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

[Yeoc]

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.

 

[DCUKMod]

Hi Yeoc - How long have your numbers been increased as you describe?

 

[ringi]

See if you can get a double length GP appointment, remind them about your chemotherapy as it may have effected the beta cells, or it may be that you have an infraction that you don't know about.

 

[leslie10152]

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.

Hi @Yeoc, what kind of medication are you on for diabetes? Is there a possibility that the painkillers you are taking could be effecting your glucose levels? Stress can aggravate glucose levels, so this is a requirement for your gp to review.

 

[Yeoc]

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.