• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Can you sense what your bg level is?

gfmoore

Well-Known Member
Messages
354
Location
Stoke
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Anyone here able to sense what their bg level is without testing. Of course I know that peeps can tell if they are hypoing, but what about say in the range 4 to 8?

What feeling so you have if you are low, what sensations if you are at the high end?

Me, I don't think I'm yet that self aware - not yet master Yoda.
 
My highest reading was 12.4 after a tuna-mayo sandwich in a café. My lowest reading is a 4.0 before a meal. On neither occasion did I have any sense of my level at the time. I never have any idea what I am going to be before I test. No funny turns at all.
 
The last time I was in double figures was on Christmas Day. I felt warm and clammy. Sometimes at work if I am very angry, I don't even bother testing as I know I will be high due to the steam coming out of my ears. Rarely go into the 4s. 5 - 7.5 usually so not much difference in how I feel.
 
I sometimes get tingling in my toes when I'm very high (over 10), but other than that, I don't have a clue what my levels are without taking a reading.
 
I'm a bloke, what can I say?
 
When I go higher than my range, I get very hot, which here means I am bathed in perspiration. It's not a good look.

At the other extreme, I don't generally feel anything, unless in the low 3s, then I feel just a bit empty. Yesterday, when is retested a 3.1 and got lower, I just felt bewilderment, but that's not what you're asking!!
 
I can sense when my BG falls below about 4.5. I feel nervous or clammy. A high BG is more difficult, I can feel dry lips. Whichever I feel I then check with my meter

Stephen Kennedy HTC mini II
 
I get a feeling of light headedness when my levels are low. I've been as low as 3.3 a number of times and now know what to watch out for. When I go higher than about 8 I tend to yawn frequently and feel tired.
 
In fact only the other day I had a headache and didn't feel right. I checked my bs and it was 13.6, this after a bowl of rolled oats. Guess they are out now.
 
I get a prickly feeling between my shoulder blades at around 5.2 - 5.5. Both rising & falling, which is handy if you remember what the previous reading was. It can get confusing when I play golf as I have to snack my way around the course to keep my levels up.

At 4.5 & below, I have an instant shank and struggle to hit a straight shot!
 
I'm like julifriend. When my BG is higher than 7 or 8, I keep yawning every single minute and feel like I could sleep for a week. Also, my vision becomes blurry so I can hardly read anything. Sadly this happens after almost every single meal, even if it's low carb. Then when my BG drops too low just before the next meal, I start sweating and shaking and feel extremely hungry, but even before I get those hypo symptoms I can feel the drop. I'm not sure how to explain it but my BG drops and rises really fast and sadly I can feel both and they don't feel good. I'm constantly either really tired or really hungry throughout the day. I can't tell the difference between blood sugar levels of 4 and 6 but I'm hardly ever in this range for an extended period of time. My BG passes through the normal numbers really quickly and ends up being high or low for quite a while.
 
Yep, I can sense where my blood sugar is in the 4 to 8 range. Not always right, but I always guess before testing and I am pretty close..

I think that is because I was T1 diabetic for 20 years before blood testing was introduced. Clearing out recently I found some old HBa1c results from my clinic at the time which were said by the consultant to be excellent, and were definitely better than the ones I got for years once I started testing my own blood sugars and micromanaging things.

I don't think I could explain how I feel when, say, I am 5 as opposed to 7, It's pretty subtle and I don't really know how I know.
 
Low 4s I just feel very hungry, but then its usually time to eat anyway. High 9 or above, I usually get a headache. But the worst is when it goes up, or down, very quickly, a rapid change of 4 or 5 mmol will leave me shaking, unable to concentrate and generally 'out of it'.
 
Most certainly yes when low... It even wakes me up..
High yep, I feel it in my legs like I have run a marathon & get "tetchy" like a girls "time of the month".....
In short, I have a pretty good clue before I test..!
 
I can tell you what bg is almost to the letter, e.g. if it is 5 I would say between 4 and 7 but more on the 5 side and I would be right,unfortunately my bgs swing quite badly, and are frequently high. I have been diabetic for 30years so think the ability to know what bg is going to be is probably down to experience. Keep checking with a monitor,because we all make mistakes.
 
I've not a clue. Used to only get hypo symptoms at around 2; now I'm thankfully getting them at 3. No sense of when they are running high either, unless very high; apart from peeing a bit more. I used to have a good sense of what they were running at, but have lost that over the years.
 
Above 5 or so I don't have a clue until it hits say the high teens. Especially now I have just recently started on forxiga which makes you pee out your sugar, so even if I need to go to the loo a lot that's no sign as that now happens when bg in normal range. In fact a few times in the beginning I thought I must be high just out of linking peeing a lot to high sugars in the past, but bg was normal.
 

I always wondered how ppl coped before the testing machines!

Interesting thread. I was just wondering the same thing, I was feeling overly thirsty so checked my ketones and up to 0.9. My sugars went up to the 9s today and feeling tired. Just necked 2 pints of water. It's amazing how self aware you become!
 
Before I went lchf, I could tell when I woke up I was high because of muscle tightness in the neck an upper back, to the point of actual knots and cramps. I'd test, and sure enough, I was in the high 8s or greater.

Since I moved to lchf, I've seen the levels reduce. Hit 3 days in a row this week where I was under 6. 5.2 this morning ! Personal best! No muscle pain, tightness or cramps.

Gawd I love bacon an sunny side eggs!



Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…