Living with a diabetic for many years we have found out several things, some the hard way. In OUR case it was a Dr. specializing in diabetes bringing down DH's blood sugars not the diabetes educator. In our case, she did nothing. I am truly glad you have helped your health, but why did the Dr. not do something earlier? DH is on insulin only as Metformin gave some interesting side effects. Do you check your blood three/four times a day? When DH's blood starts up, our Dr. has him in the office NOW and evaluates his entire health. Have you had your liver checked? I disagree with the statement she made as to a natural progression of aging. That is NOT true! DH is almost 80 and with other issues, and a complete medical testing, cardiac walking, etc does keep his under 150 most of the time. Even 200 will cause damage to other organs. Have you had your eyes checked?
I am not being negative, but living with what DH has gone thru for many years, we have found out, some the hard way, a good Dr. will check you for everything. Eyes, feet, tingling, numbness etc.
Good luck and read Web MD for additional help.
Marie

I can only take the time released form of Metformin, but I also take a B12 supplement because Metformin does strip it from the body that makes a big difference for me and I also take daily senior vitamins and citrical with D all instructions from my diabetes doc.
I never have crazy numbers, only about twice have I had a number over 200 and never ever anything over 250. That really gets in to the scary range when you are up in the 400 range, stroke range there.
Very good that you are getting it back down to a much better range.
I always advise anyone with diabetes to most definitely go through the diabetes education courses, there is so much to learn and they are all very good at helping us understand our disease. My greatest enemy are the carbs not the sugars!

Keep up the good work!

I'm glad you feel so much better!

Dotmom, I am so glad that you are feeling better, getting your blood sugars under control makes all the difference in the world. I know how you feel, I have had issues very similar, for unknown reasons my sugar started to climb and it took a lot of jumbling around to get them back in control. I have found that a combination of supplements, metformin, and low carb living keeps me in the 100-120 range. Most believe that organ damage can start at the 140 range.

I test 4-5 times per day when I having trouble, Dotmom, luckily my insurance will pay for the strips for that amount of testing. What are your fasting number when you get up in the morning? I struggle with dawn phenomenon, and that is hard to battle.

I too have dawn effect, it is a real difficult thing to try to deal with, I do the snack before bed but that does not help the only way I can avoid dawn effect is to get up at like 2 or 3 am and have a snack! Then my morning fasting number will be in the normal range. That is not going to happen though. But luckily my number even though out of norm range is not crazy high.
Insurance will usually pay for as many test strips and lancets you need to do your testing as long as the doctor writes the script to cover testing that often. Mine does.
And I also always use what ever brand meter and supplies my insurance tells me is their preferred brand so that it will be cheaper, and every one of the major meter companies have a program you can sign up for where they send you a prescription card to use when getting your supplies that will knock the co-pay cost down even more. I do at times have to remind the pharmacy I have that card on file so they give me my extra discount.
We recently changed insurance again through my husbands work and they had a different preferred brand so they sent me a letter with the info to get the new free meter and supplies for their preferred brand. I have never paid for a meter and have quite a few now. I really do like the one I have now, it has all the test strips in a barrel container that is inside the meter so no more handling test strips at all just push the button and it sticks out the bottom of the meter and the lancet is also attached to the meter, makes it very very easy to use for me with my arthritis hands.
ACCU-CHEK Compact Plus meter

So glad you're feeling better.

Dotmom - Are you saying that you take an oral med plus five injections a day?

Glad you're feeling better. I have a big old list of things to do if you want to stop by with some of that energy! :)

I'm glad you are feeling better, too, but 200 is still way too high. My suggestion would be to write down everything you are eating, and don't fudge the numbers. If diet is the issue, then writing down your intake will determine that. What is your A1C?

Dotmom, I think you are making great strides. Quite a while ago a fellow diabetic told me something that rung true to me, this disease is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Tho I test daily, I look at the big picture, looking for trends. Last fall my A1c was sky high, over 12, last month it was 6.5, still not what I am trying to reach but better than I thought it might be. Everyone has to find their way, whatever works best for them, what works for me may not work for you. Or staying on a low carb diet may not be reasonable for you, it is tough to do. I follow the ways of Dr. Bernstein, not everyone agrees with him but it works for me.

I'm glad that you get the testing supplies that you need, Raven but most diabetics do not. It's sad, but it is one of the major complaints and comments at the three diabetes forums I read.

Dotmom, I'm glad to hear your sugar is coming down, that's great! Have you been to a diabetic nutritionist? I'm wondering if your diet could use some tweaking.

Also, when you say your sugar is now under 200, I do hope you mean your postprandial blood sugar and not your fasting sugar. How is your fasting sugar doing?

My older sister has had diabetes for many years and her sugars aren't any worse than when she was young, so I'm wondering about that "aging" thing too.

My insurance doesn't cover test strips even when they're prescribed by my PCP. Those things are expensive!

Thank you, KT friends for your responses and advice. I'm doing the best I can, I'm 75 and the whole science of diabetes gets to be a bit much. I'm taking the meds and watching my diet. As long as the numbers keep coming down and I continue feeling so good, Thats about what I can do.

Sounds like you're doing great! :)

So glad you're feeling better!