(03-20-2016, 04:01 AM)49er Wrote: (03-19-2016, 06:31 PM)dd777 Wrote: - Glucose monitor shows blood sugar is going back and forth between too high and too low. Dr wants to monitor this for a bit and then decide how to follow-up.
Can you please clarify? Has he been taking his fasting blood sugar in the morning when he gets up and then an hour, two hours after meals? Can you provide examples of numbers you are getting?
It is good the doctor wants to monitor what is going on but your husband can take control now by noticing what foods are causing spikes and eliminating those. And by the way, so called health foods can do this as I found out when plain oatmeal spiked my blood sugar 78 points.
You also might want to google ketogenic (high fat, low carb) diet as many diabetics have found by going on this diet, it greatly improved their situation. Some (not all) were able to completely go off of medication.
However, please check with his doctor to make sure their wouldn't be any contraindications to trying this.
Best of luck.
49er
BLOOD SUGAR
So the dr recently finally officially diagnosed him as diabetic, with both Hyperglycemia and Hypoglycemia which he says "is more rare, but does happen" ... i say finally because various drs have been mentioning blood sugar issues for years (about 5 years now?) without diagnosing him and seem confused about his data. His last dr was positive he was Type 1.5 LADA - but ran further tests that were required for the paperwork and got confused and said she was stumped. I think it had to do with not having some antibody markers or something like that he would need to have to confirm the diagnosis.
Based on the 4hr Glucose Tolerance Test he took recently, his new Dr says his blood sugar in the morning when he wakes up and before eating is too high (120) - then later on it drops too low (73).
After eating anything larger than a tiny snack, he tends to "crash" - basically he feels ill and falls asleep against his will. we try to keep him awake and cannot. as he is falling asleep i try to talk to him to see how responsive he is and i will lift his arm and it falls without any resistance. his speech is slurred and he seems drunk. sometimes he starts jerking around in his "sleep" and that wakes him up. then oddly enough he suddenly seems normal again.
However, the last 2 days (since we got the glucose monitor) the numbers i am seeing don't seem super alarming to me - but i am NEW to all of this.
Glucose numbers from yesterday:
- 109 / 5:38a upon waking
- 100 / 9:42a 1.5hrs after toast & small cup of coffee (cream & sugar)
- 71 / 3:22p 1hr after a short bike ride to go get lunch (shared a hamburger, fries, side salad, coffee w/cream & sugar - normally he limits himself to 1 cup of coffee so this was unusual) - upon getting home started to CRASH.
- 88 / 4:32p 2hrs after lunch - CRASH (not too bad though in comparison to other days - i think the extra dose of coffee/sugar and the exercise actually might have helped keep him from crashing harder than he would have???)
- 118 / 8:37p 1hr after dinner (shrimp & mixed wild, brown rice & water) - another CRASH
Glucose numbers from Friday:
- 128 / 10p getting into bed (our first reading)
DIET & EXERCISE
Because we know he crashes and has been told he has blood sugar issues and also has a lot of digestive issues, he is fairly careful about what he eats. Mainly, he tries to eat many small bits throughout the day. The hamburger lunch w/extra cup of coffee yesterday was unusual for him. Normally he would make himself something like a shrimp spring roll or just nibble on a variety of stuff at home (salami, cheese, crackers, olives, apples, homemade juice or smoothie with wheatgrass, celery, carrots, oranges, etc). I wonder what the readings would be if he ate a "normal" sized meals or something with more sugar (like a donut).
He has problems with his gallbladder which makes it hard for him to digest fats (especially red meat), and he is highly sensitive to nickel (found in many foods he likes & tends to eat such as seafood, poultry, eggs, carrots, apples and peanut butter) - as well foods he normally should eat more of (like green leafy vegtables), so that complicates things a bit when it comes to how food makes him feel and what he should/shouldnt eat. He meets with a dr mandated nutritionist once a week who recently put him through a pretty intense elimination diet.
I remember one day he came home and told me he had a donut (oops!) and how good it was -- then he made a shrimp and avocado ceviche type salad and afterwards had the worst crash i had seen. ..... it took a lot of effort for me to wake him up and he started convulsing? in his sleep (he started jerking, and then it seemed to catch a type of momentum and then he woke up) -- but then he was totally fine and normal. my mom said if it was any type of seizure he would have been dazed afterwards and would not have been able to remember it? so we don't know what to think about that.
Basically, he is scared of eating and scared of sleeping.
He is in better fitness than I am when it comes to going on walks, leisurly bike rides, etc. But he will suddenly get shortness of breath, dizzy and see "black" for no apparent reason unrelated to exercise - especially getting out of bed at night or in the morning and when he takes his morning shower. he doesnt exercise a TON because he doesnt feel well and is often either trying to make himself eat something "safe", is crashed out after eating, or trying to nap to get some extra sleep -- but he does get up and around every day. he is a stay at home dad and takes care of a 3 yr old so that keeps you movin!! I work at home so much of my "work" hours are not actually spent working! they are spent worrying or trying to get the kiddo out of the house so he can get some rest and some quiet time.
SYPTOMS (a few of them)
At night he has horrible sweating. Like BUCKETS of water were dumped on the bed. It is not uncommon for us to have to change his clothes and the bedding in the middle of the night.
He has to get up and pee A LOT throughout the night. Sometimes as many as 8 times in one night.
He often complains of pressure and pain in his chest.
Shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea.
BLOOD PRESSURE & HEART RATE
I have been monitoring his blood pressure and heart rate for a few days now and those numbers look much more concerning to me than his blood sugar does.
His systolic number generally looks like it is in ok ranges, but diastolic jumps around from too high (92) to too low (56).
His heart rate numbers during the last couple days have been between 57 and 73. We know from the Oximetry results that upon going to bed his bpm have started out as low as 40. As soon as he falls asleep his heart rate instantly jumps up to a sustained average of 160, with highs of 197.
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I'm anxious to get some type of a monitor that he can wear that will track his blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen levels all day and all night. I'm hoping to get a chance to research options for that today.
I keep trying to get him to go to the hospital for his chest discomfort, night sweats, dizziness and shortness of breath -- but he won't go. just says he's getting closer to maybe going soon. so frustrating.