So frustrated

[chalup]

I just need to rant and whine. Nothing seems to be going right. I am VLCHF (less than 20 gram per day) and yet I can't seem to get my sugars in line. I take my meds (metformin er and forxiga). I am barely eating anything any more and yet not losing weight. I landed in the hospital a week ago so dehydrated with diarrhea that I needed IV rehydration and sodium. Apparently it was the metformin. (just switched to er) I feel tired, I feel sick, my body hurts and I just want to cry. I just did a bit of sorting and tidying and my sugars shot from 6.4 to 8.7 , so much for exercise. My thyroid is swollen, apparently no one thinks that is an issue and they will get around to doing an ultrasound eventually. My joints hurt from severe psoriatic arthritis and my CRP is 33 which is insanely high inflammation. "Oh well I have aches and pains too (my hubby) wanna have some fun?" Umm no. Oh so now I am a B**** too. I feel like crawling into a corner and pulling a blanket over my head and crying. No point in going to bed as I don't sleep well. I have been told I should go back to work as I look fine. I have been told that it is not acceptable to be sad or in a bad mood although I should smile and tolerate other peoples moods. I have been waiting over two months for an endo appointment and have not even gotten a phone call to say heres an appointment in 6 months time. I feel like no one gives a s***. OK rant over, I really don't have any questions. Thanks for listening.

 

[Kristin251]

I feel your pain. I call it bs bs. ( ******** blood sugar) I got it going on now too. Up for no reason. Jamming my gut with insulin that acts like water. What's the point? It is driving me insane and I know the stress makes it worse but how can I not stress? Giv it half and inch and it takes a mile. I'm SO TIRED and I am crying and I will go to bed because I can't wait for today to end.

My thoughts and love are with you. BS BS

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

I just need to rant and whine. Thanks for listening.

Rant away, it's good for you. BTW, we're listening, I can understand your frustration.

Metformin caused me a lot of aggro for years, not so bad these days but there are moments. I know that feeling where you just don't want to go on taking the awful stuff. The extended release should help, I hope it does anyway.

I am barely eating anything any more and yet not losing weight.

I've been there for years and the problem is that doctors tend to ignore you until you dump a well documented food diary on their laps, then they listen. Unfortunately, they tend not to have a clue because diet and nutrition isn't on the curriculum for medics, maybe a few hours or days. Then it's on to more important stuff. I have been consulting a Nutritional Therapist for a few years and we have made progress, my liver function is now back to normal for example. I've had several rounds of blood and urine tests which have shown that although my body is in ketosis and I should be burning fat, my body doesn't metabolise fats very well and I'm not sure where the fat is coming from because I didn't do the LCHF, I did the LCLF and I'm now doing VLCals as well. 2 shakes and a meal, bit like Newcastle, lost 5 kgs in 3 weeks although very tricky to adjust for water content. Waiting for my super duper Salter Scales as we speak (shows fat, muscle, water, BMR). I also have a deficiency of CoQ10 which I feel is associated to the 17 years of taking statins and why I had muscle pain during that time (well documented).

My joints hurt from severe psoriatic arthritis

I wonder if the "sorting and tidying" increased the inflammation and therefore caused a BG spike?

I have been told that it is not acceptable to be sad or in a bad mood

That's annoying, my wife thinks my bad mood is just me being a grumpy old git and nothing to do with the pain I'm getting whereby even walking is difficult and just downright painful.

I have been waiting over two months for an endo appointment

I wish I knew for sure what they're playing at with these hospital appointments, sometimes I feel that you get conveniently lost and have to re apply, something I've just had to do with an annual check that just stopped for no apparent reason. I reminded my GP that this had happened and although I have been contacted, no sign of an appointment after 2 months.

Not sure of an answer, sorry.

 

[chalup]

I am in Canada so the system is similar but definitely not the same. The receptionist at my GP's office has called them 4 times on my behalf and still nothing. She is wonderful. Because I have to travel out of town for an appointment and that involves ferries I can't just get a call saying be here in 2 hours, and that has happened before. It is now almost midnight here and BG is back into the 6's which is still far too high for what I have eaten but I guess it is what it is. Going to try to go to bed soon. Thank you both for your replies and I hope today is a better day for you @Kristin251

 

[Hiitsme]

Hi @chalup
I feel for you. Sorry no answers but do hope you get some appointments soon that might give some answers to your problems. Just try to keep going one day at a time.

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

Hi @chalup I have been drinking turmeric (almond) milk all week and it has helped with lowering bg. It is supposed to be good for calming inflammation too so maybe it would be useful to you. Just be sure you are not taking any meds which are incompatible with turmeric such as blood thinners. If nothing else, it is very tasty. All the best x

http://www.whereismyspoon.co/turmeric-paste-for-golden-milk/

 

[AndBreathe]

Hi @chalup I have been drinking turmeric (almond) milk all week and it has helped with lowering bg. It is supposed to be good for calming inflammation too so maybe it would be useful to you. Just be sure you are not taking any meds which are incompatible with turmeric such as blood thinners. If nothing else, it is very tasty. All the best x

http://www.whereismyspoon.co/turmeric-paste-for-golden-milk/

Avodado, did you see the Michael Mosely "Trust Me I'm a Doctor" programme last night where they were experimenting with Turmeric? I was multi-tasking so wouldn't like to make specific comment except that I think cooking with turmeric had some benefits.

Sorry @chalup, it's a BBC programme, so right now you'd need a VPN to view it, but looking on YouTube last week's episode is already there, so it seems likely it'll go up there at some stage, soon.

In response to your query though; Are you eating enough? Sometimes if we don't our bodies just try to shut down to run on minimum as a safety precaution? Maybe a coupe of days of increased eating could help out a bit. I haven't done massive reading on inflammatory markers as I seem to have been fortunate over recent times to have kept those markers in a decent place, but I'm thinking perhaps those markers are up just because your whole body is under stress?

Clearly those views are my own musings, and it's up to you how you view them. When there are many factors in play it can be hard to grasp the wider view.

I hope you feel better soon.

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

@AndBreathe I caught the tail end of it and will watch the full programme on iPlayer. It looked good

 

[Daphne917]

Avodado, did you see the Michael Mosely "Trust Me I'm a Doctor" programme last night where they were experimenting with Turmeric? I was multi-tasking so wouldn't like to make specific comment except that I think cooking with turmeric had some benefits.

Sorry @chalup, it's a BBC programme, so right now you'd need a VPN to view it, but looking on YouTube last week's episode is already there, so it seems likely it'll go up there at some stage, soon.

In response to your query though; Are you eating enough? Sometimes if we don't our bodies just try to shut down to run on minimum as a safety precaution? Maybe a coupe of days of increased eating could help out a bit. I haven't done massive reading on inflammatory markers as I seem to have been fortunate over recent times to have kept those markers in a decent place, but I'm thinking perhaps those markers are up just because your whole body is under stress?

Clearly those views are my own musings, and it's up to you how you view them. When there are many factors in play it can be hard to grasp the wider view.

I hope you feel better soon.

@chalup sorry you're not feeling too well. I concur with what @AndBreathe has suggested re not eating enough. A few years ago I went on a v low calorie diet only having 800 cals per day - I lost hardly any weight in 3 months and felt so ill that my dr told me to eat proper food as my metabolism had gone into starvation mode and was shutting my body down.

 

[Freema]

sometimes when it is impossible to Loose weight it is a better strategi to try to get more mucles

 

[chalup]

AAArrgggghhh. woke up to a FBS of 6.1 ok that's not too bad, I can live with that. One hour later and a breakfast of yogurt with 5 grams carb and I am at 9 . Why????

 

[Freema]

some people think that the liver that is overactive ind the morning is best stopped by fats and high proteins , one has suggested 4 almonds... or a cheese stick ... maybe it is your liver that is overactive and tries to compensate hunger and creates glucose from proteins.

 

[chalup]

Oh I know my liver is overactive despite 1500 mg metformin per day. I have tried every type of food in the morning and nothing seems to work very well, however, no food at all is much worse for raised BS.

 

[Daphne917]

Oh I know my liver is overactive despite 1500 mg metformin per day. I have tried every type of food in the morning and nothing seems to work very well, however, no food at all is much worse for raised BS.

I believe, and I'm sure she'll correct me if I'm wrong, @Bluetit1802 has similar problems in that she does not eat too much in the morning because it raises her bs too much. Perhaps she'll be able to advise?

 

[Bluetit1802]

I believe, and I'm sure she'll correct me if I'm wrong, @Bluetit1802 has similar problems in that she does not eat too much in the morning because it raises her bs too much. Perhaps she'll be able to advise?

All I can say is that for a long time I had a full fat yogurt with flaxseed and 2 or 3 strawberries or 5 or 6 raspberries for breakfast with a cup of tea. My levels went up and continued to stay up all morning. I put this down to my liver and accepted it. I then read on the forum about carbs in the mornings not being a good idea for everyone, so I changed to a soft boiled egg and kept the cup of tea (non-negotiable). Bingo! My levels now return to my normal base level and stay there till after lunch. I thought I would be hungry with just one boiled egg, but I'm not. I last between 4 and 5 hours on that quite easily.

It seems that any insulin resistance is worse in the mornings and improves gradually throughout the day, which is why many of us find our pre-evening meal levels are the lowest of the day.

 

[chalup]

I have tried just having a couple cheese strings but it seems to have no effect and the slow rise happens anyways, also tried a hard boiled egg. This was not a slow rise though yikes, I guess yogurt is of the menu, at least in the morning. My levels are also much better in the evening but everything seems to be doing a slow upward creep. I am not seeing any 4's any more and my carbs, if anything , have gotten lower. Random high numbers are becoming more common and both the rises and drops are quick. My strips are covered but not an endless supply. There is no free market for them on amazon etc in Canada so if I have to self fund it is a dollar per strip and I have been using a lot lately trying to make sense of this. It is 2 am here and I am down to 5.2 yay! The problem is I will be up in the 7's when I wake up and then rise from there.

 

[Bluetit1802]

@chalup

When you repeat a meal (as near as possible) and test at 2 hours is the actual rise from before to after similar, even though the levels themselves are higher? Or are your actual rises getting higher?

I had an issue earlier this year when all my base levels increased, which obviously impacted on the height of the peak, but the actual rises were similar. I read up a bit on physiological insulin resistance, which is quite different from diabetic insulin resistance. You can find a few blogs about PIR on Google explaining what it is better than I can, but it seems to follow a period of carb reduction and is normally temporary. How long temporary is is like the proverbial piece of string. No-one knows. Mine lasted a couple of months, then I normalised without changing anything.

I record all my data on a spread sheet, but I take more note of the actual rise from before to as near the peak as I can estimate. If these don't trend upwards then I am happy.

 

[chalup]

The actual rise is bigger but also the baseline. I am still coming down in the evening but into the 5's and 6's instead of the mid to high 4's that I normally see. I am also seeing a lot of 7's along with 8 and even 9 often with little or no food. I was in the hospital a week ago with what apparently was the beginnings of lactic acidosis and severe dehydration and sodium depletion after the pharmacy changed the brand of my metformin. I have switched to ER and the problems have gone away now but at the time I was at 9 with not having eaten in 3 days. I did drop to 6.5 after 2 litres of saline so stress was part of it. Now I am having rises of 3-5 mmol/l with 5 grams of carb, mostly earlier in the day. I also lost 5 pounds in those 3 days between no food and the extreme diarrhea which I have not put back on but I have lost nothing in the last week or so. I will have my bloods done in a few weeks and another c-peptide test so I will see if perhaps my insulin levels are coming down. They were extremely high 3 months ago. I just feel like the harder I try to get a handle on this the worse it gets. One step forward, 2 steps back. It's frustrating.

 

[Kristin251]

I hope you don't mind me chiming in but I understand your frustration!

I recently inadvertently found out no food in the morning is much worse. I wanted to see when my insulin started dropping me so I took my blood every 10 min after I injected. After 3 hours and 3 more injections I did not come down so I ate.

Breakfast is the hardest meal and I still get a rise however I have found I can eat no carbs other than a piece or lettuce with a blob of mayo and a very thin slice of turkey or half an avocado. BF needs to be almost no carbs and very little protein. So fat it is. Nuts, especially in the morning will give me a spike and I don't come back down. I don't do dairy because I spike and don't come down. It's hard to find something that's just fat but avocado or mayo seem best.

When I was type 2 I had to walk after BF but it needed to be slow to moderate or I would spike.
Have you tried bulletin proof coffee or tea? Is there caffeine in your tea? Caffeine raises some people. I try to wait an hour or two before I have it.

If you figure it out let me know as it is most annoying.

 

[Freema]

read somewhere that the actual daily amount of proteins has some affect on next days liver-glucose, as the liver changes proteins to glucose and if we eat very many proteins then we can be unlucky to next day have a very active liver with generous glucose deliverings... there maybe the high fat comes to Justice

could be that the best would be only to eat the proteins that is ideal for our body-weight like about 0,5 - 1,0 gram per kg body-weight