Blood Sugar is always low.

[mansingh01]

A quick convert as this site leans towards Brit measurements has
57 as 3.2,
182 as 10.1,
80 as 4.4
and 71 as 3.9

The low readings are a bit odd, but I wouldn't panic yet: if you're only on metformin I don't think you can go into a dangerous hypo. I myself, when losing weight and keeping my sugars down, would often get readings in the 3's and 4's without any adverse effect. Hopefully someone with more direct experience will jump in soon. Good luck with it.

Also, I like your JoJo avatar!

Hi-

Can you recommend any app or chart where you can convert these numbers into U.K. ones

 

[bulkbiker]

I got diagnosed while having a panic attack

I'd suggest that the panic attack was a major contributor to your elevated blood sugar

Hi-

Can you recommend any app or chart where you can convert these numbers into U.K. ones

Divide by 18 to convert mg/dl to mmol/l that's for blood sugars.. the cholesterol calculation is different.

 

[Pancreas_Betrayed_me]

That sounds to me like a classic case of polluted finger with maybe some apple juice caught up in the blood sample.. possible?

Unlikely, I always wash my hands before testing, besides I tested twice, but it could be anxiety, I get really bad during those moments.

 

[KennyA]

I've been diagnosed with diabetes type 2 for around 3 months now, I also have anxiety (unfortunate combo)
when I was diagnosed I was told to take 3 pills of 500 grams metformin per day because my blood sugar was really high, thanks to diet and exercise, nowadays I take only 1, my blood sugar usually stays around 70-80 (mg/dl) , sometimes 65+ very rarely 90+, never had any problems with my blood sugar I didn't even had to check it that regularly because it was really constant, I thought this was great until 6 days ago, when I woke up in the middle of the night with sweat and a racing heartbeat, I thought it was just a panic attack again, it has happened before so I just took .50 mg of clonazepam, but I decided to check my blood sugar while waiting to find a whooping 55 (mg/dl) I thought it was a mistake so I did again, 57 this time, so i decided to eat some red apple slices with peanut butter and 15 minutes later my blood sugar was at around 60, so I decided to eat more, with a slice of whole grain bread this time, 30 minutes later I was finally at 78 (mg/dl) and I went to sleep, wake up 5 hours later and took my blood sugar to find a 65 (mg/dl), at breakfast and my numbers looked normal for the rest of the day.

2 days later I had a similar experience, and I've been quite anxious since then, I've been trying to no avail to keep my blood sugar at more 80+, it doesn't matter what I eat my blood sugar will rise and will quickly fall again, the most ridiculous example of this the 4th of October where once again my blood sugar was really low at a 57 (mg/dl) this was in the middle of the day however and I had no symptoms I decided to eat a measly red apple and a protein bar to get a 182 (mg/dl) 15 minutes later (which is probably the highest I ever seen since my diagnosis) , but just 10 minutes later I was back at 80 (mg/dl)

Now this may sounds great but I am honestly in constant fear of getting hypoglycemia, I check my blood sugar before sleeping to find a 71, I feel the need to eat carbs but it usually just makes me feel worst at night or I can't sleep at all, doing exercise has also become worrisome, before I used to don't mind seeing a 65+ but nowadays it just makes me anxious.
as far as I can tell this has been always the case and I just never noticed until now

My glucose tolerance test (3 months ago) for example was 180 (mg/dl) at 1 hour but 2 hours later it was 88 (mg/dl)

Has anyone experience something similar? what could be causing this? could this by fault of the antidepressant medication? I started taking Escitalopram 7 days ago and never experienced anything like this before.
I've honestly never been more on edge in my life.

Couple of points based on my experience. Citalopram while I took it did me no favours whatsoever, and coming off it was bad. I was non-diabetic then so I have no idea what my BG was like.

You may also be having "false hypos" in the night - I get these. Generally they consist of vivid dreams, waking up with racing heartbeat, and soaked in sweat. It seems to be easing a little and no longer happening at 3am, which is good. This appears to be "dawn phenomenon" and is pretty common. I've found that sleeping in an eyemask seems to help.

You can also get some odd test results - in my case normally operator error - eg I accidentally reused old test strips; I didn't wash my hands properly; that sort of thing. I think it's possible to become obsessed with testing - what really counts is the A1c reading, It's a bit like driving from A to B where B is north of A - if you are always checking a compass and worrying because from time to time you're going a bit west or a bit east it distracts from the fact that overall you're heading the right way.

 

[Pancreas_Betrayed_me]

I live with generalised and social anxiety, so I do get the whole panic attack thing; it and a proper hypo can be very similar. But you're not on glucose lowering meds, save for the pram, so your liver should kick in if you go too low. It may be time to ditch the last metformin (it makes your liver dump less glucose), as you don't seem to need it. That should help create a bit of a buffer, assuming you can't do without the pram. That'll get your liver to do its job again. If you remain uncomfortably low, you could up your carbs in slight increments until you find your happy place. Not something I'd usually suggest, but when there's other conditions involved with meds you can't get around, and your control is really tight, we have to be somewhat flexible, right? (Maybe add in 10 grams a day, and see whether you feel better? Nothing too much in a go.)

I was already on talks to ditch the last metformin, raising my carbs is exactly what I've been doing the last week with no positive results, my levels usually stay the same, the only time they rise is when I eat something like white bread with peanut butter or by eating more than usual which just makes me feel sick and my levels go back to low after a couple of hours anyways.

 

[Case_]

I don't have direct experience with escitalopram, but I was on citalopram and was switched to sertraline, which are both also SSRI's. In both cases, when starting the drug or when increasing dose, they definitely made my BG drop down lower than before (without really affecting the highs). I didn't get true hypos, just fake ones, but I guess that might be quite individual.

The effect usually lasted for about two weeks for me where the BG levels stabilized back to how they used to be over the second week or so and the fake hypos went away.