[Marah]

Hi everyone,
My name is Marah and I was a insulin dependent gestational diabetic, and have an extensive family history of Type II Diabetes.

I'm actually posting about my husband today. In 2006 he was told he was "borderline Diabetic" by his doctor (this was before we were married). He has not had it checked since but seems, to me, to be showing symptoms. He made some changes to his diet (the very first one being no more sugary soda!) and felt some better but not completely. I was still concerned.

To complicated matters we have no health insurance, so I got him a monitor, strips, etc and had him test his fasting level this morning. It was 297! In the booklet that came with it, it said "Under 300 was okay" but that sure seems WAAAAY off to me.

Any input? My thought is that he needs to get to the doc ASAP but hearing from people who know more about these things than I do may convince him it's necessary if, in case, it is.

Thanks so much!

 

[rusticguy]

The 297 value is definitely not safe.
Anything above 125/126 (FBS) on two different tests confirms diabetic status.

 

[Marah]

The 297 value is definitely not safe.
Anything above 125/126 (FBS) on two different tests confirms diabetic status.

Thank you.

He just took a random draw (it may have been too close to drinking some tea) that was 376. He is going to test again in 30min to 1 hour to see what happens.

 

[rusticguy]

Thank you.

He just took a random draw (it may have been too close to drinking some tea) that was 376. He is going to test again in 30min to 1 hour to see what happens.

Anything above 200 for PPBS (2 hrs after meals) is diabetic.
Even 376 for a random draw is very high (at least i would press the panic button). As has been mentioned by all veterans here (i am happily learning to walk the diabetes road ) above 140 and cellular damage starts.

If this was my reading i woul have stopped all Corisol boosting stuff which includes sugar, tea (black tea), coffee etc to start with and visit doctor immediately.

Take care.

 

[LarryT]

Marah

297 is to high for FBS (very first thing in mornings before food/drink)
Am pretty sure most would agree that 376 is to high.

Hope you can convince him to see a Doc fairly soon and in the mean time to eat at least "lower Carb" to help keep his readings somewhat lower. Only a Doctor can say he does/does not have diabetes, but both those readings are to high.

 

[jwags]

I am a full blown diabetic and try to keep fastings under 100 and after meal bgs under 110-120. I know it is difficult without insurance but he needs to find a free clinic to get some treatment. It could be that metformin might be all he needs to lower bgs but he may need insulin. Call up your county social services office to find where the free clinics are. As far as food it is good he is cutting out soda but anything with carbs including cereal, bread, crackers, rice, pasta and potatoes needs to be limited.

 

[Shanny]

Hello Marah. Immediately lower his carbohydrate intake, and get him to the doc ASAP. This means not only sugary sodas, but any bread, rice, pasta, potatoes or cereal. "Under 300" is WAAAAY NOT okay - a safe fasting should be around 100, ± 20. Any time he is over 140 he is incurring damage to his eyes, kidneys, blood vessels & other vital systems.

 

[Jen]

I have to agree. Those readings are actually scary high. Had he eaten within a couple of hours of that 376? You might want to get a home HbA1C test if you can't afford to go to a doctor. This will give you a good idea of his average blood sugar over the past 60 - 90 days. If it were me, however, I'd be headed to a doctor.

Follow Shanny's advice and cut out the starches right away, and no fruit juice either.

Please let us know how you and hubby are doing. Sounds very stressful.

Jen

 

[Marah]

The 296 was upon waking this morning after a complete fast. The 376 was about 15 minutes after lunch (pizza and iced tea). An hour after that (and some bottles of water) he was down to 373 and then another hour was at 313. We did the ketones test and it showed "trace" ketones.

I called my physicians office today and they will see him tomorrow. I knew he would at minimum need a doctor's office visit, but I wanted to make sure I didn't need to take him to the after hours clinic or the ER! They said as long as he wasn't acting oddly it was okay.

One of the scariest things to him about all this is that he does feel fine today, but there have been days when he HASN'T to the point he worried about his blood glucose- if it's this high on a day he feels fine, what was it like on those bad days?!?!

Thanks to everyone for your input, I think it helped convince him he can't ignore this.

 

[Marah]

He did get into the mid 200's last night before bed. This morning his fasting was again 297.

 

[jwags]

Those bgs are way too high and may be doing damage to his body that you can't see. Many times Diabetics have the disease for many years before being dx'd. You can make diet changes, cutting out almost all carbs but if his pancreatic function is faulty, he needs meds. You have to convince him to see a doctor. I use Metformin which is a very inexpensive drug. Many places offer it for $4 a month. Actually my pharmacy, Giant Eagle gives it and 4 other D meds for free.

 

[Jen]

Wow Marah - your husband's body is absolutely not processing those carbs well. I'm glad you're going to the doctor - the longer he stays at those high levels the worse off he'll be.

This is offered with the best of intentions: Eating pizza when his starting blood sugar is over 300 is a seriously bad idea. I'm also wondering about the iced tea - was it sweetened? If he had to have carbs at all a salad based on greens (no beans or beets added) might be a better idea. Many of us have found it easier to manage blood sugar by reducing or eliminating starchy carbs (flour, grains, pasta, rice, potatoes) and reducing the amount of fruit we eat.

Let us know how it goes with the doctor.

Jen

 

[jwags]

The problem with high bgs is you rarely have symptoms until it is too late. When I was dx'd with a fasting of 240, I felt fine. I was able to exercise and did so every day. When you are diabetic you can't process carbs correctly. So even eating normal amounts of food your bgs stay very high. Although normal people can handle pizza and sweet tea and be back under 100, diabetics cannot. So we have to alter the way we eat. I have cut out almost all wheat products - pizza, bread, crackers, cereal and pasta. My bgs are so much better because of it.

 

[ThoseBackPages]

Sorry to hear your husband has got diabetes.

Have him sign up here, this is a good place for diabetics

 

[Marah]

Oh I absolutely know the pizza and the tea were no-no's. At that time he'd had the one fasting level and hadn't tested his blood sugar since...and really didn't understand what all that meant. I also think maybe he was hoping the first test was a fluke (like I said, I even tested myself so he could see it wasn't the meter giving some random high reading..and this morning his fasting was exactly the same as yesterday so that reinforced it even more.

Also, hearing what y'all have said has helped. I had told him I was posting here and last night he had me read to him what everyone said. I will be giving him the link when he feels he's ready.

He did immediately (after the pizza/tea reading) stop just eating what he felt like. He had eggs with onions and ?cinnamon? because he read that cinnamon can bring down your level? We had grilled chicken breasts last night and when we had dinner, and for leftovers (after seeing the carbs in barbeque sauce wouldn't be so great) had the leftovers with some low carb ranch dressing instead. He's kinda mopey (ice cream ranks right up there with his family on his loves in life) but he really is showing he wants to make changes. I think having these high levels, hearing what you all had to say and doing a little internet research have scared him into making changes.

We are on our way to the doctor right now, I'm going to go with him for moral support. I'll let y'all know what she says. Thanks again!

 

[Madea]

The 296 was upon waking this morning after a complete fast. The 376 was about 15 minutes after lunch (pizza and iced tea). An hour after that (and some bottles of water) he was down to 373 and then another hour was at 313. We did the ketones test and it showed "trace" ketones.

I called my physicians office today and they will see him tomorrow. I knew he would at minimum need a doctor's office visit, but I wanted to make sure I didn't need to take him to the after hours clinic or the ER! They said as long as he wasn't acting oddly it was okay.

One of the scariest things to him about all this is that he does feel fine today, but there have been days when he HASN'T to the point he worried about his blood glucose- if it's this high on a day he feels fine, what was it like on those bad days?!?!

Thanks to everyone for your input, I think it helped convince him he can't ignore this.

Good luck Marah!
I'm glad you got an appointment for him. Keep us posted.

How many pieces of pizza did he have and how was the ice tea sweetened? 2 Hours after should have been a bigger drop than 313, but if it was all carbs (from pizza) and sugar (from the tea), that explains alot.

 

[jwags]

Hope your appointment went well. There is a online website which I love. They carry all sorts of low carb foods. I usually put an order in every 2 or 3 months. They have all the Walden Farms 0 carb products. They have 3 kinds of BBQ sauce. I buy them by the case, so I can have BBQ during the summer. They also have jams and different flavored pancake syrups. They also have a lot of sugar alternatives and flour alternatives. Even though I live in a rather big suburb our low carb options aren't the greatest. They are also a good place to buy coconut oil.

Netrition.com - The Internet's Premier Nutrition Superstore!

 

[Marah]

The doctor told us she would say he has diabetes.

We took in his levels to show her but of course that's all she had to go on. She wanted him to fast before his blood test so he is getting it tomorrow morning (he had already eaten today). He should get the results on Saturday.

His blood pressure was also very high (of course he was pretty freaked out, too) and she pointed out some signs of diabetes we didn't even know about (he has Acanthosis Nigricans).

I'm gonna urge him again to visit here himself. He was trying to think of snack items, etc...and I know you will have some great ideas for him.

 

[Madea]

There is a list of healthy low carb snacks listed on this site. Take a gander. He will find a few things he likes without spiking his bg's.....I'm glad you got him into the doc. ;-) It makes me glad to see that he has you for support too. My husband doesn't really support me like that. He's more of an enabler.......Thats why I am so blessed to have found the awesome people on this site!

And for those of you wanting to know what Acanthosis Nigricans is, click on this link. Acanthosis Nigricans

It was one of the disease/conditions I learned in my Medical Terminology class last semester. (Which I passed witha B+ !!!)

 

[Marah]

So my husband (I think he is registered here as Cess now, hopefully he'll come out of lurk mode soon) got his test results today.

His Serum Glucose on test day was 220 H. His HA1c was 10.6% and his eAG was 258. He was formally diagnosed as diabetic today and prescribed Metformin (and a blood pressure medication).

He has been doing amazing on his diet and is watching his readings lower even without having started meds. I'm hoping the meds will help him even more so he can at least be near normal range.

The other alarming tests (I don't know what these tests mean, but they measure his liver function) were AST (SGOT) of 55 (it should be 40 or less) and ALT (SGPT) of 97 (should be less than 55). Can anyone tell me what these tests are measuring? I was unable to go with him to his appointment today. The doc is bringing him back in two weeks to check his liver again. Can someone tell me more about liver function and diabetes?

We are having to be somewhat conservative with his treatment in regard to specialists and testing as we have no insurance and have to pay each as the expense is incurred.

Thank you. I really hope you don't mind me posting here even though I am not currently diabetic. I was insulin dependent gestational and have a family history (both sides!) so I'm hoping to hold off myself as long as possible. Right now I just want to learn all I can for my husband and you all have been such a great resource!