I am over reacting?

[bulkbiker]

Sorry -I assumed type 1 but you seem to be both a newbie and also on insulin which is unusual.

Where did you get insulin from?

 

[Member496333]

Where did you get insulin from?

Possibly ye olde forum bug showing incorrect info in the left pane.

 

[NicoleC1971]

The OP is self identified as T2

The hypos made me jump to the wrong conclusion as unless the OP is taking a hypoglecemic agent or insulin it would not be usual to get a hypo Something's not right!

 

[simonr101]

The hypos made me jump to the wrong conclusion as unless the OP is taking a hypoglecemic agent or insulin it would not be usual to get a hypo Something's not right!

It's the start of a new term in a very high performing school. Everyone is under pressure to deliver, but because of the time I had off last year I seem to be under the spotlight a lot more. I'm not one of those teachers who sits at their desk and teaches. In fact I only sit down when I take the register. lessons are 60 minutes long, I always use a hell of a lot of energy each lesson and if I don't get a chance to eat my sugar drops, partly because the metformin is stopping my liver producing any. When I go Hyper I am bouncing around like a rubber ball and that is not a good thing in a teacher. So I keep my sugar at around 7 or 8 most of the time.

 

[Member496333]

If you are having to eat sugar drops in order to correct hypoglycaemia that is not brought about through inappropriate dosing of insulin or oral hypoglycaemic agents, then I really do think you need to seek medical assistance as a matter of utmost urgency. It is not normal to have to ingest sugar in order to stay alive.

It seems to me that if this issue can be resolved then the problems with your employer should take care of themselves.

 

[xfieldok]

Is there any chance you could post a picture of one of your teaching days from your Freestyle Daily Graphs.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

It's the start of a new term in a very high performing school. Everyone is under pressure to deliver, but because of the time I had off last year I seem to be under the spotlight a lot more. I'm not one of those teachers who sits at their desk and teaches. In fact I only sit down when I take the register. lessons are 60 minutes long, I always use a hell of a lot of energy each lesson and if I don't get a chance to eat my sugar drops, partly because the metformin is stopping my liver producing any. When I go Hyper I am bouncing around like a rubber ball and that is not a good thing in a teacher. So I keep my sugar at around 7 or 8 most of the time.

An additional thought.
Sugar drops are probably not the best way to keep your blood sugar levels up.

They are likely to get you into the "boom and bust" cycle of sugar highs followed very quickly by lows.
Slow release foods are generally far better.
Protein snacks have already been suggested.
For a bit more carbohydrate, malt loaf and butter is an old style slow release energy hit and a slice of that before each lesson might see you through.
Perhaps just a simple cheese sandwich?

Almost anything is better than pure sugar, which is very short term.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

I have only been back in the UK for a year after 13 years working abroad. So silly question, do I just ask my doctor for a referral? at the moment my diabetes is being handled by my GP's practice.

Normally you would discuss your symptoms with your GP, and if they seem non-standard (as yours do) the next step would normally be a referral to a specialist.
You may have to suggest this if your GP doesn't offer immediately.
Alternatively if your GP is diabetes literate they may suggest further tests to make sure you have common or garden T2 and not one of the variants.
Mostly I would expect a referral to be the next step.

 

[HSSS]

As everyone else has said hypos when only on metformin is highly unusual. I’m wondering about reactive hypoglycaemia where you are quite literally overreacting - to the sugar drops etc. I also believe you need to do a bit of self education on this possibility and definitely go back to drs etc to get to the bottom of this all. (Although I have had a couple of instances where I ate the wrong thing (high carb) tested later expecting a high reading and actually got a low one. Sometimes even a type 2 without RH can overreact insulin wise to a rare glucose overload)

If you can gain control of the glucose regulation then the sickness issues in regards to diabetes should sort themselves out but again as advised above seeking union or diabetes.org advise (not action) is a good step to understand your options should you need them later.

 

[Resurgam]

From my perspective, what you are describing is not type 2 diabetes - though there are a few people who get hypos with Metformin it usually has very little effect on the diabetes side, an awful lot on the workings of the gut.
Having to eat or take sugar solution is not how to treat type two, it shouldn't be necessary and I really think you need to be reevaluated as what you describe is more like reactive hypoglycaemia.

 

[Dr Snoddy]

This may be completely left-field but I sense that you are running around like a mad thing all day with high levels of stress. Is this coupled with not eating very much at all? Metformin would be preventing you from accessing glycogen stores and your blood glucose level would plummet.
It takes about 4 days to access body fat stores. Are you running on empty physically and emotionally?

 

[xfieldok]

Please check your daily graphs. Do they look like the Andes or are they more like the rolling hills of Cumbria?

I was a well controlled T2 until I got another condition and was put on steroids. Eventually, I was put on insulin with basically no training and I got things really, really wrong for a few months. My goal was to get my numbers down from the high teens and twenties to more "normal" levels. The result of not managing the insulin properly was that my numbers were going sky high, I would inject insulin to bring the numbers down and they would drop like a stone. I got the Andes effect. Eventually, I saw the Specialist Diabetes Nurse who attends the surgery every 4 weeks.

She told me that the massive peaks and troughs I was getting was why I was feeling so darn awful. Your body is trying to play catch up and it just can't. It will take a while for my eyes to get back to normal, but they should in time. Nothing happens overnight.

If you are bouncing off the walls in the classroom (and I am dying to know what your subject is) it is probably the same effect as a workout in the gym. This affects us all differently.

If you need a quick sugar fix, OK. I take jelly babies if absolutely necessary. But if I do, I follow it up with a couple of rich tea biscuits. The jelly babies may get your numbers up, but without a slower carb follow up you will crash and burn (hypo).

It is going to take a bit of practice to get it right. I agree with what the others have said. Maybe ring your surgery and ask if they have a Specialist Diabetic Nurse, I had never heard of her before I was put on insulin.

If you can get better control, it will help with your depression/anxiety. It won't be overnight but you will get there eventually.

I am concerned that you were left unresponsive for such a long period of time. Can you show your colleagues how to use your Freestyle Libre if they find you like that again. A quick scan and they should let them know whether they should call the paramedics. After all, coma and death is kind of permanent.

Of course the Freestyle libre is notoriously inaccurate for readings under 4. I get lots of 3s and the other night it was 2.6, but a finger prick showed it was actually 4.5. I have no experience of the miaow thing.

 

[ianf0ster]

Sorry back story:Had to take a day off work this last week. Has been up all night visiting the bathroom every 20 minutes or so, then had a double leg cramp, first one then an hour or so later the other one. I'm a school teacher and I knew that if I went into work the way I was feeling it would not have been good.
Went in the next day and had to have a full "back to work" interview, this is basically because I am also battling depression and anxiety and had a lot of time off over the last year.
During the interview the comment was thrown out " many people are living successfully with diabetes". At the time I left it as I do have a bit of a tendency to over react. But now I'm thinking, ***?
There are mornings when I can just about get up, feel like I am coming out of an anesthetic. I use the Freestyle Libre and Miaomiao with a smart watch (all self funding) so I can make sure I don't hypo in front of a class. In fact in the last year I have had two bad turns where I asked for help. Both of which ended up with me sitting in the staff room unresponsive for between 30 and 50 minutes, I then went home. Both of these were written down as caused by depression, even when I corrected them nothing was changed. The other day during a meeting my alarms were going off and I ended the meeting with a reading of 2.8.
Just how do you make people understand? How do you make people realise what you go through? Especially when it is clear that the person in control has made it quiet clear that we will never be on a "friendly" level of professional relationship.
I am now due to have my 6 monthly blood test done, so that's an over night fast, which means I will need to come in late. I just don't know what to do. I know I am entitled (hate that term) to take the time off but feel like I am under the microscope all the time.

Sorry for this but have no one else that I can talk to.

Hi simonr101,
Like other responders, I am very surprised that you are experiencing Hypos if you really are a Type 2 and are only taking Metformin. I strongly suggest that you get a 2nd opinion on that diagnosis.

My only immediate advice for your current situation is to try to use Low Glycemic Index Carbs (such as Almonds) to prevent your Hypo episodes. Treating them when they happen by using High GI carbs will only make things worse because they will give a short -term spike from which you will get another rapid fall as your Insulin increases in response to the higher BG.

Sorry I can't help you more.
Best wishes,
Ian

 

[simonr101]

Please check your daily graphs. Do they look like the Andes or are they more like the rolling hills of Cumbria?

I was a well controlled T2 until I got another condition and was put on steroids. Eventually, I was put on insulin with basically no training and I got things really, really wrong for a few months. My goal was to get my numbers down from the high teens and twenties to more "normal" levels. The result of not managing the insulin properly was that my numbers were going sky high, I would inject insulin to bring the numbers down and they would drop like a stone. I got the Andes effect. Eventually, I saw the Specialist Diabetes Nurse who attends the surgery every 4 weeks.

She told me that the massive peaks and troughs I was getting was why I was feeling so darn awful. Your body is trying to play catch up and it just can't. It will take a while for my eyes to get back to normal, but they should in time. Nothing happens overnight.

If you are bouncing off the walls in the classroom (and I am dying to know what your subject is) it is probably the same effect as a workout in the gym. This affects us all differently.

If you need a quick sugar fix, OK. I take jelly babies if absolutely necessary. But if I do, I follow it up with a couple of rich tea biscuits. The jelly babies may get your numbers up, but without a slower carb follow up you will crash and burn (hypo).

It is going to take a bit of practice to get it right. I agree with what the others have said. Maybe ring your surgery and ask if they have a Specialist Diabetic Nurse, I had never heard of her before I was put on insulin.

If you can get better control, it will help with your depression/anxiety. It won't be overnight but you will get there eventually.

I am concerned that you were left unresponsive for such a long period of time. Can you show your colleagues how to use your Freestyle Libre if they find you like that again. A quick scan and they should let them know whether they should call the paramedics. After all, coma and death is kind of permanent.

Of course the Freestyle libre is notoriously inaccurate for readings under 4. I get lots of 3s and the other night it was 2.6, but a finger prick showed it was actually 4.5. I have no experience of the miaow thing.

I do tend to get the Alps on my graphs, I'm a science teacher so bouncing off the walls is not a good thing when you have Bunsen burners on the go. I am trying to get an appointment with my doc, just that getting one is very hit and miss. I have informed them all on what to look for if I have a hypo and what to do. But teachers have a high workload and when you have a spare lesson it is used to the fullest to keep up to date with work. Basically no one noticed I was out of it.
Thanks for your kind words.

 

[simonr101]

Hi simonr101,
Like other responders, I am very surprised that you are experiencing Hypos if you really are a Type 2 and are only taking Metformin. I strongly suggest that you get a 2nd opinion on that diagnosis.

My only immediate advice for your current situation is to try to use Low Glycemic Index Carbs (such as Almonds) to prevent your Hypo episodes. Treating them when they happen by using High GI carbs will only make things worse because they will give a short -term spike from which you will get another rapid fall as your Insulin increases in response to the higher BG.

Sorry I can't help you more.
Best wishes,
Ian

Thanks for you advice. I love almonds and they were my go to food. But in a nut free school they are a no-no. I am trying to get an appointment with my doc to get a referral.

 

[simonr101]

This may be completely left-field but I sense that you are running around like a mad thing all day with high levels of stress. Is this coupled with not eating very much at all? Metformin would be preventing you from accessing glycogen stores and your blood glucose level would plummet.
It takes about 4 days to access body fat stores. Are you running on empty physically and emotionally?

To be honest yes. And people I work with have either no interest or no time to take an interest in my diabetes. Today I missed lunch and started dropping, alarm went off just as the lesson ended. I was then supposed to go straight into a meeting. Luckily I was able to shove a low carb sandwich down my throat before the meeting started. I'm trying to get an appointment with the Doc.

 

[xfieldok]

I'm a science teacher

In my day we had explosions in the lab, great fun! Health and safety has put paid to that but I suspect the explosions were very well managed!

Whilst your waiting for your doctor/Specialist Diabetic Nurse appointment, (the SDN is likely to be of more help to you than the doctor), you might try taking wholemeal sandwiches into work. Start them before a lesson. Cut them into quarters. The buttered malt loaf slices is another good idea, someone else mentioned. I would only take the sweets in an absolute emergency and always follow it up with something carby to stop the crash.

It will take time to get it right.

 

[simonr101]

In my day we had explosions in the lab, great fun! Health and safety has put paid to that but I suspect the explosions were very well managed!

Whilst your waiting for your doctor/Specialist Diabetic Nurse appointment, (the SDN is likely to be of more help to you than the doctor), you might try taking wholemeal sandwiches into work. Start them before a lesson. Cut them into quarters. The buttered malt loaf slices is another good idea, someone else mentioned. I would only take the sweets in an absolute emergency and always follow it up with something carby to stop the crash.

It will take time to get it right.

I am eating low carb sandwiches, I have one just before lessons start, about 8:30. Then one at lunch. If I can do that the hypos are less.
Oh H&S is over rated, sometimes it about the way you put across the "dangerous" experiments. They are safe but you don't always tell the kids that!!!

 

[xfieldok]

Consider changing to wholemeal sandwiches for a while, see if it improves things.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

I am eating low carb sandwiches, I have one just before lessons start, about 8:30. Then one at lunch. If I can do that the hypos are less.
Oh H&S is over rated, sometimes it about the way you put across the "dangerous" experiments. They are safe but you don't always tell the kids that!!!

I would respectfully suggest that you make time to eat between lessons.
8.30 until lunch is an awfully long time to go without food considering your symptoms.
When I was at school {mumble} years ago we used to have a mid morning break between lessons.
Gentler times, probably.