I was diagnosed type II at 9.8 A1c and BS of 240. I’m on metformin 2X a day. I basically do the same things every day. I could do better I know, but I’m pretty steady around 140. Last night for supper I had glass of no-fat milk, cube steak w/ketchup, tater tots, red applesauce, no desert, and no snacks at all. I tested this AM at 10:00 and was 209! I’ve had suppers of red meat, TWO full ears of corn, mac & cheese, and later on a BIG bowl of ice cream and test in the morn same time and be 130!!! One night around 10:00 I had a bowl of ice cream ON TOP of a cupcake!!! Tested 145 in the morning. When I get up, I usually have two 8 oz cups of decaf with no-fat milk and Wal-Mart brand of sweet & low. Another night I had REAL spaghetti with sauce and my usual bowl of ice cream and tested 159 in the morning. Makes it hard to really want to try and get this BS down to 120!!!
Big D is confusing sometimes. there are a lot of factors that could be in play - maybe you’re in the honeymoon phase and pancreas feels like working somedays, maybe you had too much applesauce, maybe the fiber in corn helped or the fat in the mac and cheese, maybe you worked out hard one day and had increased insulin sensitivity. maybe high BS comes from fighting off a sickness. it’s always a puzzle.
Just my .02 but try to track your meals and see what food and what size portions of certain carbs cause bad spikes and what works. that helped me figure out what the pbad parts of my diet and helped a lot to control my #'s. good luck and keep at it - eventually it’ll make sense
how was your sugars just before and 2 hours post dinner?
You won’t lower BG eating that many carbs. The more you push the envelope, the more you’ll burn out your beta cells. If you’re eating less now than you were previously with higher numbers, that’s what is happening.
Tater tots, ketchup, milk (lactose) & apple sauce–that’s a lot of carbs. Your body can’t handle eating like you’re used to.
Morning fasting should be under 100.
Thanks. I’ve had MUCH worse meals than last night AND a big bowl of ice cream and still tested under 150 in the morning! I’ll see what happens Saturday… I have to change an electrical panel for a friend of mine so that means a FULL day of working. I used to be an electrician but had to “retire” on disability for arthritis and like 6 bulging discs in my back. I don’t walk too good sometimes! We got a treadmill, then I told my G/F I needed a scooter so I could use it! LOL
There could be a lot going on. for me, mixing that many foods would be difficult because like Joe states, fat and fiber can have a huge impact on the when and how your BS will rise. for a meal like that, i would definitely test at least 1, 2 and 3 hours after the meal (and likely 4 hours just for good measure). it could be one of those cases where the spike doesn’t occur when you expect it and your body is able to clean things up later.
What is it two hours after eating?
Gerri is right about all those carbs and your body not handeling like it used to.
Insulin resistance tends to increase over time. Managing carbs will become more challenging for this reason.
I suggest you give up the reduced & no-fat dairy, go very low carb for awhile, & test specific foods to see how they affect you.
FWIW, if I had eaten that meal, I would have been at least that high next morning - not to mention what I would have spiked to the night before. Also, by 10AM, if you had not eaten, your liver would probably have dumped glucose. If you did eat b’fast, that would have to be factored in.
You are looking at the wrong thing. Ketchup and I will bet the applesauce have high fructose corn syrup. You need to stay away from anything with high fructose corn syrup. The way this is manufactured keeps it from going thru the normal processes in the body. It goes straight to sugar.
I know that doctors tell you your fasting number in the morning is important but all the rest of the time you should be seeing numbers that are out of range. This is what is going to bring on all the side effects of diabetes.
You should perhaps remember that good numbers can result from bad eating. If your blood sugar goes way up, chances are it will crash and it will look as though you have good numbers - but that’s a fallacy. You also need to remember that the A1C suffers from the same problem. It can be an average of your relatively stable numbers OR the mean between high and low swings due to bad eating habits. You have to be honest with yourself about how you are doing so that you know the difference between mean scores and median scores. What you want to hit is good median scores, which are unfortunately not detected by the A1C. The suggestion that you test 2 hours after eating is a good one. That will tell you the real story. Morning numbers are more to detect whether your liver is shooting out more sugar than it should, something known as “dawn phenomena”. You might want to read up on that, but you may be too new to your disease to have that problem as yet.
You should do your fasting reading as soon as you get up. Mine rises about 10 points an hour starting early morning. I suffer from severe DP (dawn phenomenom) and have to eat as soon as I wake up. Even then my numbers rise until about noon. As others said, diabetes is not an exact science. Many times higher morning numbers have nothing to do with the carbs in the dinner you ate. Some nights I will just eat salad and have the highest numbers. Sometimes things like ice cream with a lot of fat will actually prevent some spikes. Also different foods work for different people. I had one CDE tell me to eat 3 cups of popcorn before bed to keep numbers low. Some days it worked some days it didn’t. Also any kind of milk full fat or fat free has 12 carbs a cup. You are better off to drink the full fat version. I have switched to lite soymilk- 2 carbs.
I think you were holding your tongue wrong or a butterfly flapped it’s wings in Africa, just kidding. LOL Don’t you just love it. I am type 1 and still sometimes go low for no reason (that I know of).
It may be the dawn effect. I have not mastered it either. It does not matter what I eat at night wether low carb or high carb but I always wake up at 130. For a while I would test 3 times in the middle of the night. I would go from 130 before bed. 110 around 3 am and 6 100 and by 8 am I was again at 130. It did not matter what I ate at night. Low carb, high carb, mid carb. I had to stop taking my dinner metformin because I was going low in the middle of the night. So one of the great unknowns for me. The one thing that did seem to help some was to add protein in the middle of the night. I would eat a piece of wheat bread with peanut butter around 3 am and that seem to help me get closer to 100 in the morning.
Hey Bobby,
It sounds by your post you are really hungry and crave the carbs to get satisfied at your meals. This is normal. You may want to explore Victoza or Byetta with your Dr to help you curve your carb cravings. Carb cravings can be more severe in some people than others and these medications may help you be more satisfied after meals. I would talk further with your Dr on this.
Look don’t blame yourself. This is not an exact science. You have to look at when you test and what you were doing before and after taking meds and testing. I would first concentrate on your diet which I am sure you already know. the foods that you are eating are very starchy which is not good. I have my food weak times too. See if a pattern develops before getting worried too much. Keep a diary and make sure you exercise.
I have taken byetta and it does work…the side effect is that it will give you nausea…
I have been a type 1 for 19 years and all I know is once I have it figured out it changes. The best thing to do is to test b4, 2hrs after…test, test, test. Notice patterns and relate it to what you ate and activities. It is something you learn and going to a Diabetic educator will help you grasp it better, educating yourself on all the factors that relate to the BG. We can’t be perfect but we can try and you can still have that bowl of ice cream once in a while on a smaller scale. We have to enjoy our life while we deal with this disease.
I’ll start by saying I haven’t read any responses. There is a lot of sugar in ketchup. I haven’t used any since my Dx. Tater tots would be high carb food. Unless it was unsweetened, There would have been a lot of sugar in the applesauce too. I only use unsweetened apple sauce now. It’s not too bad but will use half a packet of Splenda for a sweet treat.
The BG that should have given my PCP a red flag was nearly a year ago now. It was 250. I wasn’t Dx’d until this January because I brought up thinking I was insulin intolerant. He put me on Metformin x2. Other than diet and exercise that was it. Three months later I had my first A1c. It was 6.6. I due for my second one next month.
My BG morning tests lately have been as low as the 100’s. Occasionally in the one twenties even low 130’s. Depending on how diligent I’ve been.
In this one year since I should have been Dx’d. I’ve developed bilateral neuropathy in my feet. I’ve also had some kidney damage so am now taking meds for that too. I have lung and hear disease. Saw my cardiologist a week ago. He told me although I’d done a good job. He wants my A1c down to at lease, 6.4.
I’ll be honest with you. My Type 2 diabetes scares me more than my lungs or heart. I fully intend to do everything I need to or can to keep my numbers low. It’ll help the heart too. I hope you’ll do the same for yourself.
I’ll start by saying I haven’t read any responses. There is a lot of sugar in ketchup. I haven’t used any since my Dx. Tater tots would be high carb food. Unless it was unsweetened, There would have been a lot of sugar in the applesauce too. I only use unsweetened apple sauce now. It’s not too bad but will use half a packet of Splenda for a sweet treat.
The BG that should have given my PCP a red flag was nearly a year ago now. It was 250. I wasn’t Dx’d until this January because I brought up thinking I was insulin intolerant. He put me on Metformin x2. Other than diet and exercise that was it. Three months later I had my first A1c. It was 6.6. I due for my second one next month.
My BG morning tests lately have been as low as the 100’s. Occasionally in the one twenties even low 130’s. Depending on how diligent I’ve been.
In this one year since I should have been Dx’d. I’ve developed bilateral neuropathy in my feet. I’ve also had some kidney damage so am now taking meds for that too. I have lung and hear disease. Saw my cardiologist a week ago. He told me although I’d done a good job. He wants my A1c down to at lease, 6.4.
I’ll be honest with you. My Type 2 diabetes scares me more than my lungs or heart. I fully intend to do everything I need to or can to keep my numbers low. It’ll help the heart too. I hope you’ll do the same for yourself.