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Mis-diagnosed?

Z

zaladora

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Hi. My husband had a stroke 3.5 weeks ago, and has been diagnosed as Type 2 diabetic whilst in hospital. He was originally on insulin, metformin & pioglitazone although his insulin has now been stopped. Every night his blood sugar is at the low end of normal (typically 4.1-4.6) or below normal and he has to eat/drink in the middle of the night. I never thought I'd see the day, but he's sick of lucozade & biscuits! Does anyone know if it's possible to mis-diagnose diabetes under these circumstances?
Thanks for your help :)
 
A blood test can tell you what type you are, some people find metformin can cause low BG and change to slow release (SR) metformin.
Get him referred to a diabetes specialist to confirm diagnosis and correct meds
 
What meds is he now on? Pioglitazone does have some serious side effects so I would review that one. If he's diagnosed T2 then he will be able to get an HBA1c blood test done shortly which will guide him into how is diabetes is going and what meds if any he needs
 
Thanks. He's on Metformin - 1000mg twice per day - and Glicazide - 160mg per day. He was due to see the diabetic sister today, but sadly is in hospital awaiting surgery for a fractured wrist after falling down the stairs last night. :(
 
Gliclazide stimulates the pancreas to produce more insulin.
So this in turn could be causing the hypos.

I would contact his doctor (and also talk to the hospital - he should be under the care of the specialist diabetes team) to discuss perhaps coming off or at least reducing the Gliclazide. If he is suffering from hypos this is an indication that he may now be producing too much insulin.

To be put on insulin at first diagnosis suggests that his Blood Glucose must have been quite high at the time.

I assume you were testing his BG in the middle of the night before giving him the lucozade and biscuits; what was it? I assume he was having the symptoms of a hypo, but it may just have been a false hypo if he has been running at a high BG for a long time before diagnosis.

It requires further tests to confirm the diagnosis, but I would be surprised if he does not have some problem related to BG control. There are plenty of posters here who have been mis-diagnosed as to the specific type of diabetes (or in some cases reactive hypoglycemia) but the first step of diagnosis is a blood test with abnormally high BG. I assume that this is what happened.
 
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