need diet tips/advice/
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| Tue, 11-27-2007 - 8:41pm |
Well. Here we are as pretty much expected from recent symptoms, my husband was diagnosed with diabetes today. He will take the medication twice daily and see how it goes. Other than being told to walk more exercise more, lose weight,etc.... the Dr. just told him don't eat white flour, potatoes, or anything with sugar. Well every website I have been on today to try to find some diabetic guidelines for cooking and meal planning have the 5-6 servings of starches and breads!! Am I crazy or am I looking at something wrong?? I need advice on the meal planning and if he can have whole grain breads and use whole grain flours, are there potatoes of any kind we can try?? I have so many questions and a big part of it is just the plain fact that my husband is a big bread and potatoes eater and he's already feeling like he's starving and it's only been a few hours without white bread, potatoes or sweet tea. I told him that it will be like any other kind of withdrawals probably he will get irritable with headaches etc.. until his body gets used to not having the sugar and starch everyday at every meal. Am I right?
Thank you.

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Hi,
I hope you looked at the link I gave you.
I see that your husband is taking metformin. Metformin can make him feel really ill. He needs to start on a lower dose and work his way up to his theraputic dose. I hope he is taking no more than 250 mgm twice per day. Please understand that it will take about two weeks on metformin before the gastric side effects wear off.
Thank you for the tips. I wish I would have read them sooner. My DH had a trip out of town planned and the Dr told him he would most likely have stomach/intestinal upset when starting this med so he could start his first dose today before supper. Well, he did take his first pill today and it was a 500mg and then supposed to work up to 500mg twice a day by next week. Things are not good, he is sick as a dog, been in the bathroom for the past three hours and nauseated too along with clammy sweats. I've checked his sugar level to make sure it wasn't dropping to fast from the pill and it's hovering around 150 avg for the past 4 hours. So my question is, can he 'rewind' and take only 250mg starting tomorrow and move forward from there? With as sick as he is right now from this the metformin, I'm afraid he is considering not ever taking it again and just taking his chances without any meds. As I've stated, he isn't one to take any medicines to start with and now from getting this sick from something that is supposed to help him, he just doesn't believe in it's benefits. This has me really worried.
Did he take the meds after dinner like Mary Frances said?
Yes, you can re-wind! Have him take 250 after he eats his breakfast and after his dinner. He needs to work up to the optimum dose slowly. It takes about 2 weeks for his system to get used to med and he needs to understand that up front. My husband started on metformin last monthly slowly and he had no difficulties. When I started on metformin I was so sick I wasn't sure I would make it but I hung in there and like magic the side effects stopped. Some people are never able to get over the side effects though but lets not think that for your husband right now.
Please make sure he has food in his tummy before he takes the med.
I hope this is helpful. Please let me know how he does.
I have been reading your posts about your hubby's upset tummy from the Metformin.
As my screen name implies, I was dx'd as
2sweet02
I just wanted to second what you said!!
Hi,
Sorry I didn't get to the computer any earlier today.
It takes up to two weeks for all the initial symptoms from the metformin to go away. My husband just started on it and never got any symptoms. The first symptom that I got was that I couldn't eat as much as I had been eating and I have been on metformin for close to 5 years and my appetite has never returned. I also got stomach upset so bad I thought I wasn't going to be able to take the drug.
It is highly unlikely that he would be getting lactic acidosis because his kidney function is normal. This complication can be devastating but doesn't occur very often. Of course if he got it, that would be one complication too many, so I don't want to minimize your concern.
Ask his doctor for a referral to a dietitian for meal planning help for both of you. Check with your insurance because most insurances pay for patient education.
We do have a saying in diabetes that if its white don't bite. But really all carbohydrates raise the blood sugar the same amount. 15 grams of carbs will raise the blood sugar 50 points.
It will take several weeks for his blood sugar to stabilize and he may be having symptoms as his body becomes used to the more normal blood sugar. The brain cells and eyes are especially sensitive to fluctuations in the blood sugar.
I do hope that his doctor called you back. Unfortunately he and you need to learn the most about this disease at the very time that he feels the worst. Not fair but that is the way it is! And believe me, he doesn't feel well right now and it will be a while before he realizes what his uncontrolled blood sugar was making him feel like.
Just hang in there, it will get better.
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