Update and Advice

[RobinR]

First of all I would like to thank all of you for your kind responses to my original post of "Please Respond".

I did call my doctor today and told her that I was concerned that I could not get my BS any lower than about 140 and sometimes as high as 220 on average and that my A1C of 7.4 had me concerned. I told her that I would like to get this under control now and would like to be placed on medication until I get my diet and exercise right to get it under control. So she placed me on Metformin 500 mg once daily.

My question is that other than the possibility of stomach difficulties, have you all that are on this medication had any serious side effects?

The prescription says once daily. When is the best time to take this medication?

[Scrabblechick]

As a rule, I take it with food, and on it once a day, I'd take it at breakfast, so you'd have the effect all day. Bear in mind that Met takes at least three weeks to start really working. I didn't see really good results until after 6 weeks. But everyone is different.

Met can indeed cause stomach problems, which is another reason to take it with food. These effects usually go away in about 2 weeks, though. Those are the only side effects I've had from the Met, as far as I know.

Keep eating right, keep exercising, take your meds and you will start to see results. It may take a couple of weeks, but it will happen. :)

[davef]

I would concur with taking it with food, by that I would advise eat first and then take it, don't reverse that.

Some people can get an upset stomach, but your dose is fairly low. There is also the possibility of a metformin moment, I have only had 2-3 since last Nov and normally associated with:

- Taking before food
- Eating greasy food

basically starts with a lot of wind and ends with the Big "D". Don't fret about it though.

As has been mentioned, don't expect to get instant results, for me it took 2-3 weeks for it to kick in, so don't worry if your BG aren't down by tomorrow.

Test, watch the carbs and exercise, you will get there.

[Achilles]

I echo the advice above. I started on 500 mg Met once / day at night after dinner. I didn't venture out anywhere that night so starting on a weekend if you are around the house would be a good thing.

I was lucky and didn't really get any side effects from it. The first night my stomach really did "grumble" and make some weird noises and the following day I had some loose stools but that was about it!

I'm up to 1000 mg / day now. Doc said to increase from 500 mg to 1000 after a couple of weeks if I could handle it. I was taking the entire 1000 mg at night after dinner but found it kind of gave me a headache and I couldn't sleep. Too much energy after working out and stuff. Now I split the dosage, 500 mg in the morning and 500 mg at night and it seems to be working fine.

Low carb diet, exercise, and Met has me waking up to < 120 mg/dL numbers the past week.