Levels dropping after eating ?

[Nappier904]

My husbands fasting levels were 102 yesterday. So, they had us take home a monitor . He is suppose to keep a log of his results for a few days .Then, bring them to his follow up appointment. Before eating, 2 hours after eating, before bed , in the morning & anytime he feels sick. So, today it was 90 before eating lunch. 10 minutes later he was sick feeling , light headed & sweating . He took it again . It was 70 . I thought it was suppose to go up after eating not down. Is that normal ? Is his dr. even on the right path thinking maybe diabetes ?

[Granny Shanny]

What did he eat? You said once that he nearly passed out after drinking Mountain Dew.

[Nappier904]

He ate shrimp poppers & potato things similar to tater tots.

[genie86333]

He ate shrimp poppers & potato things similar to tater tots.

3 things could have happened:

#1 Reactive hypoglycemia - (although a 70 isn't really *low* - it's the absolute bottom of normal, but it can feel that way if his blood sugar has been running high) - This is when the someone ingests a lot of carbs & the body over-reacts with too much insulin. HOWEVER, I'd really doubt this, because in 10 minutes, not enough of that meal would have been digested to cause a spike followed by a reactive low. Now if it had been that mountain dew...then that would be likely, but shrimp & potatoes take a bit more to digest.

#2 90 & 70 aren't too far off from the 20% variance allowed by meters (90-20%=72) so he may not have dropped as much as you think...possible, but not super likely since he felt different.

#3 His blood sugar was already dropping before the test at 90... but since it wasn't low yet he wasn't feeling the drop yet. I'd say this is most likely. Did you continue to test his blood sugar over the next couple of hours? His blood sugar probably started to rise after a short while in response to the meal.

As for the doctor being right...with a fasting of 102, he's caught it early, so he's lucky, but yes, a fasting of 102 is above normal, although not extremely so.

Best thing to do is cut back on "white" foods - pasta, potatoes, rice, bread & anything made with flour & sugar (including things with natural sugars like fruits & juices.) How much he needs to cut back depends on what his meter says. A good goal is to keep his blood sugar under 140 & to find foods that cause as little "swing" as possible, since he's having issues with going low. You'd find that by testing both before & after eating (2 hours after the first bite is the usually recommended time)