First time ever felt this...

[sharpharp]

Hi all,

Been T2 for about 6 years, on metaformin and glicazide.
I'm not overweight but have a family history of diabetes.
I exercise 4-5 times a week, and last week went for my 6 monthly blood check

The hba1c was 5.5 but the diabetic nurse felt it should be lower, so doubled my dose of glicazide from 40mg to 80mg

Last night which have never happened before, I broke out in a cold sweat, legs and arms were creaking/shaking and felt fuzzy with a headache.
Immediately went to check my levels, and it was 2.3....... quickly grabbed some chocolate, sweets and some sweet drinks, was back upto 4.2 in about 10 mins and 7.8 about 20 mins later....

Scary, never had that fealing before, anyone offer some advice, could it be the higher dose of Glicazide that was given to me last week that has caused this to dip?
Tried to get in to see nurse, but non available today, so going tomorrow to docs.

Today I still kinda feel a bit out of it and neck and shoudlers feel tense...

Any advice would be appreciated.
Sharpy

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hello and welcome.

What a nasty thing to happen. I'm sorry I can't help with any medication issues, but are you sure your HbA1c was 5.5? If it was, is your nurse an imposter? 5.5% is a normal non-diabetic level. I cannot understand why she would increase your meds and want it lower.

 

[sharpharp]

My apologies, got my numbers muddled up, the hba1c was 55 or 58 when the nurse checked (its the long term one she said)

 

[pavlosn]

My apologies, got my numbers muddled up, the hba1c was 55 or 58 when the nurse checked (its the long term one she said)

55 is a bit high but you could try bringing it down through more intensive testing of bloods and reducing carbs ( if not already doing this now) rather than increasing meds.

How often do you monitor your glucose?

Do you test before and two hours after meals?

Can you list a typical day's meals for us?

Regards

Pavlos

 

[Bluetit1802]

Ah .... that makes a bit more sense. You need help from someone that takes Glicazide, so I'm no use at all, but it does sound to me like she is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. One piece of advice .... ask for a print out of your blood results. You really need to know where you stand. You are entitled to this.

 

[sharpharp]

Hi,

Thanks for your swift replies, much appreciated.

I did get a printout last time, and as you say, its better to know yourself your on-going results than it be sat on a GPs computer.
@pavlos - I am really bad for testing, I hardly ever test, but with this recent episode maybe I should. Its the finger prick that puts me off, when I did it a few times before, I found my fingers were getting tingly after a few days of puncturing...

Meal wise i'm much better than I used to be, but I don't look at the carb content or anything.

typically, have rice crispies cereal for breakfast, soup/sandwich/crisps for lunch and usually a main meal of processed foods with a bit of salad/veg.
I do my best to avoid sugary drinks and mostly stick with water and the occasional diet coke.

Exercise wise, I alternative between treadmill and weights.

I was kinda hoping this regime would keep it at bay, but it isn't.
As well as glicazide, I take 4x metgformin and another tab for cholesterol.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hi,

You really need to look at your diet and change it. They are not wise choices, too full of carbs, and dare I say, also added sugars.
Breakfast cereals are not good, especially rice crispies etc. They will be raising your levels constantly. Try something else - eggs cooked any which way, or a Greek yogurt with a few berries or nuts or seeds thrown in.
Tinned soups are full of carbs and added sugars. Read the labels.
sandwiches are made with bread, again another food that needs care.
crisps? Not good.
Processed foods? What sort? Do you read the labels for carb/sugar content?
Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, pastry, cereals are the main culprits.
Eat meat, fish, eggs, cheese, salads, vegetables, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, dairy foods (except not too much milk)

Please try testing again. Test before you eat then again at 2 hours and see what happens to your levels. You may have a big shock, but by doing this you will learn what your diet is doing to you. It must be worth a try, surely? As for finger pricking, maybe you had your lancet settings too high and weren't rotating the prick site enough. Please have another go.


If you can change your diet and control your levels you will feel so much better and may be able to reduce your meds

 

[pavlosn]

Hi,

You really need to look at your diet and change it. They are not wise choices, too full of carbs, and dare I say, also added sugars.
Breakfast cereals are not good, especially rice crispies etc. They will be raising your levels constantly. Try something else - eggs cooked any which way, or a Greek yogurt with a few berries or nuts or seeds thrown in.
Tinned soups are full of carbs and added sugars. Read the labels.
sandwiches are made with bread, again another food that needs care.
crisps? Not good.
Processed foods? What sort? Do you read the labels for carb/sugar content?
Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, pastry, cereals are the main culprits.
Eat meat, fish, eggs, cheese, salads, vegetables, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, dairy foods (except not too much milk)

Please try testing again. Test before you eat then again at 2 hours and see what happens to your levels. You may have a big shock, but by doing this you will learn what your diet is doing to you. It must be worth a try, surely? As for finger pricking, maybe you had your lancet settings too high and weren't rotating the prick site enough. Please have another go.


If you can change your diet and control your levels you will feel so much better and may be able to reduce your meds

I second everything said above.

It seems to me that you are at a crossroad. You can either chose the path of increasing medication to help you deal with the carbs in your diet, or you can change your diet to something containing a lot less carbs which should mean that you are able to reduce the medication you are on.

To know how many carbs you can cope with you need to test before and after each meal and adjust the carb content of your next meal until your after count is no more than 2 mmol of the before.

You need to exercise care if reducing carbs as you may need to also reduce the gliclazide you take as otherwise this will cause you to hypo.

Someone with experience of this medication will have yo advise you as I have never been on it.

Best of luck

Pavlos

 

[sanguine]

To add to Bluetit's good advice, start looking at food labels in the supermarket. Try to keep to those which have less than 10g carbs per 100g, less than 5g if possible. Ignore the 'of which sugar' bit, that's not relevant for us. Carbohydrates metabolise quickly to sugar in the bloodstream.

There's a great book called 'Carbs & Cals' which has photos of foods and meals showing calorie, carb, protein and fat content.

Also have a look at www.dietdoctor.com/lchf - many on here successfully manage their condition with this (or a similar) lifestyle (and that's what it is, a lifestyle not a diet).

 

[sharpharp]

I thought Rice Crispies were the best choice of cereal as it doesn't have sugar on it, so you think I should drop all cereals for good go to a cooked breakfast with eggs and beans, toast (brown bread)?

Also, I have mixed nuts to munch or during mid morning and have a banana on the afternoon and occasional oranges, these out as well?

 

[Bluetit1802]

I thought Rice Crispies were the best choice of cereal as it doesn't have sugar on it, so you think I should drop all cereals for good go to a cooked breakfast with eggs and beans, toast (brown bread)?

Also, I have mixed nuts to munch or during mid morning and have a banana on the afternoon and occasional oranges, these out as well?

I do think you should drop all cereals. Rice Krispies are made with rice, which is bad, and also sugar. Look at the nutrition label on the box. 87% carbohydrate of which 10% are sugars.

A cooked breakfast is great, but no baked beans and no toast until you test out a slice to see if you can cope with it. Baked beans are full of sugar, including the so called low sugar ones. Have eggs and bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes, or scrambled eggs, or an omelette with cheese/bacon.

Most nuts are OK to snack on, but instead of a banana (very bad) and an orange (also not good) try a small apple or a handful of berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries)

 

[Daibell]

Hi. If your pancreas is still in reasonable shape then Gliclazide can cause hypos if the dose is too high. As otyhers have said do control the carbs you take and it sounds like you need to revert to the lower dose of Glic. The nurse probably did the right thing but the hypo shows it's too high now; do discuss it with her.

 

[sharpharp]

Hi all,

Went back to the Nurse today.
I took in a diary of my diet for the last 2 weeks and finger prick reading and Blood pressure.
I told her I cut out bananas and jacket potatoes and general carb heavy foods.... Would you believe this what she said..."don't cut out bananas, they have the same carbs as apples and go back to eating jacket potatoes". She said if I don't eat many carbs then the sugar level will drop and the medicine will make my levels go even lower.

I said the idea was to reduce the carbs in my diet to reduce my levels period and try and come of the meds (or at least reduce them), but she was off the thinking that eat normal and let the meds go their thing, and if they need to be put up, so be it.... At the moment she left me on 40mg glicozide and asked me to go back in feb to get the long hba1c done..

I feel like all the hard work I've been doing to watch what I eat and exercise etc means nothing to the nurses treating T2....

Anyone else had a similar response.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hi all,

Anyone else had a similar response.

Yes, most of us! This is why most type 2's have levels that just keep rising and rising, meaning more and more meds, and the poor folk have no idea why because they are doing as they are told.

At my last DN review in the summer my HbA1c had dropped again (I'm not on any meds) and I'd lost a great deal of weight. I told her about my low carbs. She said I must eat bread every day, and jacket potatoes with baked beans. I just nodded. There was little point in arguing.
But at least your nurse realises that cutting carbs means reducing blood sugars. I don't think mine does.