Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Stalking the Wild Blood Sugar

In the medical field, the common diseases are referred to as "horses" and the not-so-common-ones, "zebras". Diabetes is of course, about as as equine as you can possibly get- but the lines do blur sometimes.

Is it type 1?

Is it type 2?

Is it type Halle Berry?

Is it gestational?

Or is it secondary to something else, and transiet?

Periodically, my blood sugars go off on a wild tangent, and nothing gets them up. Nothing. Everyone gets this sometimes(due to exercise, illness, etc)but I've yet to figure out exactly what prompts mine to go off. The last time, lasted two weeks. Two weeks of averaging about 5-8 units a day and still having lows.(usually use between 20-27U/day) It hasn't ever lasted that long so I asked my endo about it, their response was type 1's can periodically produce some insulin and studies really haven't been done to see why sets that off but glucose is very toxic/supressing to the islets and thats probably why it doesn't happen more often.(with me,given my less then perfect control) So I asked about checking my cpeptide the next time it happens and they said they could do that. It'll be interesting to see what exactly this pancreas of mine is up to.
If I understood that...what makes it go off,maybe there is something I can do to help those little spurts of whackyness toward excellent control. I would love to take so little insulin on a regular basis,it makes hypos less likely, the a1c better,life so much better. I do not think they have type 1's with residual insulin production take pills(thats for type 1's/2's with insulin resistance)and I wouldn't want to take them even if offered. But having a steady cpeptide would be a great thing.(every bit helps) This occasional zebra of mine might be unpredictable, but I'd take that over the regular horse (fill in the blank) any day.

4 comments:

Scott K. Johnson said...

That is very interesting! I hope they are able to confirm/deny that for you the next time it happens - I know it's caused you a lot of inconvenience in the past.

Lili said...

You've had your cortisol checked, right?

HVS said...

Lili-yes,I have.Completly normal.

Anonymous said...

Too bad they couldn't test your C-Peptide when you are having the low episodes. Beta cells still producing insulin; that is very encouraging, even if it is only sporadic.