I'm worried about my wife.

[Mr. T]

My wife is pre-diabetic. Her grandmother and uncle both have diabetes. Well... lately my wife has felt dizzy alot. Sometime she has even blacked out and rolled off the couch or bed... I am worried about her, but she insists she is fine. I have convinced her to start checking her blood sugar. What else should she do?

[Subby]

You don't need to be diabetic or pre diabetic to have blacking out and dizziness be an immediate medical concern to take to the doctor (and be sure to make it clear she is pre-diabetic). At the earliest possible convenience.

What BG readings is she getting?

[mortis505]

Hello Mr T and welcome to DF!!! Its good that she is going to start testing. What is her diet like? Does she get any exercise?

Reducing carbohydrate intake and getting exercise will go a long way to prolonging an actual diagnosis of diabetes.

[AVFD-FF]

Not meaning to point out the obvious besides has she had a recent A1C test? That would give a good idea if she is Hyper or Hypo.

With that being said short term low (Hypo) is a lot more dangerous than, you get down in the 30 and below your in real trouble. We worked a guy last week who was 18! It was ugly to say the least, we hit him D50 and pulled him out.... spiked it to 210 in about 3 minutes but still that's dangerous.

The long term with it being high is not good either. I passed out from BS level being 790 and woke up in hospital.

Best of luck and keep us informed on her.

[xMenace]

she insists she is fine.

She's resistant. Typical.

She's in an unhealthy situation that generally calls for drastic measures. Relatives, friends, and even health care professionals will tell her that her small changes are fine. They are not. The people that control and conquer this disease take the bull by the horns and wrestle it to the ground: diet changes, activity changes, and habit changes. Simply popping a pill is not good enough. Simply cutting out chocolate ice cream is not good enough. She needs an overhaul. You probably do to, if statistics say anything. Have a deep heart-to-heart talk about life, your future, and how you want to live out your days.

We can't do this on our own. The best controlled diabetics constantly seek out help. It's a burden that lives with us 24/7. There are many success stories here. We want to create new ones every day.

[Barberian]

As Subby said, blacking out does not mean it's diabetes related. My wife has been enimic (low blood iron lvls) for over a decade. It has required medical intervention several times with blood transfusions and other fun stuff including a hysterectomy. Her body just doesn't absorb and/or keep iron among other needed stuff. She is also a diabetic leaning heavily towards being Hypo. Her challenge is keeping her blood sugars up most the time occasionally above 180 which is her "too high" giving her hyper bg symptoms. We assumed at first that her fainting and black outs were due to BG problems. After a full work up, we found out about the enimia which was close to being life threatening at the time, and she was ambulanced to the closest full hospital for a 4 bag blood plasma transfusion.

Don't assume, get a doc to do a full work up. Fainting and blacking out can be a life threatening situation in and of its self. Not trying to scare you, just trying to give you a sense of urgency. Just my humble opinion.

[Mr. T]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I talked to her and convinced her to get a blood sugar monitor and to take a more active approach, i.e. exercise, eating right, being on top of it. Thanks again, and I will keep you guys updated.

[Ponykid]

You are her partner. Take her to have the bloodwork done. Then both of you go for a walk each day, reduce carbs, and monitor your BG levels. If you do it together, she'll be more likely to follow through. Spouses are not allowed to stock the fridge and cupboards with high sugar, high carb goodies!

[angelsbridges]

She really needs to go in and talk to a doctor. I had episodes like that a couple years ago, and they told me I couldn't drive anymore until I was cleared by a neurologist.

She really really should get checked out. It's not safe for her or other people around her (if she's driving, etc). It might be unrelated to diabetes, or it may be related, either way, she needs to know for sure.