All this talk about glucose testing and you guys are so knowledgeable - I have a question.... I've had the 5 hour and 3 hour tests several times - before PN and after.... same results.... just borderline "normal"...

However, about 45 minutes after I drink the "glop" I start to shake and get really dizzy - so that each of these tests I've had to spend lying in a bed in the labs... the shaking lasts about two hours - the dizziness until its over.... and when its over - I literally cannot even get up until they give me something to (eat) drink.... how can this be normal? The docs only saw the end results on paper and said - look OK, I'm thinking - are they nuts? When I was healthy I ate tons every day and was very active and thin - could not miss a meal or I'd bite your head off until fed... after PN, now living on Ensure, I stilll have to have an early morning Ensure or LOOK OUT!

Glenn or Mrs D or ?? I certainly dont want to go thru this test again - but does tell you anything important about what may be happening with me?

(when ever I have blood work done - which has been pretty often lately - my glucose is always in range)

Thanks

It is coming down off the spike rapidly... I have had 2 long GTTs and the second
one I got really shakey with. major discomfort.

The stress in the place..I don't give up blood easily...it raises cortisol too.
And that is a factor as well. Add in the excess adrenergic responses, adrenalin, etc and you can get very upset. I have very small veins, and each attempt involved 3 or 4 sticks...very painful.

I understand there is a new version of the test that uses finger stick.
But insurance does not pay for it all...and it is not as accurate as the
major stick with the needle. You can opt for the more humane one and pay
the difference if it is available.

I understand completely... don't feel embarrassed etc. It happens to many.

I'm wondering if your gastric/transit issues may have something to do with that reaction.

Certainly what Mrs. D describes factors in, but in your case, I speculate that since the "glop" is one of the few thinigs your system can handle easily, it is rapidly absorbed by your hungry body cells--too rapidly--and you get a very quick spike and a very quick "crash". And then, of course, when due to the requirements of the test, you can't eat for a considerable while, you get those severe hypoglycemic symptoms . . .

Again, did they ever do the test with insulin levels as well? That might be instructive . . .do you have any numbers from any of these tests you can tell us?

One of the other things I wonder is, given your situation, just how much, or how little, glycogen you would have stored in your liver that could be released to offset such crashes. I'm thinking not a lot, as we know you're not exactly absorbing a lot of nutrition in general . . .in fact, more broadly, I would suspect you'd be prone to reactive symptoms of low blood sugar just day to day--does that seem to happen at times?

makes me really really wonder if what's labelled as 'normal' really is? Ages ago, I was labelled border hypoglycemic, and tests lately simply 'say' normal with no real indication whether it's all borderline lo, hi, whatever...at any particular point in time...sigh.

Those peaks and 'valleys' can be very irritating! Especially those valleys!Have any of your docs even considered your taking a glucose monitor and checking regularly over a few day period? Glenn, you've got me thinking here...Kmeb, are your liver function #'s totally normal? If so, at least SOMETHING's working right, I guess.

MrsD: do you have any reliable sources on 'cortisol'? I've seen, read about it a little bit in passing, but am a bit muzzy in that chemistry quarter.

Hope you all have at least one TRUE pain free moment today! - j

100–120 g of glycogen is stored in the liver and 1% of every muscle cell is glycogen. 2000kcal max of glycogen total for the human body.

when they give a person a 3 hour glucose tolerance test, why don't they do the insulin level test at the same time.

Is it a different drink, you have to take? I mean, is there a different protocol, or could a person drink the drink, then they take blood every hour (or whenever), then they can send the blood off to the lab for TWO things.
Glucose tolerance and Insulin levels.

Or am I completely off track?

Thanks,
Melody

By the way,

Alan just woke up and we're giving him a home-made glucose 3 hour test.
HIs fasting blood sugar is 81 and I just crushed 12 glucose pills and he drank it down with water and I'll test him every 30 minutes.



so the journey continues on this mysterious trip to find out WHY this man has had PN for over 18 years.
mel

Thanks for answers - I need to find out about insulin etc....

Actually, not to be gross - but my intestines since I got sick get very upset when I drink this stuff - lets just say it kinda "flys" thru me (yuck).... but enough must be abosbed on its rapid trip that its doing something - I've always gotten very shaky and dizzy and crabby and nauseus if I missed any meal at all - ever though! Up until the time I got sick I never left the house in the AM without eating something - even if meeting someone for breakfast (and breakfast couldnt just be fruit or something really light or I'd be hungry in a hour again - so would eat big fat muffin or waffles or eggs etc) .....and trying to work thru lunch etc was impossible - my co-workers and the poor people I had to interview or whatever were the victims if I had not had snacks in the am or taken 10 miinutes to wolf something down at about 11 in the aM - because I could no longer even think straight - so I'd get kinda mild symtoms (and then eat to stop them) - while during the test having nothing there was no way to ward them off.....

I know a doc had wanted me to get tested for adrenal exhaustion last year - but he never followed up on it and I should have - but was exhausted from other tests (irony here?)........ Could this maybe be part of problem?

Also, Mrs. D. - as a fellow "pin-cushion" (isnt it fun - not) - am I undertanding that a sharp spike or drop in blood sugar trioggers excess adrendalin? And is that triggered by blood sugar? Might explain a lot......