Help to understand what’s going on?

[ReaL]

Hi

Hope some of you guys can cast some light on what is happening with my BG. I was diagnosed over a year ago, have lost 3 1/2 stone and have been managing very well on a very LCHF diet - under 20g carbs daily - HA1BC of 6% consistently.

About 10 days ago my BG started to rise and has been going up every day since. This morning my fasting BG was 16.2. It started to go up the day before I started a long distance walk (have walked roughly 80 miles in the last 10 days and played 4 rounds of golf). On one of the days I was walking last week I indulged in what for me was a very high carb meal in that I had a burger bun and a couple of sweet potato fries at dinner. (I had got away with that on a previous long distance walk). I was starving and in a pub with very little choice, annoyed at my BG levels and had a rare moment of weakness. During this time (last 2 weeks) I have also been t-total having had a couple of weeks previously of drinking more alcohol than I should.

I had a blood test on Thursday morning as was concerned about my BG and receptionist phoned yesterday to say the GP had left a note to say I didn’t have an infection as she had thought that might have been causing the spike. The GP didn’t however say anything else.

Anyone experienced this and does anyone have any advice on what might be going on. I’m thinking I should maybe start on metaformin as my cholesterol has been climbing and I am thinking it would be better to take metaformin and less fat in diet than statins.

Also is it possible that I am T1 and I have just got to point where beta cells have all finally been destroyed. I do have other autoimmune diseases (pernicious anemia, vitiligo and an under active thyroid).

Could the lack of alcohol in my system be the cause?

Sorry lot of info and even more questions. TBH feeling pretty down about it as thought I had this thing under control. Any remarks advice greatly appreciated - you guys have always been a great help in the past.

Thanks
R

 

[Bodewhin]

I think you know the answer already - more investigations from your GP. You need to ask them to do the T1 tests just to check there. Are you using all the same pot of strips? Maybe try a fresh new batch to see if it's just bad strips? When the GP did your blood test did they also check your fasting glucose and HbA1c? I would call and ask for a printout of the tests and see exactly what they tested and what the numbers are.

I don't think it's the lack of alcohol making your BS go high although the drinking spell could have messed about with your liver and caused something else to affect them. More tests I fear are in the future for you.

Anything else going on? Huge amount of stress? Lack of sleep?

 

[Daibell]

Hi. You need to test 2 hours after meal and just before if you have enough strips. Don't take much notice of early morning results due to the overnight liver dump. Ask the GP for an HBA1C test and T1 tests if you can. It does sound like T1 is possible. I think the involvement with alcohol is unlikely to be a cause?

 

[NicoleC1971]

Firstly don't panic at some high readings.
Obvious things to rule in/out are:
1) physiological stress caused by lack of sleep, life events or an underlying infection
2) lifting weights/high intensity exercise
3) faltering beta cells (C Peptide test or the antibodies test)
4) Very obviously - eating carbs -

If your current eating pattern is laregly keeping your sugars down and regardless of whether you end up with a type 1 or 1.5 diagnosis, having an elevated cholesterol should not concern you if your hdl level is high relative to your trig level. The damage to your cardiovascuar system comes from higher bg levels and not from high ldl which only reflects the body's attempt to repair that damage.

 

[ReaL]

Hi thanks for the replies. I did try a new batch of strips and even a different meter as that was my first thought. I will phone the doc tomorrow and see if I can get tested for type 1. She did mention on the phone the other day that I had antibodies present at the initial diagnosis (which no one every told me) but because I got control relatively quickly with diet I think the assumption was that I was type 2. Having done some more reading I’m thinking possibly type 1.5.

Thanks for the replies.
R

 

[ReaL]

Had a conversation with doc this morning who told me that I had indeed tested positive for GAD antibodies over a year ago and was most likely LADA. They didn’t think so at first as I had not followed the normal pattern for someone like this as I had been able to manage up to now with diet and exercise. She then said that I should only be testing once or twice a week. Which if I had done would not have been able to control my diet sufficiently to keep BG down which explains why I didn’t follow the normal pattern if this is what they are telling folks. It all strikes me as very strange. On the metaformin now so hopefully that will stave off the insulin for a while. Going to hope over to the LADA forum to get some advice there but thanks again for all those of you who replied to this thread.
R

 

[Bodewhin]

Glad you are getting some answers (though not what you hoped for). You have been doing really well at managing things so far so I have no doubt you will make the adjustment to your LADA diagnosis just fine. I will never understand why doctors seem almost offended when we test our own BG.