Crazy results - that I can't interpret...help?

Hi everyone,

I am someone that has previously had very good hba1c results (for me) mid 40s and worst 50.

That was whilst being sedentary (enforced through pain/injury), but sticking to a fairly strict low carb diet - about 50 carbs a day. Eating 3 meals a day.

Over the last 4 months I have been on a health drive. I have come off quite high level painkillers. Because of nerve damage this has been pretty horrific - terrible pain every day, for about 14 hours a day.

The bottom line is that I tapered the painkillers until I came off them. I have also come off Pregablin which is also supposed to cause a lot
of weight gain and water retention. Now I take nothing bar paracetamol (always have had that and the same dose) and well, about two weeks ago the pain eased enormously. I was finally able to live each day, not simply exist. My appetite muched reduced - still the same foods and low carb, but only eating once a day. I have for the first time in years been able to do a little exercise and so I bought a Fitbit tracker to encourage me in the house. I dropped in weight from 15 stone 4 to 14 stone 6. And I started walking each day - about a mile and a half every day. Then about 3 days ago I started getting horrific nerve pain in my legs again. My weight has shot back up and i have started feeling exhausted. I checked my bloods and I am getting random glucose checks of 11 - 13nmol. If I eat nothing for 4 hours - upon waking my numbers are over 10nmol and I feel the need to sleep all the time. I am drinking water and nothing else. I am eating very low carb, I am eating far less and I am walking miles and miles. Nothin else has changed. Any idea why my numbers have shot up!? My weight has shot back up to 14 stone 13 as well.

P.S

I have nerve damage from chemotherapy many years ago - not from diabetes - the problem is high numbers cause that pre-existing nerve pain to kick off and I suffer very badly when that happens. I just can't understand how you can eat the same food but a third less, do 10 times the amount of exercise, manage to come off opiod prescribed painkillers and nerve damage tablets - and having had real gains - see weight and diabetes shoot upwards. Frustrated, in pain, getting pushed back towards painkillers. :-/

My numbers are now way higher and I'm more tired. If I eat nothing my numbers are way higher...

Any help would be appreciated.

Edited by mod to remove a small typo which interfered with intended meaning.

Thx for the responses, sorry for the delay in reply my end. I tried to post the same day, but had an internet issue and have been exhausted since. I used to have very good results - pre diabetic results following dietary changes. I probably let my diet slip somewhat due to being so successful...was maybe complacent. But even so, I still had good results even slipping to around 100 carbs a day. I have since been stricter on the diet both on carbs and portion sizes (better than 50 carbs a day maybe) and have managed for the first time in years to do a little exercise (only upper body - due to having osteo in the spine and nerve damage from the chemo in the legs and feet - have a wheelchair much of the time). But I have wore a fitness tracker and that encouraged me, to try a little. The tracker I have is quite sophisticated and it converts what you can do with cardio upper body to equivalent steps/distance. So I have gone from no exercise, built it up, to now doing the equivalent of 5 miles a day...and this is what I have recorded in terms of results over the last week from testing my blood - the order is from oldest further down to newest results at the top:

10.5 two hours after low carb 30 carbs chicken meal - only meal of the day

8.5 - about 4 and a half hours after tuna and halloumi - only meal of day

9.3 -about 3/4 hours after two small pork medallions and roast veg - 9:30 pm

8.9 - 1pm the next day having eaten nothing from the night before

8.8 - 5 hour or so later at 11:55

10.3 - an hour and a half after chicken meal low carb

9.3 - nearly 4 hours after last meal 11:10. Only had water since.

10.3 - two hours after eating mackerel and Halloumi - 9.20 at night

10.2 - 13 hours after food after waking up.

10.9 - been electrocuted in feet, badly for two days. 21st July


I understand the numbers may not be objectively high for many, but to have cut down from three to one/two meals a day, to have got much stricter of portion size and carbs - to have upped exercise from nothing to where I am - and to see these numbers that are so much worse? And the only reason I went to testing my blood was because I have become very, very thirsty all the time like when I was originally diagnosed. Also the prior nerve damage from the chemo means I'm getting a lot of nerve pain and I think it is the diabetes kicking off that nerve pre-existing problem. I suffered for so long cutting down on pain killers and got to a point where I was doing well - so I knew something was well off when the nerve pain started up again and I know from the past that both lowering pain killers and high diabetic numbers makes it much, much worse.

I am wondering from those numbers and info...

Do people think it's a medication interaction thing rather than food/diet/exercise etc?

I have cut down on pain killers - but I am also on GH treatment - Growth Hormone, due to long term chemo/pituitary damage. I even wondered if lowering the painkillers could have made the GH more effective and caused a glucose issue? I know the liver processes medications and I had liver cancer in my teens and two thirds of it taken out...no idea if that is relevant either.

I am not on any medication for the diabetes because the prior numbers/because I was so successful with the dietary changes. My consultant originally wanted me on metformin, but I said give me a chance with the diet, he did and everything was good...until now.

I'm at a loss.