Patient/caregiver was educated on how to take Glimepiride as follows:
- Take the medication at the same time, every day, to avoid forgetting the medication. Taking this medication at regularly spaced intervals along with compliance for recommended dietary measures helps to prevent any gross fluctuations in blood sugar numbers and maintain them in the target range. This can also help with preventing any undesired side-effects and toxicity with the medication.
- Maintain strict compliance with intake of the medication as ordered, with regards to dosage and frequency, to derive the benefit of the medication.
- Do not change the dose on glimepiride without consulting your physician.
- This medication can induce some nausea and vomiting, especially when taken on empty stomach. Taking the medication with a glass of water and some food or snack can help avoid these unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms.
- Discuss with your physician or nutritionist regarding your recommended diet plan and calorie intake limitations, if any. Observe compliance with any recommendations made to derive the benefit of glimepiride intake. Grossly overeating or undereating in comparison to the recommended calorie intake can lead to poor blood sugar control and compromise the therapeutic benefit of glimepiride.
- Maintain good regular eating habits. Do not skip a meal, while taking any medications to regulate your blood sugars. Skipping a meal or undereating can bring the blood sugars down. Observing compliance with medication intake in the backdrop of skipped meal or undereating can lower the blood sugars to dangerous levels, thus precipitating an emergency.
- Determine your meal and snack times and strictly adhere to the time. Observing compliance with the time of nutrition intake and the time of medication intake can help significantly with the goal of regulating blood sugar numbers at the desired level and prevent development of undesired complications.
- Observe compliance with checking your blood sugar readings, as recommended by your doctor. Maintaining a log of all the blood sugar readings helps for a comparative feedback, as to how well the drug is helping control the blood sugars.
- Take the regular tablet as a whole with a glass of water. If you encounter difficulty swallowing the whole regular tablet, check with your doctor if you may cut the pill and swallow it in pieces with a glass of water. Usually tablets that can be cut bear a scoreline, displaying the line of cut. Check if your tablet has any. For individuals with severe swallowing difficulties, check with your doctor if you may also crush the tablet and sprinkle the powder on a spoonful of soft jelly or applesauce and swallow the jelly or sauce along with the medication. Individuals with swallowing difficulties can check with their physician, if any other preparations of the medication are available to help an easy intake.
- Observe compliance with taking your daily blood sugar readings, as recommended. Log maintenance of all the blood sugar readings help for a comparative feedback. Maintaining a log of dietary items consumed on each meal and snack can provide input with regards to foods that help/harm your plan for blood sugar regulation.
- Glimepiride acts immediately with the first dose of medication, but it can take some time, about 10 days to two weeks, to fairly adjust to your body, before improvement in blood sugar control and stabilization of blood sugar readings is noticed. So, do not discontinue taking the medication without your physician’s consult, as you failed to see the desired result immediately after taking the medication.
- While taking glimepiride, notify your doctor of any continuing poorly controlled blood sugars. This can assist your doctor with increasing the dose of glimepiride or adding another medication to help better control your numbers on blood sugar. Also, notify your doctor regarding any continuing or worsening unpleasant side-effects of glimepiride use, so that, your dosage on the medication could be revised.
- If the blood sugars are getting too low with glimepiride use, despite compliance with recommended calorie intake, your dose of glimepiride may need to be revised or change of plan considered. Notify your physician regarding any overly corrected blood sugars with glimepiride use, resulting in episodes of hypoglycemia with extremely low blood sugars, confusion, and dizziness.
- Glimepiride is metabolized in the liver and mainly excreted by the kidneys. Individuals with compromised liver and/or renal disease cannot metabolize and/or excrete glimepiride and metabolites normally. This results in the medication staying in circulation for longer time than normal and can be toxic. While taking glimepiride, periodical labs could be ordered for evaluation of liver and kidney functions. So, maintain compliance with follow-up physician appointments and lab draws ordered, if any, for evaluation of liver and kidney function. Be accommodative to the changes in dose of glimepiride or treatment plan accordingly, to achieve an optimum blood sugar control response and prevent development of any undesired side-effects.
- If you miss a dose, try taking it at the earliest notice of noncompliance. If it is time for the next dose, skip the missed dose and take the dose scheduled. Do not take an extra dose to try making up for the missed dose, which can result in toxicity and an episode of dangerous hypoglycemia. Notify your doctor and other health care personnel regarding your dose noncompliance.
