so...i'm confused.

[Peter C]

Started on 500 then went to 1000 still hate them they do nothing

Not surprising the 1000mg is ineffective - 1500 mg is the minimum efffective dose and 2500 the max. you are not up to speed with it yet. And no you shouldn't really be thinking in terms of getting off metforin - it has great medical benefits for T2s apart from helping lower bgs ( e.g. strong heart protection ).
The medics will probably want you to fail on the max metformin before anything else is recommended. But then you would probably just be advised to stay on the max metfroin and add an insulin secretogue ( a sulfonylurea such as Gliclazide).
If you fail on max met and max gliclazide they might want to add a TZD such as Rosiglitazone.
When you fail on the max of those three they would tend to drop the gliclazide and TZD and move on to metforin plus lizard spit/byetta injections ( or cut the byetta stage and move staright to insulin ).
I believe that is the situation at present in Britain - you can't have liazrd spit/byetta injections until you have failed on the routine 3 meds.
In any case I personally would not be in any rush to push for byetta injections - its a still very new and already there are rumblings about it causing pancreasitis. With warnings in the offing from the FDA.

 

[RachelT]

hehehe "lizard spit"...yeah, they told us something about that...(for those of you who need a translation...that's victoza)

You need to step up metformin (titrate) or you get the runs, you may get the runs anyway, i certainly did. I'm kind of wondering why i'm bothering to take the stuff, except that then i'd have to pay 20 odd pound every month for the other stuff i'm suposed to be taking...I'm on 500mg a day, but started on 1500mg...