Panicking (blood sugar won't go up), somebody please help

[Freefromall]

I’m on no medication and undiagnosed even though I’m having hypoglycemia for a few years. Going to doctors as soon as surgery opens now.
My sugars keep dropping after eating since yesterday.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

I’m on no medication and undiagnosed even though I’m having hypoglycemia for a few years. Going to doctors as soon as surgery opens now.
My sugars keep dropping after eating since yesterday.

You're posting this in a thread that's from 2018, so I doubt you'll get a lot of replies here. You might want to start your own thread?

Hypoglycemia isn't something that happens when you're an undiagnosed diabetic, those usually just get hypers. Hypo's happen when you're medicated with meds like gliclazide, or are on insulin injections and overshoot the target some.

Are you sure you're hypoglycemic? Have you tested blood sugars during an episode, and what were they? Because there IS a condition called Reactive Hypoglycemia (which can be a precursor to insulin resistance/ diabetes, but doesn't have to be), and it's not one doctors are very familiar with. ( @Lamont D is our local expert, so tagging in with a request to help?) Most GP's have never heard of it, as it is relatively rare. You could ask your doc for an Extended Oral Glucose Tolerance Test, (Mind the EXTENDED! There's a short version too which is next to useless if your pancreas is slow in its overreaction, it just might be missed in the test and hit you on the ride home), which could help with a diagnosis of RH, if that is what is going on.

If you do have RH, it means your pancreas overreacts to carbs. Practically all carbs turn to glucose once ingested, and some of us have a pancreas that secretes more insulin than is needed, resulting in a hypoglycemic episode. Cut the carbs, and no overreaction takes place, stopping the vicious circle. https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html <-- this is aimed at T2's, but it would help with RH as well. Hang in there eh, and good luck at the doc's!
Jo

 

[Deleted member 527103]

I suggest you also eat some more substantial slower acting carbs (e.g. bread) as well as the fast acting ones you've mentioned. One thing for sure, you'll end up high..

I would NOT advise this. The advice is to eat 15g fast acting carbs. Wait 15 minutes. Retest with a finger prick because a CGM will be delayed in reporting a recovery. If still hypo, eat another 15g carbs and wait another 15 minutes. Repeat until above 4. If not on a pump, the advice is then to eat 5g slower acting carbs.
The reason for separating the fast and slow acting carbs is that the slow acting carbs will affect the fast acting and slow the recovery.
The reason for the 15g carbs is to mop up any additional basal.
When on a pump, as basal is matched to our needs for every 30 minutes of the day and we can turn off basal, the advice is NOT to eat the slow acting carbs.

One assumes that when pumping there's continuous flow of insulin into the subQ tissues that is absorbed into the bloodstream at the same rate as it's delivered (ie contstant level). But I suspect at times like this some insulin was sequestered like a bolus and then delivered more rapidly (like a bolus) which caused your BS to drop like a bolus even though you had not executed a bolus for 5 hours.

This is not the case. All insulin in a pump is delivered "like a bolus". We only have one type of insulin in the pump - fast acting. This is "pumped" every 5 minutes to provide a variable basal.

 

[EllieM]

I’m on no medication and undiagnosed even though I’m having hypoglycemia for a few years. Going to doctors as soon as surgery opens now.
My sugars keep dropping after eating since yesterday.

Would you like me (or another mod) to move your question and any answers to it to a new thread, probably in ask a question, called something like

Help - non medicated and undiagnosed, blood sugars dropping into hypoguycemia

There are a number of reasons why non diabetics can get hypos, and RH is just one of them. You really need a referral to an endocrinologist for a diagnosis.

 

[Lamont D]

I’m on no medication and undiagnosed even though I’m having hypoglycemia for a few years. Going to doctors as soon as surgery opens now.
My sugars keep dropping after eating since yesterday.

Hi and welcome @Freefromall to our forum.
I hope you have got your BG levels up.
A couple of questions if I may,?
Other than the symptoms, how do you know you are having a hypo?
What are your symptoms?
Do you know what the trigger is for the hypoglycaemia?
Have you been referred to a specialist?

Do please our forum about hypoglycaemia, it may help you somehow.

Keep s.