I have been taking met for about 15 years. I currently take 2000 mg half in the am and half at bedtime. I have been on that dose for about a year. The last month or so I have been having a lot of stomach problems. After eliminating various things I finally decided to try stopping the met for a bit to see if that is the problem.
So my last dose was yesterday morning. Tummy is still not very happy at a little over 24 hours. I know it takes about 4 days for it to totally leave your system but I would think if that was my stomach problem it wouldn't take having every bit out of my system.
My other question is how long before the BG effects stop working? My BG is in the same range as always, if anything it is better today than it has been lately. I also take amaryl which seems to be more beneficial for BG control so I'm curious if my decent control (generally under 180) has been from that more than from the met. Met alone wasn't working before.
I Finally get to see an endo on Friday. I just moved so she is new to me. I am hoping to get tested to see if I'm LADA and hope she will do something to fix my goiter. My last dr felt that growing an obstructing goiter was fine as long as my thyroid levels were in the low normal range. He did think I should be tested for LADA though since my insulin production was very low normal before starting the amaryl.
That sounds like my issue with Metformin. I found it took 2-3 days before my stomach issues stopped. (I was taking 1000 instead of 1500). I feel soooo much better without it!
I'm seeing my endo tomorrow, so we'll see what he thinks. Honestly, if this is what diabetes meds are like, then I don't want to experiment with any more of them...
I'm not sure that the met causes the stomach stuff for me. At times it has but only when I increase my dose. I've been on the same dose for almost a year and was fine after the first few weeks.
Oddly, I feel much better. I had more energy today than I have had in the last few months. I don't know if it is a coincidence.
I have found that D is an experiment that is always changing. Just because something worked last year doesn't mean it will this year. I still will keep trying new things in hopes it will work. I've actually wanted to be on insulin for years but as a T2 no dr. wants to do that unless I can't stay under about 200. All my drs have told me that having a fasting of 140 is fine since my A1c is good. And pp at 160-180 is also good. They don't understand that to keep it like that I have to work really hard. I had to push to get amaryl so I could actually eat carbs again. I can now keep my fasting at 100 if I work out a couple hours a day and eat about 100 carbs a day.
Hopefully new endo will be knowledgable and actually want to work with me to get bg into a non-diabetic range instead of telling me spikes to 200 aren't that harmful.
I think you need to get new doctors- I don't know much about thyroid problems even though my grandfather had graves but what your doctor said sounds wrong to me so please research this more if you haven't, don't blindly follow what he/she says. I hope your new endo is good. I don't feel it's ok to be at 180- I can clearly feel damage to my body at those levels.. my vision is blurry, I'm peeing etc. I would consider a fasting of 140 as terrible.
I hope you get antibody testing and figure out a better way to control things.. even if it is insulin. You can get damage even spiking high on a regular basis it seems over many years and if you're waking up at 140 you could be high all night. I'm not sure if you have tested at intervals to see what is going on. Normal fasting bg numbers are 70-90 (some non d women have lower bg and can be at 60 fasting and be ok- most people are low 80's for a fasting)and 70-120 non fasting. Not 140 and 160-180 post meal. Your body is supposed to get you back to non fasting numbers 2 hours after a meal(high carb or not).
100 g per day is good but maybe you should try for lower and see what happens, maybe 50 if you can do it?
Yes, I have the extended release version of metformin, Diabex XR here in Australia. The pharmacist wanted to change my tablets to the cheaper metformin and oh it made me so sick. I took them back and complained loudly, all ok back on Diabex now.
I was only only metformin for four months; however, my mother took metformin for 17 years. In my mother's case, metformin alone (with a moderate diet) helped control her blood sugars very well. She was forced to stop taking it after 17 years because it stared to cause her to be anemic (not B12); however, until then, she had no noticeable side effects from metformin.
My experience with the med was not so good - I had many unusual side effects, which, ironically, did not include stomach upset. I was taking Amaryl, as well, since metformin alone only helped my fasting blood sugars. I am taking insulin now. When I stopped, all of those side-effects reverse within three days; the benefits from metformin lasted about two weeks after stopping. (I was only on 500mg/day).
I am uncertain that the stomach problems are from metformin. In my case, I had a lot of reflux prior to taking metformin, which stopped when I was on it (I know, I'm weird). The feeling of greater energy after stopping metformin makes a lot of sense! For me, it was like walking out of a cloud - metformin dragged my down a lot in terms of energy and deprived me of restful sleep.
Metformin can be a very beneficial drug for those for whom it works without problems. I really wanted it to work for me, but it did not. On the other hand, I am doing pretty well, in general, on insulin - with even better A1c than I could get with metformin/Amaryl/diet/exercise.
I hope your meeting with the endo will point you in a good direction overall!
I didn't have insurance for the last few years and was at the mercy of the sliding scale clinic. I got insurance this month so actually can pick drs.
I shoot for a fasting under 100 but rarely make it and pp of under 140. None of my drs. have felt that was attainable and would do nothing to assist. I already have mild neuropathy.
I was at 25 grams of carbs a day and I couldn't work out or function. I tried it for about 3 months before giving up and upping to about 60. Lately I've just had a bad attitude about it and have been more in the 100 range because after almost 2 years of rigid dieting not only did I not lose any weight but I burned out and it really didn't help my bg much.
I had unrelated female issues and was severely anemic for about a year. I'm surprised no one mentioned the link between anemia and met. I guess they figured the female issues was the cause (which I do agree was) but it seems like compounding the problem with a drug that causes it could have made it worse.
I have been pushing for insulin for years. I always hear how I eat so well and exercise so I don't need to be on insulin. In fact, my internal med told me to stop the amaryl because there was no need for it. I had 140 fasting without amaryl. A few months ago I forgot to take meds before work and it was too far to go home. My BG was over 200 all day. At this point it has been 48 hours without met but with amaryl and my bg was in its lower normal range this morning, 112. So my lesson was that if I miss a single dose of amaryl within hours I'll be way up despite eating the same thing and working out for an hour. If I skip a few days of met it will have no effect.
My sleep was messed up last night but it was because I felt like I had a ton of energy. I woke up after 4 hrs and wanted to do stuff but since everyone was asleep and we currently live in a 5th wheel trailer I couldn't really do anything but read a book. Finally fell back asleep then overslept and felt groggy for the first hour because of too much sleep. Now I wish the fog was gone so I could go out and run
My mother stopped taking met at 81 - around 20 years after her hysterectomy. Female issues were not involved in her anemia. :) The anemia in my mother's case improved after a short while off of metformin. Her doctor at the Mayo Clinic is the one that decided she should stop taking it. I hadn't heard that general anemia (just than B12) can be caused by metformin otherwise, but it seems to have been the case for my mother.
Had an ok visit with endo. I like that she pretty much seems to let me do what I want.
Bad news is thyroid is not likely to be fixable by anything other than surgery. Got a referral to the surgeon.
Got referral to eye dr. cause I'm due for my retinopathy check.
She told me that it will take about a week or a little more to have the met quit affecting bg. She told me to watch and see. She said I could try upping my amaryl too. She has ordered GAD antibodies and C-Peptide but sinc I wasn't fasting it has to wait til Monday.
She told me that since I'm Asian my diabetes can be different than Anglos. She said that we are often not heavy and have beta cell failure earlier. So more or less I need to wait on tests and continue to mess with meds to see what happens.
I am feeling much better today and my stomach issues seem to be gone. If I have to go back on the met maybe a lower dose will work.
I really hope I don't need to go back on the met or maybe a much lower dose or something. I feel the best I have felt in about 6 months. No more tummy trouble. Had enough energy to run. Aced an accounting test and am almost done with next weeks accounting assignment that I started this morning.
Well that was a failed experiment. After dinner I shot up to 275. So 5 days after stopping the met I had to start again. I took 500 mg last night and bg was 105 this morning. I need to go in to do all my blood tests but it needs to be fasting. Since I got up at 4 am I really didn't feel like going without food until 8 so I guess it will be tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep in a bit. I'm a breakfast person so those fasting tests are hard.
I upped my amaryl to 2 mg yesterday since I knew my bg was creeping up. Since I didn't go hypo I may try that dose for a while and see if it gives me better control.
No, technically a failed experiment is one from which you cannot draw conclusions. You learned a few things. You learned that it takes 5 days for the positive effect of metformin seem to stop being detected. And, you learned that whatever you ate for dinner last night made you BG go to 275...
How long after eating was that 275? It could be that that meal was just a bit too carb-heavy for you on the particular meds at that time. Also, be careful with the Amaryl - too high a dose could cause lows. So test frequently to make sure you're good.
You are right. It was just disappointing since the met made me sick. Hopefully I will be able to take a lower dose and it won't have that effect. I tested about 1.5 hrs after I started eating and dinner was a little higher than normal in carbs. We had a hectic evening and ended up at KFC. I picked off the breading but ate a biscuit.
15 years ago I discovered that the only way for me to get pp below 300 was to take met. Even eating no fruit or starches I would shoot up. I guess that hasn't changed.
