Odd blood levels

[Terry Cordery]

Hello to everyone. I have type 2 diabetes and was diagnosed about 12 years ago. At first it was well controlled with Avandamet and Gliclazide. Now Avandamet is unavailable and I have been given Janumet and Gliclazide. I feel that my glucose levels are uncontrolled. My last Hba1C was 7.4 and my daily glucose levels are about 8.3 to 11.9. Most worrying is that I frequently wake up during the night. At these times I sometimes test my blood and find that the sugar level is lowish ...around 7.0 I do not eat or drink anything during the night but when I test my blood just before breakfast I find the level has risen alarmingly. Last night the level was 6.9 and this morning it was 11.9. How can this be. What is going on? Should I panic now or wait a little while.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Your rise overnight sounds like classic 'Dawn Phenomenon' to me. An automatic 'fire up the burners' release of glucose stored in the body triggered by the liver in the early hours of the morning designed to get our cave dwelling forebears ready for an early morning Mammoth hunt 🙂

Some people find a low/no carb snack at night (eg some cold meat/cheese perhaps on an oat cracker) can help keep the liver happy over night. It can also help to eat a lowish carb breakfast as soon as possible after rising so that the liver gets the message that fuel is available.

M

 

[Natalie123]

Hi Terry, welcome to the forum! I am type 1 so hopefully another type 2 will be along shortly, but I think it depends how long your sugar levels have been like that? If it has not been long it is not too worrying and changing your diet or exercising more should help. If it has been a long time it is worth speaking to your doctor and discussing your medication, it might be that the new meds you are on are not suiting you and they can try something else.

 

[Terry Cordery]

Thanks very much for the replies. It is all rather confusing, going from a state of good control to a feeling of no control at all in a little less than a year. It does not help when visiting the doctor to go through the whole consultation in French when my first language is English. I manage, but there are times when the going is difficult. But this is a small price to pay for living in the beautiful Dordogne valley.

Terry.

 

[Northerner]

...It does not help when visiting the doctor to go through the whole consultation in French when my first language is English. I manage, but there are times when the going is difficult. But this is a small price to pay for living in the beautiful Dordogne valley.

Terry.

I can imagine, as the intricacies of blood sugar control and diabetes are probably not the sort of thing you expect to come across when learning a new language! We have members in Spain, Norway and Finland that encounter similar difficulties!

 

[Steff]

Hi Terry and welcome to the forum x

 

[donnarob]

Hi Terry,

I find stress definitely elevates my levels and I can see where the doctors are coming from if you keep testing and see higher than normal numbers. I'd become quite complacent and wasn't testing a great deal on holiday, but because I was relaxed, my numbers showed this. Stomach has been very upset of late and I'm sure this is causing the higher bs levels.

Donna 🙂