hello newly diagnosed peter john needs info please

[peter john]

hello .before i was diagnosed i felt ok, but now since taking the metformin since tuesday this week i feel rubbish,nausea and legs feel like iron and feet feel hot and itchy.not sure if it is my body adjusting or the meds , or my general paranioa after reading about complications, would seem odd though if a day or so after my diagnosis, i get shaky iron legs and all.also is it safe to drink moderate alcohol whilst on metformin

 

[Copepod]

Welcome Peter John.
In haste, but lots of answers to your questions will be in the patient information leaflet with your metformin - if it's not there, then ask pharmacist who dispensed it for a replacement. Other people will be on here shortly to recount their personal experiences with metformin.

 

[Northerner]

Hi Peter, it's very common to get side-effects from metformin, particularly wind and nausea. Hopefully these should subside in a week or two. It's probable also that your other problems are related to the stress of the diagnosis, which can elevate blood sugar levels, but also the action of the metformin and any adjestments you have started to make to your diet and activity levels. A lot of people experience temporary leg and foot pains - often a shooting pain in the toes and often at night - or a burning sensation.

People have reported varying levels of tolerance to alcohol, but it is probably best to avoid it until you are more settled and your mind and body are less stressed. I know it might help to calm your nerves a little, but this will probably be outweighed by the stress of wondering if you should! Try to be a little patient, but if things don't start to improve or become intolerable then seek medical advice from your healthcare team.

Hope you are feeling more comfortable soon 🙂

 

[RachelT]

Hi Peter

The Nausea sound like a common side effect of the metformin (my gran, for example is diet controlled because she can't take the stuff at all without being really ill).
The other symptoms could be you body reacting to high blood sugar. I'm guessing that as you've just been diagnosed and put on Metformin that your blood sugar levels are, or have been quite high. Certainly before i was diagnosed i used to walk to work feeling like my legs were made of granite, and i had a persistant itch (i won't tell you where...but it was almost certainly due to there being too much sugar in my urine). Body fluids do acumilate sugar if you're an uncontrolled diabetic (although i do like that term, it sounds you've just gone a bit nuts..."i'm an uncontrollable diabetic! hahh!"), so it could be that it's making your sweat a bit sugary (erk, mind you, you could argue that it makes you smell sweet.).
Generally i think we're all thrown into a state of mental chaos when we're first diagnosed, i considered myself that it would come to me in the end, but certainly not this soon. Once you're feeling a bit more settled, and it won't happen right away, you may feel better.
Metformin and alcohol do have a quite serious interaction, but it is rare. I personally manage to drink a little now and then and i've never wound up in a coma, but it has happened to some people. I suggest, as Northy says (strange how i keep typing the same thing "as Northy says" hehehe) you have a little and see how you feel. And don't drink alone, make sure there is someone who can help you if you do have a problem.

Welcome to the forum, so far the best think for me about having diabetes, but to be honest , that's not saying much, i can't find much else good about the disease. 🙂

Rachel

 

[KateR]

I've been on Metformin for several years now and it took me a while to get used to them, having similar symptoms to you. I still occasionally get burning feet when I first go to bed but the others have gone. I do have the odd glass of wine with no effect but not too often. Hope you soon feel better .