Hi Laurie,

I had that gnawing hunger too when I was first dx'd, and my doctor told
me that extreme hunger happens when your blood sugar is high. I found
that once I got mine under control, the extreme knawing hunger went
away.

You might need to talk to your doctor about medication adjustments.

Good luck.

Patti

Dx 01-2002/T2/Lantus & Humalog

Hi, Laurie.

Sorry to see you here, if you know I mean!

I find that if my glucose is very high, I get very hungry, sometimes
overwhelmingly fatigued, and I also have aches and pains (especially my
head and feet!).  When my sugar is in control all of these are
diminished or even disappear.  I hope you also reach a point where this
occurs.

Please keep us posted on how the meds work for you and the side effects
over time.  Some of us get cycled through meds over time, and I like to
know what to expect.

pc

  Newly-diagnosed diabetics often suffer from a condition called "Glucose
Toxicity" caused by extended exposure to high blood sugars before diagnosis.
Glucose Toxicity further messes up your already messed up glucose metabolism
and makes it very, very, difficult to regain control over your blood sugars.
Since the only way to "cure" Glucose Toxicity is to gain control over your
sugars and stay there for a while,   Early Days can be quite difficult for a
newly-diagnosed diabetic.

Some docs just let their patients "flounder",  some docs hit the Glucose
Toxicity with high doses of temporary meds.   Looks like your doc is one of
the latter kinds  (I'll vote for his approach)     That also means you are
subjecting your body to high doses of insulin in order to knock out the
Toxicity.    High doses of insulin  (you are taking insulin shots and
Prandin which forces your pancreas to churn out extra insulin) can make you
crave food,  especially carbohydrate.

You should be aware of your blood sugars throughout the day,  especially at
2 hours after eating.   When you normalize   (below 140 after eating,  below
110 upon awakening),   time to start talking to the doc about dropping some
of the insulin augmentation.    If you start seeing low sugars during the
day. . .. 70 or lower. . .it's really time to talk to the doc.

Many of the better docs would consider Prandin as the first candidate to
drop.

It would be useful if you could measure your blood sugars at those times of
intense craving.    If they are high  (above 140),   your doc should also
know about that.   You can knock those down with a fast insulin before
eating.    If they're low,  it's back to "cutting meds".

Of course that means that you have to test your blood sugar a lot.    That's
the way Early Days goes.    You need a lot of information about your
particular version of our disease really fast  so you have to test a lot.

For an idea of what other docs do in this case,  here's what happened to one
of our posters.  Gary's doc threw about every type of med available at him,
then started cutting the meds when he normalized.    (FWIW,  your Prandin is
similar to Glyburide,  your Avandamet is a mix of Avandia and metformin)

"From: Gary Pewitt
Newsgroups: alt.support.diabetes
Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 11:46 PM

Good luck and keep coming back.    This is an odd disease in which the
patient does all the work and most of the management.   The more you learn
about the disease and the faster you learn about it,  the better your
chances of a long and pain-free life.   Reading these diabetes newsgroups
every night has resulted in significant improvements in my health,   the
quality of my life,  and,  I'm certain,  my life expectancy.

Regards
 Old Al

I was always hungry until I threw away that diet they gave me.
http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm

As long as you feeling hungry, you are NOT starving.

The healthier you become, the hungrier you will be.

By eating ore.

Then you will have to choose to befriend your healthy appetite (aka
hunger).

You are welcome, Laurie.

In Christ's love and service forevermore,

Andrew

--
Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD
Board-Certified Cardiologist

**
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