Hello- super super new

[MrsB24]

Hello everyone-

So last week my doctor has diagnosed me with reactive hypoglycaemia.
I had my last blood tests around a year ago but have been tracking my symptoms ever since I started to notice how poorly I have been feeling.
Anyway, I have done so much research and am following all of the advice online as my doctor basically said to me "research online and change your diet".
So the weekend just gone I have been feeling so poorly-more than before. I have cut sugars, have really low carbs, no more caffeine (I have been reducing this since last year anyway). But I actually passed out, which has not happened to me before. Saturday night I got into bed and I felt like the world was spinning.
Basically I'm not sure what to do when I feel like that?
I think I need to buy a blood glucose tester machine (I'm sorry, I am so new I dont even know the name of this!)
But please any more advice, or even of things I can ask my doctor for/about would be amazing.
I have made note of a GTT which I will be requesting today, although with covid being as high as it is in our local area I'm sure things are restricted at the moment.

Thankyou so much,
I wish you all safe and well xx

 

[Mrs T 123]

Hello & Welcome - sorry you have been feeling so poorly. I am Type 2 so not of much help to you but I will tag @Lamont D who may be able to help and offer you some advice. Take care

 

[MrsB24]

Thankyou mrs T
I hope you are feeling safe and well! x

 

[Lamont D]

Hello everyone-

So last week my doctor has diagnosed me with reactive hypoglycaemia.
I had my last blood tests around a year ago but have been tracking my symptoms ever since I started to notice how poorly I have been feeling.
Anyway, I have done so much research and am following all of the advice online as my doctor basically said to me "research online and change your diet".
So the weekend just gone I have been feeling so poorly-more than before. I have cut sugars, have really low carbs, no more caffeine (I have been reducing this since last year anyway). But I actually passed out, which has not happened to me before. Saturday night I got into bed and I felt like the world was spinning.
Basically I'm not sure what to do when I feel like that?
I think I need to buy a blood glucose tester machine (I'm sorry, I am so new I dont even know the name of this!)
But please any more advice, or even of things I can ask my doctor for/about would be amazing.
I have made note of a GTT which I will be requesting today, although with covid being as high as it is in our local area I'm sure things are restricted at the moment.

Thankyou so much,
I wish you all safe and well xx

Hi, Welcome to the forum,
I have reactive hypoglycaemia and I can sympathise with what you are going through, on what basis or diagnostic test were you diagnosed?
Yes, you will need a glucometer, for testing blood sugar levels. And start a food diary.
You can ask your GP to supply one and get test strips as well, he should because it is very important to test because how will you know if you are going low?
If you are getting symptoms, that means that you are still producing too much insulin when you trigger the reaction. This probably means that you are not low carb enough.
Can you give us a typical days food please?

When you ask for a glucose tolerance test, you do not want a two hour test, what you need is an extended OGTT, which can be as long as five hours. Because if you are like me, I don't start going hypo until after three hours.

You may want to read the reactive hypoglycaemia forum, there is a lot of information on there to see how to treat RH.

Stay safe

 

[MrsB24]

Hello, thankyou for your reply
I can tell you my sundays meals-
Breakfast I had avocado and a poached egg.
Then I has half an apple with peanut butter on for a mid morning snack.
At lunch time I had cucumber, carrot sticks and raw broccoli dipped in houmous.
It was about an hour after this I felt really poorly and actually passed out! Whoops!
I drank a glass of milk when I came round as I didnt want to risk juice in case that was a bad move.
For dinner I had 2 mushrooms stuffed with cheese and a couple of cherry tomatoes and for a snack before bed half a banana (a not quite ripened one) with peanut butter on it.

So I have an update as I spoke to my doctor today.
Basically he said to me, the initial doctor I spoke to has written to the endocrinologist team to see what advice they can offer me. He said that should take about 2-3 weeks for them to reply. So I asked for some guidance in the interim for what to do when I am feeling so woozy and drowsy and he said...and I quote.. "well, the thing is, based on your previous blood work 7 months ago you arent diabetic. And you can only get hypo's if you are diabetic. So I dont really know how to advise you in case it is wrong. So I think we need to wait."
To which I replied "I understand what you are saying, but I have done A LOT, and I mean A LOT of research into what the doctor has told me and even on diabetes.co.uk there is an entire thread of people who have been diagnosed with RH and a lot of them dont have diabetes. I would be happy to provide you with the link if you would like?"
And he said... "okay if I'm honest, the drs in this surgery dont know much about this. It's not widely researched or understood. So I wont refer you for any blood tests or glucose tests until we get a reply from the endo. Team. "
I asked if a blood monitor would be useful so that I could record things throughout the day and at least as a worst case scenario, I dont need it, and I have had a few pin pricks. He very very very reluctantly said it was a good idea...

My symptoms started over 7 months ago, I went for blood tests and everything came back as "normal" so nothing else was done. But since then I continued to make note of all of my symptoms and last wednesday, after having my 9th migraine of the year so far, and feeling really really unwell in general I had decided it was probably enough so made the call back to the doctors. I was putting it off as long as I could because of covid, I hate feeling like I'm wasting the nhs services!

I feel like I havent really given you much to go on, sorry! Maybe I should say some of my symptoms?
- General dizziness and light headedness within an hour of eating.
- the constant need to pee! Like.. I think I must go around 15-20 times a day! I dont drink an overly large amount either I think.
- exhaustion... okay so I have 3 young children, so they are definitely partly to blame, but the last month especially I have found myself suddenly waking up in the middle of the day after not even feeling particularly tired.
-Mood swings, I swear sometimes my husband and kids hate me for this...
-constantly hungry, honestly, hand on heart, I could demolish a roast dinner and within an hour I could demolish a second (but I dont...)
- sweaty- I always describe myself as having 3 types of sweaty... normal sweat, anxious sweat (which is very smelly) and suddenly feeling very poorly and dizzy sweaty.
- anxiety- ever since the birth of my twins 3 years ago... but at the beginning of the year, I had my first ever panic attack, and it was a 2 dayer! The doctors thought I had a massive lung puncture it was so bad...

But yeah that's just a few, but I have just realised how long this post will be and if you are still reading I'm so sorry I have rambled on!

 

[MrsB24]

Reading that back I realise I didnt even say my symptoms around food...
So I find within an hour or 2 of eating my vision goes blurry, or delayed (by that I mean when I move my head it feels a bit drunk and slow like my eyes need to catch up!) Then I start feeling dizzy and usually get a headache. Sometimes this develops to black and white spots in my vision followed by a migraine- I hate that! Usually if I have one I'm in bed for the day, hard to do when you have 3 very loud children! X

 

[Lamont D]

Reading that back I realise I didnt even say my symptoms around food...
So I find within an hour or 2 of eating my vision goes blurry, or delayed (by that I mean when I move my head it feels a bit drunk and slow like my eyes need to catch up!) Then I start feeling dizzy and usually get a headache. Sometimes this develops to black and white spots in my vision followed by a migraine- I hate that! Usually if I have one I'm in bed for the day, hard to do when you have 3 very loud children! X

Take my word for what it's worth, I was diagnosed nearly eight years ago. I have had so many tests to verify diagnosis. I have taken part in a published study. I have even gave a ten minute talk to medical students which my specialist tricked me into giving on one of my last appointments with him.
My Hba1c is 37.
My fasting levels are never above 5.5.
I am non diabetic.
All your symptoms are typical RH.
And if you read the sticky threads, there will be symptoms that you are not aware of.

Every time I post a reply about doctors, specialist, dsn, I have had a specialist endocrinologist who didn't have a clue and dismissed me. My endocrinologist said to me, his mentor would have no idea about RH. My own GP called me weird.
It is because they don't have the training in hypoglycaemic conditions and don't understand the reasons we are reacting to food especially carbs. I mean who would have thought that people can be ill eating healthy complex carbs?
The dieticians are worse, according to most, you have to eat carbs.
Most doctors would give you dietary advice similar to eat complex carbs with a low fat diet, reducing your carbs and portion size and eat every three hours!!
No wonder, RH ers are suffering. The reason for the three hours is to stop you going hypo by eating more carbs. This will impact your glucose levels and the amount of insulin produced is far too much for anyone.
The trick is to eat as low carb as possible, so as not to start the reaction, so you are not creating insulin, to stay in normal or just above normal blood sugar levels. This will stop the hypos, gif you are RH.

Keep safe, keep asking.