awesome help for falling

Wow - just wanted to say thank you! I went to the doctor, and she ordered all the same tests you all suggested(from a post on 9/19)! You all are awesome! I probably wouldn't even have called my doctor without all of your great input! So far, she has found I was very dehidrated. The EKG was normal. The test on my carrotid arteries will probably happen later today. My sugar level was normal, which helped because I had assumed alot of my symptoms were from low sugar since I see so many people here struggle with that. It makes me feel so much safer to have such a knowledgeable network of other grads to help me. Thanks so much. I hadn't been to this board for a while, but I will try to be a regular now. Thanks again! Terri

Glad to hear that so far things are good. Now, get to drinking tha****er, ya hear!!! Unless they did a glucose tolerance test ... a simple blood glucose reading is not going to tell the doctors whether you have reactive hypoglycemia or not. In other words, if test your fasting blood sugar it is a flat number xx. Should be around 70-110 or so. That's normal. Where reactive hypglycemia is seen is a half hour or hour after eating something carby... there is a big drop. In a glucose tolerance test (assuming you don't have dumping issues) they measure your fasting blood sugar then give you a bunch of sugar to drink. Then they test your blood every so often and watch to see if it takes a dramatic plunge. Kathy

I did a Glucose Tolerance Test on Monday ... ick. What a pain. Literally. I was doubled over with nausea and abdominal pain/cramping (dumping I assume) for over 4 hours. From what I understand, there is another way to get these results without doing the Glucose challenge (my doc told me that AFTER I called him saying I was in so much pain ... they gave me the wrong test). Anyway ... my doc ordered this test after I had a grand mal seizure a few weeks ago, and the rescue squad measured my blood sugar level at 23. This test came back with my blood sugar level at 38 after one hour and not much higher after the second hour. I'm surprised though, because although I had the nausea and abdominal pain, I didn't dump like I usually do ... didn't get the palpitations and flushed/sweating (although I was colder than cold). I have noticed too however, that it seems about 20 minutes after I eat (just about every time), I do a type of mini-dump (nausea, sweating, cramping, etc.) ... so I find that a little strange. I find it very interesting to compare notes with others going through all types of low blood sugar levels, since this still seems like pretty new territory, and I'm starting to hear more and more about it.

It could be your response was a bit different this time because the quantity of sugar was so much stronger than you normally would be ingesting that it skipped some of the normal symptoms and just went right into plunge mode. Does that make sense? Eating carbs with other foods slows down the response. Here is a good article: http://www.joslin.harvard.edu/1083_3059.asp Kathy

I'm hoping is is nothing more than what I had. God Bless CathyA