Guest guest Posted November 19, 2004 Report Share Posted November 19, 2004 Sky: doctors usually start people off on the smallest dose (500mg) to minimize any adverse side effects. I was one of the lucky people who never ever had a bit of trouble with this drug. I started with the 500mg & was told to take it with my evening meal. Since I didn't have trouble with high evening bg's this didn't make sense to me but I did it. It did not make any difference & I saw no effect of the drug at all. Helen told me to be patient (I am NOT!) as it takes awhile for the drug to get into your system. After whining to Helen for a month she advised moving the timing to later. This helped a little & I kept moving it till eventually I was taking it in the middle of the night. Then just got sick of trying to make 500mg do the work of what I really needed so I just started taking 2 pills a day & finally 3 which worked the best. I take one in the morning, one with lunch & one with the evening meal. I only told my doctor AFTER I had done this, I did not ask her permission. Of course I've had her for over 20 yrs & she understands me so it was ok especially since my a1c ended up as 5.1 by the second test. cappie Greater Boston Area T-2 10/02 9/04 A1c: 5.3 max 100 carb diet, walking, Metformin. ALA/EPO, Coq10, B12, ALC, Vit C Cal/mag, low dose Biotin, full spectrum E, Policosanol, fish oil cap, fresh flax seed, multi vitamin, Lovastatin 20 mg, Enalapril 10 mg 11/04:143 lbs (highest weight 309), 5' tall /age 66, cappie@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 19, 2004 Report Share Posted November 19, 2004 At 01:55 PM 11/19/04, cappie@... wrote: >Sky: doctors usually start people off on the smallest dose (500mg) to >minimize any adverse side effects. I was one of the lucky people who >never ever had a bit of trouble with this drug. So far so good for me. Of course I took it about 2 hours ago in the middle of what was a small lunch. >I started with the 500mg & was told to take it with my evening meal. >Since I didn't have trouble with high evening bg's this didn't make >sense to me but I did it. It did not make any difference & I saw no >effect of the drug at all. Helen told me to be patient (I am NOT!) as >it takes awhile for the drug to get into your system. After whining to >Helen for a month she advised moving the timing to later. This helped a >little & I kept moving it till eventually I was taking it in the middle >of the night. Middle of the night as what time? Are you calling midnight the middle or 3 a.m.? If I can tolerate this I think middle of the night would be my best bet, too. I can't remember now how long it's supposed to last before it clears the system. I mainly want help with the early morning figures. Afternoons are normally my lowest. >Then just got sick of trying to make 500mg do the work of >what I really needed so I just started taking 2 pills a day & finally 3 >which worked the best. > >I take one in the morning, one with lunch & one with the evening meal. >I only told my doctor AFTER I had done this, I did not ask her >permission. Of course I've had her for over 20 yrs & she understands me >so it was ok especially since my a1c ended up as 5.1 by the second test. I think I drove my NP to distraction. She seemed frustrated that she'd point out something and I'd say " yes, I read about that on such-and-such list " or " yes, I everyone on the email list said that would happen " . I still really need to at least try an endocrinologist. I also think this NP I'm seeing is just too busy. Last visit she had to call me to see what we'd discussed because she'd forgotten to write it down. This time she was going to include another thyroid check in the bloodwork and I noticed that she'd forgotten to circle it. I considered doing it then decided not. sky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 19, 2004 Report Share Posted November 19, 2004 Sky: I'd take it whenever I woke to go to the bathroom usually around 3 or 4 am. cappie Greater Boston Area T-2 10/02 9/04 A1c: 5.3 max 100 carb diet, walking, Metformin. ALA/EPO, Coq10, B12, ALC, Vit C Cal/mag, low dose Biotin, full spectrum E, Policosanol, fish oil cap, fresh flax seed, multi vitamin, Lovastatin 20 mg, Enalapril 10 mg 11/04:143 lbs (highest weight 309), 5' tall /age 66, cappie@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 Sky: I know what the info lit says but that does not mean it always works exactly that way on each individual. The regular is not supposed to work the way it does for me either but it does. I realize that the extended release form is very diff from the reg met but it might be worth a shot. I just wonder if having a lower around-the-clock background/basal dose of the ext release might not sometimes work better than a high one-shot deal. One would never know without trying & loses nothing if it does not make a difference as one can always go back to the once a day higher dosage. I always felt anything was worth trying if it might possibly help--that is how I found a way to tame my own dawn effect by trying taking my reg breakfast med whenever I woke to go to the bathroom instead. When it helped, no one was more shocked than I but hey, who cares, it worked for me. I don't need to do that at 4am anymore but I still take it around 6 or 7am which is at least 2 hrs before breakfast & it holds the bg's in line till I eat. As in all things YMMV cappie Greater Boston Area T-2 10/02 9/04 A1c: 5.3 max 100 carb diet, walking, Metformin. ALA/EPO, Coq10, B12, ALC, Vit C Cal/mag, low dose Biotin, full spectrum E, Policosanol, fish oil cap, fresh flax seed, multi vitamin, Lovastatin 20 mg, Enalapril 10 mg 11/04:143 lbs (highest weight 309), 5' tall /age 66, cappie@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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