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Morning blood glucose

Posted , 4 users are following.

gill70346
gill70346

my gp has asked me to start taking my blood sugars on a 4 day cycle - morning, lunch, dinner and bed. Bed is obvious, lunch and dinner I take just before I eat but the morning is not so obvious. If I take it when I first wake up at around 6.30am it has been as high as 16.2, but if I take it just before breakfast at around 8am it has been as low as 8.2. (Still high I know but lower than it has been) when do people suggest I take it in the morning. Your help is much appreciated. I do not want to give my GP misleading figures.

 

0 likes, 8 replies

8 Replies

  • archemedes
    archemedes gill70346

    Posted

    You have raised an interesting point Gill.

    In the past when I have been asked to perform this sort of self test, I usually test before and after meals for each of the four days, but I have never considered the sometimes quite considerable gap in BG levels between waking up and pre-breakfast.

    Each day I download all my readings onto my computer, and when I am recalled to the surgery I simply take a printout of the entire test period in to the doctor.

    My feeling in your case is that as your BG readings are quite high when you first wake up and different just before breakfast, it might be a good idea to add a 'waking-up'  test to the bunch.

    I realize this represents quite a lot of testing per day, but if your doctor has all of the information in front of him there would be little liklihood of him not understanding the full picture.

    I am just wondering why your doctor has chosen this particular time to ask you to carry out this test.

    Have you recently had a poor result from an HBA1c test?

    • mark357
      mark357 archemedes

      Posted

      I think that there may of been something that has shown up on the recent diabetic check and with the HBA1c test might have set alarm bells off.

      Maybe doing some regular self testing archemedes, may show up where the hic cup is.

      I was going through this last December, so at the moment I have been put on a drug called Sitagliptin and I am still doing the test at the moment simply because just after the routine check up I had to go into hospital for surgery on a none related matter. This will continue again I'm sure when I see my GP at the end of the month.

    • gill70346
      gill70346 archemedes

      Posted

      The reason I am having to self test at the moment is that on New Years eve I was feeling really ill. Until that point I had been told not to self-test on a regular basis but that day I did it anyway in the morning just before breakfast and it was 30.4. I knew it was a lot higher than it should be so phoned GP and he was very concerned. Increased medication, daily blood tests (initially 4x per day, now once per day), and fortnightly appointments. HbA1c the other day still raised, daily Bg still raised though not as bad - before breakfast now usually in single figures (between (8.2 and 9.9)..
    • archemedes
      archemedes gill70346

      Posted

      30.4 is dangerously high.

      It is very worrying when out of the blue there is a sudden marked increase in our BG levels, and your doctor's action appear in line with standard practice in such cases.

      In the morning before breakfast my levels fuctuate between 7 and 10, but never get higher throughout the day  than 15, but my doctor seems quite happy with that so I tend not to worry too much about it.

      What is more worrying however is that I have started suffering with Peripheral Neuropathy, which believe me is not fun.

      Anyway this is not about me, it's about you. I sincerely hope that you manage to get your levels a little more stable, and that as a consequence you feel much better.  

  • mark357
    mark357 gill70346

    Posted

    This one can be tricky, as each person is different.

    What I do when I have a glitch in my diabetes and the doctor wants me to do regular reading's is alternate week by week. One week before breakfast, then the following week I do the readings two hours after breakfast, then highlight one of the weeks to show the difference. Unless your GP has asked for particular times.

    But see what other ideas that you may have and see what suits you best.

  • archemedes
    archemedes gill70346

    Posted

    Gill, as your doctor has not been very specific about when you should perform the morning tests I would still carry out both, that is after waking and pre-breakfast, as in your case there seems to be quite a time gap and a considerable difference in the levels between the two.

    Alternatively, you could simply phone your doctor and ask him to clarify exactly what he wants you to do.

  • akphoto
    akphoto gill70346

    Posted

    I wonder if you have heard of the'Dawn Phenomenon'. American research has indicated that hormonal changes while you sleep can have an effect on BG levels first thing in the morning. They are usually higher than 'normal' at that time. You could mention this to your doctor/diabetic nurse and see what their reaction is. I'm insulin dependent and my BG levels are very strictly controlled so I am not too concerned if my BG levels are high first thing (they usually are) as long as they drop during the day in accordance with my insulin dose. I have mentioned this phenomenon  to my nurse but she didn't seem too impressed!
    • gill70346
      gill70346 akphoto

      Posted

      Thank for that - it is helpful. I have mentioned it to my doctor, who has heard of it and thinks it might be the explanation. However, as I am Type 2 my BG levels are not strictly controlled. In fact I was told last Friday to stop taking them as they are now stable (!)  although still too high (average before breakfast around 9.0). Howeve, I have decided to buy my own test strips and continue testing them in the morning anyway, especially as he has doubled my dose on metformin (now 4 tablets per day) and I also take 4 gliclozide per day.
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