I haven't been on here for a while as I have been quietly getting on with managing my pmr and pred reduction with little or no drama.
I am now down at 2.5mg after a little under 2 years and it looks promising that I should be off pred within the year possibly by October if all goes to plan. (dead slow nearly stop)
However, having put on in excess of 10 kilos of weight, despite following a mostly low carb diet (It's the wine that is the stumbling block for me) I thought it would be prudent to get myself a blood glucose monitor.
I have now been monitoring my fasting blood sugars for several days and they are steady at 7.2 mmol/L or 130 mg/dl. (0.2mmol/L or 5mg/dl into the diabetic range).
I have not yet monitored 2hrs. after eating.
My question is. Should I be worried?
Is it worth going to the doctor and starting the whole process off and getting into the system as a possible type 2?
Would I be better to continue to self monitor and see how it goes? Particularly once I get pred free and hopefully start shifting the excess weight?
The only symptom I currently have that may be attributable to blood sugars is tiredness. However this could equally be due to reduced pred and the pmr.
If I was in this situation I would concentrate on losing the weight which would involve cutting down on the sugars and carbs. Could you go alcohol free? I stopped all drinking as soon as I knew I had GCA and followed the same path as you. Well done and take it easy, the answer or one of them is to reduce activity for a period of time but still take plenty of rest. Good luck. I'm now off preds that's the first time I've said that.
Congratulations on your no drama achievement, long may it continue!
Regards the blood sugar, I would go to your GP and get an HbA1c blood test done which will show what you've been been coasting on, on average for the last three months. It is a better guide in many ways to whether you are in the diabetic range or not than a spot check which can look ok or just a one-off at the time. It really is worth checking as it would be a shame to end up with problems from uncontrolled diabetes after all your effort so far. If your tiredness IS due to the blood sugars then you're getting symptoms which means your body is struggling with it which means it needs controlling.
Why put off the revolution? A lot can happen weight gain wise before you are Pred free and if it goes on longer than you'd like and you've gained more, the task is harder and your health worse off for it. Treat your body now to some dietary kindness? Reversing the changes yourself is better than being on lifelong medication when you are trying so hard not to be on lifelong Pred. Wine is carb heaven/hell depending on your viewpoint 😉 , like drinking a glass of sugar and really worth cutting down on if at all possible. I have my sacred glass on a Fri and Sat and some weeks it's the high point to be looked forward to. I hope that doesn't turn out to be too much!
Personally, I think your tiredness is more likely to be due to a sluggish adrenal system. They haven't had to work while you were taking Prednisolone and now you are down below the level that they would normally be producing Cortisol. They generally produce around 7.5mg / day, so if you are only taking 2.5 and they haven't wakened up properly yet, you aren't getting enough and you will definitely be tired. If the tiredness is more a severe fatigue, I'd be taking a bit more Prednisolone until they work a bit better. You won't have enough steroid to cope with stress for instance and you would be in danger of collapse.
Re the possibility of Diabetes, if the doc is concerned you will be advised to follow a low carb diet, so you can cut them a bit more yourself and see what that does to your blood sugar.
Dear Beekaykay, you seem to be managing everything very well. Do you regularly have blood checks for ESR and CRP? It is just that I normally do and every so often glucose and other things are included e.g. fbt, U&E. I believe it is recommended we should have a glucose test every so often from our GP or consultant.
I wouldn't worry too much but perhaps ask your GP to do an Hba1c test - it reflects your average BS level over the previous few months. Some people have a raised fasting BS - my husband's is consistently above 110 but his Hba1c isn't even slightly higher than ideal.
Actually - your GP should have been keeping an eye on it which would have saved you the costs!
PS - hadn't read Snazzy and piglette's posts - great minds and all that...
Thanks for the comments guys. I have given this some thought over the last few days and I had more or less come to similar conclusions.
I need to get CRP and ESR done so will probably get FBC as well and might as well get the Hba1c done at the same time.
It's all private medicine out here in Cyprus and we don't have GPs as such. I think I'll continue to monitor the Blood sugar levels myself and just run it by one of the doctors that I know (personal friend) and see what he thinks, althought it is not his speciality.
I would have it checked out Brian even if it just confirms your own suspicions. It's not a bad idea for our age group to have a health MOT especially whilst it's still free.
The tiredness is quite usual even when you are in remission from PMR but you are right, it features in other nasties too.
This does not address any of your concerns but I wanted to say that normally I can only tolerate a small glas of wine or a shot of Drambuie...being on preds...I can now tolerate 2 glasses of wine. I will get into trouble when I see my Rhumie next week !!
Tiredness and weight coharbohydrates are really the bug bare. Can take pain relief but nothing for the fatigue. I know complex gaiin help with the weight gain but it is so hard to find a diet that suites
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