Help needed plse

[Mlynnf50]

I live in France and I am not good at all with French. When in the uk I had a glucose test done which required me to have bloods taken then drink a sml bottle of lucozade and the blood taken again and it came bk that I was fine. About 2 years later we came to live in France and I had to have a check up at the doctors here and he put me on meteor in 1000 mg 3 times a day, well I was so ill and kept getting really low blood sugars down to 1.5 sometimes so you can imagine how I felt, I got him to lower the dosage to 850 twice a day, I have been taking this for about 3 years now and I have never felt well and do keep getting hypos. Also I have noticed how my food preferences have changed and there is hardly anything I feel like eating, I can only put it down to taking the tablets. I have had a bout of food poisoning this week which ended up with a hypo.. I was nearly unconscious and had pins a needles all over I don't think I have ever had it this bad before.

I am 60 years old could anyone give me a bit f advice please. Thankyou

 

[Northerner]

Hi, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about your experiences. If you are just on metformin then you shouldn't really be experiencing hypos, especially not ones as low as 1.5, as this is not(to my knowledge) a known effect of metformin. Are you on any other medications? What sort of levels do you get an hour or two hours after eating a meal containing carbohydrates (potatoes, rice pasta, bread etc.)? It may be that you are not eating well and feeling poorly because of the type of metformin you are on - there is a slow-release version called Glucophage SR (here) that you may be able to tolerate better, but it does sound as though you are not on appropriate medication anyway.

Do you know someone who you could take to the doctors with you so they could explain this in French? Although, I would have thought that your numbers should be telling him/her something already!

 

[Tezzz]

I've got diabetic friend in France. I could ask him if he could translate for you.

 

[margie]

You need to speak to your Dr - as something is not right either with your health or the meds or a combination of the two.

In the medium term you need to try and improve your French - in the short term have a look around to see if there is anyone who can help at the Drs. Have you any French friends who speak good English or are there any groups of English speaking people who you can join. You may find someone there who can help. There may be someone in your area you runs a service for English speaking people abroad - I have heard that such organisations exist.

Good Luck

 

[Steff]

Hi and welcome

 

[Robster65]

Hi Mlynnf50. Welcome 🙂

As others have said, you really need to have this investigated further as it could be caused by, and causing other medical issues.

Is there another doctor that you could see (with a translator) to get a second opinion ?

I would have thought, if you could take your BG meter in and just show the results to your doctor, they would at least be concerned at the number of hypos you are having and suggest a change of tack.

Rob