Bloods are so high! Why???

[Sweettooth81]

I'm so fed up of my bloods being so high.

Today for example:
I woke up at 18.6
Take 80mg of gliclazide
No breakfast

Lunch I had left over rice and veg and an apple at 1pm.

Get home at 7pm test my bloods before dinner and it's 17.5. I've not had anything to eat between then and now

Why won't they go down? It's like this all the time. Wake on 18s and my pre dinner bloods are 14-18. Only get to a 12 if I eat no lunch!

Can't get into see a DN because there are no apps. Still waiting for the doctors call

 

[Fenn]

Hi, speaking as a moron, my understanding is the sugar/glucose/carbs can’t get out! So what’s in there is staying in there, the mechanism to allow the glucose out of your blood into your muscles etc isn’t working correctly or at least very slowly, so, if you add any more, it takes forever for that to slowly leave. The answer is to avoid carbs as much as possible.

There are many foods that won’t raise your numbers but apples are carby for instance so swop that for cheese for example, it’s a huge subject so best to have a look at the forum or “what have you eaten today” thread for ideas.

Very frustrating when you are trying hard: but you will learn what’s good and bad, the best news is low carb eating means you never need be hungry.

 

[Sweettooth81]

Hi, speaking as a moron, my understanding is the sugar/glucose/carbs can’t get out! So what’s in there is staying in there, the mechanism to allow the glucose out of your blood into your muscles etc isn’t working correctly or at least very slowly, so, if you add any more, it takes forever for that to slowly leave. The answer is to avoid carbs as much as possible.

There are many foods that won’t raise your numbers but apples are carby for instance so swop that for cheese for example, it’s a huge subject so best to have a look at the forum or “what have you eaten today” thread for ideas.

Very frustrating when you are trying hard: but you will learn what’s good and bad, the best news is low carb eating means you never need be hungry.

Thanks.

It's the first time I've had rice and an apple for lunch. I love fruit and I've not been eating it at all.
I normally have a leafy salad with green olives, cucumber, 1/4 bell pepper and sometimes cheese. That's all but still my bloods are in the 12s before dinner.

I just don't understand how such little amount of carbs can keep me so high for so long

 

[Fenn]

I am extremely intolerant of carbs, I describe it as an allergy, the only way I could get my numbers down was to go very very low carb, maybe 25g a day and even then it took me weeks and weeks to get out of the teens, (when I was T2 lol don’t ask) perhaps you have the same problem maybe?

I think it’s down to how severe your insulin resistance is.

 

[bulkbiker]

Thanks.

It's the first time I've had rice and an apple for lunch. I love fruit and I've not been eating it at all.
I normally have a leafy salad with green olives, cucumber, 1/4 bell pepper and sometimes cheese. That's all but still my bloods are in the 12s before dinner.

I just don't understand how such little amount of carbs can keep me so high for so long

You still don't have a confirmed diagnosis though, is that right ?
Could be that cutting carbs might not be enough although neither rice nor apples are especially low carb.
Try some meat fish or cheese instead which should help.

 

[Oldvatr]

Gliclazide is a strange medication in that it works by boosting insulin output from the pancreas. Now that requires your body to be requiring and requesting insulin to be released which will not happen if you do not eat after taking it. So no food = waste of gliclazide because the enzymes are missing. Secondly, assuming you are T2D, then usually this means high insulin resistance, so your body is awash with insulin because it is not able to do its job of shifting glucose. So, there will be no demand request when you do eat, and again the glic does not react because it is inhibited by the high insulin level..

You have to turn off the tap. Don't eat carbs, or try fasting for a while. Your liver is like a car battery - every carb you are eating is simply charging it up again

IMO rice is one thing that has a bad effect on me too. Even an apple will show on my meter, but not stratospherically. Root veggies bite me, but above ground veggies are friendly for me.

 

[Mitch73]

I'm so fed up of my bloods being so high.

Today for example:
I woke up at 18.6
Take 80mg of gliclazide
No breakfast

Lunch I had left over rice and veg and an apple at 1pm.

Get home at 7pm test my bloods before dinner and it's 17.5. I've not had anything to eat between then and now

Why won't they go down? It's like this all the time. Wake on 18s and my pre dinner bloods are 14-18. Only get to a 12 if I eat no lunch!

Can't get into see a DN because there are no apps. Still waiting for the doctors call

Omg, I'm worried my hitting 10.....!!!! Hope you get sorted soon. Take care

 

[Oldvatr]

Looking at your BMI, there are a couple of diet thats might help, and that is either the Newcastle Diet plan, or the Blood Sugar 800 diet. These are both short term ultra low calorie diets that have been shown to be quite effective for diabetics. I am a low carber myself, so I have a natural bias to that, but with your levels being so high, it may be easier to go for a meal replacement style diet. The shakes are fixed protein and also happen to be low carb as well.

 

[Antje77]

A couple of weeks ago you posted about your complicated gallbladder op and possible pancreatic damage.
Has that ever been followed up with a C-peptide test to see if you're actually producing enough insulin?

 

[Sweettooth81]

A couple of weeks ago you posted about your complicated gallbladder op and possible pancreatic damage.
Has that ever been followed up with a C-peptide test to see if you're actually producing enough insulin?

Hey thanks for remembering.

My doc has not tested me for anything else. My high levels seem to fall on deaf ears with the answer of just cut carbs and sugars. I think that he has the impression that I'm lying about my diet.

To the post that said about not skipping meals - I've only just started doing that because my bloods were still so high. Skipping meals is the only thing that brings my bloods down!

My diet has changed from
White bread toast for breakfast, sandwich or pasta from the supermarket meal deals (yes I would have crisps and choc) for lunch and dinner would be big portions with carbs. While pots being a large staple.

Now I'm always eating salad. No big protein at lunch because my digestive system can't handle it. Dinner is veg or salad with a little meat. I only have rice once a week. It's my treat. I limit my carb intake to dinners and it's usually under 100g. Only today was I having carbs at lunch.

But even having leafy salad and veg will keep my bloods over 10. That's why I rebelled and had carbs at lunch. I'm sick of my levels not changing when I'm eating so little!

As for exercise. I'm up at 530 in work by 7. Working like a mental case until 5-6pm. Lunch is often eaten with a fork in one hand and pen in the other. Get home, dinner, tidy, more work and then it's 8/9pm sometimes 10 depending on the work load. I don't live in an area that's ok for walks or jogs in the dark/wee hours. I don't even know where to fit it in.... Hense why I'm unfit in the first place.

 

[EllieM]

@Sweettooth81

Is your doctor a GP?

Given your age and your possible pancreatic damage, I'd be asking to be referred to an endocrinologist. A cpeptide test in particular would tell you how much insulin you are producing. (A low carb diet helps reduce the amount of insulin you need, but if you aren't producing enough even that may not bring your levels down.)

And of course, stress pushes blood sugars up, but permanent levels in the teens need treatment.

 

[Antje77]

My doc has not tested me for anything else. My high levels seem to fall on deaf ears with the answer of just cut carbs and sugars. I think that he has the impression that I'm lying about my diet.

If that's a GP, please push for a referral or try to get a follow up on your surgery.

 

[Sweettooth81]

Today has been a typical busy teacher day for me.

Had my gliclazide at 600am. I've just got in from work at 6pm. I've eaten nothing and drunk nothing all day. Been swept off my feet all day, running round like a tornado.
Morning bloods 19
Pre dinner blood 10.9

I can't get a balance diabetes, diet or life.

It's so hard sometimes

 

[Oldvatr]

Today has been a typical busy teacher day for me.

Had my gliclazide at 600am. I've just got in from work at 6pm. I've eaten nothing and drunk nothing all day. Been swept off my feet all day, running round like a tornado.
Morning bloods 19
Pre dinner blood 10.9

I can't get a balance diabetes, diet or life.

It's so hard sometimes

Your pre-dinner today seems to be lower than the ones you were posting earlier in the week, so are moving in the right direction. you reduced by 8 mmol/l which is a signficant decrease for someone on oral meds only. So turning off the tap seeems to be working. Now you need to find a plan that is in between since constant fasting is not advised as a treatment.

 

[Oldvatr]

Can i suggest a change? Stop measuring at waking time. The morning fasting bloods are always the last ones to reduce and you are stressing yourself needlessly. Leave them alone, and let them come home, leaving their sugars behind them.

Use the strip instead to monitor your level 2 hours after eating a meal, and see how high it jumps. A jump of 2 mmol/l (above pre-meal ) is considered an expected rise, and if it is more than that then there is something in the meal that maybe needs to be reduced or omitted next time. Work on getting one meal that works out ok, and then vary around it.

As far as carb go, then some are considered to be better than others. It depends on the Glycemic Index value. A high GI number indicates it is close to sugar and will spike your blood. A lo value will still give a glucose hit, but at a slower rate since the fibre content slows it down, So perhaps some research into GI? Basically, you are needing to avoid not just sugar, but also starch. for most of us here T2D means that starchy veg like pots, rice, pasta, wheat are to be avoided but above ground level veggies are ok.

 

[ChrisWillUK]

Today has been a typical busy teacher day for me.

Had my gliclazide at 600am. I've just got in from work at 6pm. I've eaten nothing and drunk nothing all day. Been swept off my feet all day, running round like a tornado.
Morning bloods 19
Pre dinner blood 10.9

I can't get a balance diabetes, diet or life.

It's so hard sometimes

You sound a lot like I was when I was first diagnosed. Eating on the run, literally working.myself to death. Staying at work til very late. I was sometime still in the office at 2am and wondered why my blood sugars were 17 or 18, Hb1AC of 110. the answer was my diet was too high in carbs and also I think equally importantly I was incredibly stressed, with high cortisol levels. Sounds as though you need to address your work life balance and learn to relax. I felt so sick with the stress and diabetes I resigned went low carb and my HbA1c dropped to 42 in 3 months. I know resigning is radical but there must be some way of reducing your stress levels. Perhaps ask others what they have done.

 

[HSSS]

Today has been a typical busy teacher day for me.

Had my gliclazide at 600am. I've just got in from work at 6pm. I've eaten nothing and drunk nothing all day. Been swept off my feet all day, running round like a tornado.
Morning bloods 19
Pre dinner blood 10.9

I can't get a balance diabetes, diet or life.

It's so hard sometimes

Stress can keep levels higher. And no drink all day will not be doing you any favours on many fronts, bgl included. Surely you can keep a water bottle handy between lessons at the very least.

 

[Starlark]

Stress is really bad for blood glucose. My morning blood levels just started to go down when a very stressful audit came to my job. It went up again and I couldn't do anything. It took a week to go down.

 

[Sweettooth81]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies.

I know dehydration is bad for life in general and definitely doesn't help diabetes and bs levels. Teaching is such a mad job. I have a water bottle beside me all day but when I say it was a busy day I literally mean it was mental. You finish the day and haven't even cracked open the cap on the bottle because you've had no time to think of water or fluids. That's my life.
Getting a work life balance is difficult someday becausenof the sheers volume of work to complete. Every school and role is different. There are times where you can't just say no or not do it. The stress levels are very high - there isn't really a way to lower them dramatically. Experts have said teaching is more stressful and stress hormone inducing that flying a plane or being a surgeon. When you've got kids with no home support, mental well-being issues, poverty-stricken families, kids with additional physical and academic needs they all need addressing every lesson in every day and there is no one else in that classroom but you/me. There is no one to eliminate your stress. Teachers like me run on pure stress and adrenaline all day. Which is why we crash at home. We fight with the remainder of the energy we have to mark work, plan and assess the kids in the evening and have no energy left (not to mention time!) To consider normal things like exercise. Who has the energy after a 10-12 hour day to do a 30minute workout at 10pm? Not me.
I have parents evening soon I'll be teaching from 830-330 so I'll be in school at 7am and parents evening starts at 345-7. No break - back to back parents. I'll get home at 745/8 depending on traffic levels. Then I've got to do the marking I couldn't do because of parents evening and plan for the next day which will be another 3ish hours of work. In between that I've got to have a decent dinner, clean up after it, do the housework, talk to my family somehow...
This is why I'm struggling.
I cut carbs right down to 50-100g a day. 100g is being generous, I think I only hit that level once.
I know it's more than just carbs but my lifestyle.
Unless I leave my career, there isn't much to change. Teaching is full on. It's not 9-3 specialised babysitting with 13 weeks of a year. Even this week I'm meant to be on Easter Break for 2 weeks but I've been in all week from 8am to deliver booster lessons to children who need extra help to pass their SATs, prep for my own classroom and team and had to prep my lead subject for another year group because all their teachers have left or gone off sick. You can't always say no.

I appreciate the advise and realise my post has become an episode of rantville. Sorry about that but I've had family also say just don't do it or stop doing so much. It's frustrating because if I don't do it, it doesn't get done, then lessons and myself are not prepared then children suffer, then the management will be on my back then I'll be put in an action plan for competency and if I still don't do it then bye bye job and career.

I hate to fail.

 

[johnmorrish]

I'm so fed up of my bloods being so high.

Today for example:
I woke up at 18.6
Take 80mg of gliclazide
No breakfast

Lunch I had left over rice and veg and an apple at 1pm.

Get home at 7pm test my bloods before dinner and it's 17.5. I've not had anything to eat between then and now

Why won't they go down? It's like this all the time. Wake on 18s and my pre dinner bloods are 14-18. Only get to a 12 if I eat no lunch!

Can't get into see a DN because there are no apps. Still waiting for the doctors call

Hi, not sure if this is relevant for you but in my experience (type2 - 25 years, insulin for 4 years). Low carbs are essential but equally so is Excercise and is certainly the best way of burning the carbs & lowering blood sugars. I try for a min of 1 hour gardening, walking every day and it ha s helped my control a lot. The more excercise the greater the impact, I may have to lower my insulin dose if I am going for a 2 hour allotment session. I do use the FreeLibre system to monitor my blood sugars about 20 times a day so can see the trends very easily. If i go for a long hike, say 6 miles, then I normally have to increase carbs (as well as lower insulin) to cater for the energy use! My HBAC1 has been is running at 46 to 48 mmol/mol, or 6.6% for the last year or so.