I have had diabetes for a while and can now tell when I am low by how I am feeling. But sometimes I will feel low, and check my blood sugar, and it will be fine. I heard that even being slightly dehydrated can make your blood sugar seem higher then it is, so I have been drinking alot of water, but it still happens. My blood sugars range from 90-200 during these episodes. No one believes that anything is happening, they think it is just stress. But It has been happening more and more. My heart will feel like its trying to jump out of my chest and I’ll feel light headed and confused. The school nurse checked my fever and blood pressure and pulse during one of these episodes and they were all normal. Does any one know what, if anything is going on?
If your blood glucose level is dropping rapidly (maybe you’ve just given insulin, but haven’t eaten enough carbs to cover it, or you’ve exercised, too), you may feel typical “low” symptoms such as feeling the shakes or sweating even if you’re not under 70 mg/dl. If you don’t use a continuous glucose monitor, you can do blood sugar checks at least hourly to see if this is happening.
Also, if you have been running high for a while and start to achieve tighter control, you may feel like you’re having lows even if your blood glucose is above 70 mg/dl.
Sometime because we have diabetes, things get blamed on that that are really caused by other things. The symptoms you describe also can be part of having an anxiety attack–stress can lead to those. I hope you have the chance to see a regular health-care provider who can help you sort out symptoms of diabetes and other issues. It’s not fun to feel the way you’ve described!
thank you very much. you could be right that it is something else, its just nice to have some people believe me for once.
Not only do I believe you, I’ve felt similar symptoms myself, only to see a 116 or a 93 or a 122 on the meter! Hang in there.
Delaney, that happens to me but it’s when my sugar is dropping fast. I’ll test and get a 160. an hour later I’ll be low.
The other thing that crossed my mind is anxiety. An axiety (panic) attack will give you the exact same feelings as a low. Sometimes anxiety is from stress, sometimes it is from illness like coming down with a cold, sometimes you can get an anxiety attack because there’s something wrong woth your adrenal system. Pls tell your doctor, testing for an adrenalin problem is easy. and oh yea the stress of a panic attack will raise your blood sugar.
i have a history of panic attacks, and these sort of feel like that, but at very odd times, so I’ll definatley talk to my docter thanks so much.
I’ve had that same feeling when the meter doesn’t agree. I believe you, too:) Agree with Kelly & Joe that the feeling could be from being high previously as your BG is coming down, even though you’re not technically low-low. Only way to know is to test a lot so you’ll see patterns emerging.
I actually have similar issues. My BG is pretty stable. I don’t drop too quickly but I feel the same effects that you do.
For example: Today my BG was at 112, then two hours later I started to feel sick- my heart was pounding, I was short of breath, my mouth was dry and sticky, and I was light headed.
Those are signs of high blood sugar, right? Well, I tested and it was only 132. I wasn’t doing any physical activity, I’m not overweight, and I hadn’t eaten anything during those two hours.
So, I hear what you’re saying. I don’t know what’s going on sometimes, but I figure if I just get through it, and as long as my BG is actually okay, then it must just be a side effect of something.
I’m probably just dehydrated or something.