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WHAT'S GOING ON?

Q007

Well-Known Member
Messages
466
Location
Wales. UK
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
People who tell lies.
My GP (Dr Doom).
Evening everyone, I hope today has found you well. Haven't been on here for a few years, some questions if I can.

I got my Hba1C down to 40 through diet. Last week, I get an urgent call from GP to come straight over. My Hba1C was 101, cholesterol up from 3.9 to 5.5, triglycerides up to to 5.5. What would make this giant leap and is it truly dangerous.

I was put on metformin had a very bad reaction so had to stop. Is it worth trying a similar drug or they all the same.

Was given a machine, strips and told to monitor 3 times a day. Can't stop the spiking 15.5 after a sensible meal, lowest after night fast is 9.2, why?

It all went wrong for me last Thursday, I felt unwell, my bp had dropped very low pulse was high. Taken to hospital where I deteriorated very quickly, oxygen SATs v low, bp dropped further, breathing laboured, QTC prolonged to 550ms and bg 10.5. So I spent 8 hours in resus and 2 days in hospital and released with no diagnosis. I should say I have heart failure so not the best combination with diabetes.

I'd be so truly grateful if anyone can give me any answers to all or just some of my symptoms. I think if I hadn't had resus intervention I would have lost consciousness because that's how I felt. Never felt like that before, never fainted or passed out before, so scary.

Thank you in advance, kind regards Quentin.
 
Hi, and welcome back.

Your profile says you are Type 1. Is this correct? If so, you will be on insulin, and should have had a meter prescribed as soon as you were diagnosed. Please can you clarify the situation? If you are not T1, it would be advisable for you to change this on your profile page. (personal details)
 
Q007 said:
I got my Hba1C down to 40 through diet. Last week, I get an urgent call from GP to come straight over. My Hba1C was 101, cholesterol up from 3.9 to 5.5, triglycerides up to to 5.5. What would make this giant leap and is it truly dangerous.
Click to expand...

Is an hba1c of 101 dangerous? Yes, if you don't get it down again.

What makes the giant leap. Here are just some of the possibilities but I'm sure there are others

1) You've relaxed your diet or you need to reduce your carbs further to get the same result. If you give a description of a typical day's food then the folk here will be able to see if there's any obvious food culprit.

2) It's possible that you've started to produce less insulin either because your beta cells are worn out through over production or because your original T2 diagnosis was inaccurate (you could have been T1/LADA).

3) Illness and stress cause an increase in blood sugars, so if you've been ill over the last few months than that could do it.

Q007 said:
I was put on metformin had a very bad reaction so had to stop. Is it worth trying a similar drug or they all the same.
Click to expand...
At least try the slow release version before you give up on it, assuming you had a stomach upset as a result.

(Note I'm assuming you're currently T2 because your previous postings indicate that.)

Good luck.
 
Please change your status if you were diagnosed as type2 recently.

Normally type2s only have extreme hospitalisation in the UK if their bodies have stopped producing their own insulin or incorrect medication/diagnosis/treatment. Type2s can suffer with extreme high bgs and if not treated can suffer with DKA and more previlent if the liver is faulty. Or Forxiga/STG2 can bring on DKA due to false bg readings in urine and blood samples being relied apon.
Do you take Dapagliflozin or Empagliflozin or Canagliflozin tablets?

Only your medical team can diagnose the problem and definitely know how to manage it, otherwise you wouldn't have survived.
I don't like assuming but your heart failure was probables more reason for hospitalizations than type2 diabetes.

We can help you understand your diagnosis but cannot diagnose ourselves as not a medical forum but support forum.
Feel free to continue asking questions.
Ps. What heart meds are you on and have you ever needed a course of steroids?
 
Thank you yes I'll change my details I was diagnosed as T2.
 
Thank you very much, Quentin
 
You're right I think, my CHF got me into resus but I wonder if it was everything combined. I know there's nothing they can do for me with heart failure but I dont understand why all my numbers, which included diabetes, went the wrong way so suddenly. I am half way through the 5 year outlook they gave me when diagnosed with HF and being diabetic too is a bad combination they said, I'm also now B12 deficient and have injection every 8 weeks, so nothing is going right and I'm now on my own which makes things hard as I cant look after myself, I'm so depressed at the way things have deteriorated but thank you for the very kind replies, truly grateful. Q.
 
Feel free to join us in Type2 Life thread. We jump in and out due to all of our commitments.
Maybe say hi?
We are a friendly forum.
 
Hi,
I'm so sorry you have CHF, diabetes and vit B12 deficient, and you are on your own.
Would having daily carers help? Social services could assess you.
You're incredibly brave.
Take care
 
Please keep posting and reading here - it's so friendly and supportive. I'd also suggest seeing your GP and asking about support available to you as well.
 

so much you have to cope with, do you eat low carb like under 100 grams of carbs daily in total? if not that´ll probably help you a bit, but something else could be going on ... maybe your body does not produce enough insulin anymore, and then you might have some insulin affecting drugs or inject insulin... if you are already doing very low carb ... there is something else going on....

don't worry much of having injected b 12 it is an okay way to get it if you can´t uptake it by yourself ... maybe your body will recover when the b12 gets into all the right places in your body again now that you are not any longer deficit in this vitamin..

you could of cause also/ or instead have an infection... which can lead to very raised blood glucose too
 
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Thank you very much for your kind reply, every bit of data helps me. I had a call from the hospital I'm going back on June 4th for investigation as they dont know why I became ill suddenly then deteriorated so quickly in resus. My blood pressure and sp02 being so low seemed to be their main concerns. Now I'm out, I'm testing before and after each meal and recording results. I can't get my bgs under 10 even after night fast. I'm so disheartened. I have a home made cheeseburger and an hour after the meal I was 15.5, no sauces or dips, I assumed it was the bun? Quentin.
 

It would certainly be the bun. All bread of whatever type will do that to you. Have you thought of a bunless burger, using lettuce as a wrap?

I see you haven't changed your profile settings yet. It is quite confusing seeing your avatar with "Type 1" underneath it.
You will need to sign in on your browser to the website in order to change the settings, which you will find under your profile "personal details".
 
Just changed my details to show I'm type 2
 
It worked. Shows type 2 now.

Welcome back to the forums. I’m sorry you have so much to deal with. But you can take steps to deal with the diabetes at least. And doing so may well help the cholesterol and triglycerides levels too.

I see in your profile you love carbs, Sugar, Pasta, Raisins, Chocolate, Chips done in the Tefal spaceship thingy, Kettle crisps, Rice, Nan bread. Sadly every single one of them is a likely suspect in raising blood glucose levels sky high. You say you got it under control with diet the first time. What sort of diet? And you talk about sensible meals. None of the above components would make a sensible meal for a type 2.

Do you know about and follow low carb eating?
 
Hi Quentin
I hope this helps you

6 weeks ago to the day I was admitted to hospital.
I had had a blinding headache for two weeks prior. I went to the doctors who said my BP was high (I had a pulse rate of 120 per min)
I was very short of breath
I had a blotchy rash over most of my body
I ticked every box for sepsis... (Which I did not have... we did not know this to be the case then)
Doctor said not to worry !!!
This was on the Wednesday.

Over the next two days I became far far worse, dizzy, disorientated, I fell over backwards I totally lost my balance.
I had NO food for a total of 7 days.

Two days later my wife said she was going to take me to hospital, I said lets go back to the doctors (we live literally 2mins from the doctors) as we walked in, the doctor (a different doctor) took one look at me and said go immediately to hospital (he was going to 'blue light' me) that means call an emergency ambulance.

My wife drove me there where I was seen and admitted.
I was placed on a saline drip for 2 days and nights
The first thing the consultant did was stop my metformin and started me on 100 units of insulin and 2 80mg Glicaside a day.

Several blood tests, 3 days and 3 consultants later the general consensus was that I had a very virulent virus.
I have never felt so ill in my life.

Now
Over the last 6 weeks I have reduced my carbs from 100g a day 6 weeks ago, to 80g them 70, and a couple of weeks ago down to 50g a day.
I had to reduce my insulin (in stages to 70 units) as I drive for a living and have to keep above 5 to drive (DVLA rule) It is the law here.

I have never felt so well. in just 6 weeks I have gone from being at deaths door to feeling really well.
I dropped my morning tablet as I was still hitting low readings during the day. (below 5)
As things stand at the moment I am averaging a daily total of 6.1 on the screen.
(I am testing around 10 times a day every day) So that I can see exactly what my BG levels are doing.

It may be that 'you' have a similar virus????

The only other thing of note is I was/am low on folic acid and have today picked up a 5mg pack of tablets to take one a day.

I have found a low carb approach is easy to maintain thus far. I have not felt hungry once over the last month and a half.

I have read and read and read and watched video after video and found so much helpful advice here and some amazing facts from posters who 'walk the talk' NOT experts but normal people like you and me. People who live this life everyday.

KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS! KEEP READING.
BUT MOST OF ALL... KEEP LOW CARB.

I am not a doctor or expert nor am I in a position to offer you any medical help or guidance in any way, as that is the job of the medical experts, whose advice you MUST seek and follow (or not)

It seems that a low carbohydrate and high fat diet is for some of us a great way forward in helping to reduce BG levels.Once you get those under control, in time, the rest will naturally follow.

I hope and pray you found this of some comfort
Po
 
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Definitely the bun.
 
Hi Po, hoping the day is finding you well. Thank you for such a detailed reply, it must have taken you ages to type, I found your story fascinating Po, truly grateful for sharing the details. You're more brave than I. Funny enough they gave me antibiotics as soon as I went to resus.

My mission is to keep my diabetes under control, my cardiologist was candid about my outlook with heart failure AND diabetes, he said the best thing I can do for my heart is control diabetes.

I'm sure many have heard of the XPERT course for diabetics. Its half day session for 8 weeks. They trained us to eat carbs and abandon diets of any kind. They talked about what they called ' The eat well plate' 1/3rd carbs, 1/3rd protein and 1/3rd veg (fruit included). So I have baby potatoes in skins which you can buy preprepared at supermarkets and they are scrummy. Portion control was discussed, sugar free foods, diabetic marketed foods and a partridge in a pear tree.. The course was excellent but polarised views on carbs to what I read on hear. They gave as a glossy book to take away with pictures on different meals as they would look on your plate. I followed it to the letter for 6 months and my Hba1C came down to 40 so technically in remission, I was so delighted.

I don't understand why the xpert course pushed us to this balanced eat well plate and changed all our views on carbs (all the delegates were trying and failing to low carb) - this forum, which is an ever flowing font of knowledge for me, tells me to low carb low carb.

Has anyone any views on this polorised view on carbs? All I know at the moment is no matter what I eat, I can't get my bgs below 10. I had three stents so less likely to have another MI and more likely to have a stroke unless I can control my sugar, yes I'm panicking, I can't have a stroke - I'd have to take care of business if I did. BTW my nickname is "Q" , not James Bond more like Brooke Bond. Qx
 
We’ve all been there being told to eat the eatwell plate and pretty much all found it doesn’t work. Well not well enough. I guess it depends on your starting point if it’s an improvement to no changes at all.

Can I suggest you try it for just a few days and see what results you get. Or even a meal at a time. Really low carb for one day. Your meter won’t lie.
 
I tried the Eatwell Plate long before my diagnosis of diabetes and it certainly didn't work for me. Relatively healthy for some, I guess, but perhaps I was already pre-diabetic and didn't know it. I am a doctor myself and could hardly believe the amazing (well, relatively amazing to me certainly) results in such a short space of time. The LCHF diet flies in the face of what I learned as a medical student many moons ago, but lots of science evolves over time as diets certainly have, too. Most of what we learned as medical students about diabetes in the 70's and 80's, especially as far as diet goes, was a load of rubbish.
It's helpful to keep an open mind about medical science, I have found over my career...........

As a newly diagnosed diabetic myself, I am learning new things on a daily basis (and trying to educate my GP too)
The modest weight loss so far and change in diet has completely "cured" my longstanding (20-30 years) gastric reflux for instance. I feel quite bright and energetic compared to a few weeks ago, even though I still want to lose a further 10kg.

Although you have serious health problems, try to maintain a resolve to change what you can - try "new" scientifically backed diet advice. Try to get better control over BGL - clearly, things are not working so well with current diet, so make changes, slowly if needed. Small changes may make a BIG difference - as with my Gastric Reflux Disease.
 
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