A few years ago I went to an endocrinologist who did some blood tests and a 24-hour urine sample. She determined that I have PCOS and pre-diabetes, and she started me on metformin.

A couple years later I had what felt like a sugar crash so I was taken to the ER. The doctor didn't find anything wrong with my blood sugar and actually said there was no reason for me to be on the metformin. I told him I was dx'ed with pre-diabetes in 2006 but he said I was fine and should stop the metformin, so I did. I also stopped testing my blood because he said if I wasn't seeing strangely low/high numbers I had nothing to be worried about.

This past Friday I had a very serious crash. I woke up after my boyfriend had gone to work, and was so weak/dizzy I could not get out of bed. I finally made it upstairs but as soon as I fed my cat I barely made it to the couch before blacking out for 3 hours. 4-5 hours later I ate some potatoes and started feeling better. I no longer have a meter so I could not test my sugar to see if that was indeed the problem but I have a feeling that's what it was.

I've exhibited all signs of Type II for years. Urinating frequently and in large amounts, weight concentrated around my mid-region (with RAPID weight loss 6 months ago), extreme fatigue (though mine is related to CFS I'm sure), etc.

What do y'all suggest I do? I moved to Canada a few months ago and do not yet have insurance up here. Please help, I'm quite scared.

Hi,

I was hoping someone with long experience would reply to your question, but it seems this board goes for very long periods with inactivity..I'll tell you what I know:

I am "pre-diabetic" and have found that if I just eat what I want without testing and regulating my carbs, I begin to have much higher fasting and A1c numbers....it looks like the progression to full fledged diabetes would go very quickly that way...I don't want that to happen...I tested many times daily for quite a while and now I know how my numbers behave with various foods....I now have very good numbers once again and am hoping to get out of the prediabetes range too.

For me, the discovery was that I have to eat very low carb if I want to keep my numbers stable and don't want to go on medication or insulin. At least even if I do progress to the disease in the future, it will be much slower. And with less complications. I no longer miss all the carbs and I've lost the weight I wanted to lose.

You need to test. You need to see the numbers for yourself and self-monitor. And read all you can about the disease. Doctors often don't tell you much. There should be mandatory education for diabetes and prediabetes, but at least in the U.S. there apparently isn't.

Also, I found that when my numbers were high, I often felt low blood sugar episodes which were "false" lows. My body was so used to having high all the time, that it apparently had withdrawal. I would eat something when that happened, but not something high in carbs. Gradually I got off the roller coaster. You can too. It might help your moods a lot too; it did mine!!!

[This Message was Edited on 08/23/2009]

First of all, ALWAYS keep a roll of glucose tablets -or- some hard candy or a candy bar on your night stand by your bed in case you feel like this again. If you are not familar with glucose tablets, ask a pharmacist at your nearest drug store and he will get them for you. They are normally in a plastic flip-top tube and look like oversized Tums. They are around $1/tube.

Most sugar drops happen at night. If you ever wake up and feel EITHER hot and sweaty, very weak, so tired that you can't walk, dizzy, or some other strange feeling .... your blood sugar is probably pretty low. When this has happened to me, and someone brought my sugar test kit to me and I took it, it was like 49. You can go into a coma when your sugar is 30 -- and you will be talking out of your head, and if you are in public, someone may think you are drunk, when you are really ready to go into a diabetic coma or die.

So, if you feel like the above, sit up on the side of your bed, don't worry about taking your sugar count in a meter, just chew a few glucose tablets (whatever label states--which you read and remember when you buy them), crunch up some hard candy, or eat a candy bar. Then lay back down for 15 minutes. It will take about 15 minutes to get in your blood stream to bring your sugar up. If you still feel weird, but are able to walk, go drink some orange juice or a can of regular pop--like Coke, Pepsi, etc.

Then you need to find out when you become eligible for Canada's health program and be ready to sign up on that day and get a doctor's appt. to discuss your diabetes. Be sure and tell them about the sugar drops.

Also, if a person tends to awaken with low sugar, you need to make sure that you have a snack before you go to bed to prevent it. I know when I've been hospitalized, the nurses will always bring me a turkey sandwich and a drink before bed, or 1/2 sandwich and cup of applesauce, or something like that. If you are a person who always gets up in the middle of the night for a trip to the bathroom, keep some of those packaged cheese crackers or something next to your bed and eat a few.

I hope this has helped you some.

Take care of yourself,
JLH