Metformin plus this and my gut's opinion

Started 27 September 2024 · 20 replies · 229 hearts · read 3.6k times

TobiasHamburg, DE · 27 September 2024

1.8 years ago

Metformin plus this and my gut's opinion — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

I have had this diagnosis for a long time and none of the general advice quite fits me.

Some background first, because it genuinely changes the answer and I have been given general advice three times that did not apply to me.

Bringing this here rather than to a general circle because the specifics change everything about how the question should be answered.

Happy to answer questions if any of the detail would be useful to somebody else in the same position.

LinnetKendal, UK

Mine has been uneventful. That is a genuinely good outcome and it makes for a boring post, which is why the boring posts matter.

NellFrome, UK

I asked what would make them want to change the plan, and having that answer meant I knew what I was watching for rather than watching everything.

TullaTralee, IE

Something worth knowing: my medication review took a whole appointment of its own and was worth every minute. Two things were changed and one was stopped.

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands

I want to name the thing nobody has said: this is complicated, it is reasonable to find it complicated, and finding it complicated is not a failure to understand.

IvesPenzance, UK

What I did not anticipate was needing to re-learn things I had been told a decade ago, because the guidance had moved and nobody had mentioned it.

BaySt Ives, UK

Picking up Ives’s point rather than starting a new one.

Nothing here is medical advice and with this condition especially the person who knows your bloods and your other medications is the one to ask.

AnnaAthens, GR

What Bay described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

The community around this condition can be quite intense about numbers, and I found this circle a relief because nobody here compares them.

10me too 9

MarkCoventry, UK

My most useful habit is a single line a day. Not detailed, not analytical. One line, and after a year it is the best record I have of myself.

OskarWarsaw, PL

My numbers moved over about five months and my GP was noticeably pleased, which after years of slightly tense appointments was a strange and good experience.

RafeBordeaux, FR

#10

Building on what Anna wrote rather than answering the original question.

What I would say is get clear on what is being measured and what the target is, because I spent two years watching a figure I had misunderstood.

MinaLisbon, PT

#11

Coming back after my annual review to say everything was steady, nothing needed changing, and the appointment lasted eleven minutes and was pleasant.

PetuaKampala, UG

#12

Nine minutes twice a year is not enough to cover this and I stopped pretending it was. I bring a printed page now and we get through four times as much.

12me too 1

HeddaCopenhagen, DK

#13

Petua — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

The long game is the actual subject. Everything I have got right came from doing something small consistently rather than something large for six weeks.

OzzyAdelaide, AU

#14

I had to have a proper conversation about my other medications, because a couple of them needed reviewing once things started changing. Do not leave that to chance.

SoniaValencia, ES

#15

No advice, just company. Here if it helps.

9me too 5

NoahHull, UK

#16

My monitor showed the shape of my day in a way that no periodic test ever had, and that was the thing that changed what I actually did.

EphraimBrooklyn, NY

#17

Something I did not expect: the appointments got easier because I had something to bring to them. Before, I was being told; now, we are discussing.

KezWigan, UK

#18

Ephraim has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

What helped was asking my nurse what she would want to see in six months, and then organising the six months around that rather than around vague improvement.

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands

#19

Gently: a test that comes up often in this circle is worth asking about, and not one of us can say whether it is right for you. That is the line and it does not move.

NadiaCairo, EG

#20

Ephraim — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

What changed for me was a dietitian appointment I had turned down twice. Forty minutes, extremely practical, and it reorganised how I ate for good.