Reactive Hypoglycemia?

I get to about 33-37 about once a week. It's wicked fun.

OMG! That's awful! Can you track it to what you eat?

BTW, we finally figured out how to carry PB crackers without them turning into PB dust. Well, someone smart figured it out, not me. Hard shell glasses case!

Sometimes I can make a connection between food ingested and the super-bad crash I'll get.  Sometimes, it's entirely out of nowhere - like, after a snack of cottage cheese one day.  I can depend of a real good low if I eat a "big meal" like, meat/carb/veggie, or a burger on bread.  I will crash.

Funny, I usta eat a Happy Meal almost daily (most of, not all of) and had no dumping OR HG episodes, either. Then I burned out on them and couldn't touch them for months. Then was in a hurry got one and noticed that something (bun or fries?) causes gas. And also had a few HG episodes then.

I know on the days that I have nothing but protein bars for my solid food (no, it's not some thing I am forcing myself to do, Ijust like 'em), and my routine 6 shakes, I have no issues at all. Can't live like this forever, of course, but for now, I love the bars and no HG episodes, so it's win-win

As a rule - I was told that under 70 is where the danger zone begins, and I should not drive/do anything stupid at that point until I treat the hypo and re-test.  I start to feel absolutely NUTS at about 65 mg - and I resemble a full-out drunk at about 50.  I normally don't realize how nuts I am acting until I get a physical symptom like the shaking.  I start most crashing with pacing and cleaning.  Bizarre, I know.

I'll make sure to click "reply all",  I did join, but didn't know the first few messages were subject to approval, thanks for the information :) I thought I saw a post of your daily menu once here, how many protein shakes do you have a day?  do you find it helps with controling your RHG?  I find if I eat every 3 hours (almost to the minute) I dont get the shakes like I would if I skipped a meal or didn't eat enough or the right foods at my last meal. A few days ago I had cream of chicken soup (thickend with flour and had white potatoes)   biggest mistake since becomming a post-op!!  I "crashed" so bad, I had to pull over while driving so I didn't REALLY crash, had peanut butter that I keep in the car which helped, but it still took a while for the crash to stop.  All night and the next day I still felt awful, week, shakes on and off.. never again!   hopefully someone will gain more insight on this problem at some point in the future since its becomming common with post-ops further out. thanks again for your insight, I'll stop in on the grads board :) 

Well, I don't do moo at all, ever. But I'mnoticing more and more issues with potatoes andwhite bread. Mainly since I needed to lose some wt and went on all protein and did no white carbs for several months. Had not a crash one. But since adding back foods, I've noticed that if I'm GOING to crash, somewhere, there were potatoes in my life.

I have eaten fairly often since my WLS (instructions) and do protein drinks often, so that part is already in there. This summer when I was doing my best to stay blotto because of the pain of broken arm, I was eating only a few bites of protein bar (2g carbs, whole bar) every few hours, and my usual 6 protein drinks/day, so I was kinda surprised that my sugars stayed steady as a rock.

I should clarify that I started out to lose 13# on purpose, protein foods and drinks only. THEN I broke my arm, and didn't need to try. The pain was so hideous that I just stayed as close to asleep as possible and had NO appetite AT ALL, so then it was an effort to get anything at all in.

Then eventually, the pain subsided and Istarted eating someting like normally and now I'm back to eating fairly normally, except all I really WANT now are these stupid protein bars. LOL

I have been reading all these posts on reactive hypogylcemia and Gina Floyd told me I should check with you also.  I passed out Saturday night at a Bluegrass show.  I had been out to dinner, had a very small amount of Thai Curry and chicken tempura and a glass of wine.  When I got to Bluegrass show, i ordered a diet coke and had only a sip.  I began feeling dizzy and funny and the next thing I knew I was waking up from being completely out.  I couldn't get myself together and the paramedics came.  They took my BP and blood sugar.  Blood sugar was 34 and BP was 69 over 36.  I told them I'd be ok and they left....but I wasn't ok and couldn't get myself together enough to get up off the floor.  they were called back and transported me to ER.  They gave me bag of fluids, said my potassium was low, and took ekg.  I was released with a pamphlet on fainting.  I believe that I might have reactive hypoglycemia.  I have been having weird spells but nothing like that.  My friend said I was out cold for 45 seconds, then tried to come to, but went back out for another 20 seconds.  He was scared to death.  What should I persue, or should I just wait to see if it happens again?

Thanks, Doris Heasley

Yes, it's so common in 2+ yrs out. Most of us have refused GTT. One of my fave docs really wanted to "see" and I said I'd only do it with ER personnel standing by. But man, I really wouldn't want to make myself feel like that.

What we've jointly decided to do (that's us way out here oldies) is carry PB crackers at all times. Not glucose tabs, not juice (roller coaster), but PB cracks provide the cheap carb to go fast + the fat to slow it down enough to not get back on the roller coaster.

There's a lot of stuff out there that says these attacks are all our fault. There are now a few studies out there showing pointers toward nesidioblastosis. I don't want that, but part of it may be true. I tend to think that our obesity set us up for it, regardless of "today".

The mini-way I'd describe it is: say you eat a tuna sand on white. Not too bad, but hey, how's about a few chips on the side? Now you have some white carbs to produce insulin. That's how it's sposta work, right? BUT, with a broken pancreas, you ate sand + chips and your pancreas reads, "SHE ATE 3 COSTCO BIRTHDAY CAKES! TURN ON THE TURBOS!" and way, way too much insulin is produced in readiness. When nothing but 30 carbs get there, vs the 3000 your pancreas planned, the blood sugar drops like a rock.

My lips and fingers tingle and I have about 30 seconds to get to the PB crackers or I won't be able to think to find them.

It is seriously dangerous, not a joke. I know for sure my triggers are potatoes and white bread.

Thanks!  I didn't eat but a few bites of dinner, but had a glass of wine.  Could the wine have tripped it?  I had another spell this morning.  My potassium is way low and they called me in to repeat it to make sure what the readings are. Can you tell me about potassium?

Thanks so much and I got my protein and rock n roll bars.  Would a rock in roll bar work as well as peanut butter cracker?

Doris