Strange Symptoms

bjroberts52 · Aug 27, 2016

Has anyone ever heard of someone's blood sugar levels rapidly fluctuating? My fiance has been experiencing this.

Without changes to diet or use of diabetic meds, her BG levels can and have dropped as low as 32. However her BG went right back up to 77 within 5 minutes then dropped back down to 42 10 minutes later. Then 10 minutes after that her BG was 88. She ate and her BG actually dropped to 55, then spiked to 167. An hour later it went to 45 and returned to 86. And this is a daily thing.

She has had recent blood work and her A1C is well within normal range.

Any ideas and or help would be greatly appreciated, as we are running out of places to turn.

Brunneria · Aug 27, 2016

The first suspects (for me) would be:
- are her hands definitely and consistently clean? Even tiny amounts of sweet stuff would easily be messing up the results.
- is the meter working OK? Have you simultaneously tested with a second meter and compared the results? Meters can go on the blink quite easily.
- are the test strips in date, working correctly, and have they been stored correctly (heat can affect them). Probably the best way to check this would be to go and buy a new pot of strips and comparison test using them alongside your old strips.
- meter inaccuracy. Meters are only able to be accurate within + or - 15%, which means that two tests, using the same drop of blood can seem wildly different (if the blood was actually 100 units, the meter could read 85 or 115 and still be considered within acceptable parameters). Again, comparison testing with another meter would show this up.
- meters actually become less accurate at the edges of their normal ranges. So readings that are very low, or very high, are less accurate that the ones in the middle of the range.

Once you have eliminated all those possibilities, I would be seeing a doc about it, if the symptoms persist.

Is she an insulin user? There is a condition called Reactive Hypoglycaemia (I think it only affects non-insulin users, and doesn't require diabetes) where blood glucose can shoot up and down quite quickly, causing an unpleasant roller coaster effect, but I've never heard of it happening that quickly (10 mins up and down), or for the cycle to repeat so quickly. But never say never, eh? There is a forum section of threads on RH if you want to read up on what it is like.

bjroberts52 · Aug 28, 2016

Brunneria said:
The first suspects (for me) would be:
- are her hands definitely and consistently clean? Even tiny amounts of sweet stuff would easily be messing up the results.
- is the meter working OK? Have you simultaneously tested with a second meter and compared the results? Meters can go on the blink quite easily.
- are the test strips in date, working correctly, and have they been stored correctly (heat can affect them). Probably the best way to check this would be to go and buy a new pot of strips and comparison test using them alongside your old strips.
- meter inaccuracy. Meters are only able to be accurate within + or - 15%, which means that two tests, using the same drop of blood can seem wildly different (if the blood was actually 100 units, the meter could read 85 or 115 and still be considered within acceptable parameters). Again, comparison testing with another meter would show this up.
- meters actually become less accurate at the edges of their normal ranges. So readings that are very low, or very high, are less accurate that the ones in the middle of the range.

Once you have eliminated all those possibilities, I would be seeing a doc about it, if the symptoms persist.

Is she an insulin user? There is a condition called Reactive Hypoglycaemia (I think it only affects non-insulin users, and doesn't require diabetes) where blood glucose can shoot up and down quite quickly, causing an unpleasant roller coaster effect, but I've never heard of it happening that quickly (10 mins up and down), or for the cycle to repeat so quickly. But never say never, eh? There is a forum section of threads on RH if you want to read up on what it is like.

Yes her hands are clean. No she doesn't use insulin. Nor does she use any diabetic meds. We are seeing a doc. And we have tested with 2, 3 and 4 different meters. (I am diabetic and have several. [All are withing 5-8 points] I also keep my strips in constant renewal.) And she hasn't been diagnosed as diabetic. Her A1C levels are well within the normal ranges for a non-diabetic. We have even gone to the urgent care clinic and had them monitor the changes. They agree that it is strange, but as her levels are self-corecting, they are not worried she is in danger. It is just the frequency that they find disturbing. It is also that it happens daily.

I'm worried, because when her sugars go low, she gets the shakes, dizziness and has trouble thinking straight.

bjroberts52 · Aug 28, 2016

Oh and we are in the US, on standard not metric.

Dark Horse · Aug 28, 2016

bjroberts52 said:
Oh and we are in the US, on standard not metric.

Standard? If you're referring to the units that blood glucose is measured in, the USA usually uses mg/dL and the UK usually used mmol/L. Both are metric units.

Strange Symptoms

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Dark Horse

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Strange Symptoms

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