Am I diabetic? Very scared....

hi all,
Very new to all this, not been diagnosed with diabetes yet but bought a blood glucose monitoring kit to try to unravel the reasons for me feeling so ill at various points during the day/week
I was expecting to find that I was hypoglycaemic as I have periods of time when I get sweaty, start to lose my balance, focussing of eyes and ability to hold a sensible conversation but when I feel like that my BG is in the 5's which would not normally be considered an issue. The shock came when taking my BG first thing in the morning, my fasting figures been lower than 6.8 and has been in the 7's. I then took some readings at 1-3am when I tend to wake (I don't sleep well) and these were around the high 8's having risen after my post eating figures before bed.
It looks as if I am having spikes at night.
Also, when I exercise, especially skiing when I am nervous, my levels go up quite significantly.
I eat a high protein diet with low carbs and avoid sugar, hardly drink, I am underweight but getting some belly fat. I do have lupus, cortisol deficiency, hypothyroid and at the moment, waiting for an iron infusion as have low ferritin levels.
If any of you experts out there could give me some suggestions as to what you think is going on, I would be very grateful.....

Squire Fulwood said:

Have you taken your problems to a doctor? Home testing is not acceptable for diagnosis due to inaccuracy of the meters. They are used for management later when some inaccuracy can be tolerated.
Your fasting numbers could be a cause for slight concern but you don't say how long you fasted for. A minimum of 8 hours and in the case of my surgery, 14 hours are stipulated. Anything other than that and the tests would be classed as random and therefore anything below 11 would not be a concern.

Also you seem to have your fears R Suppards since an undiagnosed and unmedicated diabetic is unlikely to suffer hypoglycaemia.

The spikes at night are likely to be liver dumps. With the information given I see nothing to worry about.

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Many thanks for your response, I do realise that self diagnosis is a dangerous area. I already have a fabulous endo whom I will see in 3 weeks time who has sorted out my damaged adrenals over the past 3 years and my defunct thyroid.
I have come to this out of sheer frustration though as to test my cortisol on a daily basis is impossible and when I have it tested at hospital, I am always reasonably well and therefore manage to get into the low normal range so the figures look like I am doing ok... But I am not
I am 48 and for 3 years I have loved like an 980 year old, I don't work and have a lovely husband who looks after me so no worries. However, I cannot keep up with any of my friends as if I am too energetic or have a sustained period of days with activity, I end up in needing to stay in bed or just "sit" for a couple of days as o feel sick dizzy and all round fatigued.
I have numerous endocrine and systemic conditions, I am not convinced however that I have them all managed.
My fasting levels I gave are indeed after at least 9 hours of fasting, admittedly not 11, but I could easily try that, in fact last night was 11, I ate at 7pm, just chicken and then some yoghurt with water, then nothing after 7.30 and I have just taken my bg and it was 7.8 at 7.45pm
I have wondered about a "liver dump", I have read about them.
Many thanks
M

I meant 7.45AM... Typing on my phone so many mistakes ;-)

T

Juicyj said:

Hi Chablis and welcome to the forum, sorry to hear of your problems. It's quite a worry to not know what's going on, but with the Internet it's also easy to self diagnose symptoms which is also a worry as can lead you to believe something which may or may not be going on. Your levels don't sound a diabetic issue due to your hypo episodes, I know a friend who is also slim, exercises a great deal who suffers with low glucose, a non diabetic can get very low readings. Please see if you can bring your apt forward as it would put your mind at rest, we cannot offer advice regarding medical symptoms so the sooner you meet your endo to discuss this the better for your own well being, good luck.

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thank you, I will endeavour to do that. I just want to rejoin the world rather than have people constantly ask me how I am.... Something isn't right. I just need to find out what it is