Unruly Blood Sugar
Last night, I had a scare. I was within moments of going to the hospital and within moments of passing out. I have had many low blood sugar spells. I 
had them for years before I developed diabetes. In my teen years, I would go for hours with that feeling and wonder what it was. Shaky feeling, weak, doesn’t feel good at all. Most diabetics say it is the worst feeling in the world. I long for the day when I was tough as nails, 16 and immortal. :)
Right after eating last night I started feeling strange. Then extremely weak. I don’t normally experience low blood sugar right after eating. It is more likely to happen about four hours later, that’s when the body is most likely to over react and take blood sugar too low. I didn’t think it was blood sugar because I had just eaten and I had been good all day. I had been hungry for hours. Sometimes I feel hungry just before a crash.
Anyway, I went ahead and took it, or rather had Jessie take it as I don’t think I could have any more. It was 42! That’s pretty darn low. I’m in the passing out range. Jessie immediately went to get me some milk. I sent my friend Bob a message asking if the Philippines has its own version of 911. He said only in Davao. I drank the milk and took my blood sugar again and it was at 52. I was pretty sure at that point I would be okay.
In this episode my heart started pounding, this was new I haven’t felt that before. I’m guessing my brain was telling my heart, not enough energy. And I was becoming a little unclear in my thinking. Jessie told me to sit up and I heard lay down. I was already laying down. LOL There are some air vents on our closets and they started vibrating. Of course, they really didn’t. I thought it was funny because they are totally stationary. I knew what was happening. Sometimes people are found wandering the streets when they have low blood sugar.
Then I told Jessie I’m okay, don’t feel good but I’m okay. Sure enough, my blood sugar was then at 70. That’s the lowest end of normal but I feel some hypoglycemia at 70 and have for years, since my thirties.
I didn’t walk yesterday. I wanted too but just wasn’t up to it. I only walked a little the day before. I hadn’t eaten anything I shouldn’t and hadn’t eaten a lot which can cause your body to over react and then lower your sugar too much especially when your over weight. I need to loose fifty pounds just to get to being over weight. :) No, I don’t think it is funny but laughing at myself is my way of not obsessing with the mess I’ve got myself into. To say it is my fault though is grossly misunderstanding the situation but I don’t expect someone to understand unless they’ve dealt with chronic illness all their life, as I have.
Low blood sugars generally mean, I’m making progress. At least that’s the way it has worked in the past. It would be a good thing if I don’t put myself in a coma though while getting better!
I think that’s the third crash I’ve had since I made a post that I was worried I couldn’t get my blood sugars back under control Maybe only twice. Since then, my blood sugars have been below 140 at fasting, on most days. Last night, I skipped my last does of oral diabetic meds for obvious reasons. I awoke with a normal blood sugar of 120. That’s the upper end of normal.
So I had a small breakfast. I woke up hungry. See now I’m going to be afraid not to eat. I’ve decided its time to lower my oral diabetic meds. If I was in the US, I’d call my doctor but I’m not. No one has done any blood test on me at all.
I’ve found an American trained doctor a bit south of me. I plan to go to see him and he has a lab in his office too. That should help quite a bit. I’m told he doesn’t charge for consultations. That seems unfair to him but I suppose if he was in it for the money, he’d have stayed in the USA.
I’m taking 8Mg of glypermide and 2000Mg of metformin a day. I’m going to cut the glypermide in half and keep the walking up. I tried to cut it back before and it didn’t work. I had to add it back in. Kind of issues I’m having, it is time to do something. Hopefully I’ll be able to cut back I use to take Precose and Actos on top of that. I had to drop them a year ago. Woot!
I hate taking all these medications that I take but there’s just nothing I can cut back on, at least usually there is not. I use to ask my doctor all the time if I could stop anything. They’d suggest Xanax or ranitidine. Now who wants to stop Xanax. LOL Ranitidine is Zantac and keeps my stomach from revolting.
That reminds me, before my blood sugar went low, my stomach began to hurt. Like it use to before i was on ranitidine. It was unusual as well. Can’t help but wonder if the two were related.
It is better for diabetics to eat several times a day. Small meals several times a day. That also makes it harder to loose weight. I have not been doing that. I might have to start having lunch, like it or not. I’ve been doing very good at resisting the temptations Jessie constantly has, chocolate, ice cream, chocolate covered bread. Can you believe that? Freaking chocolate covered freshly cooked bread, that is just wrong. The only thing more wrong is that I can’t have any!
I’m off to experience another day, Jessie is going to Cebu City today so I probably will not walk. Right now I’m afraid to do that alone, I might need help if my blood sugar falls. Perhaps I will go for a short one. We’ll see how the day goes. Wish me luck! Something people should keep in mind, I wouldn’t be having this kind of problem if I wasn’t trying to improve my situation.
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Tagged with: Diabetes • Walking
Filed under: Diabetes
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WoW Rusty 2000 mg metformin ? plus glyburide ? lots of meds there bud i take 1000 mg metformin and previcid and 80 mg simvastatin for cholosterol seems like your on a pretty high dose there i would prolly cut your metformin down a bit or better yet talk to the doc there !
Yeah, maybe talk to a doc here. I will if things don’t get back under control now.
I wish that’s all I take. At the root of my health problems is an auto immune system that has gone awry. I’m not normal, nothing works as it should. I have multiple diagnosis but everything is well controlled until all these freaking drugs kill me. :(
My weight now is my number one enemy and I’m working on it but its not a matter of “just do it.”
Everything I take has been prescribed by a doctor in the US except for one and that was prescribed by my doctor in Cebu City. More has been prescribed but my doctors never had a problem with me cutting things, only with adding. :) Cutting things that make sense. I’d like to cut the metformin but the last time I did that, I shot back up with high blood sugars. I had cut it and glypermide but had to take both up to the original dosage prescribed.
I plan on going to see a new doc, I hope next month. If things don’t stabilize, I’ll have to do something sooner. I just spent all my cash though. bought my required ticket to Bangkok before the prices go back up. Then I spent more than I should on my next trip to Bantayan, but I’m going to do it anyway and if anyone yells at me, they can just go ahead and do it. Hope you get something out of it. :)
When you deal with Chronic illness as long as I have, things just don’t seem so serious I guess. I’m use to making adjustments.
The 2000mg is the max does of metformin. The 8mg of glypermide is also the max dose. I use to take max dose of Actos too. And at one point, they put me on Precose too. You take it as you take first bit of food so that it slows the absorption of sugars.
I wish I could find real skim milk here. I have not been able too. What I’ve found that is fat free is about 500 calories. I use to drink skim milk till I thought it would come out of my ears. I’d do that rather than eat as it had almost zero calories and it filled me up. It is also a great way to get my blood sugar back up without sending it into the ozone. Candy is more fun but not good for me. LOL Since the fat free milk I have here has so many calories in it, I have to just go without. I had a couple of slices of bread for lunch today though. Don’t think I’ll be skipping it completely any more. :)
If I continue to be stable, I will try cutting my night dose of metformin in half. I may even break one of the pills in half as they are notched and that will reduce it by 250. Slow changes are the way to go. I’ve had more luck with cutting glypermide first so that’s what I’m going to do.
Lupus can attack any organ in your body. Why is a fit 16 year old having low blood sugar spells? I was thin and strong. My blood pressure was too high when I was thin. I had serious depression at 14. All of these things can be and probably were caused by lupus. It was not diagnosed until I was about 32 and that is not unusual. Even now, it goes back and forth. The same doctor will change his/her mind as to if I have it. The doctors don’t know what is going on with me, some will admit it. Many have helped me. Only one was a complete jerk and i stayed with him for too long.
I’ve been taking my blood sugar closely today. Woke with 120, went up to 184 after breakfast maybe around 8am and back to 154 around 10:30am. I know a lot of diabetics that would love to see those kind of numbers. My body is in flux right now. I’m concerned I may have something new going on. I sure hope not, I’m having way too much fun.
My face has been burning all day though, I hate this feeling.
Thanks for your concern Tommy, I shouldn’t have made this so long, no one will read it LOL
I read it Rusty, and I wish that I could be of some help other than to listen and try to imagine the complicated chronic health problems that you have. It seems that your body wants to counteract every good turn that you try for yourself! Probably getting more familiar with that local doctor would be a help to you and an important go-to person in case of emergency. What town is he from or is he in Bogo? Another thing though Rusty, is to be mindful of the white bread products that can be a pitfall for us all in the Philippines. It drives me crazy that although really delicious, the white bread items can reek havok with everyones’ insulin and weight. Maybe you could check if Gaisano Bakery inside the market has a whole wheat bread that would give you some fiber and help your insulin too.I don’t think the small meals spread out through the day would be so bad–I remember once hearing that referred to as “grazing” in diet terms. Too bad you couldn’t develop a taste for the vegetable bittermelon (ampalaya) as it’s bitterness can really help with blood sugar but I know that’s a streach! LOL Ther are also a lot of OTC herbal and vegetable supplements that you can find in the local pharmacy, but I’m not sure if they could help you, maybe the doctor could suggest something. I’m kind of a “nut and berry” person myself, so all this medical stuff is way over my head.
Just do the best you can, so that you can continue to find happy times in spite of everything. I’ll pray for you to get on a more even keel.
Queenie thanks for the concern.
I’m use to dealing with these things so its not so shocking to me. Not over doing is really important.
After spending $200 to $300 a month on meds, I’m just not into buying things I don’t have too. I need a multivitamin and Jessie needs it worse.
Nut and berry person would fit in with my picture of you and probably life a long time. :)
I will try one of those bitter things LOL next time Jessie gets it, we’ll see. I have the idea of sucking on a lemon. Not anything like that?
Yeah my body is fighting me. I don’t understand how I gained so much weight soon after getting married. It may have been an emotional thing, things were not going like I thought they would. I was 20 years old. Perhaps I tried to feel the emptiness with food but I think I gained 50 to 75 pounds in three months! Is that even possible for a normal person to do?
Some where along life, my heart became enlarged. Don’t know when or why that happened. It may be my weight but with the kind of problems I’ve had, I don’t know. As my awesome red neck friends would say “boy, you just ain’t right.”
Bread is my greatest enemy, especially the bread they make here. It has been a long time since I’ve had anything that tasted that good. My first wife use to make bread at times, that was really good but this may be better. I’ve decided I’m going to go back to a mostly fish diet next month. We’ve had trouble buying fish that didn’t have so many bones, our maids are afraid to spend the extra money for the better fish. Have a new friend here, she and Jessie will go to the market and buy fish. She’s lived here all her life. Jessie is not as domestic as most Filipina. She likes her crafts but she’s just never been huge on cooking. Her mother died when she was around 9 so that had a lot to do with that.
I just don’t want to obsess on this stuff. Yeah I write about it, that’s how I’ve always handled things that bother me. I’ve spent too much time being obsessed about doing everything I should and where did it get me? A doctor telling me you’re going to be dead in five years if you don’t get off some of the medication. Then have him appear to be angry with me because I’m on it. What? I didn’t prescribe it. I was still in the US. But that was seven years ago. :)
I think I’m a lot tougher than the doctors think I am. I think that toughness got me into this mess. One day I’ll explain why I think so. I think I ruined my health during my college years.
I’m sorry, credit to your reader, Christine for mentioning ampalaya–I’m stll bleary-eyed from the flight!
There is no reason you can’t mention it too. ;)
Yea Rusty i’m with you on that i was diagnosed with type II DM a few years ago and i have issues with losing weight too.
My issues are that mostly i’m lazy and it doesn’t help i am in a wheelchair most of the time now and not getting the excersize i need to burn caloric intake.
When i was first diagnosed with DM my sugar was like mid 300′s lower 400′s i was put on glyburide 2.5 mg. and 1000 mg of metformin.
well my sugar nose dived so often i had to cut the glyburide.
Have your A1C checked pay special attention to your triglycerides and also your liver function.
Sugar is a fine balance but the fact that your sugar is fluctuating indicates your pancreas is producing insulin.
What do they charge you there for metformin ? I will be coming to Mindanao for good next month and just curious, your post about bringing all those drugs with you and having them shipped in really set me at ease.
Good luck man – talk to ya soon :)
They are P4.45 per 500mg tablet. Not too bad at all. :)
Yes it is still producing, i suspect my try triglycerides are horrible but I’m going to work on that. My liver function had issues at 30. :(
I’ve found a doctor that has his on lab which means he wont have to put me in the hospital for a dang physical. Will go as soon as I can.
Hello Queenie, thanks for joining us, I was beginning to think if I was the only girl reading this forum? You are quite right about the highly processed foods in the Phil. Phil. traditionally had a high fiber diet. What happened? now Filipinos are so fond of the highly processed, highly sugared foods, high fat foods – and you add MSG (monosodium glutamate, vetsin, ajinomoto) and they’re in self-destruct mode. While staying with my brother in PI last year, I was surprised to hear that the most common ailments in his barrio are hypertension and heart disease. I actually remembered my grandmother referring to hypertension as “alta presyon”. Wonder if Cebuanos still use this word?
There had been studies than about the effects of bittermelon. An example of one was reported on this site; http://health-blogging.com/bitter-melon.
Bittermelons aside, Phil. has plenty of delicious and nutritious fruits and vegetables.
Thanks Christine! I’ve been interested in hearing what you have to say too. Go back to earlier posts to find me as I got got back from Cebu.
Really interesting article about ampalaya. I doubt Rusty would care for pinakbet, but chopped paliya with scrambled eggs takes away some of it’s bitterness, and maybe he’d like that. Isn’t there an OTC supplement for it? Also, what is the herbal kamungay supplement called? If anyone knows please let me know. I love kamungay but would like to know about the supplement too.
Rusty sorry to get off the track, but natural supplements are pretty inexpensive and have been found to be very helpful. A lot of local people who can’t afford expensive meds often rely on these for help. I’m just more drawn to them but I know that doesn’t work for everyone.
There is nothing off track about your comment Queenie.
I might have gone that route but I can’t jus t stop with the meds and hope that herbs and things work. Besides some of them have side affects too.
Oh, and mostly I hear people refer to hypertension in Cebu as “high blood”
They do that in most of the world. It is much easier to spell if you don’t deal with it all the time. :)
Hi Queenie, I’ve posted a write-up about Malunggay. My mother used to soak ampalaya in salt to get rid of the bitterness. Over here, I just cooked them straight. I don’t profess at all that you can use ampalaya as substitute for your insulin or hypoglycaemic medications. Rather clinical evidence indicate it can aid in lowering your blood sugar. I will post something about this matter next. Though I have my faith in mainstream medicine (of course I work within it!) I also believe traditonal remedies have a place in mainstream medicine, albeit even if more as preventative rather than a cure. Here in Oz, some herbal stores are actually selling the powdered form of ampalaya. Why would you buy powder when you can enjoy the actual vegetables? Queenie, that ampalaya and eggs is making me hungry-and its 11:00 p.m. here in Oz!
It’s true Rusty–any herbal supplement is more of an enhancement or preventaive and couldn’t replace the powerful meds that you need. As for myself, I’m not a perfect eater or into the best way to live healthy–I guess we all try our best, Right? Some people have complicated health concerns that have to be addressed. Anyone can have health problems at any given time, but I can appreciate that you have a lot more to deal with than the average person for sure.
Christine, can you tell me where Oz is? I’m not sure.
Oh, sorry Queenie, Oz is short for Australia. It’s just easy to say Oz, than Australia repeatedly. Someone coined the name some years back, I think it was an Australian entertainer called Peter Allen . Similarly, Australians are referred to as “Aussies”, and we call mosquitoes here as “mozzies” LOL!. We do like to shorten names here.
Incidentally, are you in PI or abroad? Like Queenie, I don’t have the perfect diet either, though I try to. On the other hand, most dietitians will not say you can’t eat highly processed, sugar-filled foods, just eat them in moderation. Same as alcohol, it’s OK to drink as long as it’s in moderation.