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Hello! Advice on medication....

L

Lauren85

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Pronouns
She/Her
Hi all,

I was recently diagnosed with type 2 (6 weeks ago), was prescribed 2 different types of medication which increased week on week. I have greatly reduced carb intake and no sweet treats. I walk every day.

My question would be how quickly should i expect the medication to bring my blood sugars to a normal level? They have reduced somewhat but still way over what it should be. Example: first week average 14.7 now 10.3 on the monitor.

I'm concerned they should be much less with the amount of medication i have or am i'm just being impatient and this takes time to adjust.

Any advice welcome!

Lauren
 
Hi Lauren and welcome.

Firstly, if you are using your email address as a username that can attract unwanted spam, so you might want to change that or I will alert admin by reporting it so that they can perhaps adjust it for you.

Can you give us a bit of info about how your initial diagnosis came about ie. were you symptomatic and if so which symptoms and did the symptoms come on suddenly or was it perhaps just picked up in a routine blood test.
Also, what medication have they given you?
How low carb have you gone in those 6 weeks?

I am just trying to compare your situation to my own and wondering if you might also be a misdiagnosed Type 1, so if you can give us more info about what brought about your diagnosis it might shed a bit more light on the situation? Many primary care staff assume that you must be Type 2 if you are a mature adult when you develop diabetes and particularly if you are carrying a bit of extra weight or have a poor diet, but Type 1 can develop at any age and a sudden onset of symptoms with high HbA1c result and high BG levels and particularly if there is sudden weight loss, can all indicate possible Type 1, especially if your levels are not responding to treatment as effectively as you might hope.
I did manage to get my BG levels down to the odd 7 after 6 weeks of progressively stricter low carb and full dose Metformin and Gliclazide but it wasn't sustainable long term and a second HbA1c result came back very slightly higher than the first, so they started me on insulin and referred me to the consultant and he authorised Type 1 testing which came back positive.
 
Welcome to the forum @Lauren85
Like @rebrascora, I have Type 1 not type 2. Therefore, I can only comment based upon what I have read on the forum.
The two big things I understand from reading the stories from people with type 2 are
- it is a marathon not a sprint. Your BG has come down from quite a high level so you are definitely seeing improvements and 6 weks is not a long time for the marathon.
- diet seems to make the biggest difference and understanding how your diet effects you is the most important, because we are all different. You mention that you have reduced carbs and from your comment about your average BG, I assume you have a finger prick meter. Are you using this to research which foods suit your body or is the average BG taken at teh same time each day?
Apologies if you are already doing this - I don't mean to teach you to suck eggs - but are you testing before you eat and 2 hours later to determine how your body copes with the carbs in the meal and then adjusting your diet accordingly? (A rise of more than 3 mmol/l in those 2 hours suggests your body cannot cope.)
We have some great success stories on this forum from people who follow this approach and it is something you can do yourself rather than asking for more drugs.

Good luck.
 
It will help people see what you might expect if you are able to say which medications you have been prescribed and what your HbA1C was. It is quite unusual to be prescribed two different meds at the outset without assessing what just one and dietary changes would make for a 3 month period.
Also what dietary approach is suitable will depend on which meds you have as some require some carbs so very low carb is not a good idea. But somewhere around 130g per day is usually ok.
 
rebrascora said:
Hi Lauren and welcome.

Firstly, if you are using your email address as a username that can attract unwanted spam, so you might want to change that or I will alert admin by reporting it so that they can perhaps adjust it for you.

Can you give us a bit of info about how your initial diagnosis came about ie. were you symptomatic and if so which symptoms and did the symptoms come on suddenly or was it perhaps just picked up in a routine blood test.
Also, what medication have they given you?
How low carb have you gone in those 6 weeks?

I am just trying to compare your situation to my own and wondering if you might also be a misdiagnosed Type 1, so if you can give us more info about what brought about your diagnosis it might shed a bit more light on the situation? Many primary care staff assume that you must be Type 2 if you are a mature adult when you develop diabetes and particularly if you are carrying a bit of extra weight or have a poor diet, but Type 1 can develop at any age and a sudden onset of symptoms with high HbA1c result and high BG levels and particularly if there is sudden weight loss, can all indicate possible Type 1, especially if your levels are not responding to treatment as effectively as you might hope.
I did manage to get my BG levels down to the odd 7 after 6 weeks of progressively stricter low carb and full dose Metformin and Gliclazide but it wasn't sustainable long term and a second HbA1c result came back very slightly higher than the first, so they started me on insulin and referred me to the consultant and he authorised Type 1 testing which came back positive.
Click to expand...
Thank you - something to consider for sure. Also noted on the username, i did try and amend it but apparently cannot until mid-April for some reason.
I was struggling with illeness (colds/flus etc) for a few months and attended the doc to see if there was a reason i wasn't recovering as well. They took bloods to check. My intial check with the nurse after diagnosis was over 19.
Feel like i must be on full meds, lowest after 5 weeks or so is 6.3 but results are really all over the place.
 
helli said:
Welcome to the forum @Lauren85
Like @rebrascora, I have Type 1 not type 2. Therefore, I can only comment based upon what I have read on the forum.
The two big things I understand from reading the stories from people with type 2 are
- it is a marathon not a sprint. Your BG has come down from quite a high level so you are definitely seeing improvements and 6 weks is not a long time for the marathon.
- diet seems to make the biggest difference and understanding how your diet effects you is the most important, because we are all different. You mention that you have reduced carbs and from your comment about your average BG, I assume you have a finger prick meter. Are you using this to research which foods suit your body or is the average BG taken at teh same time each day?
Apologies if you are already doing this - I don't mean to teach you to suck eggs - but are you testing before you eat and 2 hours later to determine how your body copes with the carbs in the meal and then adjusting your diet accordingly? (A rise of more than 3 mmol/l in those 2 hours suggests your body cannot cope.)
We have some great success stories on this forum from people who follow this approach and it is something you can do yourself rather than asking for more drugs.

Good luck.
Click to expand...
Thank you, i am taking a fasting reading first thing in the morning and a reading after lunch - this can be wildly different. Sometimes higher first thing and lower after lunch. I guess i will start to see some patterns, and perhaps a food diary will help.
 
Lauren85 said:
Thank you, i'll have a look. My diet is pretty good, i enjoy cooking most fresh meals and have cut down on crbs and portion size. I'll check out this info.
Click to expand...
The sort of readings you might expect to be getting will depend on what your HbA1C is which I assume must have been done to give you a diagnosis and decide on what mediation to prescribe.
The Freshwell Program is one which many have found successful.
Blood glucose will vary, going up and down depending on what you eat but other factors as well but to get an idea of how well you tolerate your meals then testing before you eat and after 2hours when you aim for the increase to be no more than 2-3mmol/l or 8-8.5 once your levels come down.3
 
What medication are you on - forgive me if you said but I couldn’t see it anywhere.

That will massively affect what you should expect to see and how it works in relation to your diet.
 
Hi @Lauren85 welcome to the forum
I’m sure there will be loads of good advice and support that you will get able to take on & help you get a good control

I see you posted about doing a food diary
that can be a great help at first, to help you understand foods are good for you
strange thing is we can all be different
 
Lauren85 said:
Bloomin BANANAS & GRAPES - who knew (probably everyone except me!)
Click to expand...
Yes, I am afraid most of us avoid those two particularly as they are some of the highest carb fruits and mostly choose berries as they are the lowest carb fruits and usually have more antioxidants and fibre in them than the larger sweeter fruits too, so you get better nutrition . A few raspberries are my favourite but I buy the frozen summer berry mix from Lidl which is rasps, blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants and have that with my natural creamy Greek Style yoghurt and mixed seeds for breakfast in the winter. Then sometimes I have half an apple with some nice cheese for lunch and have the other half the next day. Banana is a very rare treat and again half one day and half another unless I am going to burn it off with a long walk. I don't buy grapes because they are so moreish and it is really hard to just eat 3 or 4 and then stop.
 
@Lauren85 You might be seeing very different numbers because your resistance to insulin is fluctuating so on some days you are able to release stored up glucose and on others the cell walls are not going to allow anything past.
As you settle into lower glucose levels and a bit more normality, a happier metabolism, the fluctuations should hopefully reduce to reflect more recent eating patterns rather than showing that there have been problems for a while.
 
My question would be how quickly should i expect the medication to bring my blood sugars to a normal level? They have reduced somewhat but still way over what it should be. Example: first week average 14.7 now 10.3 on the monitor.

That depends on what the medications are @Lauren85 That’s one reason people have asked you what medication you’re taking. Another reason is that some medications require extra thought about making changes to your diet.

Which two diabetes medications are you taking?
 
Welcome to the forum @Lauren85

Sorry if you got caught up in the current new user registration glitch. We are looking into it, but quite a few people haven’t been receiving the confirmation email.

Thanks for persevering!

It would be helpful for members to know which meds you are taking, if you are happy to share that information.

Try not to worry it it is taking longer than you were hoping for your BGs to come into range. It’s actually better to allow it to happen gradually. Very swift changes from levels which have been high for a while can put quite a lot of strain on fine blood vessels, and even cause damage to eyes and nerve endings in some people. Thankfully these usually resolve when levels have stabilised, but are still alarming and unpleasant all the same.
 
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