I have post-bariatric surgery reactive hypoglycemia.
Even when I was exceptionally obese, and pregnant, I never had diabetes. Everyone else in my family (mom, dad, sister, aunts & uncles on both sides) has Type 2.
My endo says I must have a ‘robust pancreas’. I’ve seen him one time.
I had dumping syndrome before surgery, so I never ate sweets or drank anything with sugar in it.
I’ve been having symptoms for two years now. I just got a FreeStyle Libre-- what a life changer! Now, I have more concrete data to analyze. Please help, if you can.
This is a basic overview of my day:
Overnight: I stay between 40-65. I don’t treat my symptoms at night unless I wake up in a full-blown sweat, which only happens sometimes.
I usually am between 50-70 when I wake up. If I do not eat, I stay between 60-70 all day.
If I eat, I usually spike between 110-140. If I eat a bunch of cookies, I’ll hit the 150’s, but never over.
After the eating spike, around 20-35 minutes later, I drop, usually to 40-50. My lowest has been in the 30’s, but usually it is high 40’s, low 50’s. Every time I eat this happens.
Taking 3, 5mg, glucose tablets will spike me back up to 100 within 15-20 minutes, but then, within 20 minutes of that, I drop back into the 40–50 range.
I feel terrible all of the time. I do have hypoglycemic unawareness. Sometimes I feel ok at 40. Sometimes 100 feels terrible. Is this a rapid up-down pattern, or is it normal?
If I treated every time I hit 50, I’d spend all day eating glucose tables, on a blood sugar roller coaster. Often, I just let it go and wait for my body to readjust to the low 70 range. This means sitting in bed, not moving, and feeling ill.
I actually can’t pinpoint a range that I always feel good at. The 100’s are like a shock to my system and I don’t feel good.
I only feel ‘okay’ if I do something like eat cookies allll day long mixed in with crackers and the like, or if I sip a soda all day long, which I hate doing. Of course, eating so much has led to a 50 pound weight gain. I have to lose these 50 pounds because I need a hip replacement (bad accident) and they won’t operate on me until I lose the weight.
At the same time this hypoglycemia happened, I also had a lot of health issues arise: First, swollen, painless lymph nodes (still huge after 2 years, but they say they are fine), then I had a second-trimester miscarriage, severe anemia, and then the hypoglycemia. The endo says these are all unrelated and my hypoglycemia is from my surgery.
I’ve not had an A1C yet. Yes, healthcare is that bad in Colorado.
Any suggestions?
Do I have to treat at a certain number, as in, can I keep not treating in the 40’s and 50s?
Why does it drop so low at night, even when I’ve not eaten in 8+ hours?
Is 70, my normal, okay?
My endo suggested he might put me on diet pills so I don’t suffer when I starve. This will leave me at 60-70 all day if I starve. Can I live this way?
Thank you, anyone, who can help me. I’m desperate.
Yes, I’ve seen the nutritionist and tried different dietary approaches.