I have been on Victoza for 3 months now , i have not lost any weight and I am on max dose as my HBA1C is getting higher and higher. I also take 4 x metformin as prescribed a day. My sugars at waking are 17 -19 and before bed have been dropping to below 4 ! The fatigue as i am up and down all night is killing me , I do not eat carbs during the day and follow a very strict clean diet . Anyone have any advice or helpful suggestions as the current meds are def not helping me
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You may need a different medication, or insulin (which is not bad if it helps you get better numbers). This is for your doctor to decide. Please know that carbs are not bad and “clean” doesn’t really mean anything.
Hi @MattA – welcome to the community!
To save anyone else the trouble of hunting down a conversion table, those numbers correspond to ~310 fasting and < 75 at bedtime in mg/dl. And whatever units you use that is a heck of a spread, and that fasting/waking number is, excuse me, appalling. I’m T1, so things can be different, but If I saw a number like that ONCE I’d know something was seriously wrong with my pump or infusion set and I’d be in emergency troubleshooting mode. If you’re hitting that kind of number routinely your regimen is definitely not working and you need to change it. Especially if, as you say, you’re carb-restricting–to me that looks suspiciously more like a T1 situation not a T2.
You say you started Vicroza 3 months ago. Was that when you were dx’d? If not, how long ago was it? A LOT of people who get T1 as adults are misdiagnosed as T2 because Drs still make the mistake of thinking age is determinative. It isn’t. And getting it straightened out typically begins with getting put on the standard T2 regimen and trying and trying and finding it just doesn’t work. If you have never been tested for T1 (GAD Antibodies or C-peptide) I strongly urge you to consider it. Should be routine for ANY diagnosis of diabetes but for some reason they don’t. Even within the medical profession the days of “I thought only kids got that!” are not over…
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I’m with @DrBB on this. When things don’t make sense sometimes you could be a Type 1 instead. Type 1’s are still misdiagnosed 35% of the time as a Type 2 at first. I was for over 8 years. I even saw an Endo and when I asked, he said no, you’re a type 2 and never tested me. I believe because I was overweight, it was assumed I was a type 2. Type 2 had never made sense to me, I swam 75 laps a day in a gym pool, I ate extremely healthy and I had an uncle that was a Type 1, and yet the Type 2 diagnosis was never questioned. It wasn’t until I switched doctors and they sent me to a new endo who tested me without me even asking I was finally diagnosed right.
You need to ask for an antibody test. If it’s positive it’s a sign of being a type 1. Some Type 1’s don’t test positive but don’t make insulin and they don’t know why. Then a C-Peptide which measures how much insulin you are making. Low or low normal is a sign of being a Type 1 as you are not making insulin or making enough insulin. High or high normal is a sign of being a Type 2 because you make more insulin to try to compensate for being insulin resistant. I would suggest switching doctors if they won’t test you.
I commonly hit the 300’s (17-19) when I was misdiagnosed and they just kept trying different drugs on me. I just kept slowly getting worse. I needed insulin.
Damage is being done slowly staying at that high of BG levels. Whatever be the case it sounds like you need insulin. I felt so much better when I went on insulin.
- C-Peptide While most tests check for antibodies, this test measures how much
C-peptide is in a person’s blood. Peptide levels typically mirror insulin levels
in the body. Low levels of C-peptide and insulin can point to T1D - Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase Autoantibodies (GADA or Anti-GAD)
This test looks for antibodies built against a specific enzyme in the
insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. - Insulin Autoantibodies (IAA)
This tests looks for the antibodies targeting insulin - Insulinoma-Associated-2 Autoantibodies (IA-2A)
This test looks for antibodies mounted against a specific enzyme in
beta cells. Both the IA-2A and GADA tests are common T1D antibody tests. - Zinc Transporter 8 (ZnT8Ab)
This test looks at antibodies targeting an enzyme that is specific to beta cells. - Islet Cell Cytoplasmic Autoantibodies (ICA)
Islet cells are clusters of cells in the pancreas that produce hormones,
including insulin. This test identifies a type of islet cell antibodies present in
up to 80 percent of people with T1D.
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Poor or no response to T2 medications can be a sign of misdiagnosis. You may be LADA (T1) and misdiagnosed due to age, weight, or health professional unawareness. You may need to be on insulin. Look into it.
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Sorry but I have had good luck with victoza. Started on it just prior to the pandemic at 298 lbs. now down to 185.