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Odd pattern of results

fluff4brains

Newbie
Messages
4
Location
Berkshire, UK
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I'd better mention at the outset that I'm on Dexamethasone 2mg daily, and it does have a bit of a 'reputation' for doing odd things to glucose levels. I also take 500mg Metformin twice a day. So:

I see that if I accidentally skip a meal or eat a late lunch, my BG that starts the day at 5.6 gets to around 9 or 10 by 14:00. If I grab some sort of lunch or even a handful of unsalted mixed nuts, it's down to 8 in an hour, and 6-7 in two hours. I'll get to bump along at around 5 until supper.

This seems upside down.

Okay - for all my adult non-diabetic life I've had a bad habit of skipping meals when not convenient, eating late and early (the work I do isn't very lunch friendly). And now I am T2 diabetic, I get whacked for skipping meals?

Squeaky liver? Corticosteroid madness? Bad food habits?
 
Liver dumpage.

When you miss regular meals, your blood glucose dips, and the liver (which has handy stores of glycogen, ready for just this kind of 'emergency') dumps glucose into the bloodstream.

The more it happens, the more hair trigger the dumpage gets (in my experience), so it is worth eating regularly.

There's a variation of this, known as dawn phenomenon, which can raise your BG first thing in the morning.

Best to eat brekkie soon after getting up.
 
My BG starts rising as soon as I get up (usually around 6 am) regardless if I have breakfast or not, peaks around 10 am and drops until I eat lunch.
 
The steroids will have an effect as well.
Try and eat regularly as it helps keep the blood sugars stable.
 
Dawn what? !!!

A few days ago I was congratulating myself that my BGs were 7.8 about 2hrs after a big meal and just before bedtime. For the life of me I couldn't understand why I was 12.6 just after getting up the next morning. Now you tell me my liver could be playing tricks on me. Quickly reaching the point where I feel it's not worth monitoring BGs at all.
 

Have a read of this old thread. It might shed some light.
 
catherinecherub said:
The steroids will have an effect as well.
Try and eat regularly as it helps keep the blood sugars stable.
Click to expand...

Thanks @catherinecherub - there are times when I think the steroids ARE the effect.

I think I'm going to have to take my wife's advice and travel with a stash of nuts for when I 'forget' - honestly, eating regularly is really difficult when you have to also 'eat healthily' on the run. Could have had a sausage in a bun from some street concession. Could have snarfed a supermarket sandwich in the cold... LOL - Nah, bag o' nuts. No mess, no squish, no crumbs, can be smuggled into all sorts of locations.

The GP did mention taking half of one of my abandoned Gliclazide 80mgs (started on those, Metformin worked better) at lunchtime. But I thought Glicliazide was all about boosting insulin production whereas Metformin was about stopping the liver getting all frumpy (or 'Dumping' as @Brunneria so elegantly classes it! LOL). TBH I wasn't really worried about the lunchtime Gliclazide when lunch happens as it wasn't needed, and if I forgot about lunch you can be sure I'd have forgotten the Gliclazide.
 
It is important to eat at regular times if you can ....medication can be stronger than you think , and requires you to eat and look after yourself ...
Take care ...kat
 
fluff4brains said:
...whereas Metformin was about stopping the liver getting all frumpy (or 'Dumping' as @Brunneria so elegantly classes it! LOL).
Click to expand...
If liver dumping isn't ladylike enough for you, I've recently seen it called (the IMO rather coy): "self feeding"!

I definitely prefer to call it "dumping" as that's what it does - dumps an often unwanted load of glucose on you and plays havoc with your nice low readings.

Robbity
 
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