Advice on readings and the way forward

[KarenLblonde]

Hi
I have had type 2 for 4 years and so far I have managed to keep it under control with diet alone
However I have struggled lately , I feel tired lethargic
Headache , I had my blood test done 6 months ago and I was fine I did not need Metformin however doing a home test yesterday I was 13 after 2 hours of eating no food and this morning 17 before food
Any advice on where to go from here and what should I do to get it lower again as I am going on holiday tomorrow
Thank you in advance

 

[LivingLightly]

Hello and a warm welcome to the forum.. We're pleased you could join us.

You've kept your blood glucose levels under control for almost 4 years, so you've been doing well until now. That said, a lot can happen in 6 months. Unfortunately, home testing once a day at different times gives you limited information.

You’ll learn most from blood glucose levels just before you start a meal and then two hours later. The post-meal reading should be no more than 2 mmol/l higher than the first and not higher than 8 mmol/l. If that's the case, your body dealt with the arrival of glucose in your bloodstream and cleared it relatively quickly.

If you can achieve that consistently (by reducing your carbohydate intake where necessary), your BG levels fshould gradually come down. If not, I'd seek a medical view once you're home again.

 

[lovinglife]

Hi
I have had type 2 for 4 years and so far I have managed to keep it under control with diet alone
However I have struggled lately , I feel tired lethargic
Headache , I had my blood test done 6 months ago and I was fine I did not need Metformin however doing a home test yesterday I was 13 after 2 hours of eating no food and this morning 17 before food
Any advice on where to go from here and what should I do to get it lower again as I am going on holiday tomorrow
Thank you in advance

You could be sickening for something, maybe a bug or low level infection, it may be worthwhile calling your GP today explaining how you’re feeling and that you are going away tomorrow, especially if these numbers are unusual for you. They may not be able to do anything right away but it can’t be nice going on holiday how you’re feeling

 

[KennyA]

Hi
I have had type 2 for 4 years and so far I have managed to keep it under control with diet alone
However I have struggled lately , I feel tired lethargic
Headache , I had my blood test done 6 months ago and I was fine I did not need Metformin however doing a home test yesterday I was 13 after 2 hours of eating no food and this morning 17 before food
Any advice on where to go from here and what should I do to get it lower again as I am going on holiday tomorrow
Thank you in advance

Hi and welcome. When you say your blood test six months ago was "fine" what was your actual HbA1c result? There's plenty of accounts on here of people who've been told things were fine only to discover later from the actual figure that they weren't.

Those figures you give are (as you realise) high. Two hours isn't really fasting, though, and could still be showing the impact of what you last ate. The context of the test is also important - stress and illness are both reported to raise blood glucose significantly.

There is also the possibility that your tests are contaminated or the strips are out of date. You can get really odd results if you accidentally re-use a test strip.

There's two sources of glucose - one is from the food you eat and the other is made by your liver. If it's not coming from food you ate (and it still might be - you find that out by before-and-after testing as @LivingLightly says) it's being made by your liver. If so there's not a lot you can do in the short term - livers can be trained to produce less glucose but it takes time for them to adjust. Mine took months. The problem is that the liver has got used to elevated blood glucose levels, thinks they're the norm, and does its best to keep yiou there.

Metformin will slow or stop the liver adding glucose, but it takes a few days to work and there are often unwanted side-effects - I have no experience of metformin myself, but there are plenty of experienced users on these forums.

 

[KarenLblonde]

Hello and a warm welcome to the forum.. We're pleased you could join us.

You've kept your blood glucose levels under control for almost 4 years, so you've been doing well until now. That said, a lot can happen in 6 months. Unfortunately, home testing once a day at different times gives you limited information.

You’ll learn most from blood glucose levels just before you start a meal and then two hours later. The post-meal reading should be no more than 2 mmol/l higher than the first and not higher than 8 mmol/l. If that's the case, your body dealt with the arrival of glucose in your bloodstream and cleared it relatively quickly.

If you can achieve that consistently (by reducing your carbohydate intake where necessary), your BG levels fshould gradually come down. If not, I'd seek a medical view once you're home again.

Thank you for your advice much appreciated

 

[KarenLblonde]

Hi and welcome. When you say your blood test six months ago was "fine" what was your actual HbA1c result? There's plenty of accounts on here of people who've been told things were fine only to discover later from the actual figure that they weren't.

Those figures you give are (as you realise) high. Two hours isn't really fasting, though, and could still be showing the impact of what you last ate. The context of the test is also important - stress and illness are both reported to raise blood glucose significantly.

There is also the possibility that your tests are contaminated or the strips are out of date. You can get really odd results if you accidentally re-use a test strip.

There's two sources of glucose - one is from the food you eat and the other is made by your liver. If it's not coming from food you ate (and it still might be - you find that out by before-and-after testing as @LivingLightly says) it's being made by your liver. If so there's not a lot you can do in the short term - livers can be trained to produce less glucose but it takes time for them to adjust. Mine took months. The problem is that the liver has got used to elevated blood glucose levels, thinks they're the norm, and does its best to keep yiou there.

Metformin will slow or stop the liver adding glucose, but it takes a few days to work and there are often unwanted side-effects - I have no experience of metformin myself, but there are plenty of experienced users on these forums.

Thank you for your advice really helpful