Out of Control Diabetes?
Question:
Thank you in advance!
P.S Please only write if you are absolutely positive or close to it about your answer. This is a serious situation.
Answers:
Hi Kathy,
I need to ask if you are a type 1 or type 2 DM sufferer? If you have type 2 the very best advice anyone can give you is to eat a HIGH FAT very, very low carb diet. The high fat will help to control your "around the clock" eating. Fat is not converted to glucose in the blood. And if you just cut the carbs to about 10-20 grams a day, your sugar will come down within a day or two. I am not saying it is a healthy longterm eating plan, but it will drop your sugar within a couple of days in an emergency. I use to run around 375 all the time before I switched to a ketogenic diet. Now I run around 100 with no meds. But I am fortunate to be a type 2 DM.
Because you are on insulin, I am wondering if this has always been a type 1 disease since childhood? If so, you need to see a doctor ASAP or even go to the ER to get in quicker. You might have to resort to a pump. The juvenile DM (as it use to be called) is an autoimmune disease. Your eating plan will never solve it.
I pray you get better quickly. Are you feet and legs ok? Are you having any yeast problems or other infections?
My goodness, for such a "serious situation" you should be on the phone with a doctor, not on the computer. Blood sugar is something you should not be messing with. It doesn't matter how hard it is to get ahold of your doc, they have an answering service, and you can leave word that it's urgent. Or you can take yourself to the local emergency room and they will give you some insulin to get the number down. You don't want to wait until you start becoming symptomatic, that's dangerous. Five days on a "super-strict diet" is not enough time to get your pancreas out of over-drive. That could take a couple of weeks. Call your doctor, please, and ask them what you should do. Follow the diet they prescribed for you, it is much easier to stick with than the extreme low carb one you are on. Good luck.
I am diabetic myself so may what helps me will help you to. Yes carbs does affect your sugar lever but so does fried food. potatoes, milk, cheese. and anything else containing sugar. Among eating the right foods you must also keep busy. Going for at least a 1 mile walk every day will help burn the carbs and the sugar from your body. make sure you exercise everyday. these things will should help you. Good luck and take care.
If your on an insulin pump, make the bolus over a half hour or a full hour. That way the insulin will reach when its needed.
Have you heard of insulin resistance?...there are cases when despite adequate doses of insulin, blood sugar does not go down probably due to a defect in the insulin receptors. If your overweigt, weight loss will also help. Consult your physician and ask if you can benefit with combination treatment of oral hypoglycemic agents and insulin injections. Dont worry, theres a lot of treatment available for you!
You could go into ketoacidosis so call your doctor NOW. Demand to speak to the physician and if you cannot get through--fire him/her and find another endocrinologist. You are seeing an endocrinologist and not a primary care physician, right?
The first thing I would check is the insulin. Have you switched bottles? You may just have a bad short-acting or long-acting bottle.
What are your normal post-meal values (say from a month ago)? Is it possible that you always were running this high and you are just not taking enough insulin in general? You may need to drastically increase your daily insulin dosages, but it sounds as if your doc should make that decision.
Are you pregnant or sick? That could mess with your insulin requirements.
You need to speak with a doctor today.
You cannot walk around for long with blood sugar that high without going into diabetic ketoacidosis. The fact that you are eating a very restrictive diet can make this even worse.
No matter what the cause, at this point the only solution is more insulin. You are probably also dehydrated as your body is trying to clear this high level of sugar, so really push sugar-free fluids as well.
Have you checked ketones? I can't believe that any reputable physician would not make him/herself available to you in this situation. If you really can't reach them, I think you should go to the ER.
This might be a long shot, my son is an insulin dependant diabetic in the Uk. We had a similar problem and to cut a long story short, his blood sugar meter had the wrong chip put in with his test strips, if you need me to expand a wee bit and explain further, let me know.
Debbi
You have allot of sugar in your system. You can take a little more insulin like your sliding scale to try to bring it down. Please be careful my husband did the same thing for years. He would binge and only straighten up right before the Dr appointments, now he can't feel his feet and he is going blind from Retinapathy. So please say on the diet!! He is only 30 and will be totally blind by the time he is 40!!
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