Possible Reactive Hypoglycemia

[Rose95]

Hello,

My husband has been having random episodes of low blood sugar and I am very concerned.

It started on Saturday, he was feeling bad (lightheaded, weak, foggy headed, anxiety) He measured his blood sugar (we have a glucose meter we bought a while ago because of a different issue) His readings were low and since then he's been monitoring it and having random low readings. I will list what I have written. It's a lot of information but I feel the more information I give the better you may be able to help figure out what's going on.

Saturday
10:00 - coffee with cream & sugar
10:30 - breakfast, plain cheerios and cottage cheese
1:30 - 56,64 (felt bad, lightheaded, foggy headed, anxiety)
2:30 - 87
(I can't remember what he ate for lunch)
4:00 - 161
5:00 - 131
7:00 - 87
(I can't remember what he ate for dinner)
We didn't keep track as much this day, we thought maybe we had bad testing strips. After the low reading I went and bought new strips, then the readings were better.


Sunday (we started testing blood sugar as soon as he woke at this point)
10:30 - 87 (upon awakening) then coffee with cream and sugar
11:30 - cheerios and cottage cheese
1:00 - 58,61 (started to feel bad) and ate some chocolate
1:22 - 97
2:15 - 116
3:00 - ate can of sardines, some walnuts and an orange
4:00 - 81
4:30 - ate 2 tacos (Taco Bell)
5:30 - 108
6:30 - 145
7:00 - steak and salad
9:30 - 97

Monday
8:30 - 100 (upon awakening) then coffee with cream and sugar
9:30 - plain oatmeal with some honey, cottage cheese
blood sugar was about 90-100 the rest of the morning (testing every hour or so)
1:00 coffee with cream and sugar
2:00 - 121
2:30 - piece of salmon and salad
3:00 - 98
4:00 - smoothie with milk, banana, 1 plain yogurt, 2 tbls peanut butter
4:30 - 135
6:00 - 73 (big drop here)
6:30 - 97
7:00 meatloaf, egg noodles, broccoli
8:00 - 110
10:00 - 117

Tuesday
10:30 - 91 (upon awakening) then coffee with cream and sugar
11:30 - plain cheerios, cottage cheese
11:30 - 110
12:30 - 85
1:30 - 77 (big drop here within 2 hrs)
1:30 coffee with cream and sugar
2:30 - 115
2:30 can of sardines, piece of meatloaf
5:30 - 107
6:00 - 2 slices of pizza, piece of steak stromboli
10:00 - 133

Wednesday
9:30 - 82 (upon awakening) then coffee with cream and sugar
10:30 - plain oatmeal with some honey, 1 plain yogurt
11:00 - 130
12:00 - 102
1:00 - 81
2:00 - steak Stromboli
3:30 - 86
4:00 - 57 - feeling really bad, lightheaded, shaky, anxiety
4:00 - tablespoon of honey, glass of orange juice
4:11 - 77
4:18 - 106
4:30 - 120
6:30 - 86
7:00 - soup and buttered roll
7:30 - 110
9:30 - 128

Thursday (today)
9:45 - 95 (upon awakening) then coffee with cream and sugar
10:30 - oatmeal with honey, cottage cheese
11:40 - 82 - started to feel bad took it again
11:50 - 71 - started feeling a lot worse, ate some honey, drank orange juice
12:00 - 128
12:30 - 114
1:30 - turkey sandwich (white bread), macaroni salad
2:30 - 112
3:30 - 72 (big drop here)
4:00 - drank some orange juice
4:00 - 97
5:30 - 102
6:30 - 78
6:30 - roast beef sandwich (white roll) with macaroni salad
7:30 - 129


So these are all the reading and what he ate for the past 4 days. It doesn't make much sense. I see some rapid drops in blood sugar on some days and other days (Monday And Tuesday) seem fine.

If it was his diet why wouldn't it happen after every meal? He eats basically the same thing for breakfast every day. Only Saturday and Sunday did it drop after breakfast. Does anyone notice any trend because I can't figure it out. If it's carbs from oatmeal why wouldn't it happen after every breakfast. And if it's carbs in general why wouldn't it happen after dinner? He seems to stay pretty high after dinner.

When it's in the 50s he feels really really bad. When it drops down to the 70s he feels a little bad.

Also, he's had these episodes for a very long time off and on. We always blamed stress and anxiety. My husband has had a very tough, stressful time for the past 10 years. We never tested his blood sugar before this when he was feeling bad, just blamed it on something else.

He has a pituitary tumor and takes 2 injections (for about 10 yrs now). Somatuline and Somavert. These both could possibly lower blood sugar but I can't find much information about it. But if it was from medication wouldn't it happen more often?

I have a call in to his Endocrinologist (although his specialty is not blood sugar/diabetes) but he hasn't returned my call.

We're very concerned, very worried.

I would very much appreciate any advice.

Thank you

 

[Lamont D]

Hello,

My husband has been having random episodes of low blood sugar and I am very concerned.

It started on Saturday, he was feeling bad (lightheaded, weak, foggy headed, anxiety) He measured his blood sugar (we have a glucose meter we bought a while ago because of a different issue) His readings were low and since then he's been monitoring it and having random low readings. I will list what I have written. It's a lot of information but I feel the more information I give the better you may be able to help figure out what's going on.

Saturday
10:00 - coffee with cream & sugar
10:30 - breakfast, plain cheerios and cottage cheese
1:30 - 56,64 (felt bad, lightheaded, foggy headed, anxiety)
2:30 - 87
(I can't remember what he ate for lunch)
4:00 - 161
5:00 - 131
7:00 - 87
(I can't remember what he ate for dinner)
We didn't keep track as much this day, we thought maybe we had bad testing strips. After the low reading I went and bought new strips, then the readings were better.


Sunday (we started testing blood sugar as soon as he woke at this point)
10:30 - 87 (upon awakening) then coffee with cream and sugar
11:30 - cheerios and cottage cheese
1:00 - 58,61 (started to feel bad) and ate some chocolate
1:22 - 97
2:15 - 116
3:00 - ate can of sardines, some walnuts and an orange
4:00 - 81
4:30 - ate 2 tacos (Taco Bell)
5:30 - 108
6:30 - 145
7:00 - steak and salad
9:30 - 97

Monday
8:30 - 100 (upon awakening) then coffee with cream and sugar
9:30 - plain oatmeal with some honey, cottage cheese
blood sugar was about 90-100 the rest of the morning (testing every hour or so)
1:00 coffee with cream and sugar
2:00 - 121
2:30 - piece of salmon and salad
3:00 - 98
4:00 - smoothie with milk, banana, 1 plain yogurt, 2 tbls peanut butter
4:30 - 135
6:00 - 73 (big drop here)
6:30 - 97
7:00 meatloaf, egg noodles, broccoli
8:00 - 110
10:00 - 117

Tuesday
10:30 - 91 (upon awakening) then coffee with cream and sugar
11:30 - plain cheerios, cottage cheese
11:30 - 110
12:30 - 85
1:30 - 77 (big drop here within 2 hrs)
1:30 coffee with cream and sugar
2:30 - 115
2:30 can of sardines, piece of meatloaf
5:30 - 107
6:00 - 2 slices of pizza, piece of steak stromboli
10:00 - 133

Wednesday
9:30 - 82 (upon awakening) then coffee with cream and sugar
10:30 - plain oatmeal with some honey, 1 plain yogurt
11:00 - 130
12:00 - 102
1:00 - 81
2:00 - steak Stromboli
3:30 - 86
4:00 - 57 - feeling really bad, lightheaded, shaky, anxiety
4:00 - tablespoon of honey, glass of orange juice
4:11 - 77
4:18 - 106
4:30 - 120
6:30 - 86
7:00 - soup and buttered roll
7:30 - 110
9:30 - 128

Thursday (today)
9:45 - 95 (upon awakening) then coffee with cream and sugar
10:30 - oatmeal with honey, cottage cheese
11:40 - 82 - started to feel bad took it again
11:50 - 71 - started feeling a lot worse, ate some honey, drank orange juice
12:00 - 128
12:30 - 114
1:30 - turkey sandwich (white bread), macaroni salad
2:30 - 112
3:30 - 72 (big drop here)
4:00 - drank some orange juice
4:00 - 97
5:30 - 102
6:30 - 78
6:30 - roast beef sandwich (white roll) with macaroni salad
7:30 - 129


So these are all the reading and what he ate for the past 4 days. It doesn't make much sense. I see some rapid drops in blood sugar on some days and other days (Monday And Tuesday) seem fine.

If it was his diet why wouldn't it happen after every meal? He eats basically the same thing for breakfast every day. Only Saturday and Sunday did it drop after breakfast. Does anyone notice any trend because I can't figure it out. If it's carbs from oatmeal why wouldn't it happen after every breakfast. And if it's carbs in general why wouldn't it happen after dinner? He seems to stay pretty high after dinner.

When it's in the 50s he feels really really bad. When it drops down to the 70s he feels a little bad.

Also, he's had these episodes for a very long time off and on. We always blamed stress and anxiety. My husband has had a very tough, stressful time for the past 10 years. We never tested his blood sugar before this when he was feeling bad, just blamed it on something else.

He has a pituitary tumor and takes 2 injections (for about 10 yrs now). Somatuline and Somavert. These both could possibly lower blood sugar but I can't find much information about it. But if it was from medication wouldn't it happen more often?

I have a call in to his Endocrinologist (although his specialty is not blood sugar/diabetes) but he hasn't returned my call.

We're very concerned, very worried.

I would very much appreciate any advice.

Thank you

Hi and welcome to the forum.
We have a forum on Hypoglycaemia called Reactive Hypoglycaemia.
If you have a read of the sticky information, you will see some similarities, but as I've learned, we all have different symptoms, but generally any reading below 60 (ish) is considered by doctors to be an episode of hypoglycaemia. But, again, it all depends on our tolerance levels to certain foods and amounts of food.
The reason why you are getting disparaging readings is dependent on time, frequency, and of course the glucometer variables, a washed finger will give you a different reading than an unwashed finger for example.
Until you start being very pedantic on how you use your glucometer can you see trends and which foods are triggering the symptoms you are getting.
Keeping a food diary in this instance is really important.
Of course, I cannot diagnose or even guess what your husband has, but I know what you both are going through.
Having a hypo or just any symptoms of hypoglycaemia is awful.

To get a true diagnosis you will need blood tests and possibly hospital tests.
Hopefully your endocrinologist can get you these tests.

Best wishes

 

[paulus1]

im afraid its the doctors for hubby. whats his total calorie intake. when i was younger and doing ultra low calorie diets ie 500 a day i would often get your symptoms. does hubby do a heavy job.