Here is my story. 30 some years ago I was hospitalized with pancreatitis twice ( probably from excess drinking with my job) and told that I would probably end up with diabetes later in my life. So in fact I did, 32 years later. Dr started me on 500 mg of metformin and that slowly increased over the years to 1000, then 1000 twice a day along with glipizide. My weight yoyoed trying different diets, but finally my doc upped my meds to include Januvia, which I took for about 3 years. I was having my A1c checked about every three to six months, and he wasn't concerned about my checking my sugar every day, which I should have done. I think helped me keep my head in the sand about this disease. Finally my mother died and my husband had brain surgery and I started eating and drinking anything I wanted - threw caution to the wind. Come to October of 2012 and my A1c was 8.9 and that's when my doc got serious and put me on Byetta, and I finally realized that I had to take this seriously. Started testing everyday and my numbers went from 285 to 185 to 145 and my A1c dropped to 6.8. However, I became really worried about all the bad reports on Januvia and Byetta, having had pancreatitis years ago. So got a referral to an endo and started with him in April 2013. He took me off the Byetta ( which gave injection issues) and put me on Invokana. Took that for about a month and it made me crazy - I felt like I was going through menopause once more, so stopped that. Next was Welchol, I am also taking Lipitor so really didn't need this but he felt it was helping some sugar issue. This drug gave me terrible muscle aching, so stopped that and - get this- back on Januvia!!! U
Dang...must been rough "trying" different meds huh. So sorry to hear about your Mom and husband. Cant give you much inputs on the other medications since I have no personal experience with them. But Im glad that you are indeed taking care of yourself now and having pretty good progress. Well done!