Adults Living with Type 2

[rad41]

Morning

I received a new tester 3 or 4 weeks ago ( one touch ultra) and I seem to be getting the same results every morning.

We all should know what our numbers are by the way we feel. (headache, cold feet, feeling tired, feeling anxious) the meter is just a conformation of what how we are doing number wise. But every morning will read 124,126, 120. not bad I think until I start thing about what I did the night before. I take another test within a minute of the first and my number will jump to about 156, 158. I take it again and it jumps up to about 169.  Has anyone seen this?

Rad

[ronaka]

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rad41 wrote:

Morning

I received a new tester 3 or 4 weeks ago ( one touch ultra) and I seem to be getting the same results every morning.

We all should know what our numbers are by the way we feel. (headache, cold feet, feeling tired, feeling anxious) the meter is just a conformation of what how we are doing number wise. But every morning will read 124,126, 120. not bad I think until I start thing about what I did the night before. I take another test within a minute of the first and my number will jump to about 156, 158. I take it again and it jumps up to about 169.  Has anyone seen this?

---

Rad, based on my experience and what I have read is normal, it is nearly impossible to predict BG readings based on how you feel if they are in the reasonable normal range. At about 65, you will however start to feel a hypoglycemic event and that in most is clearly detectable by feeling. However, by the time you feel it, it can be too late to do a good job of treating it. But lows in that range are not likely possible unless you are taking insulin or use an insulin stimulating drug.

On the readings jumping if you use multiple strips, I can't say I've ever seen that. I have a OneTouch Ultra, UltraMini, and UltraSmart. None of them do it. But, they are not totally repeatable and can vary from strip to strip by up to 20%. A normal target for fasting in the morning would be under 100. However most of us suffer from the dawn phenomenon. That is where BG rises in the early morning. However the rise is slowly over hours, and should not be measurable from minute to minute. But the later in the morning you measure fasting, the harder it will be to be under 100.

Hope that helps some,

[mollythed Respected Contributor]

Yes, we can "sort of" tell whether blood glucose is high or low just like we can tell if the bath water, or a swimming pool is warm or cold, but its  relative sort of thing.  The longer we stay at any one blood glucose level, the more normal it feels, so just as we can get used to cooler water when swimming, we can begin to feel as though high or low blood glucose is just fine.  The extremes are people who are diagnosed with extremely high blood glucose but feel just fine, or those who can have low blood glucose in the 40s and 50s and not feel the least bit shaky.

As for your meter with the jumping levels...how much do you know about the Dawn Phenomenon?  It's really quite normal for our liver to send out extra glucose into the blood each morning to give us energy to kick-start us for a new day.  For people with normal metabolism, that works just fine because at the same time, their body provides insulin to move the glucose out of their blood and into their muscles.  For some of us, though, that second step just doesn't work right, and we get stuck with extra glucose floating around in the blood in increasing amounts.  Often, breakfast can be just the thing we need to trigger off the insulin we need to resolve the problem, so a few grams of carbs can actually have the effect of lowering blood glucose.

Of course, I can't help with long-distance diagnostics on your meter, but it seems as though that just might be your problem.   If  you call the customer service number on the back of your meter, they will probably start by telling you to test your meter with the control solution that came with it.  If you get consistent results with the control solution,over a few tests space out over the same kind of time period,  then you will feel more confident that the change is coming from your blood and not some sort of "warming up" of the meter.                                                                                                                                                              

[talvie]

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ronaka wrote:

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rad41 wrote:

Morning

I received a new tester 3 or 4 weeks ago ( one touch ultra) and I seem to be getting the same results every morning.

We all should know what our numbers are by the way we feel. (headache, cold feet, feeling tired, feeling anxious) the meter is just a conformation of what how we are doing number wise. But every morning will read 124,126, 120. not bad I think until I start thing about what I did the night before. I take another test within a minute of the first and my number will jump to about 156, 158. I take it again and it jumps up to about 169.  Has anyone seen this?

---

Rad, based on my experience and what I have read is normal, it is nearly impossible to predict BG readings based on how you feel if they are in the reasonable normal range. At about 65, you will however start to feel a hypoglycemic event and that in most is clearly detectable by feeling. However, by the time you feel it, it can be too late to do a good job of treating it. But lows in that range are not likely possible unless you are taking insulin or use an insulin stimulating drug.

On the readings jumping if you use multiple strips, I can't say I've ever seen that. I have a OneTouch Ultra, UltraMini, and UltraSmart. None of them do it. But, they are not totally repeatable and can vary from strip to strip by up to 20%. A normal target for fasting in the morning would be under 100. However most of us suffer from the dawn phenomenon. That is where BG rises in the early morning. However the rise is slowly over hours, and should not be measurable from minute to minute. But the later in the morning you measure fasting, the harder it will be to be under 100.

Hope that helps some,

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Actually, you can have a low reading if you're not on insulin.  I've had reactive hypoglycemic events after a large meal that have gone as low as 54.  Not a good feeling.  I'm a Type 2 and with better control of my food plan, I've eliminated the high numbers that sling-shotted me down that low, but yes, they do happen.  I know this from my own experience. 

[ffmaya]

I start getting shaky, sweaty, nauseous and generally feeling weird when I get into the low 70s.  The weird thing is I was 66 one time and didn't feel a thing.

Other than that I can't tell what my BG is, I try to guess before I test and am seldom right, sometimes higher and sometimes lower.

This is still all a big mystery to me.

[rad412001]

I don't knoe how you people do it

I have never been at  120 or below  in my 11 years of type 2

rad41

metformin 1000 mg 2x

Victoza 1.2 mg 1x per day

diet.

and to top it off NASH

[ffmaya]

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rad412001 wrote:

I don't knoe how you people do it

I have never been at  120 or below  in my 11 years of type 2

rad41

metformin 1000 mg 2x

Victoza 1.2 mg 1x per day

diet.

and to top it off NASH

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Maybe your NASH is to blame?  I know nothing about this disease other than it is a liver disease.  Maybe the BG numbers are higher due to that additional stress on your body.

[ronaka]

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rad412001 wrote:

 I don't knoe how you people do it

 I have never been at  120 or below  in my 11 years of type 2

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You are at the effective maximum dose of metformin. One easy trick you can try is to take all the metformin at bedtime. It may work differently for you, but I take the whole 2000 at bedtime and it lowered my morning fasting by about 20 points compared to spreading it out with meals during the day.

Another very effective tool is insulin at bedtime to lower morning fasting. I currently take 15 units of Levemir and my morning fasting is averaging about 80.

[rad412001]

Farida

Nash is a form of cirrhosis of the liver. The doctors know of the results but still don't know what triggers the event.  So I go to the liver doctors, they take blood and comes back to me with a Meld score, which tells them how effective the liver is a that time

The meld range is from 4 to 40, mine is at 12 when I reach 20 to 25 I will be placed on the nation wide transplant list . but the doctors says you will most likely die from old age first. So they tell me to stop drinking , stop smoking and go on a low sodium diet, no more than 2000mgs of salt per day

Ron

I believe my endow is against any other pills, the next step would be insulin, he keeps telling me  that my numbers will go down if I lose 20 to 30 lbs (current weight was 242 this AM)

So I will take all of the metformin at dinner time first for a couple of weeks and see what happens. If no change then I will try the pills before bed

rad41

[ronaka]

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rad412001 wrote:

Ron

I believe my endow is against any other pills, the next step would be insulin, he keeps telling me  that my numbers will go down if I lose 20 to 30 lbs (current weight was 242 this AM)

So I will take all of the metformin at dinner time first for a couple of weeks and see what happens. If no change then I will try the pills before bed

rad41

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You may want to ask your endo about repaglinide (Prandin). My recollection is that it is removed from the body by the kidney and not the liver like many other drugs. For that reason it may be more compatible with your liver condition. It stimulates insulin for each meal, and can be synergistic with metformin.

Basal insulin like Levemir would likely be a good idea though.