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Lowest BG Reading Ever for Me

SaskiaKC

Expert
Messages
6,312
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
3.8 this afternoon after a too-long nap. FBG this morning was 6.4, which is fairly normal for me. Then I ate a horrible breakfast of coffee, sausage, and two thin slices of loaf cake. Then I lay down to read and fell asleep and woke to 3.8. So I tested again. 4.3.

I have a friend who likes to stay around 4 throughout the day so I wasn't really worried, just enough so to drink some cranberry juice. That got me a 3.7. I've never tested my BG after a nap, but I usually don't take 3-4 hour naps in the middle of the day. I felt fine, just wondered why my BG was so low. So I ate another bite of cake and drank a little milk to bring it up, and an hour later I tested at 9.1.

I don't know what lesson I just learned here, except of course not to buy any more loaf cake just because it's a holiday! I decided to skip the low-carb pizza experiment for Thanksgiving dinner and just eat an Atkins beef and broccoli meal.
 
What I would take from this experience is that being at that levels of just under four, should be okay for you, so, you rightly thought that you could be having a hypo, however, you treated the presumed low blood sugar and the amount of treatment was too much and you suffered the rebound effect of too high blood sugar levels.
The logical conclusion is, to not treat a reading that is just under normal levels, but if you feel a little off, have a few bites of something lowish carb, just to nudge your blood sugar up, were you would probably feel more comfortable.
Because of your diet, your hypo awareness is probably better than you have witnessed.

Best wishes
 


Are you on any medications for T2? If not, then I'd suggest that the readings may not be quite as low as you think (remember that blood testing meters aren't that accurate), and when your blood sugar goes low your liver produces glycogen to raise your blood sugar (hence the 9.1). For those of us on insulin it's fairly common to have a roller coaster high after a hypo event (and I'm talking about a lot higher than 9.1 ). I have to be very careful when treating hypos as a little carb goes a very long way for me so it's incredibly easy for me to overtreat a hypo.

But non-diabetics do go into the high 3s when fasting, it's just that no one cares because there's no risk of them going lower and into irrational coma territory (excepting all those poor folk with reactive hypoglycaemia).
 

I often test myself in the high threes which is not a hypo, and there is no risk of Hypoglycaemia, especially when fasting. It is not RH if you have a hypo when fasting!

The rebound effect of hyper/hypo, happens after carbs!
 
I agree. You were lowish but not hypo levels and you over treated it with cranberry juice, which then caused an insulin spike that brought you down lower again. You are very unlikely to hypo on Metformin. As long as you felt fine, there was no need to worry .... a cup of tea with milk or a coffee with cream would have been sufficient if you felt "off". That was your main mistake.
 
Thanks, everyone.

I take 500mg of Metformin twice a day.

After my late beef&broccoli lunch I went out for a short walk and came back and tested at 5.2.

Thanks for all your help.
 
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