oral meds question

[nyhockey111]

I have been a type 2 on metformin and glipzide/glucotrol for approximately 6 years or so. I am 100 pounds if not more overweight, i know this is the problem as there is no history of diabetes. Metformin and glipzide just dont work anymore. I am very much overweight in my stomach area, im told this is a big problem as the stomach area is tough for insulin to work etc. With the oral meds out there, will any of them work at this point and time. Im seeking a doctor to go to as my sugar runs 300 to 350. What are the potent oral meds and how long do they take for them to work. Thanks

[sweetcheeks]

how much metformin do you take and how much of the others as well.. so we know what your regime is

[ladytaz]

Hi nyhockey111! Firstly, welcome to DF! :) Glad to have you with us! You've come to the right place!

Just as Stacey said, please let us know how much of the Metformin and Glipizide you are taking. How about your diet? How many carbs per meal are you consuming?

[nyhockey111]

I was taking 2000 mg of metformin and 10 mg of glipzide per day. I have been off of oral meds for quite some time now and have noticed of late the dizziness and high sugars. I am going to a doctor this upcoming week. The main problem for me is i love and love to eat bread and bread and bread and i know i have to stop. Could be 3-4 rolls a day if not more...yikes

[sweetcheeks]

why are you off the meds?? if i may ask

[ladytaz]

I was taking 2000 mg of metformin and 10 mg of glipzide per day. I have been off of oral meds for quite some time now and have noticed of late the dizziness and high sugars. I am going to a doctor this upcoming week. The main problem for me is i love and love to eat bread and bread and bread and i know i have to stop. Could be 3-4 rolls a day if not more...yikes

OOOoooo yes, the bread is not good for the BGL's at all!! ;) It's hard, I KNOW! I'm a bread lover myself! How about you try, one week at a time, to cut back by one roll per day, and then again the next week, one roll per day yet again, till you've got yourself down to only one roll per day? ;)

That's what I'm taking currently and have been for a year and a half. Sounds like you definitely need to be back on the meds! Good deal on going to the doctor!! If you are off the meds because of price, you'll be VERY happy to know that you can get them at Walmart, Sams or Target for $4 per 30 day prescription (generics)!! :D

[nyhockey111]

What are considered the potent oral meds out there..is avandia considered to be very strong to combat high sugars

[princesslinda]

Welcome NY: Hope you find lots of answers and support here. It's a great place.

I'm T2 as well, also around 100 lbs overweight, age 42, diagnosed in 8/06. I take 500 mg metformin 2 times a day.

I would urge you strongly to cut your bread intake WAY DOWN! I've found if anything will raise my blood sugars, bread will do it. I've probably had 3-4 pieces since my diagnosis and each time, my levels go up. The new low-carb buns raise my levels the least, but even then I go up to 160 2 hrs after eating it.

I hope you are monitoring your blood sugar levels regularly...this is very important and will help your doctor better help you. It's esp. important to check it 2 hrs after eating so you will know what foods cause big spikes and which ones barely affect your levels.

I avoid bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and sugar, and this has worked well for me. My A1C at diagnosis was 9.6 and the last one was 6.2.

It's hard to alter your lifestyle, esp. when you've had years to get use to all the breads, potatoes, etc., that are staples of most of our diets. I struggle a lot with it, but i'm so afraid of problems, I manage okay.

You hang in there...keep good records of your blood sugar and try to get some exercise, even if it's just walking around your block each night....slowly build up to more and more steps each day. I know it's hard when you're overweight, but it helps SO MUCH in lowering your levels.

Again, welcome!

[gregf]

I am new to this site, and am a T2 diabetic. I was diagnosed about 8 months ago and am currently on metformin and glipzide, along with some lisinopril for kidney protection and vytorin to control my high cholesterol, which is coming down.

My question is, while being on these meds, 2000 metformin a day (1 tablet in the am, and 1 tablet in the pm) and 5 mg of glipzide (1/2 tablet in the am and 1/2 tablet in the pm) I still feel my levels are way too high. I wake up in the mornings, and after 1 cup of coffee with 1 packet of splenda sweetener in it, and of course, my cigarette, I take my reading, and I am always around 140 to 160. Every darn morning. Then in the afernoons, after returning from work, my job keeps me busy with a lot of exercise, I get plenty of exercise on my job because I am a delivery truck driver who makes about an average of 10 stops a day and loading and unloading freight from my truck, walking up and down stairs and lots of walking as well as picking up and loading and unloading parcels, so you can see I work and exercise a lot each and every day...but when I get home, my reading is always good about 100 to 120....one day it got down to 70, so my doctor lightened up my glipzide to the dose that I am on now. But anyway, I still feel that I am way too high in the mornings, and then on the weekends, when I do not do any exercising, my glucose readings tends to be on the high side also. But I choose not to exercise on the weekends, as I am tired from the work week..so I use the weekends to rest up and get ready for the week to come.

My wife makes me a good lunch to bring with me as I am gone usually about 12 hours a day from home, so she usually gives me about 2 tuna fish sandwiches, some cheese, some crackers, an apple, a banana, an orange(if we have them and they are ripe) and I have a bag of peanuts in the truck that I can nibble on if I get hungry. I try to eat something of that lunch every 2 hours, not all at once. But even with that lunch, I still feel that I am hungry thoughtout the day, and when I get home, after having a good dinner then I find myself nibbling at night when I am home watching tv...and I try to have things like popcorn, or cottage cheese, or sometimes, my wife will make me some sugar free pudding and I will have a cup of that with cool whip on it.

I do not drink any pop whatsoever, and have gotten off of all cakes, cookies, that kind of stuff...and if ever I do have a cookie, it is one that my wife has made that is special for me, very little sugar (she follows the recipe and if the recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar let's say, then she puts only 1/4 cup of sugar, etc....and the same for the fat in the recipe) so she really tries to help me and we both have lost weight on this diabetic diet I have been on.

I don't know why my blood glucose levels get so high sometimes, and I try to not eat white bread...but I dont like any other bread and when I work so hard all day long, I need something that satisfies me, and the white bread tuna fish sandwiches seem to do the trick for me, but even sometimes I still get hungry with even having them. I am 5'10" and weigh 200 pounds right now, and have gone down about 30 pounds, but seem to be stuck here at 200 pounds and have not lost any weight for the last 3 months...so I guess I am where I will be forever...I just don't know.

I just get worried when my blood glucose levels are so high in the mornings, and don't know why that happens to me, so I just wondered if anyone else is like that, or is it just me.

My question is, what are others blood glucose readings out there, and do they fluctuate like mine do, I just want to make sure that I am doing the right things to keep my glucose under control. The other day I ate a snickers candy bar, I just had to have it, as it had been 8 months since I had had a candy bar like that, and I just craved it, so I ate it, and my blood glucose 2 hours later went up to 465..could not believe it...just horrible. So I guess I cannot even have a candy bar any more, that was the first one I had eaten in over 8 months, and it depressed me that my blood glucose had gotten that high just from 1 candy bar.

Also, lately, it seems that I am craving sweets more than before, why is that? Is that normal? I hope someone out there can answer all these questions for me and give me some advice on what they are going thru, so I will know if all these things are normal or not. Thanx much, and it feels good to be on a board where you have someone to talk to about this diabetes as it is not an easy thing to deal with.

Thanx, Greg

[EricG]

I would urge you strongly to cut your bread intake WAY DOWN! I've found if anything will raise my blood sugars, bread will do it. I've probably had 3-4 pieces since my diagnosis and each time, my levels go up. The new low-carb buns raise my levels the least, but even then I go up to 160 2 hrs after eating it.


This is so true, and realizing this and cutting way down on bread has helped me drop over 70 pounds since last June.

After I was released from the hospital and started monitoring my blood sugar I was shocked to see how much just a couple slices of white bread would raise my blood sugar.

I did some research and discovered for diabetics whole grain bread is much metter for us. It's called the glycemic load as explained here:

Carbohydrates: Nutrition Source, Harvard School of Public Health (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates.html)

[princesslinda]

Hi Greg:
Welcome to the forum. You'll find a lot of great information here.

I have found a direct correlation between higher fasting levels and what I eat the night before. Perhaps you could try a really low-carb dinner and just see what happens. Maybe have some scrambled eggs and a couple pieces of bacon for dinner or grilled/baked chicken and greenbeans might help you have a lower a.m. reading.

Also, from what you listed, it sounds like you are still eating a lot of bread each day and that may be what is affecting you the most. Also, maybe you could cut your fruit down to one piece/day. If you need a crunchy/salty snack, grab some pork rinds as opposed to popcorn (corn in any fashion is not something we should eat a lot of).

You mention really craving sweets...it seems we always want what's forbidden, and for T2, that means really limiting candy bars and breads. I crave more sweets if I have had more carbs...when you limit your carbs, a lot of the cravings go away...I promise.

It's a learning experience, and you are new at this....don't beat yourself up, just make a few more lifestyle changes and see if this turns things around.

Perhaps you could try for 1 week limiting your bread to only one sandwich for lunch, with one picece of fruit and some pork rinds and then try a high-protein dinner and maybe even eat a handful of nuts right before you go to bed and see if this will help you. Also, try not eating cakes (even low-sugar) for a week...if you must have something sweet, have s/f jello or s/f pudding. Just try and see...you can do anything for one week.

Best of luck to you as you learn to control your diabetes. Please let us know how things are going, and try not to get discouraged...you can do this and you're not alone.

Linda

[mommaterra]

One more note of caution on eating every two hours: Most of we type 2s probably don't have the insulin response to eat more frequently than every four hours, maybe 3 1/2 if the intake was very small.

High protein and high fat snacks will stay with you better, probably, and definitely better than high carb, which doesn't provide a satiety switch-off. Or, you'll feel fuller on higher-fat foods.

I did similar work, as a van courier for several years. Yes, you do get a lot of exercise! I always wished the intense periods were more extended, say 20 minutes of heavy workout at least, because otherwise it doesn't seem to count as much because of the extended sitting periods. When I was a carpenter (union cabinetmaker), I was moving quickly and doing muscle work eight hours a day, and my body reacted to that as far more strenuous work.

In both cases, back then, I smoked. You will probably find that you gain weight if and when you quit, as smoking seems to drop setpoint (fat-storage setting in your body). Most smokers lose weight when they start (but we forget this fact) and regain when quitting. Dropping carbs then might help prevent any BG increases that come from the body fat adjustment. Smoking is especially hard on a diabetic body, but I got other things in good adjustment, and then quit (6 years now, and I was a dedicated smoker! :)). Good luck and take care! --diana