Dealing with illness

[62Rose]

Has anyone any suggestions as to how to cope with illness please? I think I have a stomach upset or maybe I ate too many carbs over Christmas? In the past I would have just kept to fluids for a day or two but obviously I can’t do this now. What would be best to eat please? I am also dairy free.
It also made me think about colds and flu etc when you don’t feel like eating. What foods are best for RH then?

 

[lovinglife]

Your signature says you don't have diabetes - can you tell us what meds you are on, what's your blood sugar like?, do you test? what kind of food you usually eat e.g.) how many carbs etc. It will help people give you the right advice.

Assuming you don't have diabetes or you aren't on any medication that can cause hypos then just having fluids for a day or two until you feel better should be fine. Drink plenty of fluids, beef tea is good, keep an eye on your bloods as you don't have dairy that's a good thing as dairy is the worst for sickness, when you feel like eating keep it light to begin with , scrambled egg, gently cooked veg, home made soup - low carb if you follow low carb eating

If you are on meds then the advice would be a little different like I say - hope your feeling better soon

 

[Brunneria]

I have RH, and my blood glucose levels improve with fasting (no hypos followed by hypers because the hypers and hypos don’t happen with Low Carbing).

I had a bad tummy bug Sunday to Wed last week. Spent most of my time in the bathroom with my kindle.

I had plenty of warm fluids for the first two days (cold drinks set everything of again) sipped v slowly (since gulps set everything off again).

When I started to feel better, I made some chicken soup (1 small chicken, 1 onion, 1 courgette, 1 celeriac, 1 stalk celery, 1 red pepper, water and enough stock cubes. Simmered the lot till the meat was falling off the bones, fished out the bones. Blended everything till smooth. Then had it several small mugs of it until i was up to my normal (low carb) eating again - which only took a day or so. I had a curry on Friday night

Hope you feel better soon!

 

[62Rose]

I just know that if I don’t eat I get symptoms, sweating, headache, dizziness etc. As Lamont said maybe the cyst causing it. I will have a go at the chicken soup and try small amounts as you say. Thank you.

 

[Kaz261]

Hi @62Rose, I realise this is a little late and hopefully you’re over your bug and feeling much better now.

Whenever I have a stomach bug (which happens all too often with having young children!), I tend to eat grapes to keep my levels up. Just 2 or 3 whenever I feel my bs is lower than I’d like.

Once I start to feel better, I’m with @Brunneria and have chicken soup.

I had a sickness bug a couple of weeks ago which lasted 7 days. It was so hard as all I fancied to eat was buttered toast . Took a lot of willpower but I made it through!

Take care

Kaz

 

[Brunneria]

Been wondering how you were doing, @62Rose ?
Did you manage to find a way to keep your levels up?

I think the tummy bug has been doing the rounds this year. I've heard of so many who have/had it.
Miserable experience from start to finish!

 

[62Rose]

Thanks for those suggestions. Im over it now. Not sure what I had but it didn’t last long in the end. I had the usual daily ups and downs, not sure if it matters what I eat sometimes?

I had the CT scan this morning so have spent today yo-yoing, after not eating for 5 hours .I really can’t go longer than 2 hours without food now.
Ended up having to pay to go privately as my husbands company health insurance ran out on 31 December and they aren’t renewing it, the only positive being I may get the results tomorrow or soon after.
I’m not sure if I can wait much longer, it’s been such a long haul. I just hope there will be something they can offer to help, I have not started looking up cysts on the pancreas and what they do with them, going to wait for the consultant’s advice.
Thanks for asking, it really helps to share with you guys

 

[62Rose]

So the Consultant was surprised to see from the CT that I have chronic pancreatitis. He wants a closer look at the two cysts with MRI but doesn’t think they are nasty and doesn’t think either issues are affecting my blood sugars. Going to try controlling the pain with paracetamol and wait to see what the MRI shows! The mystery continues.

 

[Brunneria]

Wow.
One step closer!

Did he have any suggestions as to what is causing the lows?

 

[62Rose]

No he’s a gastroenterologist, it was the discomfort I was experiencing that prompted the initial ultrasound, so they stumbled on this really. I am hoping he will communicate with the endocrinologist before my next appointment. Still waiting to hear about the 24 hr glucose monitoring they promised!

 

[62Rose]

Had a really bad low at a party last night. No alcohol no dancing but maybe ate my evening snack later than normal. Very bad night. Still don’t feel right. Very fed up and not sure what to eat if I felt like eating. Been very tearful and feel so frustrated. Another day of my life lost. Sorry to moan but I know others will understand what it feels like. My stomach is so gurgly too, with or without food. Any suggestions please.

 

[Lamont D]

Hi, glad you are getting somewhere but sorry for your bad night.

I have read and told because of the fasting tests I have done, that problems with pancreatitis does cause hypos. The fasting test, for me, eliminated the possibility of pancreatic conditions other than RH.

Maybe something can be done about the cysts.

Best wishes

 

[62Rose]

Hi, glad you are getting somewhere but sorry for your bad night.

I have read and told because of the fasting tests I have done, that problems with pancreatitis does cause hypos. The fasting test, for me, eliminated the possibility of pancreatic conditions other than RH.

Maybe something can be done about the cysts.

Best wishes

That’s interesting as I did wonder if that has caused my issues and I presume you think nothing can be done to deal with that? Maybe the endo will have a different view to the Gastro?

I have done the 72 fasting test nearly 2 years ago now, do you think in the light of this it would be worth doing again? I find it all really confusing.


I have decided I will probably pay for the MRI to see exactly what the cysts are, they may just monitor them.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Lamont D]

Having done the fasting test I would imagine that there would be no need for a second. A fasting test eliminates pancreatic conditions. If you don’t hypo you have RH. If you do hypo then you have a pancreatic condition.

I believe they can do surgery on the cysts, but obviously it has to be the right conditions to do so.

 

[62Rose]

Ah right I see. I only went down to 2.9 one day but was sweating within a few hours and the rest of the time on and off every couple of hours, had a continuous headache and by the third day was nearly sick. I felt so ill. Which I do now if I don’t eat every two hours and have similar symptoms every night! But he didn’t think it showed anything because I didn’t go down to 2.2. Still confused and slightly irritated that he didn’t do a CT scan then.

 

[62Rose]

Do you know if they can offer anything to help stabilise me if The pancreatitis is causing RH?

 

[Lamont D]

Hi again, sorry, it's not my subject, just things about hypoglycaemia which I have studied. However, a very low carb diet, small bites every couple of hours can't do you any harm!
It's about keeping your blood glucose levels somewhere around normal levels continually, that won't do any damage.
I will have a look around the websites I have visited before to see how they cope with cysts. Will post if I find something.

I'm not sure about how low you go for complete diagnosis, hopefully they know what they are doing. I can't remember how low I went on my first glucose test but I know it was low, the staff started panicking trying to shove lucozade and sandwiches down my throat.
If you do go low, have a couple of plain biscuits, with a cuppa, that will nudge you back up slowly and shouldn't give you a spike, triggering more insulin.

Best wishes

 

[62Rose]

Hi again, sorry, it's not my subject, just things about hypoglycaemia which I have studied. However, a very low carb diet, small bites every couple of hours can't do you any harm!
It's about keeping your blood glucose levels somewhere around normal levels continually, that won't do any damage.
I will have a look around the websites I have visited before to see how they cope with cysts. Will post if I find something.

I'm not sure about how low you go for complete diagnosis, hopefully they know what they are doing. I can't remember how low I went on my first glucose test but I know it was low, the staff started panicking trying to shove lucozade and sandwiches down my throat.
If you do go low, have a couple of plain biscuits, with a cuppa, that will nudge you back up slowly and shouldn't give you a spike, triggering more insulin.

Best wishes

Thanks Lamont. Do you know if having continuous hypos could have been damaging my pancreas, or what damage do you refer to?

 

[Lamont D]

Thanks Lamont. Do you know if having continuous hypos could have been damaging my pancreas, or what damage do you refer to?

I think damage was the wrong word to use reviewing my post.
It should have been making your illness worse, Sorry for the wording.
But, it is common knowledge with any endocrine conditions that high and low blood sugar levels lead to problems with your health.
I must confess that I have no idea if continuous hypos cause the cysts, but again, too much insulin in your blood is not good and will lead to the horrible symptoms that the both of us has been through because most unused insulin goes to fat in your organs including your pancreas.
Have you been feeling better, and how are you coping with your new diet if you have started low carb?

I would believe that not making your pancreas work too hard would be a benefit!

 

[62Rose]

That’s ok, I am sure this is all having a big impact however. No I’m still waking every 2 hours at night with hypo symptoms and having dips through the day too, particularly morning and evening, like right now!!! Sometimes it’s lunchtime before I level out, It’s so frustrating and debilitating.
I have had an email from the DNS at the hospital this week to say that she will discuss the “intervention “ the consultant requested back in November as I am still waiting for the 24 hr glucose monitoring. Also waiting to hear the results of the MRI last week which I had done privately.
I’m not changing anything to my diet yet as the gastro said not to. I have been low carb since June. Reading around I think coconut oil is probably still ok anyway which I hope is the case and as I don’t eat dairy that should be helping. I didn’t drink much anyway but it’s a depressing not to be able to have the odd glass of wine