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| Tue, 03-03-2009 - 11:37pm |
Well, I've been testing my levels for about a week now. In some respects, I'm quite surprised by how it's going. In other ways, it's not the big of a shock. My fasting levels in the morning are still elevated (103 to 122 is the range so far). Once I've got my Metformin in my system, though, everything changes. My 2-hour post-meal levels during the day are surprisingly good, even low some times (I had an 86 2-hours after lunch today). I've stopped taking my metformin with dinner and am taking it closer to bedtime, so my post-dinner levels are still not pretty. I'm not watching my diet as closely as I should, but I am already able to see a pattern of what my levels do depending on what I eat. Tonight, I had 2 Pepsis with a carb heavy meal and just had a 146 reading. No big surprise there. I think once I can get my diet under control and start exercising then I should be doing pretty good. My DH and I are in the process of trying to close on a house and get ready to move, so I had the time or inclination to really focus on it like I should. But so far so good, I think!








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Allie,
Don't take your metformin on an empty stomach. You need food in your tummy when you take it so it is better if you take it with dinner. It has a long enough half life to cover you until the morning. Also it takes up to eight weeks to see the maximun effect of the metformin.
Good luck on getting the house! Packing and unpacking should certainly give you
Actually, I do better taking metformin with a small snack (some All Bran multigrain crackers and cheese) before bed instead of taking it with dinner. And, once I got past the first few weeks, I have taken it on a mostly empty stomach at bedtime without a problem. I had more problems when I did take it with dinner than if I take it with a light snack.
As always, YMMV
--Deb
LOL yup! I figured out when it worked best to take my metformin then adjusted my other meds to that (synthroid and now low dose aspirin as well). I've also discovered that I can NOT take any multivitamin supplement I've found so far because the calcium part of the supplement messes with the thyroid meds (which is a known issue - it was mentioned in the info on calcium supplementation my GP gave me). No matter when I took the vitamin, it messed with my system - take the med at night, took the supplement along with it (so as not to forget) - BIG mistake. Stopped that quickly. Waited several days until I felt 'normal' again (no vitamin). Tried med at night, vitamin with breakfast - still no good. So, now I'm on the lookout for a multivitamin with NO calcium in it - which I haven't yet tracked down. Alternatively, I may just go out and get a good B complex + C combo since they're the biggies I'm after (particularly making sure on B12 since we eat little to no meat, especially red meat, which are the main sources of B12 for most people).
--Deb
Taking mine at night has another advantage - first thing in the morning, I'm not really "all there" so who knows what kind of chaos I'd cause LOL
I also have to make sure to keep mine (synthroid, metformin, aspirin) and hubby's (cholesterol, blood pressure, aspirin) separate enough so I know which are whose. So mine are in a basket on the back of the tank and his are on the window ledge - the aspirin is kind of mid way along the ledge because we share the big bottle of aspirin...isn't that sweet? LOL
--Deb
Speaking of double doses, I just went thru a big fiasco w/my mom who is 95.
Though it 'might' help, 2 weeks won't lower it that much if you have been really bad!
Colleen,
That was quite a scare for everybody. Remember stress will mess up your blood sugar readings without you doing anything. It has to do with corticosteroids that you make and adrenalin.
I hope everybody is doing better.
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