Springboard from this thread describing a night of frustration trying to get help with my medical and emotional problems.

I'm still feeling sick, and still having trouble controlling my blood sugar. The hospital's insulin treatment coincided with breakfast time, during which they brought me a diabetic-diet tray. I didn't eat anything else, but by lunch my reading was back up to 330. (Over 200 is considered uncontrolled.) I then went, not back to the ER, but to the urgent care center at the facility where I normally go to the doctor, where they know me. I'd have done that the first time, if it had been during their working hours. I don't know what's going on, but I will see my primary doctor within the next 12 hours. I left urgent care with an excellent reading of 116. It was now midafternoon, and I had not eaten since that diabetic breakfast tray. On doctor's orders (I didn't want to eat at all) I ate a low-carb lunch.

Then I went home and took a long nap, because I was exhausted. I woke up, checked my blood sugar--182. Controlled, but high, when I hadn't eaten anything to cause it to be that way.

Still afraid to eat.

[Perna]

Blood sugar does its own thing at all times with/without food; how much you weigh, how much exercise you get, etc. can all contribute. I would ask your doctor for help with nutrition/exercise/meds the whole works; hospitals have classes too, ask about them. This is my hospital's:

http://www.uchs.org/?section=programs&page=diabetes

[shezbut]

LovebirdsFlying,

Diabetes can be real tricky to treat ~ especially if it's Type 1. Finding the right foods, drinks, times, and saves that you can remember takes some time. Hopefully, you're blood sugar won't rush too high or too low before you gain a better understanding.

One big benefit of the physical & emotional stress being caused by diabetes is that a lot is known and understood nearly everywhere. The result is books galore to choose from! Many give lots of diet ideas, lots of books support emotionally, and probably a heck of a lot of internet websites to become a member of.

I hope that I don't sound unsympathetic. I do have lots of sympathy ~ as I've seen it effect many people in my little world. Just wanting you not to feel alone and frustrated with your health. Diabetes can be very frustrating for many people. But there are many ways to gain control ~ it just takes a little time and some studying.

Best wishes to you!

[serafim_etal]

Originally Posted by LovebirdsFlying

Springboard from this thread describing a night of frustration trying to get help with my medical and emotional problems.

I'm still feeling sick, and still having trouble controlling my blood sugar. The hospital's insulin treatment coincided with breakfast time, during which they brought me a diabetic-diet tray. I didn't eat anything else, but by lunch my reading was back up to 330. (Over 200 is considered uncontrolled.) I then went, not back to the ER, but to the urgent care center at the facility where I normally go to the doctor, where they know me. I'd have done that the first time, if it had been during their working hours. I don't know what's going on, but I will see my primary doctor within the next 12 hours. I left urgent care with an excellent reading of 116. It was now midafternoon, and I had not eaten since that diabetic breakfast tray. On doctor's orders (I didn't want to eat at all) I ate a low-carb lunch.

Then I went home and took a long nap, because I was exhausted. I woke up, checked my blood sugar--182. Controlled, but high, when I hadn't eaten anything to cause it to be that way.

Still afraid to eat.

I am type II diabetic...usually well controlled. I see two possibilities here. The first is, could you actually be sick? An infection anywhere will raise your BgL. The other is "Sugar dumping" by you liver. If you don't eat, or don't eat enough (carbs), your liver decides the brain is starving and converts glycogen to glucose and dumps it into the blood system. The fixes are, make sure you don't have an infection, even a slight sniffle can cause raised BgL, and on the other, slow acting carbs with every meal, in proper proportions with protein and fats...your doc can help with that or refer you to a dietitian who can. Good luck!

I'm a type 2.

Back from the doctor. It turns out that:

1. Yes, I am ill. I've been battling a viral infection, which has shot my sugar levels up.

2. My emotional reactions are not only a symptom of elevated sugar, but also a result of my frustration, thinking to myself, "Well, I'm doing everything right, why aren't my levels going down?" And then beating myself up over it.

3. Contributing to both the elevated blood sugar and the emotional problems is a newly discovered diagnosis, sleep apnea. When I had a sleep study, it showed I was waking up an average of 62 times an hour; yes, that's more than once a minute. Not waking up completely. Just enough to negate any benefit from the sleep. Which is why I never seem to get enough of it. Before seeing my primary doctor today, I had another appointment to pick up my new c-pap. When they fitted me for a mask, and turned on that machine, I realized exactly how good I haven't been breathing! Sleep deprivation can both push up blood sugar levels, and make you act squirrelly. We'll see exactly how much improvement everything else will have, when my sleep improves.

4. The doctor approved me for exercise at a gym, as long as I take it slow. I also have some mobility limitations, and although I can't do a treadmill, I would benefit from an elliptical, a stationary bicycle, or swimming, with a soak in a hot tub afterward to stop me being too sore later. All of which I can't do at home, so the gym membership is essential for my health.

5. The doctor doesn't want me kicking myself about my body size. (BMI of 43.) She says that there is no medical condition in existence that only obese people get, and people at their ideal weight never do. Therefore, type 2 diabetes is not, as some would have me believe, "a punishment from God, serves you right for being such a fat pig" illness. Neither is the arthritis that causes my limited mobility. I am not simply "so fat I can't walk." Diet and exercise are for the purpose of making me strong and healthy, not for reducing my body size, which may or may not happen. If I am eating right, exercising properly, and all my lab tests come back in the normal range, it means my body weighs what it should, no matter what that number is.

[shezbut]

LovebirdsFlying

I'm glad to hear that many of your Q's were answered by the doctor & are now better understood.

I certainly hope that you haven't heard and believed those negative words spoken by some cruel people in the world. Please don't kick yourself ~ and presume that others are kicking too. Your words spoken in #5 sound very hurt to me. It sounds as though you perceive others to be unsympathetic a-holes throughout your pain and suffering. I sure do hope that it's simply a misperception, through hypersensitivity. Either way, the feelings that you have are very real, and they do hurt. I am sorry you are in such emotional pain . Are you on any anti-depressants or seeing a T? If not, you may want to look into working through your emotions ~ and hopefully gain some happiness in life.

Gentle hugs to you...

Yes, I am on meds, and yes, I have a T. I'm going through a pretty rough patch right now, but I am not always this bad off.

A doctor at the same clinic where my primary doc works was just as judgmental and hateful as I find a lot of doctors to be. He works in the urgent care facility. It was about a year and a half ago. Because I was being a martyr and taking care of everybody but me, I allowed myself to run out of insulin, and not surprisingly, I ended up in urgent care. It was midafternoon, and I hadn't eaten since the previous night's supper. We asked a nurse if hubby could go get me a light snack. She approved, but right then the doctor walked in, with his naturally thin, lean body type, and said, "It won't hurt you to skip a meal. In fact, you could skip a few more of them." I lodged a complaint, and the facility apologized, but that doctor is still practicing there, so I don't know what rebuke he received. If any. That is the kind of treatment I have come to expect from doctors, which makes my primary doc's compassion and understanding a pleasant surprise.

I have also come to expect the same kind of treatment from strangers. I once walked miles, back when I still could. Google maps shows it was over 8 1/2 miles. I sat down to rest on a bus stop bench, whereupon I heard a perfect stranger say loudly to a companion, "Yes, she'd better sit down. She's too fat to walk!"

And family.... The day after I was baptized (by immersion, as a teenager) our minister dropped dead of a massive heart attack. My own brother made it a special point to tell me it happened because I was so fat that I overtaxed his heart. At the time, I had a BMI of 27.4, which is just barely overweight. He was never rebuked for saying such a cruel thing to me. Which leads me to believe it was perfectly acceptable that he did so. Adult family members said, and continue to say, similar things. At any family gathering, it seems like all eyes are on my plate. If I eat very much, they are quick to point out how fat I am. Their advice for weight loss? "Stop eating." Not "stop eating unhealthy food," or "stop eating so much," but simply "stop eating," as if they never expect me to take a bite of food again. Yet if I eat very little, they coax me to eat and then taunt me for it.

Yes, I am hurt by those things, but life has taught me that it is my fault they get said to me. Even the most sympathetic stranger will hear these stories and ask, "If it hurts you so much, then why don't you lose weight?" As if I haven't been beating myself up enough over it, trying to do that since I was eight years old (and not overweight at all).

[madisgram]

oh ppl including some doctors can be so lacking in compassion or just plain decency. i am sorry you've been the brunt of these remarks.
you do what you can and thank goodness you have a kind doctor. it would be a more beautiful world if ppl would do unto others what they expect us to do for them!!! i'm glad u got some answers re your blood sugar elevation. i'm diabetic also and it's a difficult disease to have...sometimes in spite of what we try to accomplish responsibly. diabeties has been my greatest health challenge even tho i have other health issues that most ppl don't ever have to deal with.
stay well, friend.