For background, I am a 20 y/o, 114 lb woman whose been experiencing some weird on-and-off symptoms for about two years. I have a family history of Type 1, and a handful of family members have Type 2.
In 2018 I had a weird episode of what I assume to have been low blood sugar. I was out of town with family, and since we were travelling all day I hadn’t had the chance to eat very much. Maybe some fries, a slice of pizza, and fish, but not enough to satiate me. Early in the morning I woke up drenched in sweat, shivering uncontrollably (like internal tremors that wouldn’t go away), and super hungry. I was so hungry to the point that it hurt, and I don’t think I’d ever felt that way beforehand. I ended up staying awake for the next seven hours or so because the shaking wouldn’t stop, and on top of that I was urinating like crazy-- maybe four times an hour for 2-3 hours. I had two more of these episodes over the next two weeks after I came back home, but since then I haven’t experienced them. In my confusion, a family member suggested in passing that I might be diabetic, considering the low bg symptoms.
At this point I may have gone down the rabbit hold a bit with research and overthinking, but I found that as time went on, I began to have hypo symptoms pretty regularly. I would have to eat every 2-4 hours, and if not, I’d get blurry vision, shaky, sweaty, chills, weak knees, brain fog, and so on. Later on I came across some info about Reactive Hypoglycemia, and from there on I decided that my symptoms matched those of RH. Just to be safe I went to the doctor with my concerns. In the past she’d been dismissive of other health concerns I’d had (I am admittedly a bit of a hypochondriac, and can get wound up in obsessive thoughts/anxiety), and so when my fasting blood sugar came out to 90, she told me all was well and sent me on my way. After this I wanted to keep tabs on how I felt and bought a bg meter. In all honesty it probably wasn’t the most accurate, but I trusted it for the time being. I’d test in the mornings, and usually be between 70-85. As time went on I found that pretending nothing was wrong kind of worked. The hypos would come and go, usually sticking around for a few weeks-months, and then going away completely without any apparent reason.
Fast forward to the spring of 2019, and I began experiencing symptoms again. I bought a better bg meter and would test in the mornings and after meals. Something I found concerning was that my morning/fasting numbers were never lower than 100, and usually stayed between 108-125. For the most part I felt normal, but there are times at work where I’d have to sneak a bite of food, or come clean that I was feeling bad outside of my allotted lunch time. At this point I have not had consistent issues, but there are still some concerns. For one, I do experience the headaches, fatigue, irritability, shakiness, weakness, etc. while doing intermittent fasting (I won’t eat from 8 pm - 12 pm the next day). If I wait long enough the symptoms go away, but they’re definitely unpleasant. I also tend to pee more often; sometimes up to three times a night, and definitely several times a day. I also have floaters in my vision, black spots and flashes on occasion, and general blurriness that seems to be more of a recent thing. Sometimes my feet tingle and go numb without prompting, but it’s not a very present issue.
I do have health insurance, but I’m worried that I’m somehow delusional or exaggerating my own symptoms, and don’t want to go to a doctor to be told that I’m fine. To be honest I can’t tell if my bg levels are just on the higher side of normal, or if I need to address the issue, especially considering some of the other symptoms. I would appreciate some feedback on this, and hope that with y’all’s knowledge I can get a clearer picture of what might be going on.
- forgot to mention that my fasting levels are still above 100 despite eating a low calorie, low carb diet for the most part, if that makes any difference.
