Were they Hypos?

[cakemaker]

My husband hasn't been feeling well for some time. He couldn't quite say why only that he felt rough. We now know that it was Diabetes.
He was poorly for a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Year, for about 3 days in September while we were on holiday and a few other times mostly just a day or two. Each time we thought he had 'Flu' but now we believe it was Diabetes. The doctor certainly thought so after the Chritmas episode. He was sent for blood tests which obviously came back positive.
All these episodes had similar symptoms to flu; high temperature, sweating, terrible headaches, aching limbs but not the cough or sneezing. Sometimes they lasted a day or two but for two weeks at Christmas although some days he was worse than others.

I was reading on a site about Hypos. His symptoms seem to be the same but it said that you can only get these when you are on medication and your blood count is low and if it happens you must immediately eat something sugary as it is very dangerous and can send you in to a Coma.
Well, he wasn't on medication at these times but some of thse times he had these 'attacks' we weren't necessarily eating regular meals or possibly drinking too much alcohol as on holiday.

Even on holiday we didn't drink loads of alcohol perhaps averaging 3to 4 glasses of wine a day, but we had lots of shandies and other sugary drinks which we don't normally drink and perhaps not enough fruit and veg. as we were staying in a hotel and mostly eating out. We did eat a big plate of fresh fruit at breakfast everyday though.

My question is: Were they hypos?
If not what were they?
Are they common episodes for Diabetics?
Will he have them again and if so what should I do?
What else should I look out for or be aware of?

 

[Northerner]

I suspect that his levels were much higher than normal, rather than too low. This can produce some very similar symptoms to when you are low so it's not always easy to distinguish. Given that he was eating and drinking normally it's doubtful that he would drop low. What happens is that the body is producing insufficicient insulin to get the energy to where it is needed so it stays in the blood. The brain can't understand this so sends out all sorts of messages as it starts to feel distressed.

Now that he is diagnosed, if he can learn to manage his diabetes well then this shouldn't happen to him, except perhaps when he is ill with something else which can make it more difficult to control levels.

 

[Lizzzie]

Hi Cakemaker

They don't sound like hypos.

'Hypo' = blood sugar too low, 'hyper' = blood sugar too high,

'Diabetes' is a tendency to have too high blood sugars (hyperglycaemia). If he had untreated diabetes at the time, his sugars would definitely have been too high.

HYPOS
Diabetic people are often given insulin (in whatever form) to bring our sugar levels low again (insulin moves sugar out of the blood into the body). However, the dose is hard to get right and sometimes you take more insulin than your body actually needs, which means that your blood sugar levels drop dangerously low and you get hypo symptoms.

HYPERS
Most normal bodies make insulin that helps sugar to move from the bloodstream into the cells , where it is useful.

When you are hyperglycaemic (with untreated diabetes), your blood sugar levels are very high but the body isn't making insulin to send the sugar into the body-cells, where it does useful things. So the sugar just sits in the bloodstream, and high levels of it in the bloodstream over a long time wreak havoc with the body (over years and years, cause kidney disease and such-like)
In the short-term however, the body cells are short of sugar (it's all still stuck in the blood) so they have no fuel i.e. you feel very tired and generally lousy. The more sugar you eat, I guess the worse it gets. You also get prone to other illnesses.

So I reckon your husbands symptoms were probably caused by hyPERS rather than hypOs.

 

[mcdonagh47]

My question is: Were they hypos?
If not what were they?
Are they common episodes for Diabetics?
Will he have them again and if so what should I do?
What else should I look out for or be aware of?

They were unlikely to be hypos - as a new Type 2 Diabetic his battle is with HYPERglycemia ( raised bgs) not HYPOglycemia ( low bgs).

Although he could have been subject to some Reactive Hypoglycemia ( swinging from high to low after a dollop of glucose/carbs)

To find out what is going on he needs to test his bgs and take appropriate action on diet and exercise.

 

[Robster65]

The only way to know if he is hypo or hyper, or somewhere in between, is to obtain a blood glucose meter and test.🙂

You may be able to get a free one from your GP (unlikely), or from one of the manufacturer's website (possible), or you can buy one from a pharmacy, usually with a few test strips to get started.

Rob

 

[cakemaker]

Thanks again to all of you for taking time to answer my questions.
The meter does seem a good idea. At least it will verify whether his 'off days' are diabetes related or not.