Hi, my BS has been consistantly going up, I did a 12 hr fasting test a few weeks back and it came back quite high(not yet diabetic) although my Dr told me she thinks I'm headed there. My question is that today I hadn't eaten anything all morning and shortly after lunch I started to feel really weak and shaky. I wondered if it could have been low BS so I ate something. 15 minutes later I started feeling better. Could that have been a low? Even though after fasting 12 hrs I came out high? I am trying to learn all I can about this and I find this illness very confusing. My Dr is setting me up with a glucose monitor but will have to wait a few weeks for it.
Could I have just been weak from not eating period and maybe it didn't have anything to do with low blood sugar?
(By the way, what I ate was a bowl of tomato soup with crackers)
Thanks
Abbygirl

Abbey you are not giving your numbers, what do you consider high? The only thing I can tell you at this point is that your feelings after not having eaten for awhile sound like a hypoglycemic epsipde to me, but without your meter and testing your sugar levels, no one has a clue as to what might be going on. Sorry I couldn,t have been more help but you gave very little information.

Hi, my BS has been consistantly going up, I did a 12 hr fasting test a few weeks back and it came back quite high(not yet diabetic) although my Dr told me she thinks I'm headed there. My question is that today I hadn't eaten anything all morning and shortly after lunch I started to feel really weak and shaky. I wondered if it could have been low BS so I ate something. 15 minutes later I started feeling better. Could that have been a low? Even though after fasting 12 hrs I came out high? I am trying to learn all I can about this and I find this illness very confusing. My Dr is setting me up with a glucose monitor but will have to wait a few weeks for it.
Could I have just been weak from not eating period and maybe it didn't have anything to do with low blood sugar?
(By the way, what I ate was a bowl of tomato soup with crackers)
Thanks
Abbygirl
Well of all the people here I am probably the least knowledgable... I was just recently diagnosed as a type2. However I do have LOTS of experience with Hypoglycemia - I had this severely 23 years ago and eventually controlled it with diet.

Hypoglycemia is sort of a catch 22 - if you don't eat your blood sugar goes down, but if you do eat your body overproduces insulin... so it seems that no matter what, you always have either low bs or too much insulin. It sounds like this is what happened to you... after you finally ate lunch your body produced insulin which made you feel worse. Perhaps you did not eat enough substance to increase your bs levels.

For specific episodes as you described, WHAT you eat is particulary important. Orange Juice is extremely helpful in overcoming a low bs attack because it has natural sugars and is absorbed into your bloodstream very quickly. You can't have too much though because you want to be careful not to overstimulate the production of insulin (if you are hypoglycemic).

Regardless of whether you are hypoglycemic or diabetic it is critical that you do not go for long periods without eating. I have recently started to monitor everything I eat but I have found that I feel my best if I have a small snack in between my meals and in the evening.

I agree that what you're describing sounds like hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. In hypoglycemia, the pancreas produces too much insulin and, eventually, can wear itself out; this is why hypoglycemia is often a precursor to diabetes.

For now, the best thing to do is to make sure you ALWAYS eat a protein with any carbohydrates. If you have a hypoglycemic episode, drink about 4 ounces of juice PLUS eat something hi-protein, like meat, cheese, peanut butter, etc.

Ruth

I just got my glucose monitor today. I tested 1 hr after lunch -91-
and then again tonight, 6 hrs since my last meal(fajitas and a few sips of DH pop). -95-
These are normal readings right? I didn't expect to get a normal reading when my 12 hour fasting test (2 months ago) was so high(in the low 300's).

My Dr. said I was close to the diabetic range, and unless I changed my lifestyle dramatically I would probably be 'in the range' the next time she tested.

What exactly(if anybody knows) is the cut off range for an average person with few-no symptoms? At what number will they tell you you are diabetic.(12 hr fasting)...thanks for being patient with me.
Abbygirl

I was just diagnosed last week after a fasting plasma test result of 300. I asked my doctor if there was any chance that this was a fluke and he said absolutely not... 300 is diabetic no two ways about it. He also told me that my previous tests had been borderline (slightly over 200) but this one made him sure.

It seems strange to me that your doctor is telling you that you are borderline (or not yet diabetic) with a test in the low 300s. My understanding is that anything over 200 is seriously abnormal. I think normal range is 80-120.

Your bs levels do seem quite normal now but I would want to know why there is such a huge difference. I too am waiting to get my monitor and I am anxious to see how I test at home.

I find everything about diabetes very hard to understand, I will probably see a diabetes educator to help me. What I don't get is, whenever they do the finger ***** on me, I have had that done a few times in the past year I am always within normal range. Yet when I do the fasting test I am really high.
If normal range is indeed 80-120, then there is no doubt I am diabetic, gonna have to call the Dr on that one. I was waiting for my Doc to get me a monitor but decided today to just go by one.
Here in Canada, the monitor was $43.00 but a box of 100 test strips, was $104.00. I ended up getting the monitor free (a deal with the company that makes the monitor I guess).
I hope DH's insurance covers the test strips.
Thanks for the response, its nice to be able to compare notes.
Abbygirl

non-diabetics pre breakfast 110 diabetics 90 - 130

pre lunch/supper/snack 110 " 90 to 130

2 hours after meals 140 " 160

bedtime 120 " 110 to 150

These are approximate readings from the ADA.

non-diabetics pre breakfast 110 diabetics 90 - 130

pre lunch/supper/snack 110 " 90 to 130

2 hours after meals 140 " 160

bedtime 120 " 110 to 150

These are approximate readings from the ADA.


Is pre-breakfast the same as fasting? The ADA data says diabetics would be 90-130... I thought most diatbetics would be over 200. Or do they mean medicated diabetics?

abbygirl2 - which monitor did you buy? I noticed how expensive the test strips are... luckily my insurance has a $20 co-pay for all diabetic supplies.

The monitor I bought was One Touch Ultra. My pre-breakfast was 87. Thats low. hmm I'm going to eat and test again in 15 min.

I ate 20mins ago, and its up to 137. I'm starting to think I should just run a bloodline. :)

The monitor I bought was One Touch Ultra. My pre-breakfast was 87. Thats low. hmm I'm going to eat and test again in 15 min.

Abbygirl2,

When you said your 87 was low, did you mean applied to you? My fasting sugars (with my diabetes well under control) always range 77-90. For me, abnormally low is anything below 65. Even when I took Amaryl when I first diagnosed, I would not feel any effects from low glucose until I hit less than 59 mg/dL.

That 87 mg/dL is about where you want to be. The goal is to stay in the 70-120 range, and ultimately, keep it below 100 mg/dL most of the time if you can. The 137 mg/dL reading in 15 min is not bad all things considered. When I was first diagnosed, a piece of toast would put me up in the 170s.

For comparison, now, it takes a good deal of sugar (ice cream/cake) to get my glucose near or just over 130 mg/dL (Granted it took losing 80 lbs and taking up daily exercise to achieve this and not go up over 200 mg/dL). If I eat my normal meals, I never spike above 120 mg/dL at any point after the meal. What I am trying to say here is that your goal is not to keep your sugars within 20% of 120 mg/dL at all times. Unless you are taking insulin, your chances of bottoming out to a dangerous level on oral meds are pretty low.

ubernier, thanks, I thought 87 was low. That would be considered fasting right? Before breakfast? I haden't eaten since a snack last night. So I was without food approx 10 hours before getting the 87 this a.m.
Last time I had a fasting test(at the clinic 2 months ago) it came back quite high-right at the diabetic range(though not in it). (According to my Dr.)
How can my 'fasting' results at home be 'normal' yet so 'high' at the clinic?
My monitor is Plasma Equivilant, so that means it should produce similar results as the lab does right? Just trying to figure out why my numbers are both normal and high. It doesn't make sense to me.
I don't really know what is high or low for me, I am still new to all this.
I am writing this all down so I don't ask the same dumb questions over.
Thanks for the help.

Hi again Abby:

It sounded from what you first described that your doc said you were headed towads diabetes, which made it sound like you had impaired glucose tolerance now. Supposing you heard your physician correctly, then an 87 m/dL is certainly possible and well within normal limits. You are doing good there :)

Maybe the reason you felt weak and shaky was not related to your blood glucose level when you initially posted that? It could be one possibility?

In a later set of posts, you listed values in the 90 mg/dL post-prandial (OK yes, one was 6 hr past, but still...) those are good values. You said that your doctor had recorded a 300 mg/dL value? When my fasting was in excess of that, and it was also in the 300s during my next visit, then you would be considered diabetic, as jdimassimo pointed out. (To answer Jdimassimo's question about most diabetics being over 200 after fasting...yes, possibly, if they were uncontrolled--and thats not a good thing). Thats how I played this game for a few years and paid dearly at the end; trust me, its not worth it.

Abby, out of curiosity, are you exercising and losing weight right now? If you are, it might explain some of the better numbers you are getting now?

July/03 Dr told me I was nearing the diabetic range, I got serious and started excercising/cutting out carbs. I lost 28lbs by my next app in Dec/03

Nov/03 - I started getting weak/near fainting spells, which put a halt to the excercising, and added a whole lot of stress!! In the ER during a spell they did the finger poke thing and my BS was normal.

Dec/03- I saw my Dr because of the spells- (came to no conclusion, not BS, not BP etc.) She repeated the fasting BS test.

Feb/04- Saw Dr- She told me my BS was even higher and that she was going to treat me as diabetic and recommended I get a monitor.

So I did, and as far as I can tell, all my numbers are within range. It has been 2 months or so since my last fasting test, could it really have made that big of a change from then till now(with little to no excercise since Nov)
I had already lost weight BEFORE my most recent fasting BS test, so if that were going to help, it should have showed then.???

Since the beginning of Nov, I have lead a fairly sedentary lifestyle, pretty confined to home with the spells. (They have been coming less often now).

I feel so frustrated...

thanks for all the help....
Abbygirl

Abbygirl,

I don't want to play doctor, but some symptoms you describe sound like Hypoglycemia. As I mentioned I suffered from a severe case of that 23 years ago (I was 20) and it totally took over 2 years of my life. Now I am Diabetic... and they warned me it would eventually happen.

When you are hypoglycemic you experience lots of peaks and valleys with bs levels... always ending with too low (weak, shaky, dizzy). So you could see some occasional high numbers, but then your body produces too much insulin and you go too low. 1-2 hours after you eat you will typically see your bs go up, and then a hypoglycemic will crash with bs dropping rather abruptly. Eat to overcome the crash and the cycle begins again.

What is your diet like? From your previous posts it sounds like you have poor eating habits (going all morning with no food, and then eating fajitas and pop). When I was hypoglycemic I fooled myself into thinking I felt better after long period without food because I was able to avoid the accute highs and lows associated with eating. But that type of diet doesn't really help you in the long term. Back then I eventually controlled my condition with diet. Over the years I became less careful and I developed bad habits again.

Now, as a diabetic, what has helped me dramatically is making sure my meals are spaced regularly and balanced. Now, I never go more than 3-4 hours without at least something. I also try to maintain the proper balance of protein, carbs, and fat. I have been writing everything down and keeping track of what foods and eating schedules make me feel better. My understanding is that this strategy will work for both diabetics and hypoglycemics.

Have you ever kept a meal/symptom diary? I would start there. Write down EVERYTHING you consume... food, drinks, cough syrup, candy, anything and everything! And then write down all the symptoms you have exactly when you have them. Also document all of your activity. Even walking in the grocery store vs laying on the couch. Be sure to include the times.

After a few days you are likely to see some patterns. You can take this info to your doctor and/or RD or DE and it will help them with your diagnosis.

Just remember... I am no expert... I too am learning about all this the hard way. My eating habits were SOOOOO bad up until a few weeks ago and I have been scared into making some serious changes. Happy to say that I am feeling TONS better and because I am documenting EVERYTHING I know what is working for me and what isn't.

Dec/03- I saw my Dr because of the spells- (came to no conclusion, not BS, not BP etc.) She repeated the fasting BS test.

Feb/04- Saw Dr- She told me my BS was even higher and that she was going to treat me as diabetic and recommended I get a monitor.

So I did, and as far as I can tell, all my numbers are within range. It has been 2 months or so since my last fasting test, could it really have made that big of a change from then till now(with little to no excercise since Nov)
I had already lost weight BEFORE my most recent fasting BS test, so if that were going to help, it should have showed then.???

Since the beginning of Nov, I have lead a fairly sedentary lifestyle, pretty confined to home with the spells. (They have been coming less often now).
Abbygirl

Abby: The other thing that I would have guessed is that perhaps your blood pressure was getting to a lower value, due to your recent lifestyle changes. When I first got out of the hospital after my MI, I think I was dizzy and felt faint for months before I got adjusted to my lower blood pressure.

Although your symptoms are consistent with hypoglycemia, the numbers you have indicate otherwise. Any chance that the dizziness could have resulted from the diet you were on, i.e. did you drop weight very quickly?

You asked if 2 months is enough time to effect a big change on your sugars? For me, I can make it get worse in about a week by eating a huge calorie excess and cutting my exercise back to once every other day. When I did this around Thanksgiving of this year, I noticed that I had multi-restroom trips during the night for the first time in years. I checked my blood sugar at 3 a.m. and it was 118 mg/dL, which again, higher than I had been in years at that time. All I did was go back to eating as I should and exercising daily and the sugars return to the 70s-80s again within days.

I found that only part of the equation with type II in my case is due to my weight. Exercise also goes a long way in keeping my diabetes under control without meds. You might want to keep on attempting to discover what is causing you to feel this way, so you can get back to exercising and eating right, and so you can continue to prevent diabetes.

I,m sure someone else will jump in here, but that probably is a range to start testing for diabetes, and also the range for medicated diabetics to stay in and of course with medication to try and stay in the non-diabetic range. Pre- breakfast would be the same as fasting. I agree, those test strips are very expensive, I test 4 times a day and pay out of my pocket. $45 at Osco for 100 strips. Over 200 is way too high a range for a diabetic to be in, the goal is to try and stay as close to the non diabetic range as possible.

For three weeks before my previous app(last Friday) I had recorded my BP, HR and Temp. As well I kept a log of everything I ate/did. My blood pressure is a little low but it has been that way for 4 yrs(heart meds), so I am quite adjusted to that. I didn't notice any link to the spells and eating.
From what I have learned about low BS I don't really think the spells are related as they come and go without eating.
This morning before breakfast(7:30am) my BS was 81. (about 10 hours fasting).
Its been 30 mins since I ate and I am up to 128.
I ate a bowl of oatmeal(with a bit of sugar) and a glass of orange juice.

As far as my eating habits go... they change depending on how I feel. however we always eat a well balanced supper(although I've eaten a lot less carbs since July.) I usually always have soup/sandwich for lunch. Breakfast is my weak point. I don't always eat breakfast, although am trying hard to get into a routine. I seldom drink pop/chips etc. Popcorn once a week in the evening, maybe.

I guess one of my problems is knowing what my numbers should be at what time of the day-after meals/before meals. The booklet I got with my monitor and most of the websites say what is 'high' but not what is too low. I don't know how many times/day I should be checking my BS.

You know, everyone is so different in the times they test. I have found the norm to be, upon waking in the morning, before meals/2hrs. after meals, and at bedtime.

Abby:

When I tested regularly, I did so the same as Marol described, 4 times per day. I would take mine in the morning upon waking, then at about 11 am, then at 5 pm, and finally at bedtime. My two daytime measurements were prior to meals.

Ulrich