Advice needed

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Biggurl

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Type 2
Hi

Had been pre diabetic for some years, was generally careful with no increase until about end August when blood sugar was 51 and 1st diabetic appointment early October. Was put on Glucophage to start starting one a day progressing to 2 twice a day. GP switched to Sukkarto in November (cheaper). Currently taking the following medication:
  • Allopurinol 100mg tablets - One To Be Taken Each Day After Food

  • Atorvastatin 10mg tablets - take half daily

  • Fostair 200micrograms/dose / 6micrograms/dose inhaler (Chiesi Ltd)
    take one puffs morning and one puffs night

  • Indapamide 2.5mg tablets - half in the morning

  • Levothyroxine sodium 100microgram tablets - TAKE ONE DAILY BEFORE BREAKFAST

  • Montelukast 10mg tablets - ONE DAILY IN THE EVENING

  • Omeprazole 20mg gastro-resistant capsules - TAKE ONE EACH MORNING

  • Ramipril 10mg capsules - TAKE ONE DAILY

  • Spiriva Respimat 2.5micrograms/dose inhalation solution cartridge with device (Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd) -Two Puffs To Be Inhaled Once Daily

  • Sukkarto SR 500mg tablets (Morningside Healthcare Ltd) - take 2 twice a day
In addition to the above I take, Glucosamine and Marine Crondatin, Garlic and Cod liver oil capsules.

Second diabetic clinic appointment showed blood sugar at 31 but no change to prescription.

Steady 1lb week weight loss, but have been wondering about whether to buy the home testing equipment - next clinic appointment is in 5 months time.

Any advice would be welcomed. 🙂
 
Anitram said:
Hi,
Forum members in general will recommend self-testing as it not only helps you manage your diet, it also tells you whether you're maintaining good BG levels. However, you'd be unlikely to be given one (I was, but my experience isn't typical) so the only option is to self-fund.

51 is only just into diabetic territory so I'm a little surprised that you were given medication straight away. I was allowed to stop mine when I'd dropped to 56 and to continue with diet alone.

Martin
Click to expand...
Thanks for this Martin, it's useful. The full dose was only achieved after about 3 weeks. (to help with any tummy upsets). I thought I was managing things well, but have had an issue throughout the day - we were travelling and will be away for a week over the Christmas period. General 'spaced out' feeling, headache, tremors etc. Have had some fruit and a sandwich, which made me feel a bit better for a while. Wondered if my BS had dropped too low.

Thanks again Martin, I appreciate the info.

Gwyneth
 
Welcome to the forum @Biggurl

Ask away with any questions you have and our friendly, experienced T2s will share their own tips and experiences.
 
If I read it right you have gone from HBA1c of 51 to HBA1c of 31 in a few months. If so then well done, whatever you are doing is working in terms of getting your blood glucose down. Your "spaced out" may simply be due to your system getting used to lower BG levels. It is unlikely that you will get to the low levels which give real problems - that comes with insulin or drugs that promote insulin production.

As for getting a meter, many on here are enthusiastic about it. Like everything there are upsides and downsides.

The upsides are being able to keep track of blood glucose on a regular basis and in particular see almost immediately if some particular foods give you a big rise and ought to be avoided. The short feedback loop can be a powerful tool in getting consistently high readings down.

The downsides are the expense, which might be important to you, and the risk of loosing sight of the fact that your blood glucose varies a lot naturally and it is easy to get worried about what are in reality natural variations which cannot be explained easily.

So whether you get a meter depends a little on what sort of person you are and how good you might be at sorting the wood from the trees when given a lot of numbers.
 
Hi Biggurl - That's an impressive list of meds! I haven't heard of a bunch of them.

If your HbA1c is now 31, it's lower than most non-diabetics, so that piece of things seems good & maybe you have more important things to spend time on than testing your BG. But I have no idea what impact your med cocktail might have on the situation - would any of them cause BG to be higher or lower, and would testing your BG be useful for keeping track of that? A question for your doc, really.
 
Hi Eddy,

Apologies for late response, as we are away, been busy with meeting up with grandkids and shopping.

I did wonder if the various meds are a problem. However, I am fairly confident that as it was the diabetic nurse who put me on the regime to start with, she would know what disagrees with what (since unlike the Drs, practice nurses DO actually read notes - due to retirements, our surgery has a swathe of new docs and have to say, not too impressed with assigned one. She's too fond of asking for tests and suggesting I call for results. Seems to not really want to touch - old doc was brilliant, it was chest lungs, bp as a rule, plus a good discussion over reason for visit. 🙂 Current GP is good at admin but almost responds straight from book. My meds are for BP, Asthma/COPD, Gastric Reflux, Thyroid replacement and half tablet (for control because of age) of Artovastatin.
Bought glucose tester and current readings are around the region of 7.5 - testing two hours after meals. So quite happy with that. Will have a chat with diabetic nurse on my return home.
 
Biggurl said:
I did wonder if the various meds are a problem.
Click to expand...

There was a recent podcast talking about the problems there. I think it was "Talking about harms", https://www.bmj.com/archive/podcasts

Most trials are about a single new drug, but most actual patients take a bunch, and it's not clear what to do about it. Annual reviews (including dropping drugs where possible) seems a sensible minimum.
 
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