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Low blood sugar readings

H

Hal

Member
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Hi all, a little bit of advice if anybody knows please.

I am worried about my wifes blood sugar levels and worried that she may have a hypo tonight.

Yesterday teatime i took her blood sugar and it was a shocking 25.3 which was before her meal.

This morning prior to anything to eat it was at a more safe 5.2

Prior to any tea this evening it was at a shocking 2.8

I checked 2 hours later after her meal and it was at 3.8

A short time ago i took it again at it was at 5.8

She is currently on Byetta which is given twice daily the 10 unit injection
Did not give her insulin today because they were in a good range, too low before tea anyway.

She is also on slow release metformin 2mg in the morning
As well as 80mg Gliclazide at morning and teatime.

She has only recently gone onto the last 2 items, prior to this she was taking 3 metformin 500mg daily, morning, lunch and tea.

Only started on these 2 new items about a fortnight ago when we were struggling to control her blood sugars as they were above 10 whenever i did them.

Not had much luck prior to today with the odd one getting round 5 in the morning.

Any help with this problem would be appreciated as i dont want her going into a hypo

Thanks all
 
Hal said:
Hi all, a little bit of advice if anybody knows please.

I am worried about my wifes blood sugar levels and worried that she may have a hypo tonight.

Yesterday teatime i took her blood sugar and it was a shocking 25.3 which was before her meal.

This morning prior to anything to eat it was at a more safe 5.2

Prior to any tea this evening it was at a shocking 2.8

I checked 2 hours later after her meal and it was at 3.8

A short time ago i took it again at it was at 5.8

She is currently on Byetta which is given twice daily the 10 unit injection
Did not give her insulin today because they were in a good range, too low before tea anyway.

She is also on slow release metformin 2mg in the morning
As well as 80mg Gliclazide at morning and teatime.

She has only recently gone onto the last 2 items, prior to this she was taking 3 metformin 500mg daily, morning, lunch and tea.

Only started on these 2 new items about a fortnight ago when we were struggling to control her blood sugars as they were above 10 whenever i did them.

Not had much luck prior to today with the odd one getting round 5 in the morning.

Any help with this problem would be appreciated as i dont want her going into a hypo

Thanks all
Click to expand...

Sorry this got missed out, wasn't around last night.

This sounds very much like the balance between meds and diet is out of line. Why on earth was she put onto Gliclazide and Metformin whilst on Byetta and Insulin ? Gliclazide is a hypo inducing drug, especially when used in conjunction with Byetta and the Insulin.

The usual method when taking Byetta is to reduce the doses of both Insulin and any Sulphonylureas (Gliclazide) NOT increase them !

What sort of diet does she follow, can you give us an idea of a typical days food intake, including snacks and drinks. This might help us to give you some better advice.
 
Hi

Yesterday she had toast & marmalade in the morning.

For dinner, she had bacon (done on a mean machine), egg, beans & grilled waffle.

For tea, pork, roast potatoes, fresh carrots & broccoli with gravy followed by a yoghurt.

Roast potatoes done in an Actifry which uses very little fat.

Today she had 1 slice of cheese on toast for breakfast

Bowl of Heinz Tomato soup for lunch, slice of bread & butter

Teatime, pork, mashed potatoes, frozen mixed vegetables and yoghurt to follow.

A few examples of her blood sugars before and after the new medicines.

Before new meds

Byetta 10 Morning and teatime
Insulin 10 units morning, 8 units teatime
Metformin 500mg 3 times a day, morning, lunch and teatime

Date Morning Tea
07/12/09 8.9 6.3
08/12/09 6.4 6.6
09/12/09 6.2 17.2

These were taken prior to giving her any food.

After new meds

Byetta 10 Morning and Teatime
Insulin 10 Units morning and 8 units teatime
Metformin SR 2mg morning
Gliclazide 80mg 1 in morning and 1 at teatime

Date Morning Teatime
23/01/10 11.2 13.3
24/01/10 16.9 5.5
25/01/10 15.8 10.8

Yesterday the readings were as follows, 31 Jan 10

7am 5.2
5.30pm 2.8 Started tea about 6pm
8.15pm 3.8 About 2 hours after tea
10.10pm 5.8
12 Midnight 6.3

This morning at about 7am it was 5.7

Hope this gives you some further information.

Thanks for your help
 
Forgot to say that she has regular cups of tea with her meals but sometimes does not drink it all but has water as well. The odd drink of diluted pop but to be honest not had any of that for ages.

She will eat fruit, apples, pears, bananas and satumas as we always have these in. I keep them topped up on a regular basis.

Prior to this they have said that her diet is very good as i tend to cook the food myself and we have things such as beef or pork casseroles, mince pasta, chops, mash & veg to name but a few of the many meals that i have cooked.

Thank you

Hal
 
Hi Hal

Looking at what your wife has eaten, there are plenty of carbs there, but how many I wouldn't like to suggest as it would be very dependant on her portion size.. how may slices of bread used for toast, how big a dollop of marmalade she had etc..

But looking at her medication though, you really need to speak to her diaebtic team, as by going by what you are saying, .. This seems to be the area that you would be looking at to solve her problems, as if you lower her carb content of her foods while she's taking this lot would only produce a more serious hypo... So I think it's important to speak to them as soon as possible, today preferably if you can..
 
Hi Hal.
Here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics.This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different . Too many carbs can play havoc with the Bg levels....you have to experiment.

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such a bread, potatoes, pasta and rice also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!

As a Type 2 the latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l.
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.
If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do 30 minutes moderate exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous.
Click to expand...

Make sure you discuss the Meds with the GP.
 
Hal
It looks to me like your wife is suffering from having too many different medications. How anyone can balance that lot to the food defeats me.
Perhaps, you should make an appointment with the care team to discuss and perhaps rationalise this
Hana
 
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