I was diagnosed with Diabetes II in early September, and my doctor gave me a prescription for Metformin to help regulate my blood sugar.
However, I was off work for 5 months with most of it being unpaid leave and really taxed my savings, so I didn't get the prescription filled until today; I've been managing my sugars with diet alone since my diagnosis.
Today I got my prescription, and while I've given this medication many times to patients, I've never really paid much attention to how the medication works to control the blood sugars, because we are more concerned about the side effects of the medications.
I decided that since I'm now taking the medication I better seriously learn everything I can about the medication. My concern was low blood sugars and ending up in a coma in the night. However, she explained to me that this medication does not cause low blood sugars. It's not like some of the other diabetes medications.
She said that liver releases glucose into the blood stream when it detects low blood sugar (which is news to me. I thought it was the Pancreas), and in many instances it is getting faulty information telling it that the body needs more glucose, so it keeps releasing more and more glucose causing elevated blood sugars.
Metformin sort of tricks the liver into thinking that the blood sugars are normal, thus preventing it from releasing excessive amounts of glucose into the blood.
I'm going to start on it in the morning. She said the major concern initially is diarrhea! Oh yay!! Good thing I'm having back pain again due to the cooler weather so my Tylenol #3 will counter that!
However, I was off work for 5 months with most of it being unpaid leave and really taxed my savings, so I didn't get the prescription filled until today; I've been managing my sugars with diet alone since my diagnosis.
Today I got my prescription, and while I've given this medication many times to patients, I've never really paid much attention to how the medication works to control the blood sugars, because we are more concerned about the side effects of the medications.
I decided that since I'm now taking the medication I better seriously learn everything I can about the medication. My concern was low blood sugars and ending up in a coma in the night. However, she explained to me that this medication does not cause low blood sugars. It's not like some of the other diabetes medications.
She said that liver releases glucose into the blood stream when it detects low blood sugar (which is news to me. I thought it was the Pancreas), and in many instances it is getting faulty information telling it that the body needs more glucose, so it keeps releasing more and more glucose causing elevated blood sugars.
Metformin sort of tricks the liver into thinking that the blood sugars are normal, thus preventing it from releasing excessive amounts of glucose into the blood.
I'm going to start on it in the morning. She said the major concern initially is diarrhea! Oh yay!! Good thing I'm having back pain again due to the cooler weather so my Tylenol #3 will counter that!
