juliegee Posted January 10, 2010 Report Share Posted January 10, 2010 It's official. I'm the obsessed Mommy. I was just looking over Mack's blood work again & I noticed another oddity. His blood sugar was 56. What alarms me is that I took him (albeit grudgingly- because I told him to eat at home ) to Burger King right before his blood work. He had a huge chicken sandwich, fries, and a sugar laden sprite. His blood work was done about 35 mins. later. WHY would it be so low after he's eaten? Is that enough time for reactive hypoglycemia to rear it's ugly head? It takes me a few hours to swing like that. Any ideas?I'm filing his blood work away. No more obsessing for now I'd love to hear anyone's explanation...Thanks-Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vemee Posted January 10, 2010 Report Share Posted January 10, 2010 I don't know for sure if that is enough time for reactive hypoglycemia or something else going on with the endocrine system. Anything below 60 is considered hypoglycemic(in my area) and considering he had eaten just 35 minutes prior (which is plenty of time for the food to get into his system) it is really low. Your doctor probably didn't think anything of it because it is not that far out of the norm (protocol in some places make 50 the start of hypoglycemia) however, your doctor is probably assuming he was fasting for the test. Tell him you are concerned about the results since he had eaten before the test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinkerbella Posted January 10, 2010 Report Share Posted January 10, 2010 http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/128594try this and see if it give you some answers.How long after eating/drinking do blood sugar levels reach their peak? | Answerbag xxx's,bellamia~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliegee Posted January 10, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2010 Thanks, guys. Mack was fainting during his blood work. They couldn't get any of his veins to work & it took 4 sticks. I thought I had read somewhere that blood sugar will drop during a faint. I'm sure that stress sped up his metabolism in an effort to compensate for the low blood pressure & lack of oxygen to the brain. I will ask Dr. Rowe about this too. I am most interested in his answer because after an adrenalin rush, I always have to eat to re-balance. No one has ever explained exactly how that process works to me. I'll share his answer in case anyone else deals with this too.Grateful-Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinkerbella Posted January 10, 2010 Report Share Posted January 10, 2010 Oh my your poor son.....I asked my son who is diabetic and he said was it an ac1 by any chance? As in that case he was fine and that was a good number.No one should ever be a 56 he's been a turned diabetic at 9 and I would do anything if it were me and not him. Diabetes is a terrible disease!!!!!!!!!!!My heart is broken, I'll stop here as I get too upset.bellamia~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliegee Posted January 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 Oh my your poor son.....I asked my son who is diabetic and he said was it an ac1 by any chance? As in that case he was fine and that was a good number.No one should ever be a 56 he's been a turned diabetic at 9 and I would do anything if it were me and not him. Diabetes is a terrible disease!!!!!!!!!!!My heart is broken, I'll stop here as I get too upset.bellamia~So sorry about your son, Bella. I know how hard it is to see your baby (no matter how old ) suffer. Mack's test was for blood glucose, not AC1. I have reactive hypoglycemia & I bet he does too. But, this was different, he had JUST eaten. I think he metabolized his food VERY quickly because his body was super-stressed. I think all of our systems work hard to compensate for the loss of blood to the brain & that extra work is what burned through his food. Just my theory, I'd love to see a real one Prayers going to your son & hugs for you-Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vemee Posted January 11, 2010 Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 Did they test his urine by chance? I just remembered I had my blood tested several months ago and my glucose was 75 which is normal but I had just eaten 20 minutes before. They found sugar in the urine so that is why my blood glucose was not as high as you would think it would be. I have been told that as well as reactive hypoglycemia I have a mechanism that over reacts to changes in sugar. Sometimes when it starts to rise my body over reacts and dumps sugar into the kidneys and when it falls I believe it shoots adrenalin into the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliegee Posted January 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 Here is Dr. Rowe's take on the low blood sugar. It makes sense as they did send his blood work out to be tested."The low glucose on the blood work (especially if it was drawn that soon after a large meal) is probably an artifact of the testing methods. If we leave blood sitting for a while before it is processed, the glucose can drop rather low because the glucose in the serum continues to be used as a metabolic fuel by the red blood cells. I'd ignore that result."Vemee, interesting about the spill over to urine. No they didn't test that. Finny thing, I shared Mack's blood work with him and since he SAW the low blood sugar result, he's cutting out white flour and sugar. he actually ate an egg and wheat toast before school. Progress. No way that I'm gonna let him know it was probably an error. Bad Mommy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken_Shell Posted January 11, 2010 Report Share Posted January 11, 2010 Hi Julie,I really struggle with hypoglycemia the same as your son... eating drives my sugar into the 40's and 50's... I am symptomatic. No endocrinologist has any idea what is wrong with me, but they all agree it is abnormal. They always think that I am fasting, but in fact I have recently eaten and my fasting glucose is in the 70's. I have "severe reactive hypoglycemia and an unknown automatic dysregulation of blood glucose." Wish I could be of more help, but interesting to hear of this in someone else! ~ Broken_Shell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prettyinpink Posted January 12, 2010 Report Share Posted January 12, 2010 I'm a type 1 diabetic and i've been having a terrible time with low blood sugars lately. I think its a result of the new beta blocker. But last night i was 37 had 60 grams of carbs and 30 mins later i was only 42. I think I'm not absorbing food right. Is there a chance that despite having a big meal your son didn't absorb any of the sugar yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinkerbella Posted January 12, 2010 Report Share Posted January 12, 2010 my pots sp. said many of us have a hard time with blood sugars. i have to test from time to time as my blood sugars have always given me a problem even before i knew i had pots. sometimes it is hard to tell what is a low blood sugar and and a low BP in the middle of the night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flop Posted January 12, 2010 Report Share Posted January 12, 2010 Just a quick thought - in some people having a high load of simple sugar (like a regular sprite) will cause a surge in blood sugar levels that then leads to a large release of insulin (too much) and ends up with the blood sugar falling too low ie reactive hypoglycaemia. Usually a reactive hypo to food would come on later but a large soda may cause such a quick reaction. So Mack's instinct to avoid simple carbs is probably the right thing to do. You will never know if that result was correct / false low / low caused by soda / low caused by near faint.I hope his new eating habits help even out any symptoms that may be due to glucose fluctuations.Flop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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