Decreasing Glucose readings

[spriklett]

Hi guys I'm looking for some advice. I'm reasonably new to all this having been diagnosed in October with Type 2 following a reading of 19.6.

Since then I have been very carefully watching what I am eating, cutting right down on the carb intake and cutting out all obvious sources of added sugar. I have been put on Metformin 500mg twice a day which I have been taking since last week in Oct.

I have been checking my blood glucose generally first thing in the morning and then a couple of hours after each meal and initially I was generally getting around 9-11. Over the last couple of weeks this has dropped to about 7.5 first thing in the morning maxing at about 9 during the day and about 8.5 just before bed. However the last two days I have had readings of about 7.5 in the morning and 5.5 ish before bed and today just before tea it was 4.9 and 2 hours after my tea it was 4.7. I'm confused, is this just the metformin starting to kick in or is something else going on? Thanks

 

[trophywench]

Hiya

Could be both the Met and the diet together. Met takes a few weeks (generally up to 3 weeks) to 'ramp up' until your body is 'saturated' with it, and if becomes unifornmly effective. Then you keep topping it up by taking it regularly and it should carry on doing what it does.

You are doing really well for such a short time, keep doing what you are doing!

 

[Northerner]

From what you have said I would think that it is your hard work at modifying your diet and the effects of the metformin that have combined to give you some excellent numbers! Well done! 🙂

 

[spriklett]

Thanks for the advice, I was just worried that it seemed to be dropping more every day and at this rate I could drop too far. I'll keep my eye on it for the next couple f days and see what happens. What sort of low levels should give me concern??

 

[Northerner]

Thanks for the advice, I was just worried that it seemed to be dropping more every day and at this rate I could drop too far. I'll keep my eye on it for the next couple f days and see what happens. What sort of low levels should give me concern??

If you start dropping into the upper 3s/low 4s regularly then I would recommend booking a review of your medication with your GP. It's very unlikely that you would drop dangerously low on metformin alone (below 3.5 mmol/l is considered hypoglycaemia/too low), but it would be worth carrying some sweets around with you as you may get the symptoms of being low, but still be above 3.5 as your body will not be used to it - a quick jelly baby should relieve the symptoms if you get them. 🙂

 

[am64]

Thanks for the advice, I was just worried that it seemed to be dropping more every day and at this rate I could drop too far. I'll keep my eye on it for the next couple f days and see what happens. What sort of low levels should give me concern??

i was initally put on 3x metformin on dx ...within 4 months i was doing 'too'well and my dose was reduced to just 1 ...when is your next appointment ...? i like to keep between the 5-7 range

 

[GlucoseGary]

Hi spriklett, welcome. I'm in a very similar boat to yourself but obviously not quite as self-controlled as I haven't seen any 4s yet 😉 (or maybe it's that I'm only on one met a day?).

It sounds like you're doing tremendously well, and although I'm obviously no more experienced than you, if it was me I wouldn't worry unless I saw 3s: the fact you're getting 7s in the morning implies your body has no problem finding the glucose when it needs it.