Readings all over the place

[Mattcl]

Hello,
So for the past couple of months my readings have been all over the place with no correlation, my sugar used to be well controlled and 9 or below most of the time, but now I can’t predict what my readings will be at all, for example this morning I got 14.3, I then went for quite a lengthy run and my sugars after came to 22. The only thing I ate in between was half a cup of bran flakes, I’m loosing weight and I can feel myself getting fitter but my sugars continue to be all over the place. Any advice would be appreciated. I’m currently on 160mg of gliclazide twice a day.

 

[Ditsy daisy]

Hello,
So for the past couple of months my readings have been all over the place with no correlation, my sugar used to be well controlled and 9 or below most of the time, but now I can’t predict what my readings will be at all, for example this morning I got 14.3, I then went for quite a lengthy run and my sugars after came to 22. The only thing I ate in between was half a cup of bran flakes, I’m loosing weight and I can feel myself getting fitter but my sugars continue to be all over the place. Any advice would be appreciated. I’m currently on 160mg of gliclazide twice a day.

I'm not sure what advice I can give you but I'd like to say it's happending to me too. My sugars aren't predictable most of the time and I'm really struggling to get my readings down in the morning aswell. We just got to keep fighting I say don't give up and don't beat yourself up if you have a bad reading. diabetes is a hard thing to control especially when trying to balance the excercise aswell. Your doing great and maybe you should ask your diabetes nurse some questions aswell. It's frustrating when I try to ring up i always have to leave a voice message to my nurse to call back. At least we can all talk to eachother here though ☺ all the best, ditsy daisy ☺ and don't forget there's the diabetes uk helpline aswell

 

[Drummer]

As vigorous exercise and eating high carbohydrate foods will both raise glucose levels that sort of figure is to be expected, I'm afraid, even with the medication.

 

[Mattcl]

As vigorous exercise and eating high carbohydrate foods will both raise glucose levels that sort of figure is to be expected, I'm afraid, even with the medication.

Thanks for your reply, I’ve always been under the impression that running decreased blood glucose? Whenever I’ve ran before the levels have gone down by a portion?

 

[Drummer]

The liver releases glucose during exercise, just in case you are going to need it, at least that is the usual situation - when taking Metformin the liver is inhibited, and once you calm/cool down the level is adjusted.

 

[Mattcl]

The liver releases glucose during exercise, just in case you are going to need it, at least that is the usual situation - when taking Metformin the liver is inhibited, and once you calm/cool down the level is adjusted.

Thank you, that really helps

 

[Ditsy daisy]

The liver releases glucose during exercise, just in case you are going to need it, at least that is the usual situation - when taking Metformin the liver is inhibited, and once you calm/cool down the level is adjusted.

Yes I know what you mean it goes up first then comes down once you've cooled off

 

[Ditsy daisy]

Thank you, that really helps

Good luck I wish you all the best with it. We're strong together ☺

 

[SB2015]

Welcome to the forum @Mattcl .

Sorry that you are struggling with your levels at the moment.
Like @Ditsy daisy I am also finding that mine are misbehaving at present, mainly because I am not following my usual routines. I like the idea that Diabetes has no memory. Each day is a new day to manage. So try to learn from what you have done and start again.

I remember my confusion when I started to do more intense activity as I thought that I was helping my levels. However I found my glucose levels rising, especially afterwards. As @Drummer has said this is when you Liver is dumping some glucose to top up your reserves. I was advised not to exercise if my levels were 14 or above, and to bring them down first.

Having said that, your meal of cereal beforehand is high carb so to have that in top of a high reading and then do intense exercise, that would be a triple whammy. You could try to replace your cereal (which I have seen as describes a bowl of sugar in disguise) with something that is lower carb and also slower release. I choose to make a muesli with quinoa flakes rather than oats, and can have a good bowlful with half an apple and still be under my target of 30 g at each meal.

It might help you if you worked out how much carb you are eating. You could then reduce this by swapping things or reducing the size of the portion.

I hope that that helps.

 

[Inka]

Hello,
So for the past couple of months my readings have been all over the place with no correlation, my sugar used to be well controlled and 9 or below most of the time, but now I can’t predict what my readings will be at all, for example this morning I got 14.3, I then went for quite a lengthy run and my sugars after came to 22. The only thing I ate in between was half a cup of bran flakes, I’m loosing weight and I can feel myself getting fitter but my sugars continue to be all over the place. Any advice would be appreciated. I’m currently on 160mg of gliclazide twice a day.

Hi @Mattcl Are you overweight and trying to lose weight or is the weight loss ‘accidental’? I ask because sometimes adults are diagnosed as Type 2 but are actually a slow-onset Type 1. It’s always worth ruling out if you’re suddenly struggling to control your sugars for no apparent reason.

Exercise affects me differently depending on what time of day I do it. It usually lowers my blood sugar by early morning it puts it up. You could possibly look at moving your exercise time to see if that helped.

 

[Mattcl]

Thanks for the reply, I’m aware I shouldn’t really heavily exercise if my level is above 14 but I’m struggling at the moment to find a time where the sugars are below 14, I usually have porridge and that didn’t seem to be working so I switched to cereal just for today to see if it would change (obviously was a mistake). The 14.3 reading I took this morning was done first thing in the morning before eating. I also cook most of my meals from the diabetes uk website recipes and never snack. I feel as though I’m doing everything right but nothing is changing, the only negative change I can really think of is the lack of normal routine, I work in the film industry so I’m always on my feet. I’ve tried to counteract that with heavy exercise each day and maybe I’m not giving it enough time before testing after the exercise but honestly I have no clue at the moment.

 

[Mattcl]

Hi @Mattcl Are you overweight and trying to lose weight or is the weight loss ‘accidental’? I ask because sometimes adults are diagnosed as Type 2 but are actually a slow-onset Type 1. It’s always worth ruling out if you’re suddenly struggling to control your sugars for no apparent reason.

Exercise affects me differently depending on what time of day I do it. It usually lowers my blood sugar by early morning it puts it up. You could possibly look at moving your exercise time to see if that helped.

I am overweight slightly but my diabetes has stemmed from rare kidney disease and has nothing to do with my weight, my kidney disease is called hnf1b and includes renal cysts and diabetes. There is no connection between my weight and diet to my diabetes

 

[Inka]

Thanks for clarifying 😉 I think in that case it would be helpful to speak to your team as they would know if you needed any change to your medication and would be familiar with your particular condition and what works best.

I hope you get it sorted. It’s very frustrating when you get highs for no reason.

 

[SB2015]

Thanks for the reply, I’m aware I shouldn’t really heavily exercise if my level is above 14 but I’m struggling at the moment to find a time where the sugars are below 14, I usually have porridge and that didn’t seem to be working so I switched to cereal just for today to see if it would change (obviously was a mistake). The 14.3 reading I took this morning was done first thing in the morning before eating. I also cook most of my meals from the diabetes uk website recipes and never snack. I feel as though I’m doing everything right but nothing is changing, the only negative change I can really think of is the lack of normal routine, I work in the film industry so I’m always on my feet. I’ve tried to counteract that with heavy exercise each day and maybe I’m not giving it enough time before testing after the exercise but honestly I have no clue at the moment.

Hi Matt

I hope that you can get some clarity from your health care team. Something certainly needs to be changed if you are regularly waking with a BG of 14 ish. They will know more about you and be able to suggest changes if needed to your meds.

It might still be worth working out how many carbs you are eating at each meal.
They will all become glucose once inside you, so less carbs would mean less glucose.
I know I was surprised at how many we were eating when we started to do that.
Only by knowing how much you are eating and the source of these can you then decide what to change.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

The liver releases glucose during exercise, just in case you are going to need it, at least that is the usual situation - when taking Metformin the liver is inhibited, and once you calm/cool down the level is adjusted.

Thank you, that really helps

It depends on the intensity and type of exercise.

You are right that aerobic exercise, like jogging does generally reduce blood glucose levels. However very intense ‘anaerobic’ exercise like sprints or heavy weights can release stored glucose from the liver and muscles as fuel. 🙂

 

[trophywench]

@Mattcl - your 'type' is usually known as HNF1B MODY, and can respond to oral drugs initially, but not for ever, hence patients need insulin. It's not T2 whatever, even when it IS responding to drugs normally associated with T2.

Sounds to me like that time has probably come.

Hence you absolutely need to talk to your doctor.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Thanks for the reply, I’m aware I shouldn’t really heavily exercise if my level is above 14 but I’m struggling at the moment to find a time where the sugars are below 14, I usually have porridge and that didn’t seem to be working so I switched to cereal just for today to see if it would change (obviously was a mistake). The 14.3 reading I took this morning was done first thing in the morning before eating. I also cook most of my meals from the diabetes uk website recipes and never snack. I feel as though I’m doing everything right but nothing is changing, the only negative change I can really think of is the lack of normal routine, I work in the film industry so I’m always on my feet. I’ve tried to counteract that with heavy exercise each day and maybe I’m not giving it enough time before testing after the exercise but honestly I have no clue at the moment.

This sounds really frustrating for you @Mattcl

Sorry to hear about your kidney problems too - do they make managing your diabetes more difficult?

Are you taking any meds to help with your BG levels?

It certainly sounds like your diabetes has shifted the goalposts with your BG levels recently. So it would be worth trying to speak to your diabetes nurse or GP by a phone appointment to discuss your options.

In the meantime, you could use Alan S’s ‘test review adjust’ approach to see how your BG is responding to different meals and try some tweaks and swaps to improve post-meal levels.

Test, Review, Adjust

Managing blood glucose levels for type 2 diabetes. Learning how to achieve long term control by testing and diet.

loraldiabetes.blogspot.com