Hello All, I am Victor. I line in NJ. I was diagnosed as a T2 in 2007 and have struggled ever since to control my numbers. However I have been in the 90 to 130 range for the last 6 months and doing everything possible to keep it that way. I have been in the hospital twice due to heart flutters but have not been diagnosed with any kind of heart disease. I am hopeful to see other people with the same difficulties and hoping that we can help each other out. It sucks to be a diabetic but we will get through this together. 5 years have given me some experience on the disease so I am here and ready to answer any questions you guys may have because I know I have plenty.
WELCOME!!! I can’t talk about Type 2 seeing I’ve had to deal with Type 1 for many years but I’ll bet you can find some with the same troubles as you here.
Welcome, Victor, and congratulations on maintaining 90-130. You’re doing great! Feel free to talk about anything that’s on your mind, because there are lots of people here with lots of experience, and they are quite supportive and helpful. And if you know something I don’t know, I’m all ears to find out, LOL!
Victor, I’m a newbie too. Congrats on your range…I’m desperately trying to get there!
I’m kind of curious about your experience with the heart flutters, because I’ve been having that too. Do you have it often? I usually have it in the evening, when I’m full after a large meal, and wondered if it had to do with the stomach tightening/appetite suppressing aspect of some of the meds. There is something called Roemheld Syndrome that deals with the stomach and the vagus nerve that also runs along your diaphragm and near your heart. It can cause heart flutters with no evidence of heart disease from tests. It appears to be benign unless you have any more severe heart conditions along with it. I haven’t asked my doctor about it yet, because I just began experiencing it and quite honestly some doctors don’t like an educated patient asking questions. One of the things you can do to help when it happens (if it is indeed Roemheld’s) is to drink something carbonated and get a few good belches going. That can calm it down.
Sascha - Glad to meet you. My heart flutters were suspected to be episodes of SVT (Supra-Ventricular Tachycardia).Google it. It has only occurred twice, however during those two times I have felt like I am going to meet my creator. It has been the single most horrifying experience. My heart was beating in excess of 140 beats per minute and it was considered a heart emergency by my doctor. Since they happened my doctor wants me to have a check up visit with a cardiologist every 6 months. Stress test have been done and I have spent 2 nights in the hospital with a battery of tests (all negative). So what is it?..only my good Lord knows. I am however trying to live a healthy life and losing weight to make sure I can get rid of the medication. My wife just had a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy which means that 80% of her stomach was excised and is now in recovery. I am losing weight and trying very hard to eat healthy. Not easy. Let me know if you have any other questions or want to compare feelings of these heart flutters. I am here to help out any way I can. I will definitely look into the Roemheld’s syndrome and will have to talk to my physician about it. By the way - I agree with you in the fact that doctors do not like informed patients (or in some cases - customers). Hit me up whenever you want.
Hi Victor. I was also dx’d in 2007. It has been a stuggle but I keep at it. Are you on any type of meds? I found to get my morning bgs under 130 I had to up my metformin to the maximum- 2550 mg. I take it in 3 x 850 doses. I take one right beore bed, one the minute I wake up and the last one around 10:30 in the morning. This regimen works best for me in conjuction with a lower carb diet to keep my bgs close to 100. I do a lot of testing and now avoid the foods that spike me. This has also allowed me to lose all the weigh I needed to with very little effort. When we were first married we lived in NJ for about 4 years. I’m sure it has changed a lot since the late 70’s.
Jeannie - Glad to hear from you. I only take Glipizide 10mg once a day and given to my good numbers my Physician just lowered it to 5mg daily. I kept getting low numbers twice or three times a week. I had to keep eating glucose tablets and Orange Juice to maintain level numbers. I am not on Metformin however I am trying very hard to lose weight too and make sure that I avoid those good old Spaghetti dinners I used to enjoy so much. I am now curbing my cravings and making sure that my choices are sensible and focused on health. Yeah NJ is very different, I am actually making plans to move down south sometime this summer. I hope it happens. We just went through the harshest winter I have ever been through. Please stay in touch and hit me up if you have any questions or comments. I love to help.
Hi all. Since several of you have mentioned heart issues, I thought I’d chime in, though I’m a Type 1, on insulin not oral meds. I was diagnosed with acid reflux many years ago and have been on meds with varying results. But the acid reflux was never like the typical symptoms you hear about and often included rapid heartbeat and irregular heartbeat at the same time. I was diagnosed a bit later with a heart arrhythmia which I was told was nothing to worry about as I had been tested and there was no underlying heart disease. All this was long before my type 1 diabetes which started four years ago. I kept getting new acid reflux meds and the symptoms just got worse as did the arrhythmia. (not sure if this was after my diabetes diagnosis). After awhile I wondered if I had acid reflux at all because the symptoms were mostly heart, and not connected to any particular food, , except the heart symptoms only occured when I was lying down at night which is an acid reflux pattern. Recently when the heart symptoms became daily and sometimes made it hard to sleep the cardiologist started me on meds, but not sure they help much either. What I have is "frequent premature atrial contractions as well as “runs of Super Ventricular Tachychardia.” It’s not terrible but not fun either. I’ve been tested now several times and the cardiologist says it is nothing to worry about although it could progress to atrial fibrilation which is more serious. I just keep reminding myself I’ve been tested and there is nothing to worry about but it’s still anxiety producing. I do notice when I’m low I have tachychardia as to many people so I’m trying to track if that triggers more episodes but I don’t really think so. Though I spend more time managing my diabetes, I’m not really emotionally troubled about it the way I am about the heart stuff. Hang in there.
What meds are you on for the heart stuff? I used to get tachycardia when I would lay down, when I was in my early 30’s, and I was prescribed atenolol, a beta blocker, which took care of it. Atenolol can blunt symptoms of hypoglycemia, but it hasn’t been a problem for me.
I also occasionally have Premature Atrial Contractions (PAC) and Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVC) – not as often now as they were soon after my coronary artery spasm (like a heart attack, but my arteries were clear). They’re uncomfortable, but my cardiologist agrees with yours – not to worry about UNLESS they get real frequent, say one out of 3 beats (just an example) and don’t stop after 10 or 15 minutes. I’ve basically learned to ignore them, although I AM aware of them.
I’ve done a lot of reading about heart stuff, and one of the things I read was that although there are anti-arrhythmia drugs, they are often more dangerous than the arrhythmia itself, so cardiologists mostly don’t prescribe them unless the patient is in a life-threatening situation.
I know the heart stuff is uncomfortable, but as long as your cardiologist is keeping tabs on you, and you don’t develop additional problems, you should be good to go!
Thanks for your response, Natalie. I didn’t realize how hungry I was for dialogue on this subject until I saw the OP’s comments. I have done some reading on the subject, and looked at the MedHelp board, but there seems so many variations that I didn’t get much out of it.
My cardiologist in Guatemala had put me on Atenolol and it didn’t do anything for my symptoms and they continued to increase. I had been on a different beta blocker as well with no results, besides my blood pressure sometimes being too low when I got up suddenly. My cardiologist has tried me on a couple different things but I forget the names when they don’t work…lol. I’m currently on Sotalol. I don’t know that it helps much either. My symptoms just get more frequent. It’s definitely every day and sometimes during the day too not just at night, definitely lasts longer than 10-15 minutes.Sometimes it helps if I get up and walk around. But my cardiologist doesn’t seem too concerned, so I try not to be either. I never asked what it meant if it progressed to atrial fibrilation because I figured I’d deal with that if it happens. He did say it was not a call 911 emergency, but just come in.
I had heard that from my first cardiologist about the anti-arrhythmia drugs causing worse problems but my current cardiologist said the ones we’re using are not that type. Thanks for the reassurance, it sounds like you’ve been through much more. I have to keep working on my head telling my emotions I am not in imminent danger. I think I’d rather have cancer than serious heart problems because I’m better at enduring ongoing challenge than fearing a sudden crisis (if that makes sense). I don’t usually talk about these feelings.
After my spasm, I remember being afraid to go to sleep at night, because it happened suddenly at 3 AM shocking me out of a deep sleep. And the pain was horrendous, and I passed out. Lucky for me, I woke up again and the pain was gone. If I’d had any sense, I would have gone to the ER anyway, but I waited until the next morning, aching with fear, to see the doctor when his office opened. Heart problems are scary!
It’s been 19 years since the spasm, and it still lurks in the corners of my mind, but I’m not as scared as I was in the first few years. I am aware of the possibility that I could die suddenly at any time, but I mostly don’t think about it. I’m on a medication, diltiazem, to dilate the arteries, and I basically rely on trust that it’s working.
So this is just one more “gotta live with it” thing to endure.
Feel free to talk about anything that’s on your mind, because there are lots of people here with lots of experience, and they are quite supportive and helpful. And if you know something I don’t know, I’m all ears to find out, LOL!