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So now I know what a 'down' day is like

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Guyfrombrum

Guyfrombrum

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
This Saturday (the one just gone) was the first time since having T2 that i actually felt like breaking into tears.

Me and the wife were replacing five fence panels. Just slot in types, some needed a few modifications but nothing i would call difficult.

Well i had to have three breaks as i kept feeling weak and unable to do anything. I have never felt like this before. But my wife telling me to sit to the side whilst she chisels at a bit of dodgy concrete was the tipping point.

I have never felt so useless in my life. It was pathetic. I didn't even have the strength to carry a panel round the garden by myself either. I check sugar levels, they were fine (well by fine i mean nothing out of the ordinary for me), i had a snack, that didn't help it was basically c**p.

So i suppose this was my official down day. Such a shame as i had soo much planned, i woke up at 7am it was a lovely day and i stayed in bed till 11am just because i was feeling too bone idle to do anything. I done nothing useful at all during the day and for some reason there is something at the back of my head blaming the Ziclacy tablet for my laziness.

It has occurred to me that i am physically really weak. This has started to affect me personally as i have lost the confidence i had just a few months ago. I dared go to the gym like i wanted to as i'm scared or pretty much paranoid about Hypo's and making myself look like a fool struggling with an empty bar.

Pins and needles - I thought i had forgotten something, well the pins and needles i recently experienced in my right foot was something else. All feelings below my ankle area had disappeared. I was jabbing bits of my foot with my finger and pinching it but could not feel zilch. Nothing at all. It's all good fun until i had to get up and walk like i'm practically drunk.

Oh well, milk spilt. I feel better now 😛

Mods - can you fix the title please, i've made a silly typo
 
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Sorry to hear you've been through the mill today Brum :(

Any idea what caused your feelings of weakness? Were your levels lower than you'd expect/you are used to? Or higher?

Sometimes a bad experience like that does really knock you for six and it can take a day or two to recover from the emotional upheaval.

Don't give up on the gym if that is something you want to do. No reason why it cannot be accommodated alongside with your D with a bit of forethought/planning
 
Was Saturday hot where you were? Could that explain your feelings of weakness? Or psychological basis for feeling physically weak.

I was surprised at how unenergetic the 2 teenage Duke of Edinburgh Award volunteers were - they stopped pulling up ragwort plants (we were clearing ragwort from a field where we intend to harvest hay) after only about 30 minutes. Sure, it was sunny, with no shade in field, and they only brought one 500ml bottle of water between them, but I (late 40s, carrying 500ml watwer bottle for myself and had been labouring all morning before they arrived) was happy to continue far longer. They drank all their water, so we had to go to a building for shade and more water.
 
Guyfrombrum, how long has it been since you started to get control of your BGs? Reason I ask is before I was diagnosed I never had a problem doing tons of DIY all day - nothing would wear me out. But after I got DX as t2 and got my BGs down to somewhere near normal I suddenly would run out of energy very quickly and feel sick and as weak as a kitten. I'd have to sit down for 30 mins and eat to recover.

Now that I'm used to these BG levels it doesn't tend to happen any more even after a lot of hard work as long as I remember to eat sensibly. The only thing I notice now is I get very short tempered when my sugars are low, the wife normally spots this first and makes me eat something.
 
itsallgood said:
Guyfrombrum, how long has it been since you started to get control of your BGs? Reason I ask is before I was diagnosed I never had a problem doing tons of DIY all day - nothing would wear me out. But after I got DX as t2 and got my BGs down to somewhere near normal I suddenly would run out of energy very quickly and feel sick and as weak as a kitten. I'd have to sit down for 30 mins and eat to recover.

Now that I'm used to these BG levels it doesn't tend to happen any more even after a lot of hard work as long as I remember to eat sensibly. The only thing I notice now is I get very short tempered when my sugars are low, the wife normally spots this first and makes me eat something.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply bud, i've started getting control... well pretty recent really and i do suddenly run out of energy and i have zero strength. Practically nothing. Zilch. A bit of a pain when i work in maintenance.

I'm trying to eat more sensibly however coupled with my rapid weight loss my appetite as generally small anyway.
 
Brum,

Sorry to hear about this but can totally relate to this as I was beginning to think it was just me who suffered:(

I like yourself suffer from totally from this type of thing when suddenly I have no energy and feel really weak (which annoys me as I used to be a professional sports person years ago !!)

I have visited my GP and currently have had several tests etc which all came back OK .
 
We all get days like that, some are worse than others. I make plans but have learned to have a back up plan too. I try to mix being active with being inactive and having time for me too.

I hope you feel better soon. I often find something just clicks and wonder why I didn't think of it before.
 
Hi, G from B, I come from West Brom.

Been away from the forum a couple of months so forgive me - how long have you had diabetes? Reason I ask is, that wiped-out feeling could be a sign of an underactive thyroid if it isn't just your body getting used to lower BG levels, and thyroid probs is one of the things we usually get tested for every so often along with every other thing they test when they take armfuls of blood.

Dead feet/pins and needles could also be from diabetes, if you haven't noticed it before you 'took control' then it's likely a good sign rather than a bad one because people often don't realise they are losing feeling (ie some nerve damage) because it's so gradual - then you take control of your BGs, the nerves start mending and wham! - suddenly you are in pain. Potty isn't it - typically don't hurt when they are being damaged but often hurt like stink when they are mending!

But don't just ignore it if it perseveres - see your doc about that as well as the thyroid !
 
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