I still have my ups and downs. Some days I’m ecstatic to have blood glucose readings–even fasting–under 100 and to see the scales show less than 150 lbs.! Other days I’m distressed and discouraged to see blood glucose spikes too far above 140 and the scales again over 150. At the moment, I do not have a migraine; but I’m sure they will return.
I’m still continuing to adjust my insulin dosages based on my meter first thing in the morning and last thing before bedtime, and that seems to work well. I’m always delighted when the reading is low enough that I don’t have to take any insulin at all. Oh, and another very recent thing is that Kaiser is now prescribing 6mm syringes, which makes the shots less unpleasant.
At beginning of October, I decided to try an experiment in a desperate attempt to eliminate or at least lessen the severity of the daily diarrhea caused by 2500mg/day of metformin. I had previously asked Dr. Chan about the timed release metformin as others had said that was giving them some relief, but said she didn’t think it would make any difference. (My guess is that it’s more expensive for Kaiser, so they discourage their doctors from prescribing it.) Still others claimed that increasing their fiber intake helped with that. So, quite arbitrarily, I decided to cut my metformin in half, taking one 500mg tablet with breakfast, another 500mg tablet with supper, and a 500mg tablet at bedtime, hoping against hope that it would keep my liver from spewing out too much glycogen in the night. At the same time, I began taking Metamucil fiber capsules (psyllium husk) with my morning and evening meals. It did help! Though it just lessened the severity and did not eliminate the problem completely. Not unexpectedly, my blood glucose numbers went up a little; whereupon I immediately made conscious effort to increase my fat and decrease my carbs, even at risk of triggering migraines. It seemed to me that I would have migraines anyway, regardless of what I did or did not do. And the numbers went back down to where they were before I reduced the metformin. So my new macronutrient goals are 82% fat, 8% carb, and 10% protein.
I also began taking a low dose of alpha lipoic acid (recommended by some of the diabetes doctors) and that’s when I began having fasting blood glucose numbers under 100. Except for today.
The one thing I’m stressing about right now is that my weight loss seems to have plateaued. So the only thing that makes sense to me is to be more diligent about my 1200/day calorie restriction. (I can’t even think about getting back on any exercise program right now! Especially with all the pain in my right hip during this past week after my one-mile walk in church shoes through the city streets of San Francisco last weekend!)
So I’m planning to be brave and stop all metformin for this month and take berberine instead, 500mg at morning and at evening, with bedtime metformin if I feel like I need it. Will continue to take the fiber capsules and alpha lipoic acid in a higher dose. We’ll see how it goes….