• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

New boy from Dumfries...

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
D

David Baird

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi. I have been diabetic (T2) for around ten years. For ages, my blood sugar was well controlled, but recently my control has slipped. This is due to a combination of forgetting to take doses and comfort eating due to stress/anxiety/depression. The last couple of days has been OK. My regimen is Metformin/Gliclazide morning and night, with just Metformin at lunchtime (the ones I most commonly forget to take). Two nights ago, having had dinner around 7pm, I took my evening dose (Metformin/Gliclazide/Statin and Beta Blocker. I went to bed around 10pm, and put my light out around midnight. At 2.30am, I woke up, extremely agitated, and realised I was very hungry. Checked my blood sugar and it was 4.1. I ate a chicken roll and went back to bed, anxiety subsided and I slept. Got up yesterday morning, blood sugar, 6.3. All fine. Last night, dinner around 6pm, pills at bedtime around 10-ish, but couldn't sleep so I read till almost 2am. Around 1.30am, I became very hungry and agitated (cold sweats). Checked blood sugar, 4.2. I had a roll with banana and went to sleep. Checked my blood sugar (fasting) at 9am, 11.5!!!!! I had a bowl of cornflakes and a cup of tea for breakfast, checked blood around 11.30am - 15.5!!! What am I doing wrong????
 
Last edited:
Welcome aboard. sorry don't really know about T2. Someone will be along to help out soon
 
David Baird said:
Hi. I have been diabetic (T2) for around ten years. For ages, my blood sugar was well controlled, but recently my control has slipped. This is due to a combination of forgetting to take doses and comfort eating due to stress/anxiety/depression. The last couple of days has been OK. My regimen is Metformin/Gliclazide morning and night, with just Metformin at lunchtime (the ones I most commonly forget to take). Two nights ago, having had dinner around 7pm, I took my evening dose (Metformin/Gliclazide/Statin and Beta Blocker. I went to bed around 10pm, and put my light out around midnight. At 2.30am, I woke up, extremely agitated, and realised I was very hungry. Checked my blood sugar and it was 4.1. I ate a chicken roll and went back to bed, anxiety subsided and I slept. Got up yesterday morning, blood sugar, 6.3. All fine. Last night, dinner around 6pm, pills at bedtime around 10-ish, but couldn't sleep so I read till almost 2am. Around 1.30am, I became very hungry and agitated (cold sweats). Checked blood sugar, 4.2. I had a roll with banana and went to sleep. Checked my blood sugar (fasting) at 9am, 11.5!!!!! I had a bowl of cornflakes and a cup of tea for breakfast, checked blood around 11.30am - 15.5!!! What am I doing wrong????
Click to expand...
Hi David, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear you are having difficulties :( It sounds to me like your gliclizide dose might need reviewing, as it is most likely this that is sending you low during the night. Are you taking a reading before bed? It's useful, so you can then gauge how much your levels have fallen through the night. Although the 4s you have been getting are very low, they are not 'officially' hypos, since these would be below 4.0 mmol/l, but it's possible that you were actually lower and the hypo symptoms woke you up as your liver reacted to release some extra glucose to try and raise your levels. You are probably getting such pronounced symptoms because your body is unused to experiencing levels so low, so your brain interprets this as a 'panic' situation, even though it is not in reality.

The difference in your subsequent waking readings are probably explained by the difference in carbohydrate amounts you ate - roll+banana would be much greater carb content than roll+chicken. The chances are that, without the banana your levels would have been similar to when you ate the chicken. Eating cornflakes after your reading of 11.5 raised your blood sugar levels by only 4 more mmol, which isn't actually too bad, although you might have been better advised to eat a carb-free breakfast so levels wouldn't have gone higher.

Hope that makes some sense! As I said at the beginning, I would ask your GP/nurse to review your medication in light of these lows 🙂
 
Hiya!

Yes, what Northerner said. It's usual to take Gliclazide before eating carbs though, not before bed - since it makes the pancreas push out more insulin, which is supposed to act on whatever you eat - not to correct high BG at any other time. So you have the Glic, eat your meal, and by bedtime your BG should be lower and therefore your waking BG should be correspondingly lower. The body automatically reduces everyone's BG at around 3am anyway and then gradually increases it before waking to face the day. Even T1s often still produce a teensy bit of their own insulin, not enough to do anything useful otherwise but when we're asleep and so not using many muscles or other bodily functions to completely drain the natural stuff, our bodies still do this. You still produce your own, so obviously it hits you more noticeably. This was actually happening all your life - but of course you never noticed it before!
 
Thanks folks. I have had my usual daytime diet - a clementine, cup of tea, some cheese, and at the moment (5pm) my blood sugar is down to 6. I was really wound up about my sugar being all over the place. I am going to see my diabetic nurse on Friday coming, so I will talk things over with her. You have raised a serious lack in my knowledge though, and I will correct it with immediate effect. I had no idea how gliclazide or metformin works, and all it says on the package is to take it twice a day, with no indication of when. Consequently, I have tended to take it with what I call my 'night time' dose, and that is hinged around the statin which I take. It looks like I need to review my medication knowledge and practice. Thanks again. You guys are the best.
 
Welcome to the forum, Dave.:D
 
Hi and welcome to forum dave
 
Hi and welcome Dave - you will always get the right answers round these parts 😉
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top