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High blood sugar

R

rnjc

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Hello, I hope I'm posting in the correct area.

My husband (40) about a year ago went to GP with severe abdominal pain where he had blood tests. They revealed he was pre diabetic T2 but after discussing it the nurse advised he was only borderline so adapt diet.
He was 2 stone overweight at the time & was one of those people that never got ill or went to GP.

He changed his whole lifestyle after that & actually lost 3 stone & is now ideal weight & walks miles daily.

The last few weeks I noticed he was more forgetful, stressed easy, urinating more & after a minor op (vasectomy) in December he took longer to heal than he should. I ordered a blood glucose tester. In the meantime whilst waiting for it to arrive he had a dental check up where they found a shadow in his gum & said it's a chronic infection due to be drilled out next week (it's not causing any pain or symptoms). He also developed an abscess on his lower back which became very painful & large on Saturday so he got an out of hours GP appointment. Well on this same day the glucose tester arrived so we done the finger prick test & was surprised it was reading 24.4. He told the GP that night who tested again & it was 19.1.

She put him on antibiotics for abcess & said he needed to see his own GP after antibiotics finish to start metformin, she said she would have started him but didn't want him starting that & antibiotics at the same time.

Since then his readings are always between 18-23. He feels ok, but I guess my concern is how high they are and how long they've been this way. Also surprising as he has lost 3 stone & eats very little carbs or sugar anyway. Could this be purely because he has an infection? He hasn't been tested at the doctor since May 2019 when he was reading as normal.

Thanks, so sorry it's long!
 
rnjc said:
Hello, I hope I'm posting in the correct area.

My husband (40) about a year ago went to GP with severe abdominal pain where he had blood tests. They revealed he was pre diabetic T2 but after discussing it the nurse advised he was only borderline so adapt diet.
He was 2 stone overweight at the time & was one of those people that never got ill or went to GP.

He changed his whole lifestyle after that & actually lost 3 stone & is now ideal weight & walks miles daily.

The last few weeks I noticed he was more forgetful, stressed easy, urinating more & after a minor op (vasectomy) in December he took longer to heal than he should. I ordered a blood glucose tester. In the meantime whilst waiting for it to arrive he had a dental check up where they found a shadow in his gum & said it's a chronic infection due to be drilled out next week (it's not causing any pain or symptoms). He also developed an abscess on his lower back which became very painful & large on Saturday so he got an out of hours GP appointment. Well on this same day the glucose tester arrived so we done the finger prick test & was surprised it was reading 24.4. He told the GP that night who tested again & it was 19.1.

She put him on antibiotics for abcess & said he needed to see his own GP after antibiotics finish to start metformin, she said she would have started him but didn't want him starting that & antibiotics at the same time.

Since then his readings are always between 18-23. He feels ok, but I guess my concern is how high they are and how long they've been this way. Also surprising as he has lost 3 stone & eats very little carbs or sugar anyway. Could this be purely because he has an infection? He hasn't been tested at the doctor since May 2019 when he was reading as normal.

Thanks, so sorry it's long!
Click to expand...
Hello @rnjc , and welcome,

Those blood sugars are rather high indeed, and well beyond prediabetic and into the diabetic range... And yeah, they do make infections problematic, (and they last for just about forever!), as well as healing taking a long time and whatnot... You mention his diet doesn't contain many carbs nor sugar, but you're going to have to spell it out for us: what does an average day look like for him, in meals and drinks? There's usually carbs in things people don't realise, or think are "healthy" carbs so they should be okay. (Spoiler: they're not.). Just to double-check. I know I made some carby mistakes when I first started out. The infection will also raise his bloodsugars, and since antibiotics and metformin both have the runs as a side effect, I can see why they didn't want to start him on that simultaneously. Thing is though, metformin doesn't do anything about what you ingest. It mainly tells your liver not to dump so much stored glucose in the morning and in times of stress. So it's really the meals you both want to be looking into. It's a good thing he has lost some weight, as abdominal fat makes insulin resistance worse, but there's still ground to gain here, I'm sure.

One more thing. You've been brilliant in getting a meter straight off: keep using it. If the infection is cured and his blood sugars don't come down, yet he does eat all the right things, you want to take those numbers back to the GP and ask for GAD and C-peptide tests.

For right now, have a read here, it's basically everything I wish I was told when I was first diagnosed. https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html
Good luck eh.
Jo
 
rnjc said:
They revealed he was pre diabetic T2
Click to expand...

Cynic here, but though they revealed he was prediabetic it was not necessarily T2. (I very much doubt that they did the tests to differentiate between T1 and T2). The weight loss could suggest T1/lada (lada is very slow onset) but that could happen anyway if he was a T2 carrying extra weight who reduced their carbs.

Those readings are very high. If T2 then they won'r kill you (probably) but if T1/Lada then diabetic ketoacidosis is an issue, which needs immediate treatment in A&E. If possible, get some ketone testing strips from your chemist. If they read high then ring 111 and prepare to spend some time in hospital.

In any case, you need to see your GP urgently. Make that sppointment now.
 
Agree with the above.

Yes infection raises blood glucose levels. High blood glucose makes healing slower.
Recent injury and trauma (the surgery) can also raise levels as healing occurs.
Carbs you aren’t aware of or that are still at fairly high levels could also be why his bgl isn’t great (combined with the infection)

addressing all these should bring the levels down to sensible levels if he is type 2 (statistically more likely but not certain). Despite what’s said about losing weight and exercise (it’s Obviously beneficial if it was too much to begin with) it’s not the only factor in reducing levels.

And then there’s a possibility that type 1 is actually coming on slowly (LADA) hence the very sensible suggestion to also monitor ketones and if feeling at all unwell with the higher glucose levels seek help and don’t wait. Unexplained weight loss can be a symptom of this as well as rising levels no matter what you do about it.
 
I agree with everything that has already been posted, especially with regards to what @Ellie-M has said. Hope you get some action taken quickly. Good luck!
 
Thank you all for your replies.

Generally he doesn't eat breakfast & lunch will be soup or scrambled egg with ryvita. Dinner is all honecooked so I know what's going into that, usually meat or fish with veg or salad, only tends to have potato rice or pasta if we eat out. He drinks water mostly but does have tea with sweeteners in.

He doesn't have a big appetite these days since he lost weight. Doesn't snack at all.
 
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