Blood sugar reaction to fruit post surgery

Hi everyone, Happy Friday!!

OK, I have noticed that when I eat fruit (fresh or canned/no sugar) my blood sugar goes up tremendously for the next test. (I test 4 times a day before each meal and bedtime) If I eat fruit as a snack, watch out, it will be on average 30 to even 80 points higher than if I don't. I don;t remember this before surgery  I know I should have some fruit, should't I?  I try to eat it only a couple of times a week. but I miss it, I really like fruit!  Any thoughts? Any I should maybe avoid more than others?

Thanks!!

This is pretty normal - fruit is essentially nothing but sugar (no fat, no protein). Try sticking to lower-sugar fruits like berries, and/or have some protein & fat WITH your fruit (I never eat fruit by itself). Add some cheese, nuts, nut butters, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, cream...

ooohh thanks!! good ideas! will definitely try them!

 let you surgeon/endo know know... it could be postprandial hypoglycemia. I have it very bad and it started off slow...

I have been diabetic for 25 years and I rarely eat fruit and never, ever by itself (before or after surgery).  Jill is correct - it is metabolized as the carbohydrate that it is and you will spike afterward.  If you use insulin, you could cover it and likely you wouldn't spike.  If not, either ditch it or have protein with it to slow the spike. 

I just had surgery on 9/12 and, when I went on clear liquid in the hospital, they sent me juice on my tray at least once a day.  I never drink juice - EVER - unless I'm treating a low.  Heck, even candy was metabolized better than juice or fruit.  At least there was fat in the candy to slow the spike! 

Good luck - it's always a work in progress, so keep the faith!
Terry

Terry, so what did you tell them at the hospital when they sent you juice? Did they replace it with something else? I am thinking, no, planning the surgery and I don't want to be given liquids that I can't consume!

Frankly, I was consuming so little that it didn't matter.  Just getting through the sf jello was chore enough.  And there's always water available.  They sent a lot on the tray - broth, jello, decaf coffee (I HATE COFFEE!), and sometimes the juice.  So, that's a large quantity for the few days post--surgery.  I went for broth and jello most of the time and it took forever to consume just that.

I did tell the surgeon and also provided the feedback on the survey.  The nurses were very good where I was, so I am sure if I wanted a sub, they would have gotten it for me. 

Everyone realized that I was a diabetic, except dietary I think! 

Good luck to you - where are you in the process?

I am at step one.. which is the hardest I guess. I had a consult five years ago and ran away scared out of my mind.. tried for the five years to talk myself out of it. Had some very short term success with weight loss and then decided to go for another consult with a different surgeon. Liked the surgeon better but he has no experience (I think!) with the VSG which is what I am tending towards (I think!) so I contacted Michel Gagner and we are in a long distance phone/email consultation type of situation now and he (Dr Gagner) may come here to do some research project and may do my surgery while he is here.. I don't know. There are no confirmations yet. If that doesn't work then I'll probably go to Montreal to have him operate on me there. IF I decide to go through with it and not chicken out like last time. The difference now is that I've just a month ago received the big Diabetes diagnosis - not an official one but my doctor put me on metformin and said pretty much that we need to protect my organs so I know what this means. I have been trying a low carb diet for the last couple of weeks and I have lost a couple of pounds.. nothing dramatic. I need to exercise which I don't do enough of. I monitor and eat to my meter or trying to. I feel that I am so early on in the journey with diabetes that a weight loss surgery could improve things for me at least in the short and medium term. I don't want to mess with my digestion in terms of doing anything malabsorptive but again, I am open to be convinced otherwise. I know I need to do SOMETHING and sooner rather than later. So this is where I am at. I have another consult on 7 November and we'll see from there. Honestly, I wish that I could do it on my own and not tinker with my body surgically but...pretty sure I can't. I don't even know if I can do it with the surgery and not regain after a few years. I have 3 friends who have had RNY and two of them have regained pretty much all the weight they initially dropped. One is soldiering on but I saw her eating lunch the other day and well.. not exactly a post op maintenance diet! Maybe it was her 'free day'.. I just find everyone here so incredibly brave. I just think of the five little incisions for the surgery and I go completely cold.

I hope you are doing OK.  I just realized that I never responded to this post.  The decision making process is a difficult one - and I don't really know when to tell you how to be ready for it.  I thought about it for 9 years, and saw 3 surgeons over the course of  a year.  I continued to be scared to death throughout that time, but I also kept coming back to it.  I couldn't seem to let the idea go.

I think a big "push" for me wa****ting 25 years as a diabetic and realizing that I just didn't know how much longer I could avoid complications if I didn't do something. I also knew that it had to be a malabsorptive procedure, because I needed that action in that part of my body to have the desired effect on my diabetes.  (I knew someone who did the band, and she had some initial weight loss but has regained it all and more.)  If you are looking for something to address your diabetes, malabsorptive is the way to go. 

I also realized that, despite all of my best efforts, my metabolism is simply a mess.  My doctors, including my endocrinologist, told me that for several years, but I just thought it was all my fault and that, if I tried hard enough, I could change it all.  But, I couldn't.  Everyone told me that I had "bad biology" - type 1.5 diabetes, insulin resistance, PCOS - and all of it worked against me.  I was able to lose a little weight when I was first diagnosed 25 years ago, but since then I gained 100 pounds.  I was even exercising quite vigorously and gained 40 pounds in about 4-5 weeks at one point.  I finally had to admit that I couldn't change my biology and that I was being offered an opportunity to change it.  But, I had to actually stop trying to do everything myself and realize that trusting someone else might be the answer.  It was actually freeing, once I wrapped my brain around it.

I was very afraid of surgery of any kind.  But, I just started to trust my surgeon and the process.  I will tell you that the surgery and the recovery was so much easier than I expected.  I didn't have much pain afterward at all, and was just so relieved to have it behind me.  I have continued to feel well for the past 15 weeks, and have had no issues with healing or recovery.  I consider that a great and abundant blessing. 

Happy new year to you - keep listening to yourself, read up on the choices, and see a surgeon when you are ready.  Just take things one step at a time and don't get too far ahead of yourself.  I found that particularly helpful.  When I started to think about the whole picture, I easily got overwhelmed.  I told myself that I could stop the process at any point - even up to the point of the day of surgery.  When I just took each appointment, each test, each clearance as its own piece, I stopped feeling as overwhelmed and that helped me get ready.

All the best - please update when you can.
 

Hi and thanks for replying! My surgeon seems to think that a VSG will have very good results on my early stages of diabetes. I was trying to move him in the direction of the DS but he doesn't think its a good idea for me. I don't want a RnY. I had a recent A1c done and it was 6.3 which covered two "good" months on metformin and testing and being vigilant and one "bad" month...so I guess I am doing better. Fruit spikes me as do all the carbs especially rice. Really high! Into the 180 range. It always goes down within an hour or two to 140 then 120 and lower. Dr thinks that given my recent diagnosis the VSG and weight loss will be enough. I am 47. He thinks that this is all I will need. I hope he is right!