High BS Readings All The Time

[SamQKitty]

bbybrd,
How long have you been taking the avandamet? And are your blood sugars high all the time...how often do you test? Blood sugar levels of 275 are way too high, even after a high carb meal. This indicates that the medication is not controlling your blood sugars, and you need to add either more of the same medication, another medication in addition, or insulin.

A good testing schedule is as follows:

3-4 times per week am fasting

2 times per week, two hours after lunch

2 times per week, two hours after dinner

1 time per week, two hours after breakfast.

Count the two hours from when you start eating, not when you finish. This schedule would have you testing twice a day most days, but it is important to determine where your problem is...fasting levels too high, thereby starting your day off behind the 8-ball, so to speak? Fasting levels okay, but body isn't metabolising your meals properly? And, all meals or just some? These are all clues as to what should be done in addition to the Avandamet. Test like that for a couple of weeks, keep a chart, and then call your doctor with the results.

It's important for you to get your blood sugar levels down significantly from where they are.

Ruth

[lindiana53]

My understanding is that illness is stressful and causes the liver to dump its stored glycogen into the bloodstream, raising the BG. I know that if I have to go to the hospital, fight for a parking place, see the doctor, etc. before a fasting glucose test, the result will be a good 50 points above normal.

[bbybyrd]

I've been taking the advandamet for about a year now. But my bs is always high. I check my bs about 3 times a day but I feel now that I need to check it even more because it's always high. I'm going to see my doc at the end of the month and let him know that it's not lowering my bs. How do you know if you need insulin or not and how do they determine if it's type 1 or type 2?

[lindiana53]

There is a blood test to help determine if a person is type one or two. However, many type II's need insulin, and that doesn't change the type of diabetes they have. If your blood sugar is high and your A1C is over 7, you should insist that your doctor help you get the problem under control. For type II's, this may mean different oral medication, a combination of insulin and oral medication, or insulin alone. You may also need to increase your exercise and/or lose weight. Let us know what the doctor says.

[SamQKitty]

Bbybird,

Lindiana is right...there IS a blood test that can determine if you're a T1 or a T2. It's called a C-peptide test. These peptides bind to insulin, so by testing for C-peptide, they can determine how much insulin your body is producing.

But even if you're a T2, there are all kinds of degrees of T2. T2 is actually a more complicated illness than T1, in that more than one thing can go wrong. In T2, the body may be just insulin resistant, or the pancreas may not produce quite enough insulin, or the pancreas may produce extra insulin for a while to cover the insulin resistance but then wear itself out (beta cells dying) due to the extra strain. Every T2 is a unique case insofar as how much the pancreas has worn out, how much insulin resistance is present, etc.

If the avandamet alone isn't enough to control your blood sugars, you may need to add something. In the past, the "something" would have been medications that cause your pancreas to secrete even more insuolin. In recent years, it's been discovered that doing that actually hastens the destruction of the beta cells in the pancreas, and a more effective (and beta-cell preserving) method is to add insulin earlier.

If you're not seeing an endocrinologist, I would suggest that you do so. They are specialists in dealing with diabetes, and you definitely at this point need someone who will look at your individual situation and be able to prescribe/treat your particular case. I don't believe most gp's or general internists have the expertise to do so.

Also, please do NOT look at the possibilty of having to take insulin as a failure...the important thing is to get your blood sugar levels controlled by WHATEVER means it takes!!!

Ruth