hi Jo... the most common symptoms of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) is generally feeling very hungry or thirsty, urinating alot, blurred vision, fatigue, weight loss. There are other symptoms less common such as dry or itchy skin, dry mouth, tingling in feet, recurrent infections, poor wound healing.... even stupor and coma. From what you are describing it sounds more like hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) symptoms which generally is shakiness/anxiety, sweating, palpitations, clamminess, even pins & needles. But you get a lot of other symptoms and one of them is weakness. If you look it up on the net you will find better description than what I'm trying to tell you. But I guess what I'm thinking is perhaps your BGLs are fluctuating? eg. dropping quite low and then suddenly rising... by the time you test you may be actually coming out of a hypo... possibly having the "liver dump" happening (this is your body responding to the low). But because you are new to all this.... your body may be used to functioning on high BGLs and you may be dropping to a level your body isn't tolerating (not necessarily low as such). Too low is usually <4 (<72)... but I'm one of those people where I can have a hypo at <4.5... so I need to be careful to keep BGL above 4.5 to be safe. FYI, brown bread is actually a high GI carb which means it releases sugar into your blood quickly and then you get a spike and then a sudden drop in your BGL. This could be what is making your feel unwell too. Try as much as possible to stick to low GI carbs which are generally wholegrain natural foods. Eg. if eating bread get 'wholegrain' and not 'wholemeal'. Low GI carbs basically release sugar in your blood slowly over a longer period of time so you don't get the BGL spikes and sudden drops. That's why endos advise that if having a hypo to first take a quick acting carb (high GI.. usually pure sugar), and then a low GI carb (eg. glass of milk, museli bar, wholegrain bread/crackers, apples or other low GI fruits, etc) 15 mins later to keep you going if you're not due a meal as yet. To give you an idea I always carry jelly baby type lollies and museli bars in my handbag at all times.... but I'm on insulin. You may not be prone to hypos right now? Use your glucometer regularly throughout the day to get an idea what your BGLs are doing. I hope this helps a little. :dance:
