RIGHT SIDED HEMIPLEGIA AND HYPERGLYCAEMIA?

[Peggybabcot]

Hello, my story is rather long and complex but I'll try to keep it brief!
In January 2005 (I was 35 at the time) I suddenly started with facial weakness on my right side and immediately suspected a stroke. By the time the ambulance arrived the weakness had travelled down the entire right side of my body. My speech was slurred and I couldn't move my right arm or leg. This happened two hours after eating a high carb meal although I didn't realise it's potential relevance at the time. By the time I reached casualty the feeling had started to come back. Since that night I have undergone every neurological test known to man and the medics can't come up with anything. However, the latest batch of tests suggest that I am borderline diabetic and severely hyperglycaemic. I can't remember the numbers I'm affraid. These attacks happen frequently and on a daily basis and they seem to be triggered after my large evening meal mainly BUT it happens quite often before I've finished eating or VERY soon after, not the two hours you'd expect if it were a sugar thing. If you've ever sat in a bath and pulled the plug out and suddenly started to feel the bouyancy disappear and you start to feel heavier/sinking feeling, then that's exactly how I feel when an attack is starting. Like there is a shift of some kind, sinking down my body. My limbs become very heavy and fatigued. Generally it is only right sided but some days I am paralysed from the eyebrows down and can't even open my eyes or speak. These attacks can last anything from 30 minutes to several hours although the longer more drawn out attacks are much less frequent than they once were. My other symptoms are extreme fatigue (one neuro has given me a diagnosis of ME, another neuro has given me a diagnosis of hemiplegic migraine but neither of the meds used to treat these conditions work) my shoulders and hips feel exhausted, I wee an awful lot, I have no libido, I have VERY dry skin on the back of my hands so much so that they crack and bleed, I feel the cold and my hands, feet and bum are always cold. Alot of the time I seem to feel relatively normal until I've eaten. I was so convinced I had something called Myasthenia Gravis that I self medicated with pyridostigmine and these helped enormously. The neuros are aware of this and now prescribe these on an empirical basis as they know they work but don't know why. Pyridostigmine is also used as an anti toxicity drug as well as for MG and I questioned a long time ago whether my body was toxic in some way? Even before the diagnosis of hyperglycaemia. Sugar maybe? The only other thing to make an improvement in the symptoms has been when I have been on a very strict diet and this has eleviated the symptoms on both ocassions. So my question to you is have any of you heard of right sided hemiplegia being caused by hyperglycaemia as I am sure there is a link between the two in my case. I have heard of non-ketonic hyperglycaemia and wanted your opinion. If I've forgotten anything, just ask.
regards, Julie x

 

[Trinkwasser]

Some of what you describe sounds a bit like what I used to feel from reactive hypoglycemia - going high after eating followed by a rapid BG drop - only far far worse!

I'm racking my brains to remember someone who was getting weird postprandial symptoms which turned out not to be due to her diabetes at all but some other endocrine condition, have you been referred to an Endo? This might be a good plan and give a different perspective on your symptoms. Thyroid and adrenals particularly need a thorough checking out IMO.

Meantime try doing this

http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/NewlyDiagnosed.htm

a good way to reduce your blood glucose levels and find a better diet, then the effect of your BG would be lessened and any other factors might become more obvious

 

[Peggybabcot]

Hello and thank you for your reply. I have read the link you suggested and found it very interesting. I think that is a really good way forward. I am under a lovely endo at Nottingham and go back again mid April. Hopefully if I can chart my sugars and compare these to my paralytic attacks he might come up with some ideas. You mentioned reactive hypoglycaemia. I have tested with high numbers for hyperglycaemia and glucose tolerance tests showed I am borderline diabetic. Can reactive hypoglycaemia occur with such high numbers and it has simply been missed? ie I wasn't being tested when my sugars dropped? I shall mention this to my endo when I next see him and see what he says. In the meantime I need to get a refill for my blood sugar monitor and start writing a food diary. Can you get these on prescription when you are simply borderline diabetic or do you have to have full blown diabetes for your GP to prescribe them? At £20 a shot it'll make a HUGE difference if I'm testing 8 times a day! Thanks for all your help, it's really appreciated, with regards, Julie x

 

[Trinkwasser]

In many places (like here) you won't even get the strips prescribed if you *are* diagnosed diabetic. Ask your GP though, you may be lucky.

Reactive hypoglycemia can be hard to diagnose if they are looking the other way at the time. for example I can go up to near-diabetic levels and sometimes fully diabetic numbers within around an hour of eating, and two or three hours later I can be down to hypo or near hypo levels. If they only look at the two hour numbers I am "normal" - they don't see that I am just passing through on the way from a high to a low.

A Glucose Tolerance Test may show this up but it's far from pleasant. You can get some idea if it's happening by eating something fairly carby then testing 1/2 hour after, and hourly after that for about four hours. Different people may show different BG curves. In most cases the treatment is the same, reduce the carbs until you no longer spike, then your pancreas will no longer overcompensate with excess insulin. Getting your insulin resistance down by building and using muscle also helps the insulin to do more. But if you have some other underlying endocrine condition gatting that sorted may knock on to your BG control too.