Bloodwork causing hypoglycemia?

In January, I went for my 6 month post-op blood work and had a medical emergency after the blood was drawn. I had a hypoglycemic fit and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital from the clinic. When the paramedics picked me up, my sugars were down to 2.2. I was at the clinic for 2 hours while they tried to get my sugars up and then at the hospital for 7 hours before I was somewhat sorted out. I think part of why it took so long to get my sugars stable is that I’m a dumper so the sugar solutions they were giving me was causing an insulin reaction and dropping my sugars even lower. I followed up with my GP and she suggested we treat it as a one-off occurrence. I consulted the fabulous people on this site and picked up some glucose tablets so I would be ready for the next batch of bloodwork.

Today I went for my 1 year blood work and had another episode. I had the nurse lay me down so I wouldn’t fall again if I blacked out and I had my sugar tabs ready to go. The needle came out after the blood was drawn, I threw back one of the sugar tabs, and then had another (I think) low blood sugar episode. I had another tablet and some water there, and put an ice pack on my neck to try and settle things down, and I managed to get myself sorted out enough to think I was fine (I wasn’t). I made it home, but started to have the blacking out episodes I had the previous time. I called a nurse and she said that if the numbness in my face, hands and feet didn’t let up, to call an ambulance. All day I have had dizzy spells, would black out for a few seconds when I’d stand up, and was just generally fuzzy. I made it a point to have snacks very regularly today and drink lots, but I’m still a bit out of sorts.

Has anybody else had this? Is this more of a blood sugar thing or a blood pressure thing? My fasting sugars are around 4.9 so it would seem odd for them to drop that much from the time of blood drawn to episode.

I have never heard of having blood drawn causing hypoglycemia.

If it is reactive hypoglycemia, not regular hypoglycemia, do NOT use glucose tablets. It will do exactly what you describe -- your blood sugar will go up, then crash again. It will be a never ending cycle. Do a search for RH.

Even with a full set of labs, they don't remove enough blood to cause a change in your blood pressure and I cannot imagine how drawing blood would affect your blood sugar unless you were fasting (some of the tests my PCP orders require fasting).

Ditto what Grim said on the glucose tablets.  Those can be far more problematic than helpful and by automatically taking one as soon as the nurse was done drawing blood -- before you had any symptoms of any kind! -- you may have inadvertently caused a blood sugar spike and crash!  Trying to self-diagnose and self-treat when it comes to extremely low blood sugar can be dangerous.

Lora

Who ever told you to use glucose tablets for Reactive Hypoglycemia (which is a common problem after WLS) was MISTAKEN.  Glucose tabs are SUGAR.  If the "sugar solutions" administered at your first episode were causing such problems, it doesn't make any sense to take a glucose tab ( sugar) for future blood sugar crashes.  You can not treat an RH crash the same as you would a diabetic or hypoglycemic blood sugar crash.  RH can usually be controlled by eating a very low carb, high protein diet with added "good fats".  You don't say what kind of "snacks" you had on hand.  Eating the wrong combination of foods can make things worse.  You treat RH crashes with a very small amount of carbs, a protein and some "good fats".  Peanut butter on a cracker is my go to snack when I feel a crash coming on. 

Edited to add:  Stress and excessive exercise can bring on an RH episode.  Could you have been stressed about the blood draw?