Undiagnosed but high blood sugar

Wayne78

Active Member
Messages
26
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Wasting my time on frivolous matters
I would be over the moon to experience your readings and would suggest that your anxiety is the denominator of all your ills. I would go as far as to say that you are not a Diabetic but who am I to say that because I am not a doctor?

I wish you well and to remember that our brains will not allow us to experience anxiety forever.
I would suggest that you visit your GP and discuss the issues and based on your other issue he will be in the best position to assist you, however, from your readings your blood sugar is highest after heavy starched fill meals
 

Ballofwool

Well-Known Member
Messages
82
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Other
Where did that last message pop up from? I'm not sure what's the point of discussing this with my GP, I'm currently in the surgical assessment ward for abdo pain , and even the endo consultants are confused about my blood sugar issues, so it's way beyond a GP
 

Brunneria

Guru
Retired Moderator
Messages
21,889
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
How long are you going to be nil by mouth?
And do they have full access to your hospital records? - which will give them details of your recent OGTT test.
And can you, or they, contact the consultant who helped you last time? I suggest he may well be the best person to discuss this.

Re your drip. Do you know, or can you guess, whether your RH is triggered by rapid rises and falls in bg?

Assuming you come off the drip and are able to eat, a good slow release low carb meal may catch you as you fall.

If you come off the drip to go into an op for appendicitis, then it is up to them to monitor your bg during and after the op, and hook you up to a drip again, if necessary.

When will you hear about the appendicitis, d'you think?
 
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Lamont D

Oracle
Messages
15,793
Type of diabetes
Reactive hypoglycemia
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Speak to your staff nurse about your last visit with your consultant. Get her to contact his secretary, the ward doctor wouldn't have the knowledge, if you have your computer, show him the Wikipedia page on RH. Tell him that it is important that glucose is to easily digested and will result in fluctuating blood glucose levels.
Do anything to convince them to get the right doctor for your RH!
 

Lamont D

Oracle
Messages
15,793
Type of diabetes
Reactive hypoglycemia
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
You could show him my link in my signature box below, link no. 3!
 

Ballofwool

Well-Known Member
Messages
82
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Other
Hello everyone,

Things have taken a rather bizarre turn and I'm sure you will be interested to hear the story. I am still in the hospital. I don't have appendicitis according to ultrasound scans and the pain has gradually dissipated. However, while I was here I kept collapsing with low blood sugar. As soon as the IV glucose was removed, my blood sugar became horribly erratic and it is still like this.

A nasty surgeon told me that I had to eat the high carb hospital food; end of story as far as he is concerned. Another surgeon then took over and said he thought it was likely all psychological and was holding my hand and leading me around the ward like some small child. He told me if I acted normal, I would become normal. He said carbs had never caused low blood sugar. I brought up my mixed meal tolerance test showing a drop to 2.6, but he had nothing to say about that.

For ages, they accused me of injecting the insulin of an unknown diabetic relative that doesn't actually exist. They also said that I must be vomiting secretly or that I have an eating disorder or taking illicit drugs in the shower. They told me I could only go to the toilet in a wheelchair and had to leave the door unlocked with a staff member listening outside. It goes without saying that none of this is true, but both myself and my mother have been horribly under suspicion by nurses and doctors for DAYS.

Eventually I lost the plot after days of this treatment and ran into the corridor in tears, collapsing in a heap on the floor. I found a very nice recently qualified junior doctor who spoke to me like a real person and was more competent than all the senior surgeons combined. He arranged for 2 hourly blood glucose tests, moving to one hourly if below 5.0. Unfortunately this means I've been having blood glucose tests over 12 times every 24 hours, day and night. My fingertips have become so tough that they are struggling to get into them any more.

The next morning, a new team of surgeons came to see me along with a psychiatrist. The told me that because I have eaten such a low carb diet, I have created a situation where my body finds it hard to tolerate eating carbs at all. They said I was experiencing starvation due to my keto diet and low body weight. Basically, I was slowly dying of starvation while eating 3,000 calories of fat a day. They said I was at risk of re-feeding syndrome.

They also randomly found that my LDL cholesterol was 11.4 (I'm 23 & underweight!) so I have now been told I've got to eat a low fat, high carb diet. Whenever I eat the carbs, I feel really dizzy and begin to get completely delirious. Yesterday I collapsed in the hospital corridor, and a porter had to bring me back in a wheelchair. They told me that my white blood cell count was extremely high and one doctor wanted to start me on IV antibiotics but He wasn't entirely sure what for, so I didn't think that was a good idea.

For some reason, they are convinced that my blood sugar drops are too severe to be due to anything like reactive hypoglycaemia, they've said it just doesn't fit. Not to mention the fact that they will also happen when I am fasting. Tonight I had another hypo (only measured 3.9 when they woke me, but I was drenched in sweat so think I was already on the way up!) They've measured as low as 3.1 in the week I've been in here, but I think they've missed a lot of lows. I keep getting these huge swings in mood.

They're having me drink Fortisips, which send my blood sugar up to 10.7 and above! Then one hour later, I'll be back at blood sugar of 4.0!
 

Rillum

Well-Known Member
Messages
105
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Diet only
Oh my, that sounds awful. I think you'll have to listen to them and do as they say. Then they can see whether that works.
It's true that continued ketosis makes one more glucose intolerant, as enzymes for sugar metabolism are regulated down when they are not needed.
 

jummybay

Member
Messages
8
I do look noticeably emaciated and unwell recently. Very visible sternum bones on my chest and my spine and hip bones and ribs are all easily seen too. I look like a skeleton, such that sitting down is painful because of a "lack of padding". My mother (who I hadn't seen for some months) said I look gaunt like a meth addict. I've never touched it!
Pls dear see your doctor imediately
 

Rillum

Well-Known Member
Messages
105
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Diet only
You should start a new thread in the right forum. For example Newly diagnosed. Good luck!
 

Ballofwool

Well-Known Member
Messages
82
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Other
Oh my, that sounds awful. I think you'll have to listen to them and do as they say. Then they can see whether that works.
It's true that continued ketosis makes one more glucose intolerant, as enzymes for sugar metabolism are regulated down when they are not needed.


I think you are probably right that I will have to comply. My only other option is leaving, and that won't get me access to any sort of help! This morning I was at 4.9 mmol at 8.30. I then ate beans on toast at 9.00AM and had a blood glucose reading of 3.6 at 9.30AM. As I suspected, it is sometimes dropping almost immediately after eating. When I sit down it can recover spontaneously, in as little as 10 minutes. However, sometimes it continues to drop instead. If I pace up and down my room when hypo I find it hard to stay conscious, but after a few minutes my adrenaline kicks in. I suddenly feel anxious, my heart goes mad, and then when re-tested my blood sugar will be back above 5 mmol!

I have managed to convince them to give me a continuous glucose drip overnight because that has been enough to prevent hypos in the past few days when I wasn't supposed to be eating. I am supposed to be seeing my "team" tomorrow (although they're just some random surgeons), so hopefully that will provide a new game plan. It's not really safe to keep me on this high carb diet and continuously provoke hypos and rapid blood sugar swings all the time!

I will begin to collapse whenever I stand up if it's soon after eating. Usually I manage to sit down or fall down in a controlled way, but often my mum has been holding me up while I walk around in my hospital room.
 

Rillum

Well-Known Member
Messages
105
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Diet only
Are they really surgeons or is that just a term for a doctor?
 

Brunneria

Guru
Retired Moderator
Messages
21,889
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Oh my dear!

I think i agree that you need to go along with them, for a while, if only to give yourself ammo to say 'look, your suggestions don't work!'

It is true that a ketogenic diet makes you temporarily more sensitive to carbs.

However, a ketogenic diet, with masses of fat, does NOT cause hypos, and should help buffer against them.

Sometimes i despair of the ignorance of medical professionals.

If they say your hypos are too severe for RH, what do they suggest they are? I am totally open to them being right, but they need to come up with something that can be proven and not treat you like a child, and surely they are not saying it is psychosomatic?

Are they following up on the white blood cell count?
 

Lamont D

Oracle
Messages
15,793
Type of diabetes
Reactive hypoglycemia
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
It does sound to me that you are getting rid of your glucose off the food very quickly and your bloods are going hypo to having no glucose.
Hence needing the glucose drip!
There is a condition called gastric dumping, where your food digests very quickly and can lead to Hypoglycaemia., eating something every half hour will alleviate the problem.
You have no stores of fat to get your energy from.

But I'm reading between the lines and following the thread.
So I could be talking s.......!

Keep well, keep safe, keep posting!
 

Ballofwool

Well-Known Member
Messages
82
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Other
Are they really surgeons or is that just a term for a doctor?

They are actually surgeons. One of them told me I need someone more "cerebral" - as surgeons he said just like to chop and stitch people and they can't do that with me!

I'm hoping to get referred to an appropriate team of doctors tomorrow. The surgeons tell me that all they have been able to do so far is the basic of preventing me from going hypo. I'm worried nobody will take my case and then I will be discharged. I'm really not safe to go home. My keto diet seemed to be causing actual starvation and carbs make me hypo.

I am thinking I could have something like this dumping syndrome, but I need to get the right sort of person to investigate!

They have been saying it is psychosomatic, but in the last day or two the nurses have made it clear that my fluctuating blood sugar is serious. They have said that even very poorly controlled diabetics don't demonstrate so much daily fluctuation in blood sugar!

Please wish me luck for getting referred to an endocrinology team tomorrow... I really don't want to be discharged! I'm so unwell!
 
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Ballofwool

Well-Known Member
Messages
82
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Other
I haven't heard any more about the white blood cell count, but I will be sure to ask the doctors that tomorrow! :)
 

Lamont D

Oracle
Messages
15,793
Type of diabetes
Reactive hypoglycemia
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
I agree with @Rillum, you should be referred to an endocrinologist who specializes in blood glucose disorders. I wish you had my specialist!
Hang in there!
 

ButtterflyLady

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,291
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Acceptance of health treatment claims that are not adequately supported by evidence. I dislike it when people sell ineffective and even harmful alternative health products to exploit the desperation of people with chronic illness.
I am supposed to be seeing my "team" tomorrow (although they're just some random surgeons), so hopefully that will provide a new game plan.

I will begin to collapse whenever I stand up if it's soon after eating. Usually I manage to sit down or fall down in a controlled way, but often my mum has been holding me up while I walk around in my hospital room.

You do need an endocrinologist or at least an internal medicine specialist or consultant physician. It's crazy giving you surgeons, what kind of hospital is this? If they can't provide a medical specialist instead of a surgical specialist they should transfer you to a proper hospital.

Since you are at risk of falling over and hurting yourself, please only get out of bed when you have someone to stand next to you. The nurses should have assessed your "falls risk" and taken actions to reduce the risk. In other respects the nurses sound great... at least you have them on your side!