Why do I feel like this?!

[MissyLA33]

Hello all,

It's been a long time since I've been here (hangs head in shame).

A little background info.... I was diagnosed in November 2013. I was diet controlled until recently. After I was diagnosed I did a ton of research, I joined this forum and gained some fantastic advice. I spent weeks putting a plan in to place that worked around my family and then went on a low carb diet for around 9 months. It worked fantastically well for me, my blood sugars dropping to consistently normal levels. All in all I felt fantastic. Roll on summer and BBQ's, gatherings and holidays. I figured relaxing a little bit on my diet wouldn't do any harm.....big mistake. Within a couple of weeks I'd completely gone back to my old eating habits and have been struggling ever since.

Roll on to now, my blood sugars have been high enough to warrant a prescription for Metformin. I'd completely stopped testing my blood sugars for months and generally ignored the fact that I'm diabetic. This morning I took my first dose of metformin, 1 500mg tablet. I also did my first blood sugar test in months. First thing this morning I was at 15.4, after some breakfast 12.5, before lunch 9 and after 10. Whilst preparing dinner not long ago (we normally don't eat until 7-8) I started feeling really odd. Cold sweats, shaky trembling hands, feeling jittery like my heart was racing and feeling like I needed to eat something right away. I tested my BS and it was 5.4. This is probably the lowest it's been for quite some time. Why did I feel like this? Could the metformin have really had such an effect so fast?

The funny thing is that this isn't a new experience for me, it's happened on multiple occasions before. Even during the 9 months where my blood sugar was at normal levels this would happen occasionally. And on those occasions where I tested my blood sugar it was always around 4.5 - 5.5. I know some people are prone to being jittery if they haven't eaten for a while but I often noted that these episodes were unrelated to how long ago I had eaten.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Laura

 

[Patricia21]

Hello Laura.
Its your body getting used to low BS again.
That happened to me,false hypo,and I used to eat dried fruit which was the wrong thing to do as I was feeding it.
When I got a moniter and advice from the forum I knew what it was.
It will settle down soon.

 

[Lamont D]

As Patricia said it's called a false hypo. Because you have stopped putting fuel on the fire, your bloods have dropped dramatically too quickly. Slow and easy is the way. Drop some of the carbs gradually.
It is not the metformin, it will take a while for it to have any effect.

Keep posting, keep low carbing, you know it makes sense

 

[MissyLA33]

As Patricia said it's called a false hypo. Because you have stopped putting fuel on the fire, your bloods have dropped dramatically too quickly. Slow and easy is the way. Drop some of the carbs gradually.
It is not the metformin, it will take a while for it to have any effect.

Keep posting, keep low carbing, you know it makes sense

Thank you Nosher, I am absolutely intending to get back to low carbing. Because this was my first day of Metformin I carried on with my usual carby diet. I actually had two chocolate bars this afternoon as well as my normal sandwich and crisps for lunch so the drop was very unexpected, I don't really understand why I had such a big drop if it can't have been the metformin. Probably just one of those random things!

 

[chris lowe]

To be honest I didn't think 5.4 was that low, I'm about that in the mornings. If you've gone from LCHF to eating normally it could be that your body is adjusting to the lower carbs again. How many metformin are you taking? I'm sure that once you get into the swing of eating what we consider "normally" you will hopefully settle down. Good luck

 

[MissyLA33]

To be honest I didn't think 5.4 was that low, I'm about that in the mornings. If you've gone from LCHF to eating normally it could be that your body is adjusting to the lower carbs again. How many metformin are you taking? I'm sure that once you get into the swing of eating what we consider "normally" you will hopefully settle down. Good luck

Chris, I don't think it's the numbers that really count. When I was doing LCHF before, a reading of 5.4 was normal for me as well. I think it's more that my BS has been up around the 12-15 mark consistently for the last 9 months as I haven't been looking after myself and so a sudden drop to 5.4 was enough to give me a false hypo. To be honest it makes sense, my Mum hasn't controlled her diabeties for years and can rarely get a reading from her meter as her BS is so high . Not long ago she dropped to 20 and had a full hypo with hospital stay. 20 is ridiculously high in most people's books but her body had gotten so used to being higher.

I understand why I had a false hypo, just not why my BS dropped like that when I'd actually eaten pretty badly.

 

[MissyLA33]

Chris, I don't think it's the numbers that really count. When I was doing LCHF before, a reading of 5.4 was normal for me as well. I think it's more that my BS has been up around the 12-15 mark consistently for the last 9 months as I haven't been looking after myself and so a sudden drop to 5.4 was enough to give me a false hypo. To be honest it makes sense, my Mum hasn't controlled her diabeties for years and can rarely get a reading from her meter as her BS is so high . Not long ago she dropped to 20 and had a full hypo with hospital stay. 20 is ridiculously high in most people's books but her body had gotten so used to being higher.

I understand why I had a false hypo, just not why my BS dropped like that when I'd actually eaten pretty badly.

Forgot to say I've been prescribed 1 500mg tablet daily for 2 weeks before increasing to two a day. I'm eating 'normally' right now until I increase it and then will go back to LCHF. One step at a time and all that

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hi and welcome back,

It is well known that our insulin resistance improves as the day goes on, so we see our lowest readings in late afternoon/before evening meal. However, I can't understand such a large drop after all those naughties. (unless some alcohol was involved?)

Baby steps again. You have done it once, you can do it again. Why not spend the weekend clearing out all the carbs from the cupboards and writing a new shopping list ready for low carb?

 

[MissyLA33]

Hi and welcome back,

It is well known that our insulin resistance improves as the day goes on, so we see our lowest readings in late afternoon/before evening meal. However, I can't understand such a large drop after all those naughties. (unless some alcohol was involved?)

Baby steps again. You have done it once, you can do it again. Why not spend the weekend clearing out all the carbs from the cupboards and writing a new shopping list ready for low carb?

Haha, if only alcohol was the issue! I don't drink alcohol at all, never been fond. I think I'll just chalk it down to one of those random things. BS has been hovering around 10-13 today. I'm off to dig out my old homemade low carb recipe books! Thank you for the encouragement. I'd very much like to get back to the point where my blood sugar is within normal range and the metformin is unnecessary. Fingers crossed

 

[Bluetit1802]

Good luck!

 

[MissyLA33]

Good luck!

I've clearly spoken too soon as I've had a repeat performance today :/

 

[Bluetit1802]

and what was your level, and are you OK now?

 

[MissyLA33]

and what was your level, and are you OK now?

It was 5.6. I gave in to the need to eat something immediately this time and grabbed a couple leftover pancakes even though I knew I shouldn't have. Felt pretty awful! I'm feeling fine now. I actually didn't eat my dinner in the end, I just didn't want it by the time it was done, probably due to the mixture of pancakes and feeling a bit off! I've had a glass of full fat milk since and I'm at 8.0. I'll keep an eye on things over the weekend, it just seems too coincidental.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Oh dear, pancakes and a glass of milk, no wonder you shot up to 8. Perhaps you could have some carb-free nibbles handy for next time you feel like that, then you won't be as inclined to raid the fridge. A coffee with double cream usually does the trick for me. Have a lovely safe weekend.

 

[MissyLA33]

Oh dear, pancakes and a glass of milk, no wonder you shot up to 8. Perhaps you could have some carb-free nibbles handy for next time you feel like that, then you won't be as inclined to raid the fridge. A coffee with double cream usually does the trick for me. Have a lovely safe weekend.

I know, not the best! Although 8 is one of my lower readings of the last few weeks unfortunately. It took quite some effort not to raid the kids chocolate supply! I have a cupboard full of great low carb ingredients but nothing I could just grab or whip up fast enough, especially with trembling hands :/ I hope you have a great weekend as well

 

[rowan]

I know, not the best! Although 8 is one of my lower readings of the last few weeks unfortunately. It took quite some effort not to raid the kids chocolate supply! I have a cupboard full of great low carb ingredients but nothing I could just grab or whip up fast enough, especially with trembling hands :/ I hope you have a great weekend as well

The glass of milk would have been better than the pancakes, it gets into the bloodstream quicker. I'm getting quite a few of these hypos lately and milk always helps. I use lactofree milk which is lower in carbs but tastes the same