Uncontrollable BG levels

[HSSS]

Turns out I am producing insulin. Don't know how much - I wasn't privy to that information

if your dr didn’t even know what it was then how can he interpret the results?? Please ask for the test results including the units and importantly the lab range.

You are perfectly entitled to this information - and do not have to justify why you want it - which should be available online if you are signed up to that or as a printout for the receptionist. If they press then just say you’d like to keep track of all your diabetes results at home together. Post when you have them and someone here will be able to give you their (non medically trained) observations based on their experiences.

 

[lucylocket61]

I did get a doctor to do a c-peptide test a few months ago. He had no idea what it was and I had to explain it to him. Turns out I am producing insulin. Don't know how much - I wasn't privy to that information. I have tried fasting on just water (I reduced fluids as well at one stage, because I have a problem with excess fluid making me swell up, and ended up in hospital). Oddly enough, my BG stayed high for most of the day when I did that, before dropping like a stone in the early evening. Then had to have some food - not much but possibly not the right thing (oatcakes) to put brakes on the drop. Then up it would go again. 2 oatcakes, with no insulin gives a rise of 21/2 - 3, so something like 2.8 to 4.8 or 5.

Edit: Sorry - the postman came (No 2 son) and I had to stop. I was about to say that this is why I am trying to do 18 hour fasts, but I still need fluids.

Fasting does not mean reducing or stopping fluids. If anything, fasting involves drinking more fluids than normal.

 

[Annb]

if your dr didn’t even know what it was then how can he interpret the results?? Please ask for the test results including the units and importantly the lab range.

You are perfectly entitled to this information - and do not have to justify why you want it - which should be available online if you are signed up to that or as a printout for the receptionist. If they press then just say you’d like to keep track of all your diabetes results at home together. Post when you have them and someone here will be able to give you their (non medically trained) observations based on their experiences.

I am in the process of registering for My Diabetes My Way, which should allow me to see diabetes results online, but I gather it takes some time to get it up and running. The GP practices here are notoriously unwilling to share any results and I gather one has to be quite insistent to get anywhere. For a start, we have to get past the receptionist. Their job, as has often been the case, is to protect the doctors from patients. Sad to say, I trained quite a few of them in my time (not to refuse access, of course).

 

[HSSS]

I gather one has to be quite insistent to get anywhere.

So be insistent. It is your right to have details of your health and tests unless they have a real fear it could harm your mental health. Ask to speak to the practice manager if the receptionist won’t help. It may need approval of the dr before release to you but this shouldn’t mean an unreasonable delay

 

[Annb]

Fasting does not mean reducing or stopping fluids. If anything, fasting involves drinking more fluids than normal.

No, I realise that I can (and should) take in fluids when fasting but at the time, I was taking in less fluids because of the fluid retention issue - that was a bad idea as well, of course. Apparently the plumbing involved is different. Not that any doctor told me that - I had to work it out for myself. I wasn't even told that I was dehydrated but I realised it when they dripped 21/2 litres of fluid into me. It was only then that I was told that my kidneys were in some trouble and had been for many months. I make sure to have sufficient fluids now.

 

[lucylocket61]

No, I realise that I can (and should) take in fluids when fasting but at the time, I was taking in less fluids because of the fluid retention issue - that was a bad idea as well, of course. Apparently the plumbing involved is different. Not that any doctor told me that - I had to work it out for myself. I wasn't even told that I was dehydrated but I realised it when they dripped 21/2 litres of fluid into me. It was only then that I was told that my kidneys were in some trouble and had been for many months. I make sure to have sufficient fluids now.

may I ask what medication the doctor has prescribed for your fluid retention issues, and if he or she has carried out tests or referred you to find the cause, if it is not yet known?

 

[Annb]

may I ask what medication the doctor has prescribed for your fluid retention issues, and if he or she has carried out tests or referred you to find the cause, if it is not yet known?

As usual, no doctor has ever seen fit to explain anything to me. Fluid retention is just something that happens, apparently. I am on 40 mg Furosimide and 25 mg Spironolactone daily. The fluid still gathers in my legs and abdomen. It was fairly marked, although I didn't think about it, when I had my second son. I weighed 11st 10lb the day before he was born; he weighed 9lb 10oz; there was a fair amount of fluid lost during the birth; the next day I weighed 11st 10lb! I just thought that life just ain't fair. I was put onto Neo Naclex K when we came to the Islands in 1974 and after a while that was withdrawn and I was put onto Furosimide and quite a lot later, onto Spironolactone. I have no idea what tests might be available nor what potential causes might be.