Hello all,
You may remember me from a few months ago when I posted a thread called 'New to Diabetes'. At that time I had just been diagnosed with Type2 diabetes, (and my A1c level was 8.2%, although I didn't note it in the original post).
I've been controlling my diabetes with diet and exercise. I'm not taking metformin or any other diabetes drugs. Since my original post, I've lost 27 pounds, too.
I saw my doctor last week and he ran a new A1c test which showed that my A1c went down to 6.5%. While I realize this is not an optimal reading, it's a damn sight better than it was. My doctor thinks that if I could lose a little more weight, my BG might go back to normal, or very close to normal.
Even so, I still struggle with glucose spikes from time to time. Sometimes my BG goes up to 10.2 or so two hours after a meal (just over the maximum BG target range on my glucose meter), even though my carbohydrate intake may have been moderate. I tend to get these spikes most often after breakfast. Breakfast is usually a glass of 1% milk, two Ryvita multigrain crispbreads, and two eggs, a slice of cheese and two strips of low-fat bacon cooked in the microwave.
The funny thing is, I find my blood glucose tends to drop after lunch. A typical lunch for me might be herbed chicken on a bed of barley and wild rice pilaf, coupled with half a plate of broccoli and cauliflower and a glass of 1% milk. Total carbs for the meal come out to 68 grams - and two hours later my BG won't be any higher than 7.2 - 7.4 mmol/l (129-133 mg/dl).
If I have a snack consisting of a bag of pistachio nuts and a small piece of cheese two hours after that (usually around 3PM), I will find that by suppertime, my BG reading will be between 5.4 and 6.8.
Suppertime is a little more problematic, since I tend to eat more carbs, and can find that my BG might spike up to 8 or 9.
I've also been finding that even a short walk - say, 15 minutes, can drop my BG by about four points.
Today I learned that if I'm not careful, those four points can take me down too far. After lunch today, I went for a brisk 15 minute walk. Didn't bother checking my BG beforehand, since I figured my BG would be a bit elevated anyway after having had two sausages, 2 crispbreads, milk, and veggies. Had a nasty surprise when I got home tested my BG and got a reading of 3.9 mmol/l (70 mg/dl)! Needless to say, I was shocked by what I saw and tested again to be sure I hadn't made a mistake. I ended up with reading of 3.2mmol/l and a 'LOW BLOOD SUGAR' warning on my meter.
I was feeling OK, but didn't want to take any chances and promptly got a glass of milk into me to get my sugars up.
The reason why I didn't test before going for a walk is because (rather stupidly), I thought that the admonition to test before a walk and take a snack along was aimed mainly at people on metformin, not people who are controlling their T2 diabetes with diet and exercise!