HELPPPP! Currently being diagnosed but need help with blood sugars

[MrsC123]

A bit of background info:
•My Mum is a type 1 diabetic diagnosed at 26 years old.
•Grandmother tyoe 1 diagnosed early 50s
•Multiple uncles and Aunt type progressing to insulin
•Older Brother recently diagmosed wirh type 1.5 LADA

●I have PCOS
●I have had gestational diabetes twice, first of which was at age 18 with my son and I was very slim. second was at 30

I have struggled wirh my weight for the last few years even though I don't really eat much. I've always put it down to my PCOS so went on a low carb diet to lose weight. I dropped down to 80kg and I'm almost 5ft8 but to stopped and within 5 months I gained it back and I'm currently 92kg but I generally eat once a day

I had a GTT mid December and my fasting blood was 8.9 and 2 hours later it was 15.8

I was told this was pre-diabetws and sent away to lose weight and see where I am in 3 months but Mum said I need to get it sorted so GP sent me for the HBA1C tests on Friday so we are awaiting that.

In the mean time I've been testing my blood after meals and in the morning. Waking bloods are usually between 8.5 and 9.9 but I'm so confused because they seem to climb even if I don't eat

My bloods were 8.8 at 7am. I never ate or drank anything but water and walked 3.7 miles hoping my bloods woukd reduce so I can eat and hopefully not see 11 on the monitor but my blood after the walk is 9.9

why does it climb?
am I type 2?
Do I need to ask for MODY or LADS test?

HELPPPPPP

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hi and welcome aboard,

Firstly, whoever told you you are pre-diabetic based on the OGGT you had was wrong. It shows you clearly as diabetic I'm afraid, so your mum did well to push you to the GP for further tests. These are the diagnostic criteria:

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/images/article_images/DiagnosticCriteriaPrediabetes.png

so you can see you were well inside the diabetic range.

It isn't just food that makes our blood sugars rise. When we are fasting, or between meals, or exercising, our liver notices that our blood glucose needs replenishing but there is no food available, so it dumps glucose from its stores into the blood stream to help us. This is a natural phenomena that happens to everyone, including non-diabetics. So in the absence of glucose from food, our blood sugar levels can rise without us doing anything. This is why our levels can rise even if we don't eat, and can rise even more if we also exercise in this state.

We can't diagnose which type you are. You need to discuss this with your GP.

I am tagging @daisy1 who has a very informative post for newcomers. It is well worth reading and taking note of what she says. Meanwhile, have a good read round the forum and ask as many questions as you like.

 

[Circuspony]

I'm type 1 (LADA) & often wake with levels of 7-8. It's the pre dawn glucose dump trying to fill me with energy.

Good to hear you're getting tested, with your family history they should have been all over those results. If your hba1c test comes back high then I expect they'll do the antibody tests for type 1.

 

[MrsC123]

Hi and welcome aboard,

Firstly, whoever told you you are pre-diabetic based on the OGGT you had was wrong. It shows you clearly as diabetic I'm afraid, so your mum did well to push you to the GP for further tests. These are the diagnostic criteria:

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/images/article_images/DiagnosticCriteriaPrediabetes.png

so you can see you were well inside the diabetic range.

It isn't just food that makes our blood sugars rise. When we are fasting, or between meals, or exercising, our liver notices that our blood glucose needs replenishing but there is no food available, so it dumps glucose from its stores into the blood stream to help us. This is a natural phenomena that happens to everyone, including non-diabetics. So in the absence of glucose from food, our blood sugar levels can rise without us doing anything. This is why our levels can rise even if we don't eat, and can rise even more if we also exercise in this state.

We can't diagnose which type you are. You need to discuss this with your GP.

I am tagging @daisy1 who has a very informative post for newcomers. It is well worth reading and taking note of what she says. Meanwhile, have a good read round the forum and ask as many questions as you like.

Thanks for replying. It was my GP surgery nurse that said the result was pre-diabetes but the receptionists booked me in as an emergency last Wednesday so I was a bit shocked seeing as I've been pre-diabetic for years.

It sounds like I need to chase up these HBA1C results and get a move on. I assumed I can exercise and keep moving and it would lower the blood sugar results but is suppose the lack of eating and moving isn't helping anyway. I've probably caused more damage by not eating throughout the day.

 

[MrsC123]

I'm type 1 (LADA) & often wake with levels of 7-8. It's the pre dawn glucose dump trying to fill me with energy.

Good to hear you're getting tested, with your family history they should have been all over those results. If your hba1c test comes back high then I expect they'll do the antibody tests for type 1.

Hi. Thanks for replying. I had gestational diabetes in 2014 and was on insulin. During that pregnancy, the consultant was saying with my family history, they wanted to do a MOST test but I returned to a pre-diabetic state but he even said that it seems that I'll be heading towards diabetes regardless of what I do.

I was very careful and don't eat a lot of carbs. I was eating once a day and under 100g of carbs (done the diet of 20g a day to lose weight but adjusted it to 100g for the family really) but I gain veey easily

My brother was diagnosed with LADS type 1.5 last year but he's only on tablets. Is that the same for you?

 

[Circuspony]

I went straight onto insulin - tablets didn't bring my levels down at all. I came up positive on 2 of the antibody tests, so definitely late onset type 1 and that's without any family history!

 

[Bluetit1802]

Thanks for replying. It was my GP surgery nurse that said the result was pre-diabetes but the receptionists booked me in as an emergency last Wednesday so I was a bit shocked seeing as I've been pre-diabetic for years.

It sounds like I need to chase up these HBA1C results and get a move on. I assumed I can exercise and keep moving and it would lower the blood sugar results but is suppose the lack of eating and moving isn't helping anyway. I've probably caused more damage by not eating throughout the day.

Walking helps to lower post meal blood sugars (but not in every case - it never helped me much) but exercise on an empty fasting stomach doesn't work for everyone. You may find that if you eat something fatty as soon as you get up in a morning it will help. By something fatty I mean fat/protein but no carbs. Maybe some coffee with double cream, or a chunk of cheese or similar. Just enough to trigger a small insulin response from your pancreas to counteract the glucose dumped by your liver.

(Your GP surgery nurse needs to be sent on a refresher training course!)

 

[TheBigNewt]

Sounds to me like you need to find a healthcare provider that knows what they're doing.

 

[Resurgam]

A single meal of 100 gm of carbs must be a bit of a jolt to the system. I'd suggest that for the time being eating two meals as far apart as convenient would be less stressing - and whatever the diagnosis is, when it is eventually sorted out, two smaller meals will be easier to cope with.
Please do not eat to what is easiest for your family - you need to be a bit more selfish and eat what you need to keep healthy, whatever that means for you.
I ate low carb whilst feeding a family for decades, it was no problem to add in starches for them once I was well catered for - as I have never been able to eat a 'normal' diet all my adult life, as it meant rapid weight gain. I was talked out of it over and over again - but after diagnosis I drew a line in the sand and will do low carb for life now.
I hope that you can soon sort out your type and treatment.

 

[daisy1]

@MrsC123

Hello MrsC and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it both interesting and useful. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 235,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.

There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
  
  
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
  

 

[Lauriem1967]

Hi, I hear ya! I had the same problem!

My BG was high In the morning. I figured out that I need to eat my meals about 6 hours apart. If I go past that, my levels will be high in the morning and before meals.

Apparently, if you go too long without eating your liver starts to make sugar and dumps it into your bloodstream raising your blood sugar.

We don’t really need carbs to survive, because our liver can make it’s own glucose. That’s why you hear a lot about the Low Carb High Fat plan ( LCHF).

I suggest you try the following, after your bedtime snack, set an alarm for 4 hours later.

Get up in the night and test your blood sugar. If it is fine, great. Then set an alarm and test one hour later. Keep doing so every hour until you figure out how long you can sleep before you need to eat food.

Once I figured out that I can sleep 5 hours and 50 minutes before my liver starts making its own sugar, my morning readings and pre-meal readings are perfectly within the guidelines now.

Diabetes involves two things, pancreas (insulin), and your liver ( sugar production).

We never think that our body ( liver) is making sugar, but it does. It’s to help fuel our brain when there’s no food available.

If you wait too long to eat, your body will make sugar for you. This raises your blood sugar before meal.

Give it a try and see if this helps you figure out when your blood sugar starts to climb. Most times it’s between 4-6 hours. I can never sleep more than 6 hours.

My pharmacist told me that Metformin stops your liver from making its own sugar and adding it to your bloodstream.

You may have to get up in the night and have a second snack or a really early breakfast.

We tend to think if our blood sugar is high, we ate something to make it high. But sometimes that’s not true. Sometimes it means we went past our meal time and now our liver is taking over making glucose for us.

If two hours after your meal, you’re getting a good reading. Then, it could be that you’re just waiting too long in between meals.

The fact that you have a high morning blood glucose level, suggest that you may need to eat earlier. Also, try adding more fat to your bedtime snack and eat it later at night, (I eat mine at 12:30am), It will last longer in your system.

I wish you the best and hope you resolve the issue,
Laurie