Our first guest post has been supplied by my cousin Christy, who writes hare about a recent medication change. — Bob
I’ve been T2 diabetic for a long, long time. I’m sure I was “pre-diabetic” for several years before an appendectomy and subsequent post-operative infection threw me over the edge into full blown Type 2 diabetes. I was sent to diabetes education classes and put on metformin. That was around 12 years ago. Metformin did a fine job taking care of my diabetes for me with very little effort on my part. My A1C was always in the 6.0 range, fasting sugars were in the 120-130 range, blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides all near normal (with applicable medications doing their job).
A few months ago, my blood pressure began creeping up, and my blood sugars, fasting or not, began to creep higher and higher, and I began to gain weight. My A1C jumped to 7.1 in less than 6 months. Exercise didn’t help. I felt so sad, knowing that I have not done everything I could do to control my diabetes (let’s be honest – not much at all), instead, depending on the metformin to do it all for me. I met with my doctor, and he advised that not only is diabetes progressive, but that metformin eventually loses its effectiveness. He said most people get 2-3 years before they have to add another medication to their metformin regimen. He started me on Victoza along with the metformin. I am amazed how fast Victoza has brought down my fasting sugars, and I can’t wait to see what my next A1C is. If I overdo it on the carbs, the next morning glucose numbers are noticeably higher, but not like they were before.
The lesson? Even though Victoza seems to be the new answer for me, I don’t want to take it for granted like I did metformin. I’m extremely grateful for the number of years metformin worked well. I’m hoping with the addition of Victoza, better diet control, exercise and going to the monthly diabetes support group, I won’t have to go through this kind of frustrating scare again.
