Afraid right now

Am I suffering from Gastroparesis?

Last night we celebrated Rosh Hashanah with the family. Good numbers predinner. Not a horribly obnoxious meal. Planned to eat some dessert so I pumped for 70 carbs (HUGE for me)ate carefully, but ate a small dessert. For 3 hours after the meal, I got a low reading from my sensor and meter--as low as 40. Drank a little OJ. At 3:00 AM I was 249. Corrected. At 7:00AM I was 217. My flipping pump looks like the Himalayas for the last 24 hours..

After much hard work and judicious pumping and testing, was 83 at dinner. Carbed correctly with a square wave, as I did last night, and once again am crashing for NO reason. After 50 carbs of food at 5:00. Am 63 at 6:50 PM with 1.9 units left to deliver.

HMMMM. If I correct with carbs to bring the low up it will cause an over 200 reading. Even if I don't corrected and try to wait it out, the low will eventually take me back in the 200s.

First, what would you do? I am alone here.... and very frightened of being low and of being 250....BG is till going down on sensor--at 60 now.

Second, is this Gastroparesis? I have done what I can to work around it....

Spock, first of all get on line with the chat room. There are 27 people there, let them know what's going on, and stay connected until you're feeling safe again.

As for the gastroparesis, I don't think it can come on suddenly like that, but I'm no expert. Still, if you haven't been having any problems like this before, and it came on suddenly, I doubt it's GP.

More likely, you're about to come down with something, and it's causing your stomach not to empty. I've had this happen to me, where all day I was having weird BG behavior similar to what your describing, only to get home from work and vomit everything I'd eaten in the last 24 hours or so. That unpleasantness was the first symptom of what turns out to be a bad cold or flu-like virus.

This has only happened to me once since I've been using insulin, but I can remember this symptom pattern at least 2 or 3 times in the past when I've gotten sick.

Just attempted the chat room. There are 27 folks with it open, but seems to be two or three actually online--talking about Jeter.

I have never used this feature, but will try. A little much for my brain at 60.

Not getting sick....For sure and certain.

I'm sorry you are having such difficulty. I don't whether or not this is gastroparesis. It may just be that your body counterregulated for your low yesterday. If that is the case it would explain the high yesterday as well as your difficulty today in controlling your blood sugar today.

I'm sorry you have to start the year like this. L'shanah tovah.

Happy 5775. And thanks. The community has been fantastic tonight.

Did you cook the dinner or did somebody else? If it was somebody else's recipe, there my be something different like the fat content throwing your absorption off. Especially when people seem to bring their most decadent items to holiday dinners.

I totally agree with Brian that if you went pretty low then your stubborn high is likely an aftereffect of that low. Your pancreas may not be helpful, but your liver is trying to be :)

I hope tomorrow is better for you.

Sorry you're having this experience, Spock, no way to spend a holiday! I definitely wouldn't jump to the conclusion of gastroparesis. Like most things with D, two examples aren't enough to make a conclusion.

My first reaction when you mentioned the 70 carbs was "the law of small numbers" - or, rather, the "law of big numbers". It's hard to bolus accurately when you get that high, especially if it isn't your norm. For me my cutoff is 50 carbs. After that I can go either way - too high or too low. Or like you did, low and then high. Especially if fat is included - like roodgirl mentions, especially if you didn't cook all the dishes, you are just estimating.

This experience you are having is no fun, and no holiday. I hope you even out soon and are able to relax. Worry about what it all means tomorrow...or the next day. Happy New Year.

Thanks all. I was really frightened and went to Dave's suggestion. Am at 114, which is once again a drop, CGM wise. I have done so many finger sticks---not more for a while.

Dinner was cooked last night by a host of contributors--some store bought, but I pretty much stayed to homemade--all cooks there and willing to answer questions. I made the dessert I tasted, as well as the Challah, brisket. Tonight was me--homemade rye bread and turkey cooked on our grill, some garden tomatoes....did not make the mayo, but otherwise it was well known stuff.

I always have had weather change BG issues--maybe the coming of fall? Man, I so felt like a Druid saying that.....

Thanks all

LOL; we're all Druids when it comes to the whims of D!

Hope things are coming back to normal.

Hey Spock, just got home from work and was thinking of you. How you doing?

Hi Spock,

I'm so sorry you're having these problems. I have been having somewhat similar problems on and off for quite a while now- the last two meals before my dinner tonight I bolused the right amount and crashed not long after or during eating. I then add juice/glucose drinks and eventually spike. I don't know if I have gastropareses or not but something is going on because constipation seems to be a culprit in this on many occasions, the food just isn't getting into me quickly enough to catch up with the insulin. I'm not sick either.

I also feel scared to eat, so what I did is reduce my large basal dose, I was doing that already and I start eating protein/fat half an hour before I bolus and then eat more protein and my carbs etc. with a smaller than normal bolus when I start eating and another when I start to spike. It worked pretty well tonight for me, no crash and I only went to 130 at first but now I'm rising so I will need a correction unfortunately so I may have needed a larger intial bolus, but I'm scared of crashing if I do that and rising is better than crashing imo.

OJ always seems to blow up my BG, even a small cup. I think of a juice glass (we still have some of these little IKEA sippy cups that used to have lids for junior that are nice for hypo dosing...) of OJ, like 4-5 oz seems to jack up my BG so I don't bother keeping it around. My in-laws and parents usually have it but they also have lots of other stuff. I might swill some if I were to find myself at 40 but I sort of look at it as stuff I would drink only if I wanted my BG to fly up later, which I don't!!

I sometimes will run low when I have bigger doses of food. Maybe it's that my eyes are bigger than my stomach or something...family events are particularly susceptible to this. I don't want to be high, so I figure "I'll eat about 70G of carbs" and then, when I revisit what I ate, I realize I had eaten about 50 and should have had dessert too (although desserts seem to run about 30G of carbs, so then I'd have been high too!!). 70 carbs is like 2-3 "normal" (ha ha) servings of standard carby stuff, like potatoes, bread, corn, whatever. Did you eat that many carbs or did maybe have 1.5-2 servings and left yourself short?

I ended up OK. The chat folks were really helpful. Had 4 oz of apple juice and 2 teaspoons of PB and then waited. Finally started to go up around 9:30PM, and ended at 147 prior to bed, and I added a small correction to avoid what was becoming a spike since my original bloused was four hours earlier. Got up this morning at 89, which is fine and dandy.

AR--I can't stand OJ as I drank it for soooo many years; the taste actually turns my stomach. But it was quickly available, so the best choice Thursday night.

I was pretty sure of the carb count last night; Thursday was a bit different. For example, I had the carrot soup and discovered while eating it that it had coconut milk in it, so only ate 1/4 cup. But then I took a bite of the carrots and they were dripping with sugar sauce, so left those on the plate. I ate the soup, 2 slices of brisket with juice, 1/2 cup mac and cheese, 1 small slice of Challah. For dessert, I had 4 tablespoons of my apple crisp--A little sugar in the crumble topping, and butter, but not the normal dessert sweet. My BG was 108 and I bolused for 70 carbs.

So after further consideration, I think that last nights crash was a direct result of the Thursday into Friday morning high level. I took a total of 4.1 units of correction between the 249 at 3 AM and the 217 at 7 AM and hit 129 at noon. Sometimes that will do it, even though the insulin is used up, large doses like that can continue to drop my BG long after.

I'm glad you are feeling better Spock, Hopefully the rollercoaster ride was not too wild. I really hate these dammed if you do and dammed if you don't situations where you must do something but know the results may be almost as bad as the remedy.

Hopefully you can give your poor fingers a rest now, I believe they deserve it.

Ah Spock....always fun isn't it! I hope you make an appointment with your doctor soon. You need to have this addressed.
Is there an alarm on your pump that awakens you? Do you set your alarm clock?
I think it would be a good idea to connect with a friend or family member who calls you to check up on you. I suppose you have a juice box all prepped to go sitting on you night table. (poking a straw in that tiny designated area of a juice box is impossible when you're low).
Hugs my friend.....when you're low and waiting to climb back up, it's a good idea to stay linked with someone. Glad you were in chat yesterday.
Hugs....linda

Yes, my pump alarms me for highs (over 200) and lows (below 80,) and my night table always has an individual bottle of apple juice on it.

My husband and I have a connection routine, but I did not want to worry him last night-he probably would have driven home, which I did not want to happen. This is a big weekend for him.

Also, the last thing I want him to think is that I need a babysitter---I like to travel and go often by myself. It was important for me to get through this. Actually this is the first time I ever reached out for help or really been afraid.....

Man, I so felt like a Druid saying that.....

So glad you're doing better! Being alone and afraid is about the worst situation a person can be in. Sorry I couldn't be there too in the chat room, but was working at the time.

You will have to get your doctor to order a gastric emptying study. I just went through it because of issues with Victoza. But I was always running numbers in the 200s and I have read that the Gastroparesis is a big part of it. The only time I had numbers go lower was if I took too much insulin. This week I have finally started seeing lower numbers, but still fighting a lot of stomach problems. I am hoping my appointment with the gastroenterologist will be of help. But since gastroparesis is a common issue with diabetics, I would suggest you get it checked out.

I appreciate all the help. but I am not getting anything checked out or tested. I am 62 and have been T1 for 52 years. I could spend my whole life being checked out. I still maintain an A1C of about 5.5 and have an unbelievably fantastic support system, am happy, feel healthy and will absolutely not let docs mess with that. I take some basic meds, besides insulin, and have been rolling those back--with MD approval.

Do I have problems? Excuse me, but HE double hockey sticks, YES. Who can be T1 for 2 days or 52 years and NOT have problems.

I am truly, truly grateful for all the help I get here, but even my endo asked me why I saw her--"So you can fill scrips." I just try to deal.