Elaine,did you measure your bg during perimenopause sweats? were they different from bgs from nocturnal hypoglycemia?
Hypo unawareness develops usually from having frequent hypos, and can be reversed from a period of time without any or with few hypos. What hypo awareness means is you have no recognizable symptoms, mental or physical even when you are very low. So while I might recognize I'm starting to feel low say in the 50s, then test and treat the hypo so it doesn't keep going lower, someone with hypo awareness wouldn't recognize this and could slip even lower before they catch it with a test. The dangers from hypo unawareness is that you can slip down quite low with no warning, even to the point where you are unable to treat it yourself.
Sorry, but the night sweats transpired before I was diagnosed. I had 6 or 7 episodes over 2 or 3 years. I was diagnosed LADA a few years after, I think. Who knows, maybe related, but I was getting regular yearly blood work, which caught my onset, and at that point, my fasting #'s were fine.
Hypo unawareness is the cause of the stories you hear of Diabetics having car accidents after passing out or being arrested for drunken-like behavior when they are actually suffering low blood sugar episodes. As Zoe said, it is the result of years of low blood sugars. One friend said that her husband would become beligerant and refuse to treat his low. She would have to call the peramedics.
How's the cold sore?
the cold sore is healing- i'm using abreva. yucky looking, though. so i'm not doing the skip lunch thing, but i am adding more vegetables and i am not going to eat anything spicy or have coffee cocoa or chocolate in the evening. i am also starting to take a multivitamin (centrum) in the morning. last night i was pitying myself a little and so did my version of a binge which was to chew a lot of sugarless gum have coffee and eat a lot of cheese. i was warm last night, which role me up a couple of times, but it wasn't the heart-pounding warm. this morning my bg was 105, where when i was skipping lunch it was 91. in the afternoon at 1 pm it was 91, so that's good.
still waking up multiple times from temp changes. one hint it may be hormonal- TMI warning- I haven't had discharge in my undies for past couple days. I never remember being like that. could be the old estrogen going bye bye. so now I am beginning the undies watch. i did have coffee post noon, so that was something i want to stop. also i like to take hot showers at night, so i wonder if that does anything.
I’ve had night sweats for the past year also. I’m on hormone replacement so I don’t think my age is the cause. It also happens when I first start to eat so I think it’s linked to when my blood sugar is rapidly changing or it may be a form of autonomic neuropathy. It’s common when BG is going low which I was doing during the night without realizing it from reactive hypoglycemia, especially after eating carbs before bed. Now if I stick to low carb dinners and protein only snacks in the evening the intensity of the sweats are not as bad. I think the bladder issues can also be from going low and being too sleepy to fully wake up.
ok. I have made my decision. if things don't get more bearable in 2 weeks- about the 2nd week in April- I'm getting on the phone with my insurance company to see if the endo recommended by a tu member is in network. thankfully, I have good insurance. before I see the endo, I will start taking readings at night. I may be having false hypos. I am very tired today. maybe if it is false hypos, I need to be stricter about keeping my carb intake constant from day to day and my exercise more consistent from day to day. until this resolves itself, my solution will be to take a nap in my car at lunch if it isn't too cold out. i'll set my alarm to wake myself up. I can deal with this as long as the lack of a restful sleep doesn't depress my immune system to the point where I start getting sick.
Hopefully, the recommended Endo is a woman and will be sympathetic/knowledgable about menopause. Perhaps they will put you on a temp monitor to follow your 24 hour ups and downs. It sure sounds to me as though you do not have that much variation. Your #'s sound great! What are false hypos, BTW? Going low for no real reason? Or your body acting as if it is? Why just at night?
Good luck with the sleep....so frustrating, I know. Can you take a nap today?
hi elaine, i'm copying the post from my blog about finally getting a good night's sleep (last night). hopefully it will repeat today. i had so much more energy:
over the past week or more i have woken up multiple times with temperature changes. this has happened before, sometimes to the point of me getting sick from lack of a good night's sleep. this latest wave has particularly tired me out, though. one night i tested my blood sugar as soon as i woke up from warming up, and my bg would be like 80, which i never see during the daytime. then in the morning my bg would be like 104. so it seems i was having a 'liver dump' to raise my bg, even though my bg number wasn't low. one explanation for this is a 'false hypo'. in this scenario your bg is drops to a healthier level because of metformin and/or carb restriction, but your body hasn't adjusted to the drop. then at night when bg naturally drops, your body remembers it used to be higher, say 100, and sees the drop of 20 points to 80 as signaling an emergency- thus the liver dump to raise bg.if you peruse my blog, you'll see i tried out the 'safe-starch' diet the Perfect Health Diet for three days, during which i got bg spikes to 157. i think that it is possible my body reset to a higher bg level, and when i went back to my usual carb level, i started to get the false hypos. then again, it could all be perimenopause (day 16 of cycle). so what did i do yesterday that might have led to a better sleep? 1. no coffee after 12. 2. no spices on my food in the evening 3. some cheese around 8 4. orange UVEX glasses at 7pm- to bed at 9 pm 5. no exercise (because i was worn out and am still recovering from a cold sore) 6. for breafast 2 scrambled eggs with mushrooms, asparagus, and yellow peppers 7. for lunch meatballs 8. for snacks: cheese, celery, half orange plus white part of orange skin, two mini peppers 9. for dinner meatballs again (not super healthy since we bought them pre made) 10. no evening hot shower 11. 3rd day of taking centrum multivitamin----and drum roll please---- a good sleep and a morning bg of 90 instead of yesterday's 103!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
elaine and everyone- thank you for your kindness. i have been in forums since 1997 and i have never been to such a caring one as tudiabetes- sincerely.
Congrats on the sleep!!! It's like having a baby....6 hours uninterrupted feels like heaven. Here's hoping it continues.
Yes, TuD is a wonderful place....so much knowledge and support. I have learned way more here than from my docs and as they say, it's great to know you are not alone!
You certainly are doing a great deal to monitor. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Again, keep us posted!
Day after good sleep- crap sleep. my eyes were wide open and I forgot to get off at my train stop. I just looked out the window and was like-wait-this is my stop. then I frantically pushed the button and the door opened. I think the driver knows me- I said thank you on the way out. I don't remember having such a stretch of bad sleep- it seemed to be more intermittent before. but I don't want to take sleeping pills or pills for hot flashes, and in the back of my head I don't think an endo will see a problem because the endo I went to in December only had her nurse practitioner see me, and she pronounced me normal. I'm just hoping this will stop soon. I remind myself of my mom with her raccoon eyes.
Oh man....sorry. Good luck tonight.
Perhaps you might want to see a holistic M.D. and maybe try bio-identical hormone replacement if it’s menopause causing the hot flashes?
80 to 104 isn't at all a liver dump, those are perfectly normal blood sugars and no one stays flat all night. you're waking at 103's are also fantastic and 90 to 103 could happen as quickly as within 2 minutes between testing your blood sugars. i went through a very early menopause and diagnosed as type 1 diabetic DKA at the same time. prior to my Dx, I too was sweating, chills, etc..and my cycle completely stopped, 2 days on insulin after DKA, it started again then totally stopped and menopause within a few months. i had and still have profuse sweating, chills...I can't tell if it's from BG's although I always get hot - sweat when my blood sugars rise, but to a true high number and chills when low, but a true low or rapid drop from insulin. I also sweat sometimes when I eat and yes it can also be a bit of autonomic neruopathy. Since your numbers are fantastic, I believe you're going through menopause. Have your estrogen tested. Also, there's no such thing as just 'hypoglycemia', type 1 diabetics or type 2 for that matter don't just drop to a hypo number, the only thing that would drop someone's blood sugar are orals or insulins designed to do just that. there's no such thing as just hypoglycemia, someone's blood sugars don't just drop to a dangerously low blood sugar unless they have a form of cancer or something else. my endo explained it, you can google it. good luck, it is awful...all this sweating, I'm still doing it like every night, every few hours sometimes, but it is getting a bit better and I'm 4 years into this.
also, i'm on the thin side...don't know if you're thin but my endo, who also tested my other hormones (that's what they do..ha) told me estrogen attaches to fat, women who are on the thin side tend to go through menopause earlier and/or feel their symptoms more. i never wanted to take sleeping pills either because I was just Dx'd with type 1 and was too afraid I wouldn't wake up if low. I don't do HRT either...but, it is more then a PITA, so...I hear ya. I never sleep well either.
thanks for your long reply. sarah. have you heard of false hypos? anyway, i just woke up from sleeping well, except for a slight headache. as long as i have a good night of sleep to recovery, i guess that will keep me from getting sick.
sarah, aren't you constantly getting colds from lack of sleep? i do have good numbers, and i keep them that way with low carb and exercise. both parents are/were diabetic, and i used to be pre diabetic. dropping my carbs will cause me to be hot at night- that is a false hypo, i think, but i have seen that happen many times. this time is weird because it is happening for such a long stretch. and i don't exclude the possibility that it may be a mix of hormonal changes and bg issues.
no matter what the cause, i just want to sleep. i met this 60 year old guy on the train in great shape. he bikes to work after he gets off the train. he told me that from adolescence he could never sleep a full night and he has never found a cure. so he just naps during the day. he said even a 10 minute nap can refresh him. his body must have adapted to that because he's in great shape and not sick a lot.
so naps were my back up plan. sarah and other dealing with sleep problems, how do you keep from getting sick from lack of sleep?
well yes, of course, i'm a type 1 diabetic. false hypos, however, are when one's blood sugars are HIGH, maybe when first diagnosed, and they come into range or start dropping to even a normal number, this can for sure cause hypo symptoms because one's body isn't used to even normal blood sugars. Or, if one drops quickly, not to an actual 'low' blood sugar, but a fast drop from a high can cause hypo like symptoms. 100 to 80 isn't a drop of anything close and are normal blood sugars which again for anyone happens all day long, nor would it cause a liver dump as you're not low. 'false hypos' don't cause liver dumps either. again, i'd suggest getting your hormones checked, you're pre-menopause...hot flashes are common. your blood sugars are excellent. many type 1's low carb and exercise too of course, but often does very little in terms of insulin management. Not sleeping just makes me tired...certainly doesn't give me 'colds'. it's been cold and flu season.
sarah, where did you get your info on false hypos? could you direct me to the source? thx ps not sleeping will make one tired, yes. going without a restful sleep day after day will wear down your immune system and you will get sick whether it's cold and flu season or not. actually, sarah. don't reply to me at all. i don't like the tone of your posts.