Medication problems

[Spraggy]

Hi just would like some advice! Been type 2 quite a few years but really struggled with meds tried metformin, jardiance, and recently Trulicity injection all with side effects that couldn’t cope with, I thought the injection was the answer then within a week my eyesight deteriorated where it was very blurred and I could not drive.
I need to be on meds that help with weight loss aswell because I cannot control with diet and levels are high, anybody got advice on medication I should try next pretty desperate now . Thanks

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome.

I suspect the blurriness with your vision may be because the medication is starting to work. As Blood Glucose levels reduce, the shape of the lens in your eyes changes and alters the focal length. Eventually this settles down as your body gets used to lower levels but it takes time. If you need to drive for work then you may need to be signed off until your vision settles down but it is imperative that you get your BG levels under control because that is putting you at significant risk or complications..... I am sure you know what those are but blindness is one of them. Personally I would rather take a few weeks/months of blurry vision than risk waking up one morning with none.

Do you know what your most recent HbA1c reading was?

You mention that you are unable to control your diabetes through diet but I wonder if you have had good advice and support in that and even with medication, it is important to make dietary changes and increase activity levels to help manage your diabetes. Medication in itself will not do it long term.

 

[DaveB]

Hi. Can you let us know why you cannot control with diet and what sort of diet approach you have been trying?

 

[Spraggy]

Hi I struggle with irritable bowel , also have mobility problems due back problems, so food good for diabetes not good for irritable bowel . I couldn’t carry on with Trulicity although would have liked to due to setting off anxiety not being able to see ! Last hb1c had gone upto 106

 

[rebrascora]

Some people find their irritable bowel settles down once they avoid grain products.
The NHS guidance for diabetics is to eat whole wheat and wholegrains but these still contain carbohydrate which is a problem for diabetes and fibre which may be an irritating factor in IB so it is just not helpful advice. Many of us who follow a low carbohydrate diet to help manage our diabetes avoid grain products as these are high in carbs, so we avoid bread, pasta, rice and potatoes and most foods made from grains/flour. We eat eggs and meat and fish and cheese and mushrooms and plenty of veggies like cabbage and cauliflower and broccoli and salad and Mediterranean veg like courgettes and peppers and aubergines and tomatoes. We also eat more fat to give us energy and keep us feeling full without spiking our Blood Glucose levels. So we have blue top milk instead of skimmed or even cream. We have creamy Greek natural yoghurt and full fat mayonnaise and creamy coleslaw, basically avoiding all the low fat products. We cook our veg with a knob of butter or a dollop of cream cheese. These things should all be fairly kind to your IBS and helpful in improving your diabetes management. So an easy meal might be an omelette with whatever filling you fancy with a salad and coleslaw (I love cheese coleslaw), or high meat content sausages (95% meat) with mashed cauliflower instead of potato (mix in a good dollop of cream cheese and perhaps a spoon of mustard if you like) and some cabbage cooked with a knob of butter or broccoli. Cheap sausages contain rusk which is a wheat product and carbohydrate rich, same with burgers, so buy quality meat products and eat less of them.

I know the idea of not eating bread is a big step to get your head around and I used to absolutely love it but it really doesn't bother me anymore and I would much rather be healthy. We can give you lots more ideas of low carb foods to eat or if you give us an idea of what you eat now we can suggest low carb alternatives.

With an HbA1c over 100 you really do need to take action now though and whilst medication can help, there is a lot you can do yourself if you get yourself into the right frame of mind. We tend to recommend people get themselves a Blood Glucose meter and use that to show them which foods are spiking their BG levels and that can help you to motivate yourself to ditch them, by testing before a meal and then 2 hours afterwards. There are lots of people here on the forum who have had success using this method to reduce their HbA1c back to non diabetic levels and have lost weight as part of the process but without having to try too hard and losing weight will almost certainly help with your back pain. I know my knees are a whole lot better just from losing a couple of stones.

Anyway, get back to us if you need any further help of information but eating for your diabetes and IBS should not necessarily conflict. You will have to put quite a bit of thought and effort into changing your diet though, but we will support you with that.

 

[DaveB]

Thanks for the reply. I know others with IBS and it can be very difficult to deal with. As the last poster has pointed out you need to ensure you are following the right diabetes guidance. Yes, it may be that the diet doesn't suit IBS but I'm surprised that Trulicity doesn't itself cause problems with your IBS. As diabetics we need to keep all carbs down but can have fats and proteins quite freely as well as non-root veg and non tropical fruit.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi just would like some advice! Been type 2 quite a few years but really struggled with meds tried metformin, jardiance, and recently Trulicity injection all with side effects that couldn’t cope with, I thought the injection was the answer then within a week my eyesight deteriorated where it was very blurred and I could not drive.
I need to be on meds that help with weight loss aswell because I cannot control with diet and levels are high, anybody got advice on medication I should try next pretty desperate now . Thanks

Sorry to hear how you have been struggling to find a medication that suits you @Spraggy

Have you been offered or considered insulin?

To get some feedback from members on possible food tweaks, maybe you could give some examples of the sorts of foods that suit your IBS and folks here can see which of those would be tricky for their diabetes?

 

[Spraggy]

Some people find their irritable bowel settles down once they avoid grain products.
The NHS guidance for diabetics is to eat whole wheat and wholegrains but these still contain carbohydrate which is a problem for diabetes and fibre which may be an irritating factor in IB so it is just not helpful advice. Many of us who follow a low carbohydrate diet to help manage our diabetes avoid grain products as these are high in carbs, so we avoid bread, pasta, rice and potatoes and most foods made from grains/flour. We eat eggs and meat and fish and cheese and mushrooms and plenty of veggies like cabbage and cauliflower and broccoli and salad and Mediterranean veg like courgettes and peppers and aubergines and tomatoes. We also eat more fat to give us energy and keep us feeling full without spiking our Blood Glucose levels. So we have blue top milk instead of skimmed or even cream. We have creamy Greek natural yoghurt and full fat mayonnaise and creamy coleslaw, basically avoiding all the low fat products. We cook our veg with a knob of butter or a dollop of cream cheese. These things should all be fairly kind to your IBS and helpful in improving your diabetes management. So an easy meal might be an omelette with whatever filling you fancy with a salad and coleslaw (I love cheese coleslaw), or high meat content sausages (95% meat) with mashed cauliflower instead of potato (mix in a good dollop of cream cheese and perhaps a spoon of mustard if you like) and some cabbage cooked with a knob of butter or broccoli. Cheap sausages contain rusk which is a wheat product and carbohydrate rich, same with burgers, so buy quality meat products and eat less of them.

I know the idea of not eating bread is a big step to get your head around and I used to absolutely love it but it really doesn't bother me anymore and I would much rather be healthy. We can give you lots more ideas of low carb foods to eat or if you give us an idea of what you eat now we can suggest low carb alternatives.

With an HbA1c over 100 you really do need to take action now though and whilst medication can help, there is a lot you can do yourself if you get yourself into the right frame of mind. We tend to recommend people get themselves a Blood Glucose meter and use that to show them which foods are spiking their BG levels and that can help you to motivate yourself to ditch them, by testing before a meal and then 2 hours afterwards. There are lots of people here on the forum who have had success using this method to reduce their HbA1c back to non diabetic levels and have lost weight as part of the process but without having to try too hard and losing weight will almost certainly help with your back pain. I know my knees are a whole lot better just from losing a couple of stones.

Anyway, get back to us if you need any further help of information but eating for your diabetes and IBS should not necessarily conflict. You will have to put quite a bit of thought and effort into changing your diet though, but we will support you with that.

Hi thanks
Struggle with med veg and prob most veg and salad, I am a meat and dairy eater but do go for rice and bread if tummy bad . What meds do people use that doesn’t put weight on and is anybody on Trulicity or ozempic ?

 

[goodybags]

Hi thanks
Struggle with med veg and prob most veg and salad, I am a meat and dairy eater but do go for rice and bread if tummy bad . What meds do people use that doesn’t put weight on and is anybody on Trulicity or ozempic ?

Hi @Spraggy I’ve been taking Ozempic for about 7 months now in aiding weight loss & my BS
I was initially sceptical and resisted the offer to go on Ozempic but glad I did now.

 

[Spraggy]

Hi @Spraggy I’ve been taking Ozempic for about 7 months now in aiding weight loss & my BS
I was initially sceptical and resisted the offer to go on Ozempic but glad I did now.

Good morning
Wow you have done so well ! Why were you sceptical of taking ozempic and did you have side effects?

 

[goodybags]

Good morning
Wow you have done so well ! Why were you sceptical of taking ozempic and did you have side effects?

No side effects, apart from feeling uncomfortably full if I tried to eat bigger than a small meal
why I was sceptical?
it wasn’t explained to me what Ozempic is or how it’s used,
i remember a GP berating me for having a sky high HbA1c (I didn’t even understand at the time what a Hba1c reading was) he said something like weve tried everything, all the options you might have to go and have a new experimental injection at the hospital every week there’s absolutely nothing else that can be done and made me feel like a lost cause..lol

 

[Spraggy]

No side effects, apart from feeling uncomfortably full if I tried to eat bigger than a small meal
why I was sceptical?
it wasn’t explained to me what Ozempic is or how it’s used,
i remember a GP berating me for having a sky high HbA1c (I didn’t even understand at the time what a Hba1c reading was) he said something like weve tried everything, all the options you might have to go and have a new experimental injection at the hospital every week there’s absolutely nothing else that can be done and made me feel like a lost cause..lol

I think maybe a few similarities here, I feel also I’m a bit of a problem to my diabetic nurse I was told they are running out of options but I feel I’ve only tried a few meds and would have been happy to use Trulicity but not prepared for the sight problems! Which I had to research as they didn’t think it was a side effect, I then wondered about ozempic but I think it also could possibly cause sight problems, I’m really interested to find out if anybody else had had these side effects?

 

[goodybags]

I already was being treated at DMO clinic prior to being prescribed Ozempic
so unsure if it’s going to hinder that, but as I’m under treatment I get retinal screening every 3 months and treatment every 6 weeks.
for me I needed to loose weight and get the Hba1c finally under control, to many years of poor control that’s left my body in poor shape with a few Diabetic related health conditions, it’s a shame I never listened and received so much bad advice from healthcare professionals (lol healthcare unprofessionals more like)
(currently I’m actually getting some good support and as I had a infection even saw a GP on both Xmas & Ney Years Eve followEd by a phone call @ 8:30 m NYE)

what Meds are you currently on @Spraggy

 

[Spraggy]

I am currently on no meds the last was Trulicity so was waiting for sight to get back to normal but I have another hb1c in a couple of weeks and was told I have to decide what meds I’m going to go on but I feel I don’t know enough about them to decide and think I should be advised what to do !

 

[Leadinglights]

I think maybe a few similarities here, I feel also I’m a bit of a problem to my diabetic nurse I was told they are running out of options but I feel I’ve only tried a few meds and would have been happy to use Trulicity but not prepared for the sight problems! Which I had to research as they didn’t think it was a side effect, I then wondered about ozempic but I think it also could possibly cause sight problems, I’m really interested to find out if anybody else had had these side effects?

It is difficult to separate any direct effect of medication on your vision issues from just the reduction in blood glucose levels. I have had vision issues from reducing carbs to 60-70g per day in one fell swoop and no meds. My Hb1Ac was only 50mmol/mol so it never occurred to me that it would be an issue as all I had heard was if the levels were high you could get vision problems not that reducing too quickly could be a problem. Several months on still not 'normal'.

 

[Lucyr]

I have had sight issues after simultaneously starting ozempic, a proper insulin regime, and better eating, I had background retinopathy for the first time and have gone from perfect vision to needing glasses full time for short sightedness, however the glasses do fix the issues. I was told it isn’t the ozempic specifically but the rapid improvement in blood sugars that has caused my eye sight changes.

 

[Spraggy]

It’s just I’ve not had sight problems at all before, just don’t know what to do really setting off anxiety just wish I knew what meds are best to go for !

 

[Lucyr]

It’s just I’ve not had sight problems at all before, just don’t know what to do really setting off anxiety just wish I knew what meds are best to go for !

I know that feeling well, I’d always had totally perfect vision, no glasses for reading or distance etc, had had blood sugars be high before, and suddenly this time reducing my blood sugars my vision changed. Thankfully for me glasses solve it but it is still such a scary feeling to find yourself with vision problems you haven’t had before. Improving blood sugars is the best thing for your vision in the long run though.

For the medications, what options have you been given and what other things are you trying to achieve other than better blood sugars (weight loss or gain etc?). You’ve mentioned ozempic, that can be good if you need to lose weight and struggle with high appetite. What other options have you been offered?

 

[Spraggy]

Hi lucyr
That’s exactly my problem that’s why it’s worrying and I don’t want it happening again, I’ve had metformin jardiance and latterly the Trulicity and yes I need to lose weight, I keep delaying sorting it !

 

[Spraggy]

sorry not been offered anything else just given a list for me to decide what I want too try , nightmare