In general, I have bad Met side effects for the first few days after starting a higher dose (severe nausea), but then they go away.
For the past few days, I've been nauseous on an off--not bad, but annoying in a way I don't usually get. Then I was having some stomach problems, which I attributed to everything under the sun--until I realized the nausea was from the Met. (Met gives me weird nausea, where I get really nauseous, eat something, and it goes away for about ten or fifteen minutes.)
Then I was thinking about it. I've been having more stomach trouble than usual lately--but I haven't thought about it much. I've been having a ridiculous amount of heartburn--so bad I can literally feel it burning the back of my throat, but I've been ignoring it. I've been getting nauseous from all diet drinks except Coke (WTF?), but I just decided that I didn't like diet Snapple and diet Fanta anymore.
I upped the Met dose in the middle of June. These are all side effects of Metformin. Have I been ignoring side effects by brushing them off as things I already have? It's been doing decent things to my blood sugar--I've been far more content with the numbers I've been seeing over the last two months--but this isn't worth it.
Comments? Thoughts? Advice? What what other drugs could I possibly use instead of Met?
I don't know what to advise you regarding what other drugs you can use. But from other people I know who have been on met. I'm convinced it's the devil itself. I don't know what to advise, but I personally would NOT use Metformin. I'd rather inject insulin. Have you considered trying insulin? In my opinion its more "natural" even if it is lab made, than god only knows what is in met.
Are you sure your symptoms aren't possibly related to other GI problems. For YEARS I have thought all my GI sysmptoms were related to some mild gastroparesis I have, until a light bulb went off about a month ago ALL the symptoms I've been having for years are also related to gallbladder problems. I knew by sure incidental findings on a U/S I had some gallstones, but never connected all the dots until one night I was having really bad pain along the right side of my rib cage. I had my gallbladder out, and I have never felt better. My surgeon said he could tell it had definately been inflammed recently so we did the right thing in taking it out.
Metformin isn't that bad for me up until 750-1000mg. At 1500mg I have severe stomach distress, and will be making myself throw up in hopes of stopping it at least once a week. My understanding is that it also lowers vitamin levels(B or D?) and supplements are probably a good idea. Also, the ER stuff seemed to cause me more stomach distress.
Anyway, if the stomach problems are still rough after a few weeks, then you have to lower it back down.
The problem is that all the side effects of the other drugs scare the crap out of me. I can't handle weight gain or constant hunger. In fact, Metformin was awesome because I'm rarely hungry and I get full easily. I haven't lost an ounce on it, but I do eat less.
I'd far rather take insulin than Met or any other drug. The problem is that I'm almost positive my endo will consider it a last resort (I shadowed him for a week one summer and he rarely puts T2's on insulin unless there was NO other choice). I want to lay out my problems when I see him next and explain why the other drugs don't sound like a good idea. IMHO, Met's a godsend--if you can handle the side effects. But short of Met, the other drugs are nightmarish.
I don't want to switch endos unless I have no choice. He knows that I can't go without meds, and honestly a more pro-active endo would've had me on insulin when I started complaining of highs (based on my age, activity level, food choices, and BMI, T2 just doesn't make sense), but he's my father's endo, too, and he's a family friend. (Not a close one, but he's within our social circle and I see him occasionally outside of his office.) I like him and I do trust him more than I've trusted other doctors in the past. He's done a lot for me and I hate to go see someone else only to find they're worse.
I was considering asking my pulmonologist for the name of someone I could see for a second opinion, but I probably wouldn't see that endo more than once.
Met 500mg barely did anything, Met 1000mg wasn't working too well, either, which was why we upped the dose to 1500mg. Compared to you, I do well with 1500mg, but I can't lower the dose. In fact, 1500mg isn't perfect, it's just good enough that I don't see any reason for a dose change.
Also, I don't take ER. My endo says he doesn't hear about much of a difference between regular and ER. He did start me on ER because of the side effects, but once I ran out of those he put me on regular.
Have you tried an OTC stomach acid reducer or anything like that? Your heartburn sounds pretty extreme. Although we all tend to blame everything that feels off on diabetes, sometimes there are simpler answers. Maybe you're actually just having reflux & stomach issues that have nothing to do with (or are not fully caused but exacerbated by) the metformin.
My experience with Metformin has been that there was some level of nausea and gastric distress when starting the dose, but that wore of after just a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, there does seem to be some ongoing gastric issues that just never went away. And at least in my case, some of it seems to be related to carbs in my diet of various kinds. One of the effects of metformin is that it "decreases intestinal absorption of glucose." And this allows more carbs to travel past your small intestine (where they are directly absorbed) into your large intestine, where your gut flora ferments food for further digestion. It is my belief that the increased fermentation and gas it causes comes from this action. Following my low carb diet I have few gastric distress issues, but any carb binge can bring on some interesting stuff.
It would seem unlikely that Metformin would just sit in your stomach all day and cause heartburn. Perhaps you should take the Metformin with food and see if that helps. And despite what your doctor says, there is a big difference between regular and ER. May doctors and patients swear that the ER is much more tolerable and causes less gastric problems.
If I took Metformin without food, I can't even imagine what would happen. I only take it with food--and I try for a full meal when I do. Met without food must be very unpleasant...
