What happened?

[Becky1984]

So today, i went out for a walk like i do everyday, same walk as its quiet not many people, involves walking up a big hill, half way up i noticed I felt a little breathless which is unusual, and was get a odd stomach ache. Carried on and the weird stomach was getting worse and i was starting feel cold and sweaty, managed to get home dripping with sweat and the edges of my vision felt like it was coming in. It stopped after awhile of sitting down.

Im unsure of what this was, it happened before as a child during PE cross counrty classes but that was over 20 years ago and long before i was diagnosed with diabetes, so does this sound like a hypo or maybe it was anxiety. I have been on a massive diet as this whole covid thing has scared me into drastically trying to lose weight, so maybe it was a hypo, it didnt feel like ones i had before but i havent had many fortunately.

 

[rebrascora]

Sorry to hear you had such an unpleasant episode whilst out on your walk. It might be helpful to know what medication you are taking for your diabetes?
A stomach ache doesn't really tie in with a hypo in my experience. The other symptoms do sound very much like a hypo though but they could equally be caused by something else. Testing your BG at the time would be the only way to know for sure. Do you have a meter?
Was it particularly hot and humid whilst you were walking up the hill?
When did you last eat prior to the walk and what did you have?

 

[Becky1984]

Hi
im on dapagliflozin, i had toast at breakfast, had some orange juice before it left, but hadnt really had anything else my walk was at 6... that was my thought the stomach ache didnt really tie in

 

[rebrascora]

Not sure if you are aware but orange juice is a pretty bad choice of drink for a diabetic unless you need it to treat a hypo as it will cause your BG to rise pretty rapidly. .
Was that 6 am or 6pm for your walk?
I wonder if the orange juice before the walk spiked your Blood Glucose levels high on the early part of the walk and then your muscles, working hard going up the hill, sucked the glucose out of your blood stream and with not having had any slow release carbs or protein in your system to replace it, since it sounds like you didn't have any lunch, your BG went a bit low and/or your brain thought it was going too low and went into shock resulting in a false hypo.

As a diabetic it is best to avoid foods (and drink) which will cause your Blood Glucose levels to rise quickly (unless you are having a hypo and need to bring it up from a dangerously low level).
I don't think the medication you are on can cause a hypo so fruit juice would be something to avoid.
Toast for breakfast is also probably not a great choice for a Type 2. Has it been explained to you that carbohydrates are the problem for us diabetics.... that means both sugars and starches. Sugary foods can be otherwise healthy things like fruit, dried fruit and juice as well as the obvious sweets and chocolate, but they will all spike our BG levels and need to be severely rationed or avoided.

 

[Becky1984]

Hi thank you for your help, didnt realise the fruit juice was bad, i kinda new about the bread/carbs i struggle with what to eat. I was going to the see a diabetic nurse for diet advise but obviously it all got cancelled. Im on orlistat as well so maybe thats not helping either. I think i need to do some research as this has scared me, as i was on my own with my young children.

 

[rebrascora]

I imagine that was really frightening. I can remember my first few hypos and false hypos and it was actually far more unpleasant and scary than the many hypos I now experience because my body has got used to them and doesn't panic like it did in those early days of using insulin. My brain was used to my BG being high then and when it suddenly came down too quickly (usually as a result of injecting too much insulin) I felt like I was going to pass out. Now I can often work through a hypo and not even need to sit down once I have eaten something to treat it.

If you don't have a BG meter I would highly recommend getting one and using it to show you what effect different foods have on your BG levels. They are relatively inexpensive to buy a basic model (approx. £15) if your GP or nurse can't provide one..... there are guidelines for who qualifies. There are a couple of meters which are popular with people on the forum who self fund them because the test strips for them are significantly cheaper than the test strips for other brands, and since you tend to use quite a lot of test strips, it makes economic sense to buy a meter which has the cheapest test strips.... for that reason the SD Gluco Navii or the Spirit Healthcare Tee2 are a good choice.

 

[rebrascora]

You can then figure out what foods you can get away with and what you need to avoid.

 

[Drummer]

I had a few episodes like that after diagnosis before I realised that I should eat just a few carbs in the morning, not half the day'sallowance and not none.
I also had similar experiences when in my 20s, before I settled on low carb as a way of life - I had not yet encountered the string of GP's with diet sheets who thought they knew better than I did.
As an ordinary type two I would avoid eating a high carb breakfast - it is not a sensible thing to do when it is the ability to deal with carbs that is not working. Your other medications might be having some effect, but starchy food and sugary drinks can't really be recommended for anyone.

 

[Robin]

Just a cautionary note. If you continue with the Orlistat, swapping to a low carb diet may result in an increase of fat intake, and I gather that can have unpleasant consequences.

 

[brisr949]

I get tummy aches from BG spikes.