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At my wits end - running out of ideas

Alison54321 said:
If the DP is pushing your blood glucose up over night it may be better to eat a small amount of carbs in the morning. I have discovered a weird thing recently. Since I got Freestyle Libre I wait, after I've injected, before eating breakfast, until there's a small drop in my blood sugar, to make sure the insulin has started working.

The other day I had breakfast late, and I sat there for ages waiting for a small drop, and there wasn't one. Then I gave up and decided to eat anywhere, and about ten minutes later my blood sugar started going down.

I think eating affects the cortisol that causes the dawn phenomenon, so though it's counter intuitive actually eating a small amount of carbs might be better.
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So is some carbs better than no carbs?
 
Although I don't take any medication, I keep my BG fairly level on just two meals a day, but I have to eat a small amount of carbs with my first meal or my numbers keep going up - I was getting a reactive hypoglycemia type rise and then drop in the mid to late afternoons - eating a tomato with the bacon and eggs or some mushrooms in an omelette with a bit of salad and the roller-coaster doesn't happen.
 
notorious_bob said:
Hi there, OK, normal days diet....

Breakfast - I make a frittata (eggs, ham, shrooms, cheese, onion) and have a piece of that. I make one in a frying pan and it lasts me a week. I drink tea, white, sweeteners, no sugar, although I still use full fat cows milk - it's my guilty pleasure.

Lunch - Pure Protein bar or shake (shake made with almond milk)

Dinner - stuff like meat with salad (I'll make my own kebab meat) or fish tacos without the tacos. I'll treat myself to zero sugar chocolate pudding from time to time.

Bedtime snack - low carb, high fiber wrap (tinkering with quantity between 1/4 and a full one which is 8g of carbs) with deli meat and a little cheese.

I generally don't snack or eat between meals but if I do it's cashews or sugar free sweets but not a regular thing.

That's it. I know I probably don't drink enough water.

Howsat?!

BTW, I'm an exiled Brit living in the USA :)
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Notorious bob, your meal plan is really lean for the numbers you indicate. Are you taking any medicines? Have an ongoing infection? Just based off what I eat, some teas will spike me, straight cow milk will spike me if I am drinking it, and onions beyond just for flavor will spike me. Your lunch item is an unknown to me, all of the bars or shakes I looked at had some form of sugar listed in them. Cashews are considered a sweet nut and can cause an increase if you eat a few to many. Just from reviewing your notes, something else is going on, like maybe u are a T1 and/or taking meds and/or have a infection. If no to the T1 and others listed, I would start tweaking the meal plan a little. Like cutting the onions, removing the tea, move up to full cream, add a real lunch instead of the protein candy bar, switch out the pudding for a real square of 85% choc. Or you can eat eat each square and test to see if one of the meals are spiking u.

Tough one to answer, I wish u the best.
 
HR-Guy said:
Notorious bob, your meal plan is really lean for the numbers you indicate. Are you taking any medicines? Have an ongoing infection? Just based off what I eat, some teas will spike me, straight cow milk will spike me if I am drinking it, and onions beyond just for flavor will spike me. Your lunch item is an unknown to me, all of the bars or shakes I looked at had some form of sugar listed in them. Cashews are considered a sweet nut and can cause an increase if you eat a few to many. Just from reviewing your notes, something else is going on, like maybe u are a T1 and/or taking meds and/or have a infection. If no to the T1 and others listed, I would start tweaking the meal plan a little. Like cutting the onions, removing the tea, move up to full cream, add a real lunch instead of the protein candy bar, switch out the pudding for a real square of 85% choc. Or you can eat eat each square and test to see if one of the meals are spiking u.

Tough one to answer, I wish u the best.
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Well I'm recovering from Sepsis but that was almost 2 months ago now. If that is causing the constant 10+ numbers then wow!

Not taking any other medication other than the Lantus.

The Pure Protein bars have a 11g net carbs, 21g protein. That's my single highest carb intake of the day. OK, I'm not taking into account all the fractions of a g that come from say "3 pieces of diced onion" or "1/2 a mushroom".

I did lose 20lbs in a week due to the Sepsis - can't recommend it as a diet though! :(

Is full cream better than milk? FYI Chocolate pudding made with almond milk doesn't set! :O

One question - how often do people poke themselves? I'm getting sick of having painful finger tips :(

OK, two questions - If I feel OK and have no symptoms can I live with a 10 Bg reading (I kinda know the answer).
 
notorious_bob said:
Well I'm recovering from Sepsis but that was almost 2 months ago now. If that is causing the constant 10+ numbers then wow!

Not taking any other medication other than the Lantus.

The Pure Protein bars have a 11g net carbs, 21g protein. That's my single highest carb intake of the day. OK, I'm not taking into account all the fractions of a g that come from say "3 pieces of diced onion" or "1/2 a mushroom".

I did lose 20lbs in a week due to the Sepsis - can't recommend it as a diet though! :(

Is full cream better than milk? FYI Chocolate pudding made with almond milk doesn't set! :O

One question - how often do people poke themselves? I'm getting sick of having painful finger tips :(

OK, two questions - If I feel OK and have no symptoms can I live with a 10 Bg reading (I kinda know the answer).
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Diabetes is what I would term a "opportunist" disease. When u r down and out, sick, in-hospital, taking certain meds your numbers will increase. Full cream is way better than milk. A lot of Almond milk has added sugar just like the protein bars. They sneak it under the other names that end in "ose" like fructose. I know it is boring, but as far as the needle sticks go, I test my meals and try to keep the tested meals my main stays. For example this week I am eating bison veggie soup, I will eat the soup for lunch five days this week, same size servings. Your last question, is a solid no. By the way up your water intake due to you are recovering from sepsis.
 
By "test your meals" what do you mean? Before, after, 4 hours after?


10 years ago the US told me I was Type 2 based on a single fingerprick. 6 months later after emigrating to New Zealand I did a full glucose workup and they were like "did you say you were diabetic, coz you're not".


Honestly, I have no idea what's going on - and neither does my doctor. He's even admitted as much.


That's why I'm so low right now :(
 
This is the craziness that I'm dealing with...

7:00 am Bg 11.9 (214 mg.dl) Eeeek I hear you gasp!

15 units Lantus
Breakfast fritatta and 1/2 a low carb wrap - about 4g carbs
Cup of tea with cream (not milk) 1/4 tsp of raw sugar.

10:00 am Bg 12.9 (234 mg/dl)
11:00 am Bg 13.5 (245 mg/dl)

Giving up is a real consideration right now.... :( :( :(
 
Looks to me like you might need bolus insulin as well as the lantus. But I'm not a type 2 so there may be other alternatives.
 
notorious_bob said:
Sigh!

You know that continuing feeling that no one is getting what you're saying?
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Assuming you have decent health insurance in the states I would be pushing for an appointment with a specialist. You are doing everything right to bring your sugars down if you were in fact Type 2 so it could well be that you have one of the other conditions that mean you aren’t producing enough of your own insulin. Others at the start of the thread have suggested this and for the time being I reckon that you will need to do it. We can't diagnose you but there are tests that you can have that may help.
 
Seeing my GP this coming week and have asked for a(nother) referral to an endocrinologist.
Also looking into naturopathic stuff.

This is my 3rd time around the diagnosis buoy without anyone, including a specialist, being able to fathom it out.

It get's so frustrating when even the professionals shrug and say "well that's weird".

bulkbiker said:
Assuming you have decent health insurance in the states I would be pushing for an appointment with a specialist. You are doing everything right to bring your sugars down if you were in fact Type 2 so it could well be that you have one of the other conditions that mean you aren’t producing enough of your own insulin. Others at the start of the thread have suggested this and for the time being I reckon that you will need to do it. We can't diagnose you but there are tests that you can have that may help.
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notorious_bob said:
Seeing my GP this coming week and have asked for a(nother) referral to an endocrinologist.
Also looking into naturopathic stuff.

This is my 3rd time around the diagnosis buoy without anyone, including a specialist, being able to fathom it out.

It get's so frustrating when even the professionals shrug and say "well that's weird".
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True but maybe you'll get a different one who may just have a clue.. I'm afraid if its anything like the UK it s a complete lottery if you get to see anyone who may be helpful or may be a waste of space. However it does seem that the higher up the medical food chain you can go then the standard of care gets better (in most cases at least).
 
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