[Superjew78]

that not taking enough meds could cause whatever you eat to make your blood sugar spike? I take a low does of glipizide twice a day. Once before breakfast and once before dinner.

My readings are getting lower however they are still just above normal. Like this morning, my fasting blood sugar from last night was 132. Yesterday morning my fasting reading was 123. After meals it seems no matter what i eat it jumps up to 150-170. I am not eating a ton of carbs. 30-45g a day. I am losing weight though. Lost 2 pounds in my first week!

[MickeyLane]

In my case, I noticed that for the first 4-5 weeks, the morning readings were all over the place. As I started paying more attention to what I ate - and when I ate it! - the readings started to settle down and be more consistent.

My morning routine is weigh myself, put my pants on (*), test the blood, fix coffee, write the numbers down...

I also noticed - and this may be just coincidence - that when my weight dropped unexpectedly by 2-3 pounds, the morning reading was unexpectedly up by 5-10 points.

(*) Hey, I'm going for all the leverage I can get. Pants are heavy!

[MickeyLane]

Footnote to my own post - I'm not taking any meds at all

[Superjew78]

Mine have become more consistent (not jumping all over the place as much) and slowly going down. However i seemed to have hit a plateau. I cant seem to get them below 125-130.

I also would try to get every advantage i can get when weighing myself.

[notme]

Exercise will play a key role in your ability to lower those numbers. Your body will adjust to your new medications over time. So give it a chance.

Congratulations on the weight loss. Well done!

[slipperyelm]

If you are asking whether perhaps more medicine could help your numbers come down, I think the answer, is, "Yes, it more medicine might make your numbers come down."

I think you said you were diagnosed less than ten days ago, so I think it is too soon to think that you have reached some sort of plateau. Rome wasn't built in a day. You cannot suddenly have control of your diabetes in ten days either, I'd say. Ten days is no time at all. You've got a lifetime to go. This is forever, not just a quick race to finish and be done with.

Besides food, another source of glucose coming into your blood stream is your liver. Did you know that? And sometimes your muscle cells, too, can exude a little glucose.

I see that you are on a weightloss diet. At the same time you are for the last few days eating very low carb. Well, your body is not used to those decreased calorie, decreased blood glucose levels. I would guess that your liver is quite handy at trying to make up the difference in blood glucose levels!

You know that Metformin that I mentioned in another thread and you said it gave you diarrhea? Well, one of the other things it does is slows the liver from putting out glucose. So really it helps reduce blood glucose levels in two ways. It helps get glucose out of your blood and into your body cells where it can be used for energy, and it slows the liver from putting out glucose into the blood stream.

I think you could try metformin again, but take it with an over the counter med like pepto-bismol to reduce stomach & intestinal upset and make sure to take it only with food to lessens its upsetting effect. Moreover, you could try the extended release metformin, which someone else recommended as less likely to cause diarrhea.

The other thing you could try is simple patience. As you get your weight down and exercise level up, your body cells are going to become a little less insulin resistant anyway. Isn't that great? That will help bring your glucose levels down, and over time your body --including the liver-- will adjust to the lower levels, and your liver might just stop its slow pumping of glucose into your bloodstream. For some people that reduction in insulin resistance happens pretty quickly. I mean, you might begin to see reductions in blood glucose levels after just two weeks of very moderate exercise.

Personally, I would not be looking to increase those glipizide doses. Glipizide was very hard on me in that I was forever having my blood glucose drop too low (in the 40's, 50's, 60's) when I took only half the dose you are taking. But besides that, I would worry about the possibility of wearing out the insulin-producing cells by pushing them to make so much insulin all day long for the rest of my life. Thirdly, I just do not like the idea of "basting" all my insides in insulin all day long. (But that is another conversation.)

[Superjew78]

Thanks notme!

Thanks for the above info, Slipperyelm, Its very helpful.

My before dinner reading tonight was 117. So thats a plus. I am not in a rush to find get "cured" i know this is something i will have for the rest of my life. I am just tying to become more informed. I am calling my doctor tomorrow and i am gonna see if i can try the metformin again.

Yes i did know that the liver produces glucose. I also know that i am eating right and my body doesnt know whats going on still. LIke i said i am just trying to get more informed.

[slipperyelm]

Hey, 117 pre-dinner! Big improvement, isn't it? I hope you will be seeing more and more numbers like that and even better.

[Superjew78]

It is indeed. Hopefully it keeps getting better.

[davef]

Originally Posted by Superjew78

My before dinner reading tonight was 117. So thats a plus. I am not in a rush to find get "cured" i know this is something i will have for the rest of my life. I am just tying to become more informed. I am calling my doctor tomorrow and i am gonna see if i can try the metformin again.

That's a great improvement, you really do need to allow yourself and your body some time to stabilize. As Nancy said, you are only 10 days in, it will take a little time to see things settle down. Losing weight will also help.

If you do try Metformin, bear in mind that it takes 3-4 weeks for it to build up in your system to the point where you notice a difference in your numbers. As you probably know, what Metformin does is reduce insulin resistance so that the insulin your body is producing is used more efficiently. Some people do suffer gastric side effects with Met, in some cases this passes after a week or so. In order to reduce the chances of this it is best to eat before taking the Met, the directions generally say with food, but from my own experience and reading posts it works better if it is "after" food.

You are doing great!

[Scrabblechick]

You are doing well! Getting those numbers right on down. My experience with Met was diarrhea 2 times a day for two weeks, then it just stopped. I think I was on it for about six or eight weeks before I started seeing a real difference in my numbers, but that was just me.

However, if you do go on the Met, along with the glipizide, you could very well have some lows, so be aware. It is definitely a process, though.

[Superjew78]

Yeah, i am waiting for my doctor to call back to see what he wants to do.

I weighed myself again this morning and i am down 2 more pounds. Making it 4 in 10 days.