Need your help

I'm cross-posting this because I need all the help I can get.... Ok, gang, I need the think tank here... I'm at my wits end and am looking for any ideas, possibilities, paths to research, etc. And yes, I AM seeing my doc - have an appt with my PCP on Monday morning... Here's the deal: Menses: Have not really had a period since March. Since then, I had one very weird, very light "period" in July which was basically just prolonged spotting. Had another episode a couple weeks later after 10 days of Provera prescribed by my OB/GYN to try to jump-start my period. She also did hormone tests and everything came back normal - in fact, my testosterone was on the high side of normal. No indication of perimenopause. Sexual: Same time frame, since March, have had serious FSAD (female sexual arousal disorder) - mentally, I'm all there, at first my body responds and then it shuts down - ****** is almost impossible. This has NEVER been an issue before. Blood Sugars: Been experiencing some hypoglycemic incidents. Whether it's the same time period as the other stuff, I don't know. It seemed to come on gradually - just a couple of incidents here and there but it's get worse. I average 3-4 instances a week even though I do my best to eat every 2-3 hours. They can come on fast - feel fine and 30 seconds later I'm having severe trembling, heart palps, hot flashes, dizziness, nervousness, etc. Other times it comes on slowly and I start off feeling a little muzzy-headed... Within 15 minutes of eating, I typically feel fine. Today was the first opportunity to actually check my sugars. I was at work and just before lunch started feeling a little "off". Had the nurse check my sugars and registered a 56 which she indicated was pretty low. I had an apple about an hour and a half before that and a bowl of oatmeal and a banana about 3 hours before that. Numbness/Drop-Foot: Off and on, I've experienced what I *think* may be drop foot... My left foot often feels a little, for lack of a better word, "gimpy", especially when I'm walking for exercise. It's not constant. I have noticed over the last couple of weeks though that there's some partial numbness on the top of my foot - not completely numb but a pretty much constant decrease in sensation if I, for example, scratch the top of my foot... Weight: My weight for the most part has remained stable since March, which is okay, I guess. I'm pretty much happy where I am although I've really been working to lose another 5-10 pounds just for me. Doesn't seem to matter what I do, and psychologically, I'm struggling because of my need to eat every couple of hours to stave off the hypoglycemia. If I don't lose it, that's okay, but I'm throwing it in because it started the same time as pretty much everything else. Based on stuff I've been reading, it could be a myriad of things, the top of the list being Diabetes, which I didn't have, ironically, at my highest weight of almost 300 pounds... I know it's possible to become diabetic after WLS, but I don't know how common it is or what the signs are... Any ideas?

What are you B1 and B12 levels? Do you know? The normal range for B12 is something like 300-1100. Well, one can have neurological symptoms and even damage in the low to mid of normal range. In Europe and other places around the world... the low end is 800. You really want your B12 to be off the chart to be safe - extra won't hurt you. The drop foot can be a sign of neuropathy which can be B12 or it can be B1. Also, sexual arousal can be neuropathy. Been there, done that as a diabetic. I had neuropathy in my feet and the drop foot thing. My B12 was okay on labs. My doc did not check B1. I asked about it but... Anyway, I upped my B50 to B100 and eventually to 2 B100s and the symptoms went bye-bye. Be sure you are taking a high dose B12 sublingual every day or go on shots. Take 2 B100 complex every day. I take B100 capsules with hot tea. Go down much easier than horse pills. As for your blood sugars... all the foods you listed are carbs... apple, oatmeal and banana. Your body is overreacting to the carbs and giving off too much insulin driving your sugars way down. Do not eat just pure carbs by itself. Do not eat these foods without eating some protein with them. In fact, since things are so bad right now... I'd alter your diet and ditch the carbs for now and see how you do. Focus more on proteins for a while eating every 3-4 hours. Then I'd add some carbs back in but only with protein. Diabetes would be high sugars, incredible thirst, unexplained weight loss, skin eruptions (I had infected hair follicles in the nether regions and armpits), irritability, mood swings and possibly neuropathy (I never knew I had it til the doctor tested me and I went on meds and then I got pins and needles as blood flow resumed to areas). As for the cycles, geez, I'm not sure what to tell you on that. Insulin resistance perhaps? Kathy

I have been considering the neuropathy/B vitamin connection. Last blood test, done in February, was great on B1, and on the low side of normal for B12. I've upped my Bs since then, just to be safe, but I'm going to ask my doc to double-check them. As for the carbs thing, yeah, I can see that, too. But on Sunday, I had a severe episode, hit within 30 seconds of feeling great to severe tremors, hot flashes, etc. That was at about 1pm... I had had a couple of scrambled eggs with cheese around 9 and a cheese stick and some whole wheat crackers around 11:30... Hadn't really considered the neuropathy thing for the sexual thing... lol... I guess I was too caught up in it being related somehow to my cycles... BTW - saw on the May board your issues seems to have subsided for the time being. Great news!

Be sure to trump up the B12 big time. We really never want to see it below 800. Mine dropped from 1500 to 1100 and I added a second sublingual everyday. I'm taking no chances of it dropping more and causing problems. The 2 B100s really, really helped with my neuropathy and drop foot thing. Here is an article about hypoglycemia after gastric bypass (note: there is surgery discussed that is for the very, very extreme cases): http://www.news-medical.net/?id=13727 Kathy

Yeah, DEFINATELY not the path I want to go down.... I can't recall my exact numbers, would have to look them up, just remember my B12 was "in range" but on the low side - we talked about that remember? That was back in Feb and when I upped my dosage. I'm also taking a Super B Complex liquid everyday with my protein shake: 1 Teaspoon Thiamin 50mg Riboflavin 50mg Niacin 50mg B6 50mg Folic Acid 100mcg B12 50mg (but it's ingested orally so I don't count it) Biotin 50mcg Pantothenic Acid 50mg (no idea what that is, to be honest) In addition, I do a B12 1000mcg under the tongue... but here's something weird - I was just looking at the bottle.It's a liquid, but it doesn't say "Sublingual" - I take it sublingually but it actually just says "take one dropperful daily or mixed in juice"... OMG... do you think all this time I thought I was getting my B12 in and I was really absorbing it???

I'm not sure what they do to B12 to make it sublingual but it is possible that what you have is the wrong form. Could be you aren't absorbing much or any of it. Walmart, Trader Joes, etc have B12 sublinguals. I would not recommend the Vitamin Shoppe brand of B12 sublinguals... dang things take forever to melt. I take 2500 mcg twice a day. We like the Trader Joes ones and Rexall which Walmart sells. If you switch to shots, don't have to worry about the sublingual. Your Super B is the equivalent of a B50 complex (except for having a bit more folic acid in there). I wonder what pantothenic acid is too. What's it for anyway? You know I'm gonna have to look... (geek!) Kathy

Oh yeah - I am going to cut all simple carbs for the next few days, in addition to carefully tracking what I'm eating, when, and what kind of response I get. Plus, I'm going to have my doc draw bloodwork again and check my Bs... I may talk to him about switching to the shots, as well. I know he'll prescribe them so I can do them myself...

Excellent!

Just read this article, Wow. Thankyou. I have been having the lo blood sugar spaz attacks too about 2x a wk. and it feels alot like dumping but the foods I had eaten shouldn't have triggered it. The other day again I felt like I was going to black out, way dizzy and got the hot flashes from hell and almost didn't make it to bed. 15 min later I ate some fruit/jello and a T. of pnt btr and the body seemed to come back out of it. Trying to make sure to get protein in often which seems to help. If I eat cereal w/ milk within 1/2 hr my body goes into crisis ( so I just pass on cereal ) The article confirmed what you had just told Becky. Your gift is showing Mary

I've only had 2 sugar crashes since surgery and they were a few months ago. One I was in the process of drinking a protein shake when it hit me. Weird. I hate lows with a passion. Had them many times while on insulin. If my mealtime got delayed look out! Thanks for the angel! Kathy