New here - extreme (EXTREME!) tiredness and worries about the future

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Southener84

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Relationship to Diabetes
At risk of diabetes
Hello everyone

Sorry for the long post.

I'm new here, and I could do with some help/guidance/motivation etc to try to get to the bottom of the way I feel and some of my symptoms. Firstly, I know the immediate answer is go to my doctor, and I am in progress of conversations with them, but I'm more than a little worried and wanted to see what others had to say.

So a bit of background and all cards on the table - 37 year old male, Indian descent from a couple generations back, smoker, ashamed to be very overweight, not in great physical state, or mental shape for that matter, which is a vicious cycle as one feeds the other it seems. So on first look it would seem I am the poster child for Diabetes. And I'm afraid that I've let myself get into the point where it's happened.

Last year, I was also tested as pre-diabetic and this prompted me to go on a mission to reduce my sugars etc to the point that the nurse was very impressed about the level I'd managed to get the numbers down to. However me being me, let things get worse again and I'm now sure it's actually worse than it was when I first got tested.

My main issue right now is extreme and crushing fatigue. I don't just mean that I feel a bit drowsy or lazy, I mean that I am physically unable to stay awake for most of the daytime. During work, during family time, in the middle of conversations, I will just fall asleep with my body unable to keep my eyes open, most of the time I'm not even aware it's happening, and I'll wake up having missed a work meeting or worse, woken up having been snoring on a work call that I've fallen asleep on! It is so bad that unless I force myself to literally walk about so my body doesn't have the ability to fall asleep, I will fall asleep. It's like someone is pulling my eyes closed forcefully and making my mind switch off.

But this only seems to happen until about maybe 3pm. Not exclusively, but it definitely is much worse in the morning to early afternoon time. After that, in the evenings watching TV for example, I am generally fine apart from just feeling that "post nap" grogginess that I've experienced for most my life anyway.

I don't want to overstate it, but it's honestly ruining my life.

My wife is convinced I have sleep apnea and the videos she has taken of me, along with my own knowledge of me in the nighttime certainly seem to agree with that, and I'm in the process of getting a sleep study done to see if the machine can detect it or not. I'm sure I will have it, especially due to my weight and how that can make it happen too. But If I do have it, I'm sure I've had it longer than this daytime sleep issue has been happening. So while I know apnea can cause excessive tiredness, I'm fairly confident that what I am experiencing is related to something else, compounded by the apnea, rather than caused by it.

So I'm worried that it's diabetes that's causing it and that I've got so far that I've ruined myself and honestly I'm scared that I won't be able to be "normal" again. sorry if that sounds overly dramatic but it's how I'm feeling.

Can diabetes cause this extreme level of issue with tiredness that I'm physically unable to stay awake? I know I need to do something major and that's a question for another post but in the meantime, I guess I'm just looking for some support or help or hopefully even someone to say they've been in this position and they fixed it somehow!

Again, sorry for the long post, I tend to ramble a bit but thank you for any help in advance.
 
Hi , I was boarder line a few years ago and my GP sent me to see a specialist at a local hospital.

Weight loss was paramount to my recovery.I would snore and stop breathing in bed and it became so bad my wife slept in our second bedroom.

When I was in the waiting room people who came in sat down and fell asleep ! ( Instantly )

I was given a questionnaire to fill in and it was in reality a suitability to drive assessment.

I never had any issues staying awake when when driving.

I did smoke but stopped over 40 years ago but alcohol is stil a comfort but I do stop drinking from time to time to make sure I am in control of my habit. I find walking still is a real help and try to walk 8000 steps per day on average over a year.

I am type 2 diabetic.
 
Hi, I don't think Diabetes can (directly) cause Sleep Apnea but being overweight can - especially if you have excess fat around your neck.
People dispute whether (Type 2) Diabetes causes excess weight (since excess glucose in the blood stream is removed into fat cells). Or whether it is the excess weight (or excess fat in and around the liver and pancreas) which cause 'insulin resistance' and thus Type 2 Diabetes.

For most T2 diabetics I suggest using a Low Carb way of eating (since all carb consumed turn into blood glucose which needs either natural or external Insulin to deal with it (Insulin is the Fat Storage hormone). But in your case perhaps you need to actually reduce your daly calories a little as well as eating more protein and less carbs.
 
Sorry I wasn't saying diabetes caused the Apnea, just stating that I have that issue probably on top of the potential diabetes. I was more concerned about what is causing the excessive falling asleep that seems even too extreme for apnea to be causing.
 
Southener84 said:
Sorry I wasn't saying diabetes caused the Apnea, just stating that I have that issue probably on top of the potential diabetes. I was more concerned about what is causing the excessive falling asleep that seems even too extreme for apnea to be causing.
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Does this sound familiar if so there is a self assessment but you should ask for referral to a sleep clinic.
Excessive daytime sleepiness is usually the first sign of narcolepsy. It can have a significant impact on everyday life. Feeling drowsy throughout the day and struggling to stay awake makes it difficult to concentrate at work or school. People with narcolepsy may be misjudged as being lazy or rude.
Also ask for an HbA1C to test for diabetes if it is some time since you had one.
Reducing your carbs may help in the meantime.
 
Welcome to the forum @Southener84

Sorry to hear about the difficult time you are having - that level of tiredness really doesn’t sound normal, and while having diabetes and elevated BG levels can certainly cause quite profound fatigue and tiredness - the situations you describe do seem to merit futuer investigation.

Hope you can recover some of the ground you made initially with your BG levels. Are you due a follow-up check any time soon? If not it would be worth contacting your surgery and requesting one to get a feel for where your average glucose levels are now.

When it comes to modifying your menu it’s worth taking into account that while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, it is *all* carbohydrate (not just ‘of which sugars’) that have the capacity to raise your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.

That doesn’t mean you have to try to avoid carbohydrate completely (which is very hard to do), but cutting back on portion sizes of the main carbohydrate element of meals or looking for lower carb swaps (eg swede or celeriac for potatoes) can make a huge difference.

Hope you manage to get an appointment, referral or checkup soon and can get your drowsiness looked into.

Let us know how things go 🙂
 
I used to fall asleep as well.
And broken sleep at night.
I never actually went to a sleep clinic, but did get wired up at home.

I was diagnosed as type 2 at the same time.

I attacked all my health issues then, not just BG.

I worked with the NHS, their dietician worked with me to support a low fat healthy diet, for around a year, and I took all the meds on offer, and the use of an NHS gym and physio.
At the end of that I did the 800 calorie shake based Newcastle diet.
Overall I lost around 5 stones, all my health improved, now no issues with diabetes, sleep, blood pressure, and I still go to the local leisure centre five times a week.
 
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