I feel afraid of this disease. Was also DX. Recently and am in total shock. Prescribed metformin 2 twice per day. Just took 1st pill not hungry. Feel bloated and tired. I checked my levels 1hr after meds it was 188 before meds 168. Can anyone give me any advice. I just took my sugar level again at 9:17p and it’s gone up to 200? Why is this happening after I have taken the medication. I’m not hungry at all. What do I eat what do I do? I feel nervous about this. I need help, suggestions, guidance and any info I can get.
1 Like
Metformin takes a few weeks to kick in. After that your Doctor might add or adjust. In my case a second med was added and my numbers are well within range.
3 Likes
Thanks. I feel so bad right now. Sugar is going up. Not sure what to eat to bring it down. I feel gittery. I also just want to sleep but I don’t want to go into a diabetic coma or something. Please excuse my sincere stupidity. I’m just afraid and Simply don’t know
I’ve been checking levels every hour. I feel like I’ve eaten a ton. Why?? I have only nibbled. I can’t eat another literally impossible. I’ve tried nibbling on a carrot but I feel so tired and just want to sleep. Can you help?
A diabetes diagnosis is so unexpected it can be difficult to deal with when it finally sinks in. You are in the right place. Read up around here. If there is a class you can go to do it. My class was given by a pharmacist and it really helped.
It took months for my numbers to stabilize.
1 Like
Hasn’t been so long for me that I’ve forgotten what it was like to be first diagnosed. I had no symptoms, so the diagnosis caught me totally by surprise. I started on metformin – and yes, it took away my appetite and made all my food taste bad. (I had other rare side effects that eventually resulted in my going off metformin.) You needn’t worry about going low on metformin - it is not a drug that actually lowers your blood glucose directly, so you can sleep peacefully and without those worries.
Don’t expect immediate results. Metformin gets in the way of your liver releasing sugar into your system - so should help your fasting BG (blood glucose). It also helps reduce insulin resistance, which is often a component of Type 2 diabetes. That can help lower your BG after meals. Exercise - of almost any kind - can help lower your BG and insulin resistance as well. If you can, you should increase your activity level – but take it slowly, getting injured will not help!
Though many things can contribute to high BG (such as stress, pain, illness, etc.), one of the the biggest contributors is usually what you eat – and in terms of that, most of that is from carbohydrates (carbs) – that includes all sorts of carbs - sweets, grains, starches (including vegetables), even fruits. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have any - but reducing how much carbs or the source of the carbs you eat can make a difference. IT’s a learning process… As @McChesney said, there is a lot of information on this site, as well as quite a few good books that can help as well. It’s a learning process - and what works for me may or may not work for you, and visa-versa.
It’s very normal to feel shocked and overwhelmed - as I said, I remember that feeling well! Please rememeber: This was NOT your fault! But you can get it under control. You’ve got this! You can manage T2 in your own way and live a long, healthy life.
Feel free to ask any questions you have here - or in any thread on the site. There are lots of helpful people who have been through some or all of the things you are going through! Welcome to the club no one asks to joinm but know, “You are not alone!”
5 Likes
Welcome to TuD 
but sorry you need to be here. As several people have mentioned, Metformin takes awhile to begin doing its job. I agree that the best things you can do to help lower your BG are to exercise (walking is great for bringing down BG) and limit your intake of carbs (no sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes; limit fruit to once daily and choose a low-carb fruit; no fruit juice; no non-diet soda; drink lots of water). There is a wealth of information and support for you here at TuD!
2 Likes
Hi, may I say welcome. 
This is the time to get educated and understand as best you can. Connect with a diabetes educator ,ask your doctor’s office. Does your hospital offer diabetes education classes? Take it to help you understand.,covered by most insurances so check. There are some excellent books out. One about the first year of having type 2. Gretchen Becker has an excellent book out for new Type 2’s. As far as testing goes,test 2 hours after you eat. Exercise is the best thing to help. Best of luck. Nancy
2 Likes
Tears in my eyes. So Greatfull for you guys. I’m so afraid because I consider myself a healthy person. I was living a green life for sometime now. Mostly juicing everything. My Mother and grandfather bother has biabetes. My Monday t2 grandfather t1. Mom mom came off her meds with duet and exercise. I’m hopeful. I have been checking my sugar every hour. It’s been up and down. This morning before meal about 7 it was 196 at 9am 176 all before food. I started meds at 9:30 forced myself to eat oatmeal was able to eat half bowl with blue berries. At 11 sugar was 246. Started walking got so tired had to rest. Feel a bit better but am afraid to take sugar check again. Think I’ll wait until before bed. I think I’ll have kale mushroom and chicken salad for lunch, will take last meds about 9 with something, not sure because I just don’t have any apatite. I had diarrhea all night after the first dose. So today will be my first day with the 2 doses. Dose anyone have a good meal plan, exercise routine or free ebook that may help. Also I felt anxious and just needed someone to talk to about this and help me to just calm down and didn’t know who to call. Do you have any diabetic crisis or support line information.
This site has been a life saver helping me distress and feel that I’m not doing this alone.
You all are my Angeles.
Thanks a Million
1 Like
My pharmacist also gave me a brief tutorial on injections and was very patient. Although we didn’t look alike she showed no signs of reservation to help howevershe could. She was clearly a Muslim and I’m a Christian. Thank God for true Love ,empathy and Kidneys. It heals the hurt everyone.
Thank you all
Thank you so much. It helps to hear from a team of survivors. We will beat this evil. Together one way or another. When you feel anxious and need someone to talk to and the Dr. Office is closed what do you suggest
@Missy14 sorry you had to join our club. There’s lots of folks here that would love to help you. You will find that getting your blood sugar under control is a very doable project, lots of us have done just that!
Metformin can cause digestive problems, they usually get better over time.
As @twinchick said The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed by Becker is a good book, it explains whats going on with your body and the various options you have.
T2 is the inability to safely process carbs. It is important to understand that all carbs are not created equal. Carbs from sugars and starch hit your bloodstream very quickly and can overwhelm your pancreas. Carbs from veggies hit your bloodstream slowly so your pancreas can deal with them better. Replacing starches like potatoes and grains with another course of veggies can do wonders. There are lots of low carb recipe sites on the internet to help with meal planning.
2 Likes
The feelings of shock, fear and uncertainty are normal: we’ve all been there. Take it from thousands of us, that will pass. In the meantime, it’s time to start learning how to win this fight, which you absolutely, positively can.
By the time you are diagnosed, your blood sugar has probably been all over the place for some period of time. It didn’t happen overnight, and it won’t get stabilized overnight. The thing that matters is that it will get stabilized. Truly.
Metformin is an interesting drug, and one of the safest anywhere. It’s been around for a very long time and is about as well studied and understood as any medication out there. The digestive upsets you are experiencing are normal; they are the principal side effect and they vary tremendously from individual to individual. Some people have strong side effects (like Thas) and some very minimal ones (like me). And the initial side effects fade to a very manageable level for the majority of people. Patience is in order.
Also, as I think someone mentioned, it takes a while for metformin to build up to full effect in your system. So it will be a little while before you can gauge exactly how much it is helping. On the plus side, it has some beneficial side effects too. It appears to lower the risk of certain cancers, especially for women.
There are tons and tons of other advice we can offer, but that’s enough for the moment. You’re embarking on a long learning curve, but we’ve all traveled it and there is plenty of brilliant light at the end of the tunnel, honestly.
Regarding that last point, I’ll just leave you with this for now: don’t try to learn it all at once. In the first place, you can’t. Eventually the brain gets saturated and won’t absorb any more. Take it slow. Learn one new thing at a time. In the second place, diabetes isn’t going anywhere (and notwithstanding the way it feels right now, neither are you.) You’re in this for the long haul. As someone very wise once said, “Diabetes is a marathon, not a sprint.” You have all the time in the world.
And welcome to this caring community. You’ve come to the right place; we’re glad you found us.
4 Likes
As others have said - don’t expect to fix this overnight - it takes a bit of time, but you will get there! Diabetes is a marathon, not a sprint. Plus, high BG, while bad, doesn’t generally do damage quickly - you can get things under control in time! You asked: [quote=“Missy14, post:9, topic:56809”]
Dose anyone have a good meal plan, exercise routine or free ebook that may help.
[/quote]
That opens a huge can of worms! 
EVERYONE has a favorite meal plan, exercise routine, etc. Plus there are LOTS of resources - some free, some for nominal cost - that you can use. As I said earlier, you will have to experiment to find out what works best for you - everyone is different. Know, though, that as carbs - all kinds of carbs - affect BG - so, for example, that oatmeal you had for breakfast, while “healthy” still contributes a lot of carbs, so explains why your BG rose after you ate it. To start, you probably have to limit your carbs to a minimum, then, when you see good results, experiment with specific foods to see how well and how much you can handle while maintaining good numbers most of the time. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can never have these things – you have to learn to plan carefully and “pick your battles” - like in everything else in life. Lately, I’ve gone to a lower carb (total around 50-70g/day) diet, with more protein and fat. You have to find what works for you…
It’s a learning experience - and one that you can accomplish in time.
2 Likes
Take a deep breath, it’s going to be OK. A couple of things you should know (from reading between the lines):
-
Metformin takes a while to work, you’re going to have to address your high BG by not eating (what you are probably used to eating); eating is not going to bring your BG down.
-
You can’t eat to bring your BG down. You can eat to bring it UP (which you obviously don’t want to do).
-
“Diabetic Coma” is usually from having critically low BG (<10 mg/dL); very high BG (like 450+) can lead to what is called Diabetic Ketoacidosis if you also have low insulin (which, if you are Type 2, you probably do not have low insulin).
-
You can exercise (take a walk!) to bring your BG down some before the meds are going to work.
-
It’s perfectly OK to feel overwhelmed! I thought I was going to die on the spot when my doctor told me I had diabetes in May of this year. Baby on the way, new job, in debt, and now I have diabetes on top of all of it? And it’s turned out OK.
-
It takes a couple of weeks or months (or even years) to get into “normal” or healthy BG ranges for most diabetics. This is a chronic, long-term, progressive disease, but (unless you’re Type 1) it isn’t likely to kill you now. You have some time to figure things out.
-
If you’re prescribed Metformin, you are likely going to have to rely on diet and exercise to do the majority when managing your blood sugars. I’m on a high dose of Metformin, but I eat low-carb and exercise like a madman (5x week, 2 hours a day, very intensely). Metformin helps with something called “Dawn Phenomenon” (a rise in BG in the morning before waking), but the diet and exercise is what keeps me comfortably in the 70-120 mg/dL range 99% of the time.
-
You came to (one of) the right place(s) for help and understanding! This is a great community, and you’ll get compassion, sound advice, and best of all, experience of people that have been living with diabetes for months, years, and sometimes decades.
-
It’s going to be OK.
3 Likes
This morning before meal about 7 it was 196 at 9am 176 all before food. I started meds at 9:30 forced myself to eat oatmeal was able to eat half bowl with blue berries. At 11 sugar was 246.
One of the hardest things for me to accept was that all my ideas of “Healthy” foods had to change. Oatmeal and blueberries is as healthy (for normal) people as it comes, but for many diabetics (myself included), that is a surefire recipe to raise blood sugars to unhealthy levels (anything over 140 mg/dL or so). If it makes you feel any better, that rise (196-246) is almost exactly what would happen to me (in terms of the amount) if I were to eat the same breakfast. For me, the solution has been to drop carbs (even complex, healthy carbs) from my morning meal (and most of rest of day too).
I highly suggest you check out something like the “Nutritional Ketogenic Diet” (see Reddit - Dive into anything), Atkins, Paleo, or other diets that severely limit the number of carbohydrates. Especially if you are going to control your diabetes with Metformin, diet, and exercise alone. You may not like those diets and decide on something else, but you might end up needing different medication regimes if that is the case.
For me, my blood sugars are now in range because of eating low-carb and exercising. My breakfast this morning was fish oil, eggs, kale, and some cheddar cheese. 400 calories and about 8 grams of carbs (from kale). My BG only rose by 4 mg/dL one hour after eating. It will take a while to reach those kind of numbers (if you even want to, not suggested for everyone).
2 Likes
Don’t worry too much when you consider a change in how you eat. No one likes to change eating habits. I think you’ll find that there are plenty of foods that you will like. I limit my daily carbs to about 75 grams per day. I eat eggs, breakfast sausage, bacon, all kinds of meat, fish, berries, full-fat dairy (heavy cream - yum!), nuts, cheese, and veggies. Many of us have been able to eat this way for a long, long time. You can feel satiated and enjoy very normal blood glucose, along with the energy that you may have forgotten about.
Good luck and welcome to TuDiabetes!
3 Likes
You are absolutely right, but it took me a while to figure this out (and I’m still adjusting). I grew up on a farm, raised by “back-to-Earth” types (eating 90% veggies and shaklee supplements, daily), and was convinced that as long as I ate organic, heirloom and homegrown potatoes, crunchy bread with lots of seeds and sprouts, and homemade pies with blackberries from the backyard and crusts made from imported, handpicked durham wheat, and stuck to a reasonable calorie limit per day, that I’d be healthy and happy. That was absolutely true right up until the day when it wasn’t anymore, and the next month I was diagnosed with diabetes 
I really miss good, solid, starchy “healthy” food and homemade bread, but have gotten pretty used to eating good, solid, organic meat, eggs, greens, and fats. Just took a while, and I’m really going to miss my Christmas Torte this year 
1 Like
If your bg only went up 70pts with a bowl of oatmeal I’d consider that a victory, although across the board your levels are higher than you want.
I’d be lucky to manage only a 70 pt rise even with careful insulin dosing if I ate that – which is why I generally just can’t eat stuff like that.
It gets easier…
Missy, welcome to the family. This is a great place to make some new friends, learn about your condition and how to manage it successfully in a productive, happy life.
The general public has such a distorted understanding of diabetes that people are often terrified when they are diagnosed. Thoughts of having their feet amputated, going blind, having to eat all sorts of weird unappetizing food, and the worst – I cause this with my poor behavior.
Undoubtedly some of those crossed your mind. I’d like to reassure you that all of that is a bit hysterical, not justified by the diagnosis. As with so many things, what society “knows” about diabetes is the absolute worst possibilities – not what the vast majority of people who join the club have to look forward to.
So please relax. I have some great news for you.
First, your blood sugar levels are nothing to worry about. I say “worry” deliberately. 188 is too high without question, and should be brought down into normal range. But 188 is nothing to have any worry about. You’re not doing scads of horrific damage to yourself at that level. You’d have to average BG at that level for many years to cause problems. So you’ve got plenty of time to learn, figure this out, and develop routines and habits that will keep your blood sugar in control – and your prognosis through life very positive.
Second big point to focus on is diabetes, unlike many other chronic conditions, is a disease we can do something about. A lot! We know that managing BG and keeping it as close to normal as possible reduces the incidence of all sorts of complications – those scary things I listed out above. And we know how to control BG. Indeed, we have in exogenous (external) insulin an amazing tool for managing this condition. Many many diabetics live otherwise happy, healthy lives. Diabetes is a real PITA, but it CAN be pretty much just that, rather than a disability.
Now, understand there are no guarantees. And many of our friends here on TuD are struggling with very serious complications, even though they were diligent, and did the best they could managing diabetes.
A big part of this is because diabetes treatment has advanced tremendously in the last 25 years with insulin analogs, oral treatments, pump technologies, glucometers, CGMs, and on and on. Before these technologies, diabetes treatment was much more primitive.
So, you have a lot to be hopeful about, and feel encouraged. Diabetes is very manageable today and is getting more so as research progresses.
Hang out with us, ask questions, crack some jokes, and see that this really isn’t so bad. We all can do it.
2 Likes