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Unsure if I'm diabetic

G

Grace08

Member
hi, I'm not sure if I'm asking this in the correct thread or not , so sorry if I'm wrong
I am not a diagnosed diabetic although in my medical notes it states " this patient could be diabetic "
Recently I have been having what I would say are mild hypos , my lowest reading was 3.4 , I felt woozy, blurry eyes and just generally not right .
After eating some toast and jam I felt a bit better and bg went up to 6.0.
I had another milder episode , bg 4.6 and again felt better after eating.
Does anyone think this needs investigating or could it just be a normal episode for whatever reason ?
Thanks
 

Hello there.

At the time you had these feelings; particularly the 3.4, what time of the day/night was it? When had you last eaten, and if you can recall, what had you eaten?
 

People who are not diabetic can have hypoglycemic episodes. The words you have used to describe how you sometimes feel could have come out of my non-diabetic friend's mouth. She measures her blood sugar when she feels 'not quite right' and it is always below 4.0. After she eats even a large high carbohydrate content meal or a sweet dessert her blood sugar is soon back down to 5.0. My friend is aware that if she has not eaten for some time she will feel odd so she remedies that feeling with food. I can't comment about her vision because she has peculiar eyesight anyway!
 
AndBreathe said:
Hello there.

At the time you had these feelings; particularly the 3.4, what time of the day/night was it? When had you last eaten, and if you can recall, what had you eaten?
Click to expand...
AndBreathe said:
Hello there.

At the time you had these feelings; particularly the 3.4, what time of the day/night was it? When had you last eaten, and if you can recall, what had you eaten?
Click to expand...
hi , it was mid morning and I had eaten breakfast if toast and jam
 
Have you asked your Doc why your notes state what they do? And does he know about these episodes?
 
It's probably a good idea for everyone over 45 to get a health check every 5 years, and this would normally include a blood test for diabetes. Then you know where you stand, one way or another. Do you have any risk factors for diabetes, such as a family history, or having had gestational diabetes before? If you do, you should probably get this blood test annually.
 
I haven't asked about the comments in my medical notes , not even sure why ( head in the sand maybe )
I think maybe a visit to the gp is in order .
I have no family history that I'm aware of , and I had no gestational diabetes.
 
Grace08 said:
I haven't asked about the comments in my medical notes , not even sure why ( head in the sand maybe )
I think maybe a visit to the gp is in order .
I have no family history that I'm aware of , and I had no gestational diabetes.
Click to expand...
It's good that you don't have those risk factors for diabetes. Good luck with your GP visit.
 
Hi grace I had this problem for many years before becoming diabetic. I believe it was reactive hypoglycemia. When you eat something with a higher glycaemic index like toast and jam it causes a big rise in blood sugar followed by a slump which for me was usually at 11am or 2 hours after going to bed.
Although you are not diabetic I would recommend you find out about the glycaemic index/load of foods and about reactive hypoglycemia. I wish I had known about this years ago.
Try to have a cooked savoury breakfast or slow burning cereal such as porridge. Jam and toast is no good for you.
 
That's a good point. Perhaps it would be best for Grace to have not only an Hb1Ac test, but also a Glucose Tolerance Test? (Grace, these are fairly straightforward blood tests your doctor organises, and more reliable for diagnosis than home testing. Although, home testing is also useful).
 
Worryingly when reading the reactive hypoglycaemia item on Wikipedia I have every symptom listed
I even have a loop recorder fitted because of unexplained palpitations/ arrhythmias
 
I specifically asked my DSN if my feelings of going hypo could have been advance notice of becoming Type 1 (diagnosed end of May 15). I had many episodes which started about 6 years ago but she told me "you cannot go hypo unless you are taking medication which artificially drops your BG, ie insulin. What you felt wasn't a hypo". I nodded and smiled and thought to myself, no, I definitely had hypos (my mum is Type 1 and I've watched her have enough of them). Sweating, shaking, weak and an all encompassing desire to eat everything not nailed down!!!! I even went to my doctor 6 years ago and he just pooh-poohed it at the time. My question is, should the doctor have done some actual tests instead of just telling me to eat more (I was never hungry at the time of the hypos), and are hypos in someone not diagnosed with diabetes, a warning sign. Plus, shouldn't the DSN know that people can gave hypos without being on medication.

Sorry about all the questions. I'm learning more and more each day, but this disease has knocked me sideways.

Thank you.
 
i was also told that you couldn,t have hypos unless on medication. this continue to happen even though i had my glucose tested by paramedics a number of times - once it was 1.9 but I still wasn't believed.
 
My sister has been unconscious several times from RH. She has never had a drop of insulin nor insulin stimulating drug in her.
 
I had a hypo while fasting for surgery once. Metformin was a factor in this, and even this med can cause hypos more often than many doctors and nurses realise.
 
Of course you can have the symptoms of a hypo, even if you are not a diabetic. Low blood sugar is low blood sugar. When I was very young, I had - what I now know to be - hypos. Please see:- http://www.hormone.org/questions-and-answers/2013/nondiabetic-hypoglycaemia OR there was this online :-

While people who do not have any metabolic problems can complain of symptoms suggestive of low blood sugar, true hypoglycemia usually occurs in people being treated for diabetes (type 1 and type 2). Individuals with pre-diabetes who have insulin resistance can also have low blood sugars on occasion if their high circulating insulin levels are further challenged by a prolonged period of fasting.

Despite advances in the treatment of diabetes, hypoglycemic episodes are often the limiting factor in achieving optimal blood sugar control, because many medications that are effective in treating diabetes carry the risk of lowering the blood sugar level too much, causing symptoms of hypoglycemia. In large scale studies looking at tight control in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, low blood sugars occurred more often in the patients who were managed most intensively. This is important for patients and physicians to recognize, especially as the goal for treating patients with diabetes becomes tighter control of blood sugar.
 
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