Hello everyone! I'm new to this community, so I'm not sure how everything works just yet. Thanks to those who have welcomed me! Since I was young, I have had hypoglycemia issues and this summer it was especially bad, to the point of passing out. I am 19 years old, 5'5" and 101 pounds. No matter what, I can't gain weight even though I eat like a horse. Last summer, I dropped to 95 pounds but since then have been able to get back to 100.
When I went to the doctor in September and expressed my concerns about my blood sugar, I had lab work done but everything came back normal with slight highs and lows on things like phosphatase and the like, but nothing to be concerned about. My fasting blood glucose was 90 at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon (I hadn't been able to eat that day).
My GP (a different doctor than the one I saw) suggested I start monitoring my blood sugar just to see what was going on. So far, my fasting blood sugar has been between 98-110 pretty consistently over the past few weeks. I have checked it randomly sometimes and have gotten ranges from 110-155, but it is never really below 100 except one time I checked it was 78 and I felt really bad.
Any suggestions as to what this could be? I'm just really confused and am tired of feeling so exhausted every day. I don't even have the energy to stand up while I get ready in the mornings and I'm hungry and thirsty pretty much 24/7.
I know my numbers aren't high enough to be diabetes, so I was wondering if it could be pre-diabetes or some other pancreas/insulin issue. Thanks in advance for any help or advice!
so, if i understand that right, you have not had and diabetes-diagnosis yet? i am not really sure what this could be, i can only recommend to you to test your bg also post prandial, after meals. that way you can see how your pancreas reacts to carbs.
there is also a test, where you drink fluid 50-60 grams of carbs (eg. coke, o-juice) and test 15, 30 and 60 minutes after that, to see the reaction of your blood sugar.
if that comes out weird, i would suggest antibody and c-pep testing at your gp's office.
with these further testings you can determine if there is a chance of you having D.
hope i could help a bit.
love, swisschocolate
There is something called reactive hypoglycemia where you go high after a meal and then your pancreas overreacts and puts out too much insulin and you wind up going low. Sometimes this develops into diabetes, sometimes not. You need to test frequently before and after a meal to see if this is your pattern. Many people never break 130 even after a carby meal. If you are consistently going over 140 this could indicate a problem. Keeping a log with food eaten, reading before a meal and then at one and two hours after would be a good starting point to gather some data.
Hi, Lea and welcome. Have you had your thyroid checked? When I was diagnosed with hyperactive thyroid (Graves Disease) I was stunned at how many different things it had been influencing.
Zoe, yes, I have been checked for thyroid conditions twice and everything comes back negative. That was the doctor's initial thought, but the lab results don't show an issue.
Oh well, it was worth asking. The numbers you describe don't sound diabetic. As someone else mentioned, reactive hypoglycemia is a condition where you go high and then your body reacts and sends you low. But it is almost always after a very high carb meal, so you might try lowering your carbs and see if that helps.
Reactive hypoglycemia does sometimes progress to diabetes but it doesn't sound like yours has as of yet. You might try getting an A1C if you haven't and doing an OGTT to see how you respond to a very high carb sugar drink. But it is also possible your symptoms are completely unrelated to diabetes.
I would do some self testing like everyone says and also eat lower carb and see if this helps you. About 10 years before my D diagnosis(type1) I was having low bg/hypos. I can't remember now if they were reactive after eating a lot of carbs now, but I treated them with some carbs and protein and it seemed to help me then. I was a lot lower though. My bg was always on the low side and 78 would have been like a normal range for me. It could also be something other than D so I would have a full cbc and blood chemistry soon too. Good luck :)
Consider getting a glucose tolerance test. Since you have the meter, you can do it your self.
Simply eat a large does of sugar in the morning when you get up. 2 pancakes and a quarter cup of maple syrup works for this, but try not to eat anything with it that might slow the absorption. There are also GTT solutions that your doctor can order for you instead.
Anyway, then you check your fasting sugar and then test every 15 min for 2 hours.
This is information that will clear up what your problem is, if you have one at all.
If your sugar recovers and goes low, then you may have hypoglycemia from an over reaction to sugar.
It could also be that your sugar level goes high and your body puts out extra insulin to combat it and therefore dropping you low after it goes high.
At the very least it will tell you how your body is reacting to sugar.
