar and that it's a poison that made me very ill and that it had affected my eyes and I could lose my sight. She said she understands that scared me but doing it over Christmas wouldn't cause harm. I think she is totally mad.

The medical profession do not understand that the wrong foods, junk foods, make you ill and that to be well you have to exclude bad food from your diet. They have no idea what causes chronic illness and how to heal it, they only know about drugs and surgery not how the body actually works the biochemistry. I learnt a lot just watching the two hours liver documentary on how the liver works and how to reverse liver disease. I was ignorant for years, then I learnt about what to do right but still ate the junk and sugar, now the penny has dropped I won't get better if I don't make the changes to my diet that are needed to get well physically and heal. Also physical health affects mental health . If I don't do what has to be done and actually eat right and exercise and stay off junk and sugar then I am not going live longer. I have chronic illness, mental illness and I am 55.If I carried on the way I was I was going die in the next few years or go blind and die or have liver and kidney failure.

Anyhow I do what I am meant to do and stop sugar and the diabetic nurse is encouraging me to get addicted again cos it's xmas. Go figure!

[possum220]

@Marilyn I dont think the nurse is actually saying go and binge on the sweet things more that if you want something have it. So if you want some fruit cake or sweet then have a piece. All within moderation on one or two days.

My dad was a diabetic and he was so good at testing himself and exercise and being the recommended weight. He always ate what he was supposed to during the year. For one day, Christmas, he ate things he wouldnt touch at all during the year. He might have some ice-cream, or savoury snacks and fruit cake. The food would normally be at another persons home therefore the temptation to continue eating the left over food was gone.

Having the occasional treat is not bad, its when the treats are everyday and sometimes many times a day that we create problems for ourselves. Denying ourselves forever and a day can be the downfall and result in us falling off the wagon so to speak.

Right now you are in a good place. If you really dont want to eat food that is going to make it hard for you then you dont have to have it. It might help you to feel safer and stronger.

[Marylin]

I got a reading of 5.4mmol/L that's 90mg...today so that's made me so pleased, the other readings were 10mmol/L ,that's 180mg before a meal and 12mmol/L 216mg,two hours after , just before bedtime I got the reading of 5.4.I am doing so well and the key is stay off of sugar, flour and lots of carbs and eat less, eat a lot less. That way the sugars stay low.