Metformin sucks people! I've been on this medication for four days now. Dr. C put me on 2 Metformin ER 750 mg tablets every day, to be taken with my evening meal. This is a high dose. A lot of people only take 500 to 1000 mg and I'm on 1500 mg!
The first two days I was fine. I had no ill effects despite having been warned that most people complain of upset stomach. Yesterday I took my dose around 7 pm with a frozen pizza dinner (yeah didn't feel like cooking after my class.) But around 8:30 pm I started feeling awful!
My stomach was upset and I felt like I'd seriously over eaten. I hadn't, but it felt that way. I ended up grabbing a ginger ale out of the fridge and nursing that. By the time I went to bed, a bit before midnight, it was bearable but still not normal.
This morning I woke up feeling great. My stomach was steady and comfortable. I had a hard boiled egg and two slices of microwave bacon and that sat fine. In fact the bacon made my tummy very happy, yum! I munched on some edamame and half of a naval orange at work, still no problems. And then I went to lunch and had half of a Jimmy John's Beach Club sandwich, which is by far my favorite sub on their menu.
I didn't even finish my lunch before the nausea hit. I also had cramping so I headed to the bathroom and quickly decided I needed some Imodium, sorry for the over-share. So here I am, sitting in the corner of the pharmacy hunched over, feeling like absolute crap. And of course we are busy, so I keep having to get up to grab drive-thru or answer the phone or grab the register. All the while feeling like I might hurl on someones shoes.
Finally I decide to see if we have some ginger ale. It had done the job last night so it was worth a shot. We didn't carry it, so I settled on a bottle of 7-up and a fist-full of Imodium chewables (I really only took four but normally one of these will do the job so that tells you how bad it was.) A few swallows into the bottle a burp slipped out and OMG the RELIEF! I started making myself burp, quietly and away from patients of course, and with every burp I started to feel a little bit better.
By the time my shift was over I'd gone through one and a half 20 oz bottles of 7-up and felt almost completely normal. I took my evening dose around 8pm tonight and am keeping with the carbonation therapy. Dr. Pepper right now, but if I continue to have to do this I might have to get some carbonated water. Every few minutes I burp and the nauseating pressure in my gut goes away, for a little while at least.
I definitely see why people have problems with this medication! I asked my boss if this "intestinal distress" would go away after my system got used to it. He said it should, probably by the middle of next week. But if it didn't I should keep in mind that I am on a high dose and perhaps talk to Dr. C about reducing my dose to one a day until my symptoms dissipate.
Yesterday I didn't know if I could handle even a few days of feeling like this but today I think I can make it as long as I have a carbonated buddy with me. Thank goodness for burps!
Has anyone ever had any experience with this medication? Aside from the gas/nausea thing, I think its also making me sleepy. I start to notice fatigue a few hours after a dose, but I wonder if that's just the construction in front of our house keeping me from getting a good nights sleep. I don't feel like I'm not sleeping but I definitely notice the noise as I try to fall asleep at night. Tonight seems to be all quite, they must not work on "weekends." Lucky them.
PS. Ironically enough, the noise that has been annoying me for the last few nights is the city putting up a noise blocking wall. Haha.
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