Thought I'd start a separate post about something specific although I'm still trying to figure out why i'm so ill at the moment but so many symptoms match diabetes especially with the weight loss the week prior to hospital and the increased urination and I'm so much worse after eating:
When I started feeling pants last week, I decided to quickly check my sugar levels randomly an hour after I woke up because my levels had been rising earlier in the year and had the machine around as my mum had been severely ill a little while ago. I had just eaten a banana maybe 5-10 minutes before so thought would have barely touched my stomach and wouldn't matter but I had a result of 7.5 nmol which was surprising. I tested throughout the day just in case and were better although had a very long walk and ate better than the day before when I'd felt particularly pants after lots of pizza hence why sugar levels were on my mind.
Results were:
Lunch:
6.5 one hour after eating
4.9 two hours after eating
tea/dinner
8.3 one hour after eating
7.3 two hours after eating
5.4 later in the evening and then 5.1 before I went to bed an hour after eating some chocolate and crisps.
So yeah not ideal later in the day either but not enough to warrant all my problems although I had eaten quite healthily. I did check them again the next morning as was feeling really dire and ended up in hospital for a few days but they were all 5-5.7 without eating.
I couldn't stomach much in hospital and this has remained the same although I'm forcing myself - food is making me worse every time and have completely gone off crap or heavy carbs like bread, chocolate and crisps of all kinds and cheese and haven't eaten any since I went into hospital etc. Because of this and my symptoms, I did my HbA1c again and it came back lower than expected so left it.
However, I thought I would try it again tonight and it came back as 10.9 an hour or more after eating can't remember exactly as brain foggy but maybe nearer two hours but this is actually quite high. I only ate a very small portion of rice and a bit of mackerel and some pepper and not too much of it as struggling with food so i don't really understand why it was so high.
Looking at my HbA1c done a couple of days ago - I just don't know whether to trust it.
Prior to lockdown and January my levels were 32.67 (20-42) as usual and has been for some time. But I've been doing so much less exercise working from home and doing home schooling. My HbA1c in August came back as 37!! But I've probably been worse since then with multiple self isolations and general fed upness and bad whether the past few months and have eaten maybe quite a bit more rubbish/chocolate recently. Haven't had time to do usual walks as work then helping my daughter with school work until late evening. With the very similar to diabetes symptoms I've been having, the first thing I looked at was the HbA1c a couple of days ago which came back as 31.46 which does not equate with the increase earlier in the year and lifestyle thereafter - I had been eating much less and hardly any carbs and no crap for 4-5 days before this test as was in hospital and very ill. I know it's a long term test but can the last few days make a difference or can anything else invalidate the result?
I've tried looking into it but reading online stuff is a real struggle right now and just not managing to make sense of it. My sugar levels were all over the place a number of years ago but that was at the same time I fixed everything and never really looked into it further as the problem went away. Does anyone know if 10.9 is bad regardless and the seemingly 7.5 in the morning on the day before hospital? Or is this likely just because I'm not well and something else is affecting them and I should drop this line of enquiry or should I get further testing?
I know adrenals can affect sugar levels which I'm going to check but can anything else that I need to look into?
Sorry I'm just panicking as need to work out what's wrong in the hours I have some brain capacity or left at all as can't leave it to the docs as getting worse and worse.
many thanks, Sarah
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Saggyuk
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A blood glucose meter reading which shows a current (snap shot) has a different measurement than a HbA1c which measures the glucose joined to your haemoglobin to get an overall picture (an average of around 3 months, as that how long a haemoglobin cell lives)
In theory conditions which seriously affect haemoglobin can skew the results.
* HbA1c below 41 mmol/mol (6.0%): Non-diabetic
* HbA1c between 42 and 47 mmol/mol (6.0–6.4%): Impaired glucose regulation (IGR) or Prediabetes
* HbA1c of 48 mmol/mol (6.5%) or over: Type 2 diabetes
Many thanks - My MCHC in my blood count kept coming back over range since last Jan - I think this can mean too much haemoglobin in the blood cells or outside of them? NHS result just done put me just in range though at top end? Is this the kind of thing you mean?
I was just wondering if my Hba1C climbed from 32 to 37 from Jan to August last year - how much further would it have climbed with even less exercise and more choc since? Plus the weird high blood glucose meter readings like 7.5 and 10.9 after nothing and just some fish and tiny potion of rice? Only because many of the symptoms I've been having are all listed on diabetes pages.
Your hbA1c doesn’t identify pre diabetes nor do your finger pricks per se. However you may find like me that you have some insulin resistance which means things like rice will push you up. Going lower carb will help massively with that. The vast majority of your finger prick scores are fine and you wouldn’t be diagnosed on them.
The night before you woke up at 7.5, if you’re insulin resistant and you had high carb foods perhaps like white rice, high amounts of carbs, especially eaten at night, can lead to morning high blood sugar levels.
My heart races when I eat stodgy or very sweet foods so I cut them all out and no longer get the uncomfortable feelings when I eat now.
Keep your eye on your levels. Hyperglycemia can happen out of nowhere during a major illness or injury, Or over time caused by a serious illness. It can also rise through stress.
Hiya Cat013 Many thanks for the advice. Okay I'll drop it as primary cause but will keep an eye on it and if can get better, am going to make extra effort to take care of that!! Thanks again, Sarah
Keep an eye on it as you may have some insulin resistance. My hbA1c is 5.7 so that’s fine but my recent fasting test was borderline pre diabetes which is not good. That’s a good test to do. It’s a warning.
Now and again when I ate rice, pasta or sugar they’d spike. IR is quite common with Hashi’s unfortunately. Watch what happens when you eat different things. Also losing weight is vital but as you lost some that may not be an issue for you.
I hope you get to the bottom of your symptoms soon. I was wondering if you’re actually under medicated and that’s causing some of them. But I don’t know your results. Since I’ve been on t3 my blood sugars seem to be starting to regulate themselves better.
Thanks Cat. I will watch out as knew I had been worse in the past year and had issues with sugar levels before I realised I couldn't eat gluten - plus some of my family are diabetic. I've actually been reducing my T3 and going back onto T4 after a couple of decades of T3 only so maybe have to have a think about whether this is having an impact although I've not had my typical hypo symptoms. You take care too xxx
Hi I am diabetic Saggyuk and can say yes HbA1c can jump like that .
Your GP will be watching your HbA1c if at all concerned, many Hashi patients go on to develop T2 diabetes. If readings reach pre diabetes levels they may suggest you watch what you eat and excercise more. A slightly higher reading will mean diabetic testing where you have blood done after overnight fast, take a glucose drink, hang around ( sitting quietly) then are retested.
You seem to have had a drop recently in HbA1c levels which suggest you are not in any risk of developing diabetes T2 .
A lesser number develop LADA which can be confused initially with T2. This is when adults develop Type 1 . The symptoms for T1 and should have you chatting to your GP are .
feeling very thirsty
peeing more than usual, particularly at night
feeling very tired
losing weight without trying
thrush that keeps coming back
blurred vision
cuts and grazes that are not healing
( symptoms are very for Type 2 )
Remember test strips are designed ideally to be used by those taking blood glucose regulating medications. As such we learn the many factors affecting blood glucose levels an the importance of understanding why these happen.
What we eat and our activity levels affect levels across the day.
Ideally meals are of a similar calorific value and sugar content daily. Excercise spread across a few days will give varying results on a day by day basis.
Keeping a very accurate diary can help understand results. Some actually have a spike immediately after excercise, just when they thought to see a drop. Others may be a point away from being hypo.
Stress, lack of hydration, being under the weather, having a virus even the menstrual cycle in women can affect results. It can be worrying. To date there are no very low levels , nor excessively high.
Other symptoms can indicate you are struggling to avoid diabetes, I think it will be reasonable for you to arrange an appointment with your GP.
It was more that the Hba1c test should have been higher than the 37 in the summer as my lifestyle has been so much worse since as stopped walking so much in the miserable cold months and due to self isolations plus I'd been eating so much more crap than usual so just didn't know whether to trust that result. especially where I appear to be worse after eating and have become very anti-carb/crap the past past week adn I hadn't eaten much at all in the 3-4 days prior to the test as was sick in hospital and then passed out. I am constantly peeing and have tingling everywhere, sweating and blurred vision plus multiple other issues) which is why I thought I'd ask. I'm not waking up to pee though. I think it must be something else messing with my sugar levels etc though as I suppose they would have seen high sugar levels the two days in hospital when I couldn't move. Thanks for the info though.
I don’t have diabetes but I can at times struggle with balancing blood sugar. I think it’s symptomatic of having a thyroid issue. I’ve found two things that have really helped:
First, wearing a continuous glucose monitoring device for a couple of weeks.
I did this alongside keeping a detailed food and lifestyle diary, so could start to see how eating higher carb foods, stress, lack of sleep and exercise affected my levels and start to make changes accordingly.
Second, as part of learning to eat more healthily, I read up on low glycemic index foods and I pretty much ensure now that I stick them most of the time. Patrick Holford has some good stuff on the subject. I have several of his books and cookbooks.
Hi Local Hero - might try that constant monitor thing just to make myself behave more lol! I know all about glycemic index as my sugar levels used to be rubbish before before going GF and do things like only eating basmati rice which is medium rather than high and new potatoes instead of other etc etc and always eat a load of veg with everything - I'm always harping on about it to my daughter. However, very hypocritically I've been eating so much rubbish and choc recently as was just too tired to think about proper food some days but I know it's not going to help at all in the long run so will adjust that!! Thanks again
My son wears a Libre. It’s amazing. He’s a young type one diabetic, and why I’ve learned a lot about diabetes over the last nearly ten years. If self funded though it’s £150 a month. Not cheap!! Ours is on prescription. If you’re not showing signs of diabetes and even if suspected of t2 getting funded is incredibly rare sadly.
The problem with a constant glucose monitor for a non diabetic is that even non diabetics blood sugar can drop at night and go high after certain foods. So it may worry you for no reason Xx
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