An update on the meds. After 4 weeks on the Avandamet I had gained over a stone in weight, pushing me over the sixteen stone and adding over 2 inches to my waist. Apart from the fact that trousers don't fit and shirts are tight, the biggest threat to my health is, according to my diabetic specialist nurse, the extra weight around my abdomen. It is this weight in particular that seems to affect the ability of the body to produce sufficient insulin and to deal with the sugars in the system. It seems strange to me that the very drug that is supposed to resolve my diabetes problem is actually exacerbating it.
My GP has prescribed Xenical (120mg orlistat) alongside the avandamet to help me lose weight. After taking it for two weeks, I haven't lost weight, but I have seemingly stopped putting it on. I have stablised at 16s 2ib and a 39" waist. That is over a stone heavier than I want to be, and 2 inches more around my waist than is healthy or advisable.
What at first I put down to the xenical, i.e. an absolute need to be no more than 3 paces from a toilet, I now suspect was food poisoning. Two days after starting the xenical I was suffering greatly from the gallops (actually, more of a slow knees together shuffle, in a quick sort of way), and I strongly debated whether I would be able to cope with xenical, but that only lasted around 48 hours, and now I am back as I would normally be. With the violent lower gut / stomach pains I had as well, I am now more inclined to put that down to a gut infection of some sort.
Ongoing I have blood sugars averaging at 6.9 around 3 hours after food. My BP is averaging 150/90 and I have no energy, absolutely no energy to do anything. It is a struggle of willpower to get up and go to work. By midday, I am absolutely wasted, and I am in trouble if this is the long term future for me. Right now, I don't even have the energy to write, hence the authoring has slowed down to a virtual stop. My mind is still active, I just really can't be bothered to type much.
So it seems that I shall need to review my meds once more when next I see my GP.