I just decided to actually acknowledge that I have diabetes and do something about it, as of January 1. I’ve been attempting to lose weight by dieting and exercising, and I am making an appointment with an endocrinologist as soon as possible. (I see my GP for an unrelated – well, actually it IS related, as I think it’s a complication caused by high blood sugar, but anyway – issue on Friday and will request a referral at that time.)
I think I’m going to ask to go back on insulin. I still have my insulin pump from pregnancy, and I prefer it to the side effects I experienced during the short time I tried Metformin. My fasting blood sugar is pretty consistently in the 120-130 range right now, and I think that’s too high. I can’t get it into range after meals because I’m starting out the meal already too high.
Incidentally, I have noticed that aerobic exercise tends to immediately drop my blood sugar, whereas weight training raises it slightly. (I mean in the short term only.) I am not sure why this is, but it’s pretty consistent for me.
One very common side-effect from metformin is nausea, but most people who take it only suffer from that for a few weeks to a few months.
While, obviously, lower is generally better, the American Diabetes Association says that the “ideal for adults with diabetes” is a before-meal number of 90-130, and a “before bedtime snack” number (post-meal) of under 180. OTOH, those are general guidelines; if you’re feeling symptoms when you’re in the range you’re in, or you feel you can get it lower, then the guidelines may be too high for you.
No offense, but I think those recommendations from the ADA are outdated and not helpful. Also, feeling symptoms is not a good indicator of whether your blood sugar is in good control or not. Plenty of people go for years with out-of-control blood sugar and feel no symptoms whatsoever.
During my pregnancy, my target numbers were <100 fasting and pre-meal, <140 1 hour postprandial, and <140 2 hours postprandial. These numbers have been shown to lead to better outcomes for infants born to diabetic mothers. Also, my perinatologist told me there’s been some recent research indicating that tight control, e.g. the numbers I just mentioned, leads to vastly decreased incidence of complications even in non-pregnant people. I have no cite for this, unfortunately, and don’t have time to try to find one at the mo.
As for the metformin, I had nausea/gas, and while it did lessen significantly after a few weeks, I still had the overarching issue that it wasn’t actually helping my blood sugar numbers all that much. My fasting blood glucose while on metformin crept down from 130 to 120 over a period of a few weeks. I was told to hang in there, as it can take a while to have an effect. Contrast this with my experience on insulin: One day after starting my insulin regimen, my fasting number was 90, and it stayed there. Also, no gas/nausea.
Mind you, I’m certainly not saying this is for everyone, and I know that Metformin/glucophage works beautifully for a lot of people. I am not knocking it. Just, for me, insulin is easier and more effective. Once I got over my initial "ZOMG NEEDLES :eek: " reaction, it was a piece of cake. (Er, metaphorically speaking. I don’t eat cake anymore. )
The <180 numbers are considered “loose control” and are for people at risk of going hypo, typically children and/or people who have a history of not being able to gauge their insulin well for whatever reason.
Any health care professional who has paid any attention to the research of the past 5 or 10 years usually agrees that there’s a lot of reasons for most diabetics to keep their sugars under 140 after meals. Most studies agree that long-term, <140 is the range that avoids complications.
Sigh. I thought I caught all my typos when I edited my post the first time. I meant that my target range was <140 1 hour after eating and <120 2 hours after.
Don’t equate exercise with losing weight. It isn’t necessarily so, and you’ll only depress yourselves by expecting miracles. Exercise is paramount to decent health. Weight loss may or may not occur, depending on your eating habits, but you should never let that be a reason to stop. I had my annual physical today and won’t see the bloodwork until next week, but my BP has dropped to 120/73 and my resting pulse is now 63. This is very encouraging, since I certainly don’t kill myself at the gym. I have not lost any appreciable weight over the past few months of routine exercise, but that’s my dietary problems as noted above. The important thing is that the numbers come down anyway.
Dolores Reborn: I highly recommend Younger Next Year, a no-bullshit, no fads book full of common sense and practical advice for people who don’t want to die young or end up housebound when older.
Just wanted to revive this thread to say that I got my bloodwork back from the physical: A1c is 5.8, which is below diabetic level. Also, HDL/LDL ratio is good. Exercise is paying off, for sure. Now if I can just get my diet under control, perhaps the triglycerides will come down.
I have been on Glucotrol for about a week. I was just diagnosed in the ER (unrelated issue) last week and have an appointment with my general doc Wednesday and he is sending me to an endcrinologist. I will let you know how it goes.
I have noticed a greater clarity of mind and alertess the past week at work, especially in the morning to noon timeframe. I think the glucotrol, and being more mindful of my sugar intake, is helping.
It’s good that you’re feeling better. My glucose was at 102, which doesn’t suck. At age 72, you really need to be exercising regularly and vigorously, if you want to avoid major quality-of-life issues later on. My brother is 72 and is a mess, physically. He’s had some major health issues along the way and is on insulin for diabetes. He does a very small amount of exercise (which is all he’s really capable of now), but will spend the remainder of his life with limited mobility and steadily declining health. But it’s not too late for you: get moving.
Chefguy, congrats on that A1c. That is awesome! In comparison, our daughters A1c at Dx was around 13.5. It went down to 8.5 at last check: still higher than we’d like, but a definite improvement.
My A1C was 11.5 at diagnosis. I’ll get another one done in early March, and am hoping for something between 6 & 7. I doubt it’ll be lower than that, as I don’t have the right drugs for post-prandial control yet.
But it’s very encouraging to see how everyone else is succeeding! I like this thread, as with just about all subjects, Dope discussions are WAY more useful than the discussions on lesser message boards.
Good luck to you. My doc told me that when she sees a diabetic patient who has an A1C around 6-7, she’s ecstatic. Most have much more serious issues. In the case of my brother, he had to have the veins replaced in both legs (and nearly died), and he has terrible neuropathy pain in his feet. He’s unable to climb stairs and can make about four slow laps around the gym before he’s winded. That’s not a good life.
From what I read, people diagnosed with diabetes now have a pretty good chance of keeping things in control by adopting the same healthy lifestyle that docs recommend to everyone, diabetic or not, and taking the appropriate meds/insulin.
Not so if you were diagnosed even as short as 25 or 30 years ago. They just didn’t have the knowledge and pharmaceuticals they have now, and the recommended lifestyle changes were a lot more rigid and difficult.
I fully intend to get my A1c into the 5-6% range. I’m just waiting until I go to Joslin before adding in another drug/insulin to my regimen. I’m not entirely happy with my Endo here, and another 4 weeks in loose control shouldn’t cause any major issues.
Hubby officially diagnosed with type 2 today. BG was 350: A1C was 11.3. The endo put him on Lantus temporarily, and did some bloodwork: she wants to make sure his kidneys are doing fine before putting him on Metformin. His next appointment is February 16th, so we’ll see where he is then.
I had a small breakfast and planned to have a few small meals during the day. At 3pm I had been with clients all day without a chance to eat. I literally was fighting to stay conscious while talking to one client. I rushed him out the door and ran to the break room and sat down and scarfed a flour tortilla. I felt better in a few minutes, then ate a real meal.
I am really looking forward to seeing the endocinologist to get this under control!
I’m reading this thread eagerly because I was just diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been modifying my eating habits to reduce the number of carbs I’m consuming and I’m going to try working out on a regular basis. I think I’m also going to check into one of those nutritional scales like Athena mentioned. I had no idea such things existed.
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