dave from georgiadoctor 4:oo tomorrow

Dave, I think you are handleing this all very well! I can remember my husband went around for the first year thinking the dr's were wrong. He only took the meds for me. Now he realizes that he has diabetes and he can control it instead of it controlling him. It's been a road to get here.

I can tell you from our experience that the dr's usually up the metformin when the side effects go away. So I would figure yours will be to 1000 mg (2 500 mg twice a day). If that doesn't lower it in the next few weeks it will go to 1500 mg. Then up to 2000 mg's.
Headaches are a side effect and usually don't come back when upped. If they do it's no where near as bad (I think my husband had a little bit of a side effect but not bad at all).

Don't worry so much about this. It is what it is. Worrying won't change the out come of the tests (except maybe make a finger poke higher). Your doing what you need to be doing and that's what counts.
So chin up and pat yourself on the back. Your doing great!

Posted by: "sdbmshad"

Hi Dave,

I was pretty much like you when I was first diagnosed in Sept. The best thing I did for myself is what is called "testing in pairs". That is where you test your BG before a meal and then again about 2 hrs after (some will say 1 hour). Doing this will show you what foods are bad for you. Doing this I found out that potatoes are
a real no no for me. I also found out that I am extremely carb sensitive (without meds any amount will raise my BG by a lot). If you are able to do this (you do it for about 7 days) it may help you feel more comfortable with food choices and how much you can eat.

If you go to accu-chek.com they talk about it there and have sheet you can print out to use and keep track of that stuff. I also make sure I always eat protein with any carbs I have (usually a handful of almonds). I also look for carbs that are below 10 grams total for my snacks (I have to have my chocolate and sweet fix) and that seems to work for me.

Any way - things to get better. I would like to say easier, but I am not sure about that yet :}. You seem to be doing everything right so far. Unfortunately this is one of those "it didn't happen to you over night, so it won't be fixed that fast" things.

I was also started on a low dose of metformin and had the same results as you. I am on amayrl now because I could not tolerate the metformin. I take 1 mg a day in the morning and that seems to be doing the trick (2 mg was causing too many hypoglycemic episodes).

My advice - take a few deep breaths, try the testing in pairs (if you can) or at least go to the site and look at what they have to say,and give yourself a pat on the back for the great job you are doing so far.

Posted by: "Alex Jackson"