The Combination of Metformin and Insulin Can Reduce The Weight Gain Typical for Insulin Alone

You are of course correct. I now see the combination of Metformin and insulin can reduce the weight gain typical for insulin alone. I know what you mean about multiple drugs. I am now taking a cocktail of drugs as a result of my recent bad bout with kidney failure, et all. I am not entirely happy with some of the drugs involved. I have even passed out from low blood pressure, the first time I ever fainted in 57 years of living, as far as I can recall. Nevertheless, I am glad I quit Metformin personally.

I still question the wisdom of not discontinuing it [metformin] when insulin therapy is initiated. There are of course other opinions. Well, my "opinion" is that I shouldn't have to take any of the sh**tty drugs I shove down my gullet every day. Sigh. Damned things... I KNOW they're poison, but... which disorder do I choose to not treat, and why? And when? Not even the so-called experts can tell me which of the many drugs I take is more apt to kill me than any other. Taking any kind of medication is a calculated risk, I'd say, just as is leaving any medical condition untreated, for that matter. A couple of years ago, I asked my endo about discontinuing the metformin-- I told her, "I don't think it does anything anyway." So she looked me up and down and said, "Go ahead. Don't take it anymore if you want. I think you'll see it DOES do something." So I did, I discontinued it, and within about 3-4 days, I found my blood sugars going up, my insulin requirements increasing, etc. Sigh, sigh, sigh. And yeah, I went back on it and am still on it.

When someone like me, who besides 1000 mg of metformin also takes 110 units of Lantus a day and upwards of 150 units of Humalog, decides they're not going to take metformin anymore, well.... I guess I should start buying those 100 unit syringes, huh? Or maybe see about switching to U-500 insulin, something my doc doesn't want me to do. See, this is why we can't make generalities about diabetes care-- each and every one of us here on the list has a different way of getting to where they need to be (close as possible, anyway), and when it comes to meds (like anything else), YMMV is never more true.