Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6 Location: Los Angeles
Am I Hypoglycemic? Posted: 05-13-07 13:22pm
I've had physical problems for years.
We've looked at all kinds of things from
food allergies to cancers, done all the
tests for everything from Sinus infections
to crohn's disease. After a lot of
searching, we finally arrived at IBS.
most likely this is all triggered by
stress.
The last few months have been abysmal. My
stress level has been through the roof and
it's really impacted my health. Because
the IBS has been raging, food has become a
major issue. I know I do not eat enough
or eat reglarly. I'm concious of my diet,
but food choices usually lead to a major
internal debates as to what I can eat and
how it will impact me. More often than
not, I skip eating rather than deal with
the side effects.
In short, I've kind of screwed myself
health-wise.
In the last three months, I've started
having what I thought were panic attacks.
My heart starts racing, I have a hard time
catching my breath. The first time I
thought I was having a heart attack.
Anxiety medication did nothing to stop or
reduce the level of the attacks. Thats
when I happened onto a book about
Hypoglycemia.
All the symptoms seemed to match. And,
reading here about stress and adrenal
depletion causing hypo, it all seems to
finally be coming together. I'm starting
to think the condition I've been trying so
hard to figure out all these years is
actually some form of hypoglycemia.
I had a blood glucose test years ago and
the results were kind of funky. My doctor
didn't think anything of it because I'm
pretty slender. Since I wasn't overweight
(I fight to keep weight on), he said not
to worry about it.
Since I started to suspect hypo, I've kept
track of my sugar with a home glucose
monitor. I don't seem to react too much
to eating food. My sugars rarely rise
above 102. Once it went to 145 after
eating but that was it. I tend to hoover
around the low 90's. When I'm feeling
"hypo" the sugars are usually in the low
70's. Anything below 85 and I feel hypo.
From what I've read, these don't seem to
be numbers that are out of the ordinary.
Are they normal? Is there such a thing as
"normal"?
Until the panic attacks started I was
extremely active, dancing or swiming
several days a week. Since the attacks
began, my energy levels are almost
non-existent. I'd love to get back to
being physical again but I just don't have
the energy. I spend the whole weekend in
bed or laying low just recooperating from
my work week.
Does this sound like hypo? Should I see
someone about this?
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Stan
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Posted: 05-15-07 17:53pm
Sounds like it man, and it if so it will
be the cause behind the lie of IBS for
you. Can I have your complete test
results? I need to see them to help you.
The thing that most doctors don't know
about the GTT is that for hypoglycemics,
the level of the drop doesn't matter, it's
the speed of the drop. From what you told
me there, it sounds like you might be
dropping pretty hard pretty fast.
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Dance4evr
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6 Location: Los Angeles
Posted: 05-15-07 23:02pm
It was about 2 years ago and I don't have
the results. I recently tried to get them
from my doctors office and they couldn't
find them which I found kind of
disturbing. It didn't instill a lot of
faith in their record keeping.
I recall the numbers were odd, though. I
don't remember the first one taken before
I took the glucose. The test was done at
half hour intervals over 3 hours. The
second test was higher, in the mid-150's.
It was the third one that was weird. It
was 47. I remember that clearly because
the lab even called it out as unusual and
recommended a second test. The numbers
slowly crept up to the low 70's before the
test was done.
The other thing I clearly recall was
feeling very strange in the last half hour
or so of the test. All my energy just
disappeared and I was hungry, craving
sweets in the worst way. I mentioned it
the the nurse who said I should just go
home and lay down. I think she offered me
some juice or something which I would have
declined because I haven't been able to
handel fruit juices for yuors. I remember
sitting in my car in the parking lot for
about 20 minutes then heading home in a
fog. I spent the rest of the day in bed
trying to recover. Eating didn't really
help clear me up again either. Sleep was
the only thing that made me feel better.
When I did the follow up, the doctor
brushed it all off.
At the time, I thought little of it. The
numbers were all over the place so I
figured it was just a bad test or
something. My doctor was not concerned
(GP) so I forgot about it. It wasn't
until I started putting the pieces
together about the Hypo that I even
thought about the test again.
I've tried kicking sugar but right now my
diet is so restrictive because of the IBS,
a very high-pressure job and an insane
schedule, I fall off the diet within a
couple of days and the cycle starts all
over again.
I've finally decided to leave my job
because it's the only way the pressure
will ease up which in turn means I can
control my diet better. But I can't leave
for at least another week, perhaps longer.
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Stan
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Posted: 05-16-07 07:31am
Yeah that's a pretty severe drop. So
which hour did that occur in, I'm
confused? That will be enough for me to
help you. What kind of diet do they have
you eating for, chuckle, ibs? No offense,
but that caca is a dustbin diagnosis, no
one really has that stupid crap, it's the
new fad for awhile. I was treated the
same way, so if you want support you're
going to need to find a new doctor, but
there's not much they can do now. Can you
go on medicl leave for your job? I tried
that at first, before I knew what I had
unfortunately, and used up all three
months of it. But since you know what it
is you could possibly treat it in that
time.
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Dance4evr
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6 Location: Los Angeles
Posted: 05-16-07 09:05am
The drop was the third blood draw, so it
would have been one hour after taking the
glucose.
Medical leave is not an option. I'm an
independent contractor. If I leave, I'm
done. Another doctor suggested short-term
disability but the stigma would follow me
in my line of work if anyone found out.
The situation is pretty complicated. I
used all my money and maxed out my credit
cards in a very well educated attempt to
pursue a dream so I'm living paycheck to
paycheck these days. The "dream" is
slowly beginning to come to fruition but
it will be months at best before it begins
to pay off.
The dream was making an indy film, a
documentary. I had hoped for some
financial help through grants but it never
materialized (I wrote lots and lots of
grants, never got one), so it was all up
to me to finance this thing. And it was a
very expensive documentary to make,
involving travel all over the country over
the course of three years.
So, leaving a job is a very tough choice
right now because in short order I will
have to consider bancruptcy. Then again,
it only takes one person in the right
place to like my film and everything will
be solved. And, this Sunday could be the
first step toward that. I'm having a
screening and some potential
buyers/distributors will be there. The
film has already had amazing reviews from
very well placed people, people who would
not BS me, so I have faith in what I've
produced.
The toll it's taken on me personally has
been huge. Essentially working two
full-time jobs for the past three years,
no time off, never more than a one
afternoon break from one job or the other.
I finally realized it was either take a
risk on creditors or follow the family
tradition of early heart attacks. I chose
to leave the job instead.
Changing the diet just isn't going to
happen until I get rid of some of this
stress.
I guess the next step is trying to find
the right kind of doctor to help me with
this. I doubt my GP would take this
seriously. Should I be looking for an
endocrinologist? How do you know a good
one from a not so good one? I'm in Los
Angeles. Are there any resources to help
with that decision out here?
Part of me is struggling to be very Zen
about this, telling myself to calm down
and relax, take deep breaths. That's been
a tough fight so far but I'm trying.
|
Stan
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Posted: 05-16-07 09:26am
Rough situation. Is there no way you can
adjust your diet at this time? It's
imperative. What's the documentary about?
I'm really in to underground films, so
I'm curious.
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Dance4evr
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6 Location: Los Angeles
Posted: 05-16-07 10:04am
The problem with the diet is the stress
level. Things change so fast in my
current job they quickly get out of
control. I start the day off with the
best of intentions and, usually, a healthy
breakfast, but by mid-morning or early
afternoon I've been barraged from so many
different directions I either am forced to
skip lunch or find myself in a meeting
where the lunch served leaves me no
options for safe food. I have a
refrigerator in my office but I've been so
busy I can't get things for it. This week
alone has been 5AM mornings working until
8:30 or 9 each night. Who wants to shop
at those hours?
So, I get so hungy just I grab something.
Usually it's something on my "bad" list.
Part of the grab is hunger, part is a
stress response. I'm aware of that at
least.
Today for example, my schedule changed and
I'm headed out to Malibu all day to work.
No time to prepare something to take with
me. The only upside is Malibu is loaded
with healthy food choices so I can stop
and grab something fairly safe.
The film is a documentary. It's my take
on how concepts of aging are changing in
society. I followed 5 women who came to
the study of classical ballet late in
life, and how it changed them. It's a
pretty empowering piece and I'm very proud
of it.
You can see the trailer on the "view the
trailer" page. Some people have a problem
watching it (I think because it's a
redirect to Mac.com from another site).
There are links to Youtube and MySpace on
that page if you can't see it. It's
funny, now that the film is done I want to
go back and re-edit the trailer. It's
very close to what the film is about, but
I've learned a lot more about post
production since then and I'd love to
clean it up a bit. But thats just me
being a perfectionist.
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Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1673 Location: ,
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Posted: 05-16-07 13:57pm
Interesting, looks pretty cool. I'm more
into weird documentaries like Sick and
such, but I like stuff like this too. I
don't know if I'd call that stress so much
as poor planning. I believe if you could
plan out what you need to eat, carry
around things in a small cooler when you
travel or keep a large cooler in the car,
things would be better.
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Dance4evr
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6 Location: Los Angeles
Posted: 05-17-07 12:22pm
Trying to maintain a sensible diet with
this job is about as close to impossible
as it gets. I've been working 15 - 18
hour days and my schedule is subject to
the whim of others which makes planning
tough. The stress level is quite high,
everything is now, now, now. So, it's not
that I can't plan, it's that my plans get
thwarted within minutes or hours of being
set.
The only real answer to get my health back
is to leave this job. Hopefully, next
Friday will be my last day and I can
concentrate on getting better. Finding a
new line of work is definitely in the
future as well. Perhaps going back to
school again.
Thanks for all the tips and info though.
Hypoglycemia explains so much of what
happens to me and why past treatments
haven't worked.
Should I be seeking out a doctor to help
me manage this? So much of it seems like
common sense: eating well, eating enough
and on a schedule, getting enough sleep,
etc. Would adding a doctor to the mix be
wise or would it just muck things up?
|
Stan
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Posted: 05-17-07 14:04pm
To be honest, I could probably tell you
ten times what any doctor could unless you
could find a rare specialist in
hypoglycemia. Since I've struggled with
it for four years (well, two because now
I'm healthy) and had it my whole life, I
can tell you anything you need to know
about getting better. Sometimes, quitting
is the only option, I had to do it and
look where it led me. I'm currently
pursuing my PhD and just got my Master's
Degree this month, teaching myself a
language and working hard to get it.
Whenever I quit my old job, which though I
loved it was 12 hour shifts, one of which
was from 12PM until 12 noon the following
day. It took it's toll on me when
hypoglycemia set in, though I didn't know
at the time what it was. I would try to
get your test results if you can, they
have to have them somewhere. Also, just
curious, have you ever seen the
documentaries The Gates of Heaven or
Vernon Florida.
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Dance4evr
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 13 May 2007 Posts: 6 Location: Los Angeles
Posted: 05-17-07 21:02pm
First off, thanks so much for the info
you've given me. Being able to talk about
all this with people who know what it's
like is a tremendous relief.
I can't wait to leave this job because I
can't wait to get my life back, not only
in terms of my time and ability to relax,
but in terms of getting my health back
together. Today I had a pretty bad IBS
attack late afternoon. I think part of it
was my body realizing the end of the job
is near and I've started to relax a bit,
de-stressing in a way. The end is in
sight and I'm thrilled.
I've never seen those documentaries but
I'll look for them. I didn't know much
about docs when I started this project. I
never thought much about them and hadn't
seen many. Being a documentary filmmaker
was not my dream in life. I didn't even
want to be a director. But I saw this
incredible story I wanted to share and
went for it. When I set myself on the
journey that became this film I began
watching lots and lots of docs. About six
moths into it someone said to me, "Who's
directing it?" Honestly, it hadn't
occurred to me that I was the director
until that moment. I never thought of
myself that way and it certainly wasn't my
career path. I studied writing at UCLA
and knew production pretty well, but a
director? Those were the guys who saw
live theater and had interesting lives and
talked about theory and emotions. I
didn't think about myself that way.
Now, three years later and one film in the
"can", I'm still not comfortable calling
myself a director but I did learn to think
like one. Even putting that title above
my name in the credits was a weird moment.
I'll look for those docs.
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Stan
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Posted: 05-17-07 22:29pm
I know what it can be like to have
absolutely no support system, that's why I
try to help people here. You'll like
those movies, start with Vernon. I don't
really like his films after Gates of
Heaven, but they're okay. The first two
are classics. In Vernon he just goes
around his hometown of Vernon to interview
people he knew to show you how fd up they
are and it's hilarious. There's this
great scene where this old war vet talks
about 'four bowls of the brain' and how
his lets you move two arms, move a foot
and read a newspaper at the same time.
Gates is him documenting this hilarious
event where this guy tried to start a pet
cemetery in his back yard without a permit
and the authorities came to dig it up, and
this guy in CA heard about it and created
a real pet cemetery with the corpses.
Hilarious.
