I don’t know if this is a medical emergency or not. I checked my blood sugar a few hours after eating and it was higher than it has ever been–160. Then I checked it again an hour later and it was 168. I got really freaked out and thought the meter might be wrong so I reset it and did it again and then it was 177! Then I re-tried it and it was 192. Do I need to go to the hospital? This has NEVER happened to me before and I’m absolutely freaking out. I am afraid to check it again. Am I just going to die?
I checked my blood pressure and it was 128/72–high for me, but not that bad. I asked a roommate and she said I was probably making it go high by stressing out about it, but how can I not? Is there any quick way to bring it down? (I don’t take insulin and I’m supposedly pre-diabetic. My a1c was 5.5 at my last checkup so this is WAY out of range for me. Has this happened to anyone else, and what do you do about it? HELP!!!
First of all, remain calm… You’re not going to die from one BG close to 200. Yes , stress can affect your numbers that’s why it’s important to keep daily stress to a minimum. The high reading could be from something you ate that was higher in fat or carbs. Another thing to consider is make sure your hands are clean. I have read that residue from sugary foods on your hands can cause a false high reading.
The best thing for you to do in order to bring down your blood sugar would be exercise and water. In other words, go try to use the extra glucose by taking a brisk walk, bike ride etc. for at least 20-30 min then recheck…is BG coming down? Write down your numbers along with the food you ate and the times you tested and be sure to ask you doctor what to do next time this happens so you can be prepared. If you’re really worried, call in the morning. I don’t think a 192 warrants a trip to the ER because I’m not sure there is much they could or would do for it. Most of us who are on insulin use a correction if we are above 200 and the meter instructions usually say to seek ER if over 599 I think.
Keep an eye on your numbers though because your doctor may need to increase your meds or even perhaps include insulin. It’s just possible that your pre-diabetes phase is coming to an end.
Thank you for posting. It was after midnight and I couldn’t call my doctor and I was freaking out, but I hate emergency rooms and wasn’t even sure this would be considered an emergency–actually, I’m still not sure. I looked online and found various answers, from a BG of 400 being “not that big a deal” (??? really???) to someone saying that if your BG ever goes over 140, you’ll cause permanent organ damage. It’s so hard to know which information to trust.
I ended up doing some free weights and yoga breathing, took some cinnamon and an anti-anxiety pill and managed to get to sleep by 2. When I woke up, my reading was 107–not perfectly normal, but not dangerously high, at least.
Taking it at different times throughout today it has been 87 and 98 two hours after meals.
I still don’t know what caused such a spike. I didn’t have the greatest day diet-wise, but it’s not as if I binged and ate a bag of donuts or something. It’s just … weird.
