New to the forum. Query about Type 2 Meds

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Proud to be erratic said:
Picking up a thought triggered partly by your recent post "Libre 2 query" @Coanda_24, along with remarks within this thread ...

When you have periods (a day even) of negligible food because you don't want anything to eat, then that can cause your liver to dump even more glucose regardless. I think a layman's explanation would be your brain constantly demands glucose specifically; it doesn't matter to your brain whether that glucose has come from carbs you've eaten or proteins and fats you've eaten that will be metabolised into glucose in the absence of carbs. Or just glucose released by your liver store, or ultimately glucose from muscles and existing body tissue. Our brains will grab glucose from wherever it can and at the expense of other bits of us, in extremis. Thus you can still get glucose releases without eating anything.

So I wondered if those BG surges you've told us about earlier, even when you haven't actually eaten, were being caused by internal glucose releases. A further factor is that the brain is the one bit of us that does not need insulin to help transfer glucose from blood to cells. We tend to not know when the brain is working hard and drawing glucose out of our blood; if we are exercising or physically active a circumstance has taken place that we know about and can use to explain something to ourselves. We are generally blissfully unaware when our brains are working hard!

There are so many things that can affect our BG that it can be really tricky to see the wood from the trees. It is why I was so impressed with your Practice Nurse deciding to give you a Libre 2 (and now for the time being continuing that help). Your symptoms and circumstances are confusing - and one BG factor may be overwhelming another; recent posts sound unduly complicated, possibly because 2 factors are mixed together and its not so evident about what is causing what. So extra visibility from Libre makes so much sense. In theory you might get a reasonable view from frequent finger prick tests - but so much easier from a CGM graph. I reiterate my non-medical thoughts that, because you are most unlikely to go hypo, I don't believe it is important to get readings continuously from one fortnight to the next. The big thing for me would be to identify possible explanations if at all possible, try to explore those methodically and thus eliminate each possible explanation (or not as appropriate). Within that methodology try and monitor just one thing at a time; so try not to introduce more than one variant at a time. If you change a parameter, such as type of meal or a certain level of activity, let that run for a couple of days and see what that tells you - if anything. And so on. I do understand this is not simple. In real life "stuff" intervenes.

Anyway, I am not any sort of expert on this and my thoughts could be totally off track. Good luck.
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Thank you for this post. I think you are right. There are a few things going on and I do just need to be a bit more calm and mathodical. Whatever is happening with my stomach has been going in for nearly two months now, so I have to take the view that this is long term or permanent. As anxious as I am I can live in this heightened state for ever.
 
Hello, I just wanted to update my thread with progress. I stopped taking Metformin 10 days ago: the first time in a very long time that I’m diet only.

I can’t say that my GI issues have gone away, but the absence of Metformin does seem to have made things better: I’m able to tolerate a bit more food and the GI symptoms are milder.

My sugars are good, although I’m having to maintain a lower carb diet (scrambled egg and grilled bacon for breakfast is no hardship!). My morning sugars are highest: they go from high 5s/ low 6s to mid 7s in the two hours from waking up without taking on any carbs/calories at all. Eating a low carb breakfast seems to curb this and they do settle down.

One day this week I had to rush into work, as I was called into the office at short notice, and left home without breakfast. I noticed my sugars climbing to high 7s on my journey . In the office I grabbed one rich tea biscuit without thinking and when I checked an hour later my sugars had shot up to 10.3 and took 3 hours to get back to normal.

By contrast in the afternoon and evening, my sugars come right down. If I wanted, I could eat a jacket potato the size of my head and my sugars wouldn’t go beyond 7.5, 2 hours after eating!

What ever else happens I can see the benefit of embracing a low carb diet more permanently. It does seem gentler on my system than the rush and peaks of a carb laden diet.
 
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Sounds about right for a T2... higher levels in the morning than the evening.

The numbers aren't that bad.
 
Hello, apologies for not having posted in a while but I just wanted to share. I had a haba1c last week and it came back as 48. It’s not ideal but considering it was 103 at the beginning of January and that I’ve been managing BG without meds - I’ll chalk this up as a piece of good news. My GI problems rumble on (literally) but at least I now have an appointment to see a Gastroenterologist
 
Coanda_24 said:
Hello, apologies for not having posted in a while but I just wanted to share. I had a haba1c last week and it came back as 48. It’s not ideal but considering it was 103 at the beginning of January and that I’ve been managing BG without meds - I’ll chalk this up as a piece of good news. My GI problems rumble on (literally) but at least I now have an appointment to see a Gastroenterologist
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That’s excellent, well done!
 
Congratulations on an absolutely fantastic HbA1c reduction. That really is impressive! Well done! Hope your appointment with the gastroenterologist isn't too far away and they find a relatively straightforward fix for your stomach issues.
 
Really great and you perhaps undersold your glee: 103 to 48 is no mean feat.
 
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