I am a Type 2 and have had the very same problem. These after dinner spikes. Most frustrating.
I am on Metformin and one shot of Victoza a day. This is doing the job for right now. I am watching it closely.
My spikes now are around 130 but I have to eat to my meter. Peas for instance dont spike me at all while a potato will shoot me into the 200’s. Some weeks I have times where I am just high and then the following weeks I am normal range.
My Dr is in agreement that he does not want me to spike over 140 2 hours after I eat and is willing to give me a small dose of meal time insulin if needed. Right now I can control it with diet and the meds I am on but it is open to me by my Dr if we both see the need to use it. I think an open discussion with your Dr is in order to reassure you he will allow you to have a normal blood sugar. That would help give you peace of mind.
Fortunately my Dr is up on the journals and he specializes in geriatrics and recognizes preserving beta cells is the goal. Congratulations on your wonderful A1C. You are doing better than most people on the street.
Have a more in depth discussion with your Dr though. Your going to have some dark days with higher numbers and you will need his/her help then. Ask your Dr if they would want to be that high after they eat 3-4 hours?
Just reading thru’ everyone’s replies to your question. Most of my friends are Type 2’s, I’m the odd ball out (but it’s okay - I’m used to being a fruity loop). When I told them of how you are doing with your A1C - they said - CAN WE HAVE HER BODY!!! Only kidding (tho’ wouldn’t mind being in your shoes aka Manolo’s), but seriously, keep up the good work, learn what you can about diabetes to help you better understand, question your doctor, and try to just breath, relax, don’t stress out too much.
I think you are doing great! Ac1 of 5 - that is “normal” person range! Yah you! I have had a few higher numbers lately myself and I get mad when I see them - I blame the meter or I picked the wrong finger. heheh. But yeah, I will eat the exact same thing and it will all of sudden one day be higher than the other days I had it. But there are lots of thing that can affect thing so don’t freak out too much. I hated that at first but I feel how I can know why that happened - it cant be the food because I measure everything. This week I am blaming my period. I get tense when I am crampy and today I had higher numbers than yesterday with some of the exact same meals.
My numbers stay mostly under 120 (actually mostly under 100). It is my first month (almost one month) and I am taking Metformin -my A1C was 9.2 . My doctor said if my numbers stay low like they are - I could be in “normal” person range in 3 months too! So that will be cool and what I am hoping for.
I am with you on this one John. You can find a ton of studies that contradict one or the other. I know a lot of people say the doctors do not know a lot about diabetes but who should we believe people who are not doctors or doctors who deal with this stuff day in and day out. A second opinion is fine but when you have three doctors telling you the same thing then what should you do. We provide experiences here of what happens to us and not everyone is the same. If I wrote a book on how I got to stop taking insulin it may not apply to the next person. It is great to educate yourself but progress does occur with trial and error and some medical intervention.
One time someone told me that I should not eat as many carbs as I do but I tend to ride a bike for 1 to 2 hours and If I dont let my sugar spike to the devil zone I will not make it back. I have had instances where I go from 270 down to 65 with no meds in 20 minutes.
I hate people who try to scare the hell out of you. I got so worked up a few months back with reading a lot of the stuff here that I wound up at the ER with my heart thumping through my chest thinking I was having a heart attack and the only thing I got out of that visit was a prescription for xanax and a huge ER bill. The doctor told me to chill and relax a bit. That was after EKG, echo cardio gram, CIMT, a half gallon of blood for several test for kidneys,A1C, cholesterol, etc. I told them I was damaging my organs with those crazy spikes. I wound up in several medical facilities. One at the eye doctor because I was sure thos spikes ruined my eyes. After a series of test nothing. The other at my endo thinking that I had damaged vital arteries. After CIMT nothing. Urgent care for kidneys, nothing. It is good to play it safe but quarterly visits should be good enough indicators of what is going on.
So what I am saying is take your information from several sources and dont relly on one source only and watch out for bias. If it was not for the brilliant ER doctors who brought me back from a bg of over 1000 during diagnosis and the great endo team who took me from being insulin dependant to taking 750 mg of metformin a day I do not know if I would even be here. One thing I learn and learn to chill and take the lows with the highs, work at getting better but enjoy life a little bit. My last A1C was 6.5 and no damage yet, thank God
Your story is very interesting…it’s funny that I was just diagnosed a few months ago and I am already thinking that I have organ damage, I was already a hypochondriac, and now that I have diabetes it’s even worse. I just told my doctor that my feet tingle once in a while and he smiled and said that it takes years of very high glucose to end up with neuropathy, I never said I thought I had this, I just told him that my feet tingle and burn once in a while and I wanted to know if it’s related to diabetes…he said no, but I went online and looked for information and that symptom is also listed as an early symptom of diabetes, who knows? I am amazed by your improvement! Being insulin dependent to taking Metformin it’s wonderful… Congratulations! I hope remain as healhy as you can be…I will try to do the same.
Your situation sounds a little like my own. Mt last A1C was 6.0. My fasting numbers are usually in the 80-105 range but if I eat anything high in carbs I will get a spike (a couple of times I have gone to 200). I now know what foods will spike me and this is key to controlling my numbers. I can tolerate a small amounts of potatoes (usually fried in olive oil), basmatti rice and whole wheat pasta but anything bread I have to avoid.
I’m not on any meds but do exercise. I have found if I walk for an hour after a large meal my numbers can be as much as 40 points lower if I didn’t walk so you might want to give this a try.
Make sure you keep a diary of what foods caused what spike, this helped me a great deal, but over time you will learn what your body can tolerate and what it cannot. It all takes time but you will figure it out!
P.S. I have been told I don’t fit the “typical” type 2 profile (I’m 6’ and 148 lbs)… From your picture it seems like you could be the same?
They’ve done studies in people with frequents lows and it is linked to more strokes and heart attacks. So yeah, higher BGs cause damage, but really low ones can lead to death. And I envy anyone that can control their BGs just by diet and exercise.
A doctor friend of mine told me this to when I first got diagnosed (she is doing her residency). It takes years and years and years of uncontrolled, constantly high numbers for one to start developing damage. A few spikes alone ain’t gonna do it - that doesn’t mean that you should not try to avoid those spikes of course but don’t freak out if you have been doing good but have a few high numbers now and than. If you go back down to normal, that is important too. It is when you stay high for an extent period of time which can be bad. It causes alot of stress of the body systems. This is what she told me. Her mom is diabetic too. She is not going to be an endo but part of her medical training she studied and worked with hundreds of diabetics. Plus this makes sense to me honestly.
Funny how you say about being a hypochondriac. I wasn’t one at all before this but at the beginning I began to freak out about my feet etc just like you. I think it was because my first doctor that diagnosed me made a big deal about my feet - “Omigod, we have to check your feet, blah, blah blah” even though I told him I haven’t had any problem. Of course, it is nice for them to check everything but it makes the patient all paranoid when they get all like serious about like they are going to tell you you have incurable cancer of something. Of course the doctor want you to take your diabetes serious but what good is it doing you if you end up with anxiety and paniac attacks about it. I had a few paniac attacks in the beginning.
Sort of unrelated, but I remember when my ENT told me 6 years ago that I needed hearing aids - it was weird because he put me in this little room after having my hearing tested and than him and 2 audiologists come in there and were all SO serious all they were going to tell me I had cancer or something and all they had to tell me that was I needed hearing aids. But the way they did it, I mean, geez, like I was gonna die if I didn’t get hearing aids that exact moment. What the fun! They were honestly THAT serious about it. I don’t need 3 people ganging up on me to tell me this. They wanted to push me into buying this and that and I told them I want to go home and think about what I want to do first. Of course, it is a hard thing to adjust too (esp when you are in your 30s and it unexpected) but it wasn’t like I was dying or something. I was kind of mad that they did it that way - made me all scared and panicy. I never went back to that ENT and went somewhere else to get my hearing aids.
It sounds like your doctor is less “doom” about stuff which is good. My feet tingle everyonce and while - actually normally if they are cold as I get cold easily and it has always been like that - and my hand falls asleep and tingles when I sleep on - I used to have carpel tunnel too - that doesn’t mean you are ready for the amputator!
Yes, you are right, I also don’t fit the “typical” Type II profile…I am 5’7" and I weight 128 lbs. I have never been obese, no history of diabetes in my family, I am vegetarian (but I used to eat lots of carbs). I’ve been walking everyday for about 40 minutes, but this week I started to walk for 90 minutes and it seems to be helping me…It’s strange but sometimes I get spikes and sometimes I don’t even if I eat the same exact thing and do the same level of activity, and have the same level of stress, but I still keep in mind what foods I ate when I had the spikes and I am being very careful…If you don’t minde, at what age did you get diagnosed? I was diagnosed at this year and I just turned 32…just curious.
Have you lost weight recently? What led to your diagnosis? I’m curious. If you lost weight recently and if you see that you seem to be seeing more spikes as days go by, you should consider going to your endo and requesting a screeing for LADA…type-1 diabetes in adults. Many LADAs are mis-diagnosed at first as type-2 diabetics. The screening involves tests for autoantibodies that are markers for type-1 diabetes and a glucose tolerance test coupled with c-peptide tests.
Well, I have always been under 130 lbs, except when I was pregnant. I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes on July 2009, and I was told that most likely it would go away after the baby was born…but it didn’t, I am still diabetic and I was told on January 2010 that I am Type II. My doctor doesn’t know if I was diabetic before and was picked-up during pregnancy, or if I developed diabetes during pregnancy, who knows? The thing is that I did lose weight lately, but it was my pregnancy weight…I was 125 before I got pregnant and had been like that for many years…I asked my doctor if it is possible that I have LADA (because someone mentioned that to me on this website before) but he said no, he did the c-peptide test and he said that it was fine…I still have my doubts, but he refuses to do any other tests, he is very convinced that I am Type II…
My wife had gestational diabetes for both her pregnancies…and when she did random tests and saw that her numbers were still high, we requested a glucose tolerance test with c-peptide and also autoantibodies screen. The c-peptide results were in the normal range - barely so - but the autoantibodies’ screen showed that she had autoimmune antibodies for type-1. The endo revised his diagnosis and declared that she is LADA. Because we caught it so early, she has gone on Lantus for basal and Humalog for meals, striving to keep her beta cells quiescent and her spikes below 140 mg/dL. We are hoping to keep her in the “honeymoon phase” of LADA for many, many years by attacking the disease aggressively.
I asked my doctor about the GAD test (is that the name for the autoimmune antibodies?) and he didn’t know what I was talking about…he is not cooperating with me, he said that my c-peptides were fine and that I don’t have LADA…but I’m not so sure about this…I will request the autoimmune antibodies test…I just need to do some research to explain what I’m talking about. It’s so hard when my doctor doesn’t want to do anything else and I have many more doubts…I don’t think I can switch doctors because it is a small military clinic and he is the only one who specializes in diabetes…I guess I will have to pay for these test and get it done somewhere else! I really want to find out if I’m LADA or not…and I want test results showing why yes or why not…not just what my doctor believes. Thanks for the suggestion John, I will keep it in mind.
Get the GAD and IA-2 tests done at the very least. Usually these tests can be prescribed only by a specialist like an Endocrinologist and not a primary care doc or a gynecologist. Fight for these tests…at the very least, you will rid yourself of doubts and lead a happier life.
Which adults should be tested for type 1 diabetes (LADA)?
Adults (from age 18 up) who develop diabetes and who are lean to normal weight, not from a high risk ethnic groups for type 2 diabetes (Latino, African American, Asian American, American Indian, Pacific Islander), and without a family history of type 2 diabetes are more likely to have type 1 diabetes. Also, not responding well to oral medication used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes may mean the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes (LADA) is more likely.
