Help needed

[LilGizmo86]

Hi guys,

I am new here and need a little help as i am really concerned.
I have been having sudden and dangerous drops in blood sugar levels for several years which my previous GP began investigation before he left. Now nobody is doing anything. The drops are sudden, scary and make me panic. I would drink a pure orange juice to bring them up. However i am now getting used to them or something and i am slowly starting to not recongise when i am starting until i almost pass out. Like it is the most horrible scary feeling ever. While my GP was investigating i bought a glucose monitor and kept a diary as he asked and i always take a reading when this happens. They are literally never high but always suddenly drop seriously low. Sometimes i just get an error msg on the reader saying too low to monitor.
My new GP does the blood tests but i dont get diagnosed with diabetes as the readings need to be over a certain amount which is never going to happen as they never go high.
I have all manner of neurological and sight issues which they are trying to claim is MS. I seriously disagree and feel it is due to unstable blood sugars (they drop low at least once a day) and i worry this is neuropathy and not MS.
This concerns me as if it is it will only get worse but nobody is listening to me and just repeat the bloods which are never high.
I feel sick now when i eat and literally dont know what is right and wrong to eat as i just feel so ill and sick all the time.
Has anyone have any experience of this? What should i do? I have considered buying a CGM and providing them with the constant daily readings to show the drops but that is expensive and i dont know if they will even look at them.
I have even started to develop Beau's lines in my finger nails which my aunt and grandad have who are both type 1 so i know it is related.
I would really appreciate any help you can offer. Thank you 🙂

 

[khskel]

Do the drops occur after eating? There is a condition known as reactive hypoglycaemia. Where your pancreas pumps out too much insulin in response to the carb intake.

 

[PhoebeC]

I just googled Beau's lines as i didnt know what is was. I think I have one on my little finger, left hand. What does it mean? should I be worried?

Call diabetes uk or 111. I think this sounds concerning to me, and I feel that if your GP isn't taking it seriously you need to try elsewhere.

 

[mikeyB]

Hi LilGizmo

The first thing to say is that you don’t get diabetic neuropathy and sight problems without persistent high blood glucose.

Second thing is that Beau’s lines occur at the onset of any systemic condition. They are just a flag that ‘something changed’. On individual fingers, they are usually due to a minor injury to the nailbed. I got Beau’s lines when I kicked off with Ulcerative Colitis, and also when my current neurological problems started, but interestingly not when the diabetes started.

I think you should go with the flow and get the possible MS investigated properly, if that is the working diagnosis you have been given. There are anecdotal reports of hypoglycaemia occurring before diagnosis of MS, but it’s not a consistent feature. Nothing ever is in MS.

Don’t be feart about the diagnosis, like diabetes, MS is a life changing, but not a life ending diagnosis.

 

[PhoebeC]

I’m less worried about the nail thing, never a good idea to google heath issues haha!

 

[Hepato-pancreato]

Why not GP’s do it all the time.
Sometimes it can save your Gp time by not having to do it himself.

 

[WHT]

within reason! Is something GP's can't stop so therefore 'go with the flow'. The more you tell someone NOT to do something the more it proceeds. But think over time they've found that it's a bit helpful for when people take the initiative to resolve their own issues. If it is serious one should go see their doc. But the impression I get is if it is not LIFE THREATENING then see a qualified nurse for most things and see a doctor for the most serious things.
Although is frustrating when you get a medication review and you can't see the nurse it has to be the doctor and you walk in and they ask 'what seems to be the matter?' and you reply 'medication review' seems such a waste of an appt with a doctor when a fully qualified nurse can do just the same.

 

[trophywench]

Au contraire WHT - at or docs is as difficult to get to see a nurse as it is a GP. This very morning I had a medication review as some of my 'repeats' were reaching low numbers. Now - why the hell they need to waste a medical professional's time OR the patient's by doing this is a complete mystery to me, the patient. AFAIK neither Type 1 diabetes, hypothyroidism, intermittent claudication nor higher BP (in a smoker aged 68 with T1) has become curable - and all of these are 'looked after' by hospital specialists, none of whom have in recent years, suggested any different drug treatments - in which case I'd have already had the 'repeats' on the GP's list altered.

At our surgery - patients have to see a clinical pharmacist for these reviews - not a nurse or a GP. This suits me as he's great and knows one heck of a lot more about the drugs than the doctors seem to - he changed one thing this morning.

I take Clopidogrel because of intermittent claudication for which purpose there's always been a standing instruction and a pre-written 'repeat scrip' for me to get Olmeprazole should I get acid reflux from the Clopidogrel. I'm currently having a bit of a prob with acid and wonder if I ought to start getting the O prescribed? Oooh, no, says he. They don't mix well together - Lanzaprazole instead is what you need, they did clinical research at a certain dose of Clopidogrel and O and the decision was extrapolated from that, that any dose of it would sit quite happily with O - but the snag is, it doesn't! Hence I now have a scrip for L - and he's bunged me on calcium and Vit D chews cos I'm ancient (and we know my Vit D levels drop A Lot in the winter but after the initial treatment (after I happened to have a bone scan privately ages ago) they wouldn't prescribe any more.

So all in all - a very useful half hour on a Saturday!

 

[grovesy]

I saw a Pharmacist for my last review too.

 

[WHT]

@trophywench I use Olmeprazole is good for acid but I used it in conjunction with naproxen so didn't knacker my stomach. Lanzpraxole is just as good. Unlike yerself being able to see a clinical pharmacist* for reviews mine always has to go through doctor. Why 🙄 is beyond me. Now has taken me off Naproxen which I do need and left me on Olmeprazole. !?! But suffer does one; and I ain't getting any younger.

*pharmacy where get script fulfilled wouldn't have time to see people since our collection time for scripts has moved from 3 to 4 days (not including the day is put in). Go figure!?!

 

[grovesy]

Long term use of non steroidal is not recommended these days.

 

[WHT]

Well communication is recommended instead of just 'removing' and not saying. Can understand long term 'side effects' liver function being one of them. Hence diabetes on top of this.

 

[grovesy]

Well communication is recommended instead of just 'removing' and not saying. Can understand long term 'side effects' liver function being one of them. Hence diabetes on top of this.

As i understood it was more a risk of cardio vascular problems. I had it mentioned to me on more than one occasion be different doctors.

 

[mikeyB]

This thread appears to have strayed so far off topic it might as well be brought to a .

 

[trophywench]

Depends whether there's anything else which can be used to treat whatever the NSAID was prescribed to treat, doesn't it? I know exactly what for and why all my drugs have been prescribed - and if any of them need changing for whatever reason then I would fully expect to have a sensible conversation with the doctor (hospital or GP) who is giving the treatment about that before it takes place. If anything on my repeats was removed with no explanation, I'd be banging on their door demanding one.