[Diabetes-Talk] {Spam?} Re: {Spam?} Blood sugar lows, possibly not eating enough

[Patricia Maddix]

Terri,
It was great to hear your update. Glad your surgery went well. First of all in regards to your question for treating low blood sugars the guidelines are to take sources of sugar that are very fast acting. Candies such as the ones that you are using are very high in fat and therefore digest very slowly and actually do not bring the blood sugar up quickly. Recommended items would be 4 ounces of any kind of fruit juice or regular soda, Three or four glucose tablets that can be purchased at any drugstore or drug section of a grocery store, fat free candies such as jellybeans, Skittles. Read the labels and the goal is to take about 15 g of carbohydrate. I know that the symptoms of a low blood sugar make you want to eat everything in sight but try as best you can to hold the treatment to 15 g of carbohydrate. Then you are supposed to wait 15 minutes and check and make sure your blood sugar is starting to come up or is above 70. If it stays low then treat again with 15 more grams of carbohydrate.  Besides working very quickly these items are much lower in Calories than chocolate candies. As far as why you are getting low blood sugars it appears that although you are eating a reasonable amount of food at your meals it apparently is not quite enough for the amount of medication that you are taking. As long as you don’t gain weight you may want to increase the size of your meals of it or add in some healthy snacks between meals that contain around 15 g of carbohydrate and perhaps a bit of protein. The added protein makes the food last a bit longer and level out the blood sugar.
Try and work in a few fruits and vegetables every day just for good measure. Fruit and cheese can make a great snack.
I agree with you that testing your blood sugar at least a few times a day is important. As you still tend to get some low blood sugars you definitely need to verify when that is happening. A lot of endocrinologists and patients in the diabetes field feel that every diabetic should be entitled to a continuous glucose monitor but this is not the norm yet unfortunately. You can learn so much from seeing what your blood sugar does throughout the day and how it varies depending on food, activity and other things..  When I was working as a diabetes educator we always said that people needed to test their blood sugar as often as it’s necessary to get the information that they need to manage their diabetes.  The numbers are really for the patient to guide them in making lifestyle changes and not just for the doctor.

Patricia

Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 16, 2021, at 8:46 PM, Terri Stimmel via Diabetes-Talk <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> 
> I hope you all are doing well. I wanted to give a quick update. But I also have some questions.
> 
> 
> So I don't see my diabetes specialist until December.
> 
> However, I can send her a message, if I need to. And I do this. I feel it is the easiest way to reach out to her.
> 
> 
> I am currently only taking Ozempic. I am doing well. My numbers are good. Most of the time, they are staying under 150. I love this! It's amazing!
> 
> 
> I had a partial hysterectomy in early August. The doctors, and nurses at the hospital told me that they were really surprised with how well my blood sugars bounced back, after my surgery. For part of the evening, after my surgery, my readings were high. But by the next day, all was good. My recovery went very well. Much better than my doctor even expected. I can't tell you how thankful I am for this.
> 
> 
> I am struggling to get back to doing my peddling, and walking around my apartment, like I was doing. But I am trying to recktify this. I know how much better I feel, when I do exercise. And I have had the all clear from my doctor, for a little over a month now. So there really is no excuse. I have just gotten out of the habit of doing it.
> 
> 
> Honestly, since my surgery, my struggles with constipation have seemed to double. I apologize if my mentioning this bothers some. But I think this can be something that many people can struggle with. But they don't feel they can talk about it. This affects me quite badly, and can cause me a lot of pain. I knew having the surgery would make things in this department more difficult.
> 
> However, I didn't think that they would be this difficult. I have been keeping my doctors informed. I am also taking a fiber pill once a day. Along with the medication I was already taking, before my surgery. Some days, I think things are improving. Other times, I am not at all sure.
> 
> 
> Over all though, I really feel that I am doing well. I am still struggling when it comes to eating better. But I am trying. And when I struggle, I am trying to not beat myself up so much, about it. But this is all a work in progress.
> 
> 
> So now that I have shared with you all how things are going with me, I do have a question, or two.
> 
> 
> There are times that I am still struggling with low blood sugars. I really think that sometimes I am not eating enough at my meals. But I don't know if this is exactly the problem. I am just guessing, really.
> 
> 
> But today alone, my blood sugar has gone under 70, three times. My diabetes specialist says to keep it at 80, and above. So I don't panic as much if it is at 90, or even 85. When my blood sugar goes low like this, I then reach for candy. But this isn't what I want to do. There has got to be a better answer to chocolate. Or things like that. I am really trying to cut down on the amount of candy I eat. Or the junk food in general.
> 
> 
> So what can I do, besides reach for candy, when my blood sugar is going low like this?
> 
> Are there options?
> 
> 
> This morning I ate a bowl of dry cereal. I don't normally eat cereal, much less dry cereal. But it was just the situation I was in. Also, the cereal was cinamon toast crunch. I know there is no good in that. But again, it was the situation I was in. This isn't something that would normally happen. I didn't have much of the cereal.
> 
> 
> Later, for lunch, I had a turkey sandwich. That is something I normally eat. I did have a bit of mayo on the sandwich. I did use two pieces of bread. The bread was, Sara Lee, honey wheat. My sandwich had two pieces of cracked pepper turkey.
> 
> 
> A couple hours after that sandwich, I noticed my blood sugar had gone into the low 80's. I can't remember now just exactly what it was. Sometimes it will come back up on it's own. But not this time. So I ate a couple of miniature snickers bars.
> 
> 
> Then a few hours later, it was in the 70's. At this point, I was watching a show. I can tend to snack more when I am doing this. So I ate a couple miniature milkyway dark bars. As well as a miniature Hershey's milk chocolate bar.
> 
> 
> About an hour later, we had dinner. We ate leftover pizza from the place we ordered from, last night. I had two pieces. It was a deluxe pizza. It had Itallian sausage, bacon, onions, green peppers, and mushrooms on it. It had a thicker crust. But not like something from pizza hut. This was all I had.
> 
> 
> By about an hour and a half later, my blood sugar was 63. So again, I had some candy. I had two miniature peanut butter cups, and two miniature chocolate bars.
> 
> 
> I know that this isn't the way to go about things. But I am a bit at a loss as to what to do.
> 
> How can I make some changes to get more balanced results?
> 
> 
> By the way, my diabetes specialist informed me the other day, that Medicare may not cover my Lebrea sensors much longer, because I am no longer on insulin. She also told me that she doesn't feel I need to get my readings throughout the day. She said that I could just get my fasting blood sugar readings, three times a week. Honestly, I am not quite sure how I feel about this. If I don't keep up with knowing my readings, then I won't know when things possibly go out of wack. I don't want to end up where I was, even a year ago. For as long as I can possibly help it, or have anything to do with it.
> 
> 
> Any thoughts or suggestions you all have, about any of this, is very much appreciated.
> 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> 
> Terri
> 
> 
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