Low Blood Sugar

SigmaX

So again, I'm pretty new to this. I've had to try a bunch of times to actually get the right amount of blood on the strip, and now it's telling me I have low blood sugar (3.8 I'm not sure what it is in American). I don't really know how that's possible. I ate a pretty good meal and I've even had some rum.

Is this something that could happen? Sorry I'm really confused as to why it is still so low. When I got home from work it was low (3.6), so I had some carbs. Why would it still be low 3 hours later?

RalfLott

You didn't provide much info, but I'll try to give you some useful thoughts. Keep or toss!

Straight liquor shouldn't raise your blood sugar, in fact, the tendency is to lower it, as your liver goes to work on the alcohol and remporarily stops producing glucose.

Google "blood glucose conversion" and you'll find converters galore. For example: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-sugar-converter.html

There are a lot of meters that don't require much blood. The Bayer Contour Next is easy to use, and strips are relatively cheap. What kind are you using?

Were you feeling funny at 3.6? If not, no need to go inhaling carbs! Similarly, 3.8 is not too low, if you don't have any symptoms.

What was in your "pretty good meal"?

Good luck!

SigmaX

Thanks for the response. I realized yesterday I was trying to collect the blood all wrong. I thought I put the blood on the test strip, when instead I'm supposed to touch the tip of the strip to the blood drop.

I did do some reading on how alcohol can block the liver from producing glucose. I'm waiting for a call from the diabetes clinic so I can meet with a dietitian and a diabetes nurse. Even though I've been diagnosed, I still don't have a full understanding of what I'm dealing with. I just know I need to take my meds and lose some weight. My Dr. also told me not to check my blood every day, because I tend to have anxiety over these sorts of things.

Also thank you very much for that link, there looks like there is a lot of great info there, I will have to go through the site to learn more.

RalfLott

@SigmaX - The BEST single piece of advice I can offer is to buy a copy of Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution and watch his many extremely informative YouTube videos when you have time. (Look for Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes University.)

The second recommendation would be not to put blind faith in diabetes "specialists" - especially dietitians - but to monitor yourself closely and figure out what raises your BG and what doesn't.

There's no way someone else is going to know this. In fact, I'm still wrong daily when I try to guess my BG level, and that's 12 years down the road!

Consequently, I test 8-10x daily - waking, before each meal, and 1 and 2 hours after each meal. It has helped enormously with dietary choices and metformin dosing (actually name-brand Glucophage XR - a great tip from Dr. Bernstein).

Finally, there's a lot of diabetes-related info in discussions in the low-carb forum and some highlights collected in the low-carb forum's sticky thread, LCD Launch Pad: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10103966/start-here-the-lcd-launch-pad

Good luck!