Thinking ahead and worrying

[Carmina]

It's now just over 9 weeks since I was diagnosed - just over 13kg. I've lost a fantastic amount of weight for the time-scale involved but still have a long way to go.

My BG levels are definitely on a down-ward slope and I rarely get above 6.6 even after a carb-y meal. My weekly average goes down a bit every week.

I keep wondering how much of the progressive lowering is due to the Metformin and how much due to either my IR decreasing or my pancreas recovering a bit. Or maybe due to something else I don't know about yet. I Just imagine that when I've lost the next 13kg my body is going to take more control of things.

How much would Metformin interfere with this? Would it inhibit my pancreas because it's got the medication to 'lean on'? I hate taking tablets of any kind and would love to be one of the people who can reduce their medication when they've got their dietary control sorted out. I have a horrible feeling this would be against my doctor's dubious policy of letting the medication do all the work and appearing to disapprove of patients who want to meddle in his province by self-managing.

Has anyone had any experience of this or can anyone offer me any advice? (A crystal ball welcome to clarify my future a bit would be welcome!)

 

[LeeLee]

Hi Carmina, your story is a bit like mine... I started metformin (after years of getting away with neglecting 'diet & exercise'). That scared me into joining Slimming World and getting the bike out of storage. At the time I was desperate to get back off metformin. Six stone later, my levels are all within 'normal' range. I'm still taking the metformin, partly because of its cancer-protective properties and partly because I don't want to go back to paying for prescriptions!

 

[trophywench]

Nobody has a crystal ball Carmina! Otherwise we'd all be lottery millionaires, wouldn't we?

Who knows? is the answer to this one. There are so many things we don't know (and neither do you or your doctor) eg how long had your pancreas been struggling before you were actually diagnosed? people can go for donkeys years with no symptoms of T2 at all. So the unseen damage can have been bubbling away without anyone knowing.

Until you have your retinal scans, you don't know if your eyes are affected for starters - retinopathy rarely affects eyesight and normally doesn't cause pain or anything. This applies to all your internal organs too and your nervous system.

I fully realise you don't want me to tell you this but it's true. Also you can get diabetic side effects by reducing your BG quickly, so sometimes it even has to get worse before it can get better. The great thing about that is, after that by still keeping your BG in check, it normally fairly quickly gets better again and disappears.

It's VERY early days for you.

This is a marathon, not a sprint !

(But I hope none of this does happen to you)

 

[Carmina]

I fully realise you don't want me to tell you this but it's true. Also you can get diabetic side effects by reducing your BG quickly, so sometimes it even has to get worse before it can get better. The great thing about that is, after that by still keeping your BG in check, it normally fairly quickly gets better again and disappears.

This really has scared me. I've never been told this - just that the high BG levels cause damage and it was important to get them down as close to 'normal' as possible by losing weight and seeing how different foods affected me.

So I've done all this work and research and testing for what? To increase my chances of getting complications? So why do we even bother? Not taking action kills us but so does lowering our catastrophically high BG too quickly?

May as well go back to the baked spuds, chocolate and cake.

 

[Northerner]

This really has scared me. I've never been told this - just that the high BG levels cause damage and it was important to get them down as close to 'normal' as possible by losing weight and seeing how different foods affected me.

So I've done all this work and research and testing for what? To increase my chances of getting complications? So why do we even bother? Not taking action kills us but so does lowering our catastrophically high BG too quickly?

May as well go back to the baked spuds, chocolate and cake.

No, please don't think this way Carmina! What you have achieved so far is to significantly reduce your risk of any complications. What is more, by taking the steps you have taken to improve your diet and your activity levels, as well as losing a significant amount of weight, you have made huge strides in lowering your risks of many other potential illnesses that strike us as we get older. You are also being carefully monitored, because of your diabetes, for a number of health indicators that will shw at the earliest opportunity whether any treatment of action is needed.

No-one can offer guarantees in life, but you are taking steps to make your life much healthier and happier than it might otherwise have been, so nothing is wasted in pursuit of this 🙂

It's not unusual for people recently diagnosed to reduce their HbA1c fairly rapidly in the first few months - mine went from 11.8% to 6.8% in two months, then even further down to 5.4%. I have not suffered any problems because of this. I have read of a few cases where people who have been diagnosed for a long time and struggling on insulin injections, who have then gone onto pumps and their levels have dropped very quickly and they have encountered problems as a consequence, but it is rare and quite different from your circumstances.

Keep up the good work, you are doing an excellent job! 🙂

 

[yorksman]

I started on diet and exercise alone and started in the 9s and 10s. After about 8 weeks I was in the 7s and 8s and had lost, at that time, about 12 Kg. I was starting to exercise more regularly and over the next 12 weeks got down to 25Kg weight loss with bloods in 6s and 7s. After that things became more sluggish and it was another couple of months before I was in the 5s and 6s with a total weight loss of about about 30Kg. Although still carrying a lot of excess weight, I haven't been able to lose anymore but have upped my exercise routine, mainly because I am getting a bit fitter and have dropped my bloods to the 4s and 5s. Its been about 10 months now.

Metformin will help with BGs but you may get into the frame of mind where you trust it to do all the hard work for you. I am told, but have no direct proof, that diet and exercise is at least as beneficial and probably better than lower doses of metformin. It is something you could ask your GP about.

6.6 is good for an after meal reading but, don't just think that's good enough. Your goal is to get it lower and to do it without metformin. It's not always possible of course but you have nothing to lose by trying. At the very least, as long as you are in the 5s and 6s region, you are very much less likely to be damaging your body.

Your progress will slow down but you can be happy that it is going to start slowing down after you reached reasonable levels. Some poor souls really struggle and bottom out in the 8s and 9s or worse. They really have to work hard.

 

[stephknits]

You are doing a fantastic job, a great achievement in loosing so much weight already and the results are showing. This is all great news, celebrate with some knitting!

 

[Carmina]

Thanks, all of you. I feel a lot better after those replies.

I know it's early days - and I do realise I need to get my BG lower but I think I've done pretty well so far. I need to lose a lot more weight but I'm very motivated and getting a lot of exercise as well as being very careful about what I eat.

I really am thinking quite a way into the future with my weight but if I start getting 4s instead of 5s on a regular basis, I'd like to try halving my dose of Metformin to see what happens. It's not long since getting 6s instead of 7s seemed an impossible dream.

I don't want to sit back and let the Metformin do the work for me - I've got a mother-in-law like that and it's not for me! I know about the dangers of uncontrolled BG but I also worry about the long-term side-effects of all medication and would rather do without if I can but accept that it won't be just yet.

And yes, Steph, I'll get my knitting out. There's a hat in this week's Woman's weekly that would look good in some red sparkly stuff in my stash bag

 

[Northerner]

Good to hear Carmina - you stay positive! I know just how you feel about medications - I was on 11 on leaving hospital after diagnosis, now I'm just on 1 (plus insulin, which I have never come to think of as 'medication', just something my body is missing out on).

Have a read of Silkman Bob's and SAMTAN's stories in the weight loss section if you want some inspiration! 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Carmina I did say 'sometimes it even will have to get worse before it can get better, but it will get better'.

I did NOT say 'This will happen to you - or anyone else'.

Just SAYING - cos it's a right slap in the face if it DOES happen, and you need to know the bit about 'but it WILL get better' to retain your sanity.

Otherwise yes, you are right, you would throw the towel in. Which would be daft cos if you just carry on after such a setback, it will all solve itself.

I just think it's better to know EVERYTHING you can possibly know, then you can take stuff in your stride instead of being completely phased by it.