Advice on deciphering symptoms

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carrievarrie

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Hi, another newly diagnosed type 2 here. Only a couple weeks in.

Today is my first day taking my full dose of Metformin (2 in the morning and 2 in the evening) plus glicazide. I know about the side effects but I'm having trouble at the moment trying to decipher what is side effect, what's me feeling the effect of my blood sugar being too high or too low, or if there's something else entirely going on.

This morning I had my dose with breakfast (yog/fruit/nut butter) and was fine all morning. Had lunch - chicken salad with some quinoa and then post lunch started to feel awful - queasy, a bit faint, generally bad. I ate a bit more (in case it was low sugar), drank some water

Since my diagnosis I've switched to eating low carb so don't know if that relatively sudden switch is also a factor somehow.

I'm getting a CGM which should help a bit with that but any advice from anyone else on here gratefully received.
 
When are you taking your gliclazide as apparently the way it works is to encourage your pancreas to produce more insulin and therefore if you haven't eaten enough carbs (not sure how many would be enough) then blood glucose can go low.
Metformin can give people stomach issues when the go onto an increased dose, If it is only 2 weeks since diagnosis then you have increased the dose quite quickly.
What was your HbA1C, quite high I assume if you have been started on two medications.
It is worth finger pricking when you feel unwell.
 
Leadinglights said:
When are you taking your gliclazide as apparently the way it works is to encourage your pancreas to produce more insulin and therefore if you haven't eaten enough carbs (not sure how many would be enough) then blood glucose can go low.
Metformin can give people stomach issues when the go onto an increased dose, If it is only 2 weeks since diagnosis then you have increased the dose quite quickly.
What was your HbA1C, quite high I assume if you have been started on two medications.
It is worth finger pricking when you feel unwell.
Click to expand...
It was 97, so high hence the meds.
 
carrievarrie said:
I don't know. I don't have any strips right now
Click to expand...

That should be a priority as Gliclazide can cause hypos. Are the strips prescribed your doctor?
Your symptoms could be anything really and you won’t know without testing. Sometimes high sugars can mimic low sugars, and sometimes people can get false hypos as their blood sugar returns closer to more normal levels.
 
My experience. After my blood rest the GP rang, in a bit of a panic, said my A1c was 104, I was diabetic, it was a lifelong condition, I must start Metformin at once and ramp up to 4 tablets a day asap. Like you. I did not like what I read about Metformin at all and decided to go for the Newcastle Diet (fresh food option) not medication. Short story my first finger prick was 5.8 a week after I started my diet so I carried on. My A1c was 39 three months later.

As you are under doctors orders on medication, all you can do now is vary your diet. You might be interested in this (from another post):

Dr David Unwin's Norwood Surgery have had great success with pre-diabetics and T2Ds. Here he is presenting how they do it to fellow GPs. I'd say it's worth an hour of your time:
The nuts & bolts of drug free T2 diabetes remission.

This is the Norwood diet sheet.
 
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carrievarrie said:
I don't know. I don't have any strips right now
Click to expand...
Inka said:
That should be a priority as Gliclazide can cause hypos. Are the strips prescribed your doctor?
Click to expand...

Do chase up getting strips (and meter?) from your Dr. They really should have sorted that out as part of offering you Glic.

Having said that, nausea isn’t often a symptom of high or low glucose levels, but it can be a feeling some experience after increasing Metformin.

Being able to double-check your BG levels to make sure you aren’t running too low would be very helpful though, especially if you are following a low carbohydrate menu, as the Glic may not have enough carbs to ‘work on’.
 
Thanks for everyone's advice. I felt a lot better yesterday and today so I think it was mostly side effects from the upping of the Metformin from 1000 to 2000 and also was suggested, maybe not enough carbs for the glic to play with. Yesterday I had a small slice of sourdough with lunch and felt a lot better.
I'm following up getting strips etc with my GP. Thanks again to everyone for the support.
 
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