Phantom Highs (or why it pays to test regularly)

[DeusXM]

Had a bit of an interesting experience this evening. For tea tonight I polished off half a 13.5' pizza, and took a couple of extra units bolus to help cover the extra carbs.

Fast forward 2 hours later, I'm feeling pretty run down and tired, a bit agitated, and very, very thirsty. Hmm, guess I'm running high, I know, I'll give myself a correction bolus. It'd be interesting to see how high I actually am though. I reckon it's probably about 11-13 (198-234), so that'll probably need about 4u to get me back on track.

Ok let's test anyway.

Oh.

That's interesting.

Apparantly my bg is 3.2 (58).

Guess it's a good thing I tested first. :eek:

Ok, so what's the moral of all this? Usually I'm pretty good at guessing what my bg is just from how I feel. I really did feel like I was running really high - thirst, sweats, you know, usual symptoms, yet I was actually on my way to having a full blown hypo. Usually thirst is a surefire sign that I'm running high, and this isn't the first time this has happened to me either. I've also had other incidences when I felt like I was running high with a high thirst, and then I have a big drink and then suddenly it's as if my body recalibrates and I feel like I'm having a hypo. So I guess it always pays to test.

Anyway, what I was really wondering is if anyone else gets these phantom highs (as I'm calling them)?

[bel4_20]

You know I have had that exact same thing happen to me many times. I wish i knew why? kinda weird though.

[Mark C]

My first thought is that I've been surprised so many times, I always need to test before adjusting my dosage!! Go figure... Times I thought I had overeaten, and I was in the 70's two hours later!! (I also get itchy palms and soles of my feet when extremely high.)

[buzzborne]

Yeh I have experienced them before, some of my symptons for highs and lows are the same, but usually I am able to distinguish b/w the two. So if I'm feeling rotten... off I go and test so I dont do the wrong thing!

[duck]

It's the pizza--I have had similar experiences. The amount of salt, sauces, and various toppings and cheeses will make you thirsty--We get used to feeling *high* when we are thirsty, so our signals get crossed...

Well, at least that's my story; And I'm sticking to it! :whistling

[Belinda]

Yes I get them too. My sign that I am high is that I have to pee alot....,.and then I can check my BS and it is in the 50's :whistling so what give????????? I would much rather run high than low.....

[HeatherP]

I've been surprised both ways a few times. Felt high but was low, felt low but was high.

Like you said: test test test!

[bac4uw]

Mmmm.... pizza. I think I'm hungry this morning.

Bryan

[rzrbks]

Happens both ways (hypers, Hypos) with prepared foods---carb count, especially on things like pizza, tends to either be way off (IMO) or I have forgotten how to add, subtract, and mulitply

But yeah, it's odd, several times a month I'm off on guessing whether I'm actually High or low----generally Right On the button though

[LauRa Lu]

Ive had this before, same thing as you. I ate pizza and expected to be high, tested and was low. perhaps it's because alot of the guesing game is in the mind...and maybe just assumed we'd be high :confused: I don't know :p

[perkeyo]

I have learned that pizza is a very weird food. With everything thrown together on a pizza, the sugar is actually retarded from entering the bloodstream, but when it does enter the bloodstream it will go for many hours.

When i eat pizza I usually go high overnight becasue all of the carbs are being brokena and finally slowly entering my blood.

[kemist]

Deus, I have had these same phantom highs. And yeah - it is a relief that I decided to test first... It's funny, but crazy as well... Imagine bolusing big time to cover what you think is a really high sugar - I don't want to think about it!

kemist

[Lynne1]

One of the episodes of dLife talked about how you can't necessarily determine your bg level by how you feel...you need to test.

[kid_fears99]

I agree - it's the pizza. I had the exact same thing happen to me once when I at half a medium pizza. I thought I was REALLY high from the symptoms (extreme thirst, headache, etc.) but I was actually around 60.

[psilocybin]

i have never had anything like this befror...and i eat pizza often but not to often...who knows may depend on how the pizza is made

[Starlight]

I hate this. It happens when i eat something salty but i dont know that it is.
2 Hours later im running for water and feel like ****.
I check my bg and its sits at an average result.

I hate this with an utter vengeance, because its very hard to differentiate between the two different thirsts, so it makes it hard for me when im out and need to make a food choice and i dont have my meter on me.:mad:

[Pitzi]

Ditto here. Had it many times.

Only thing that I know for a fact is that if I wake up a lot at night to go to the loo, then it means I am high.

The normal thrist/having to go to the loo often/hungry/agitated etc symptoms I get either if I am low or high - same thing.

[amylo]

I had the same the other day! Couldnt sleep from feeling high, woke up low...but silly me had run out of test strips and had a few too many extra units.

Sometimes when my sugars drop very slowly I just feel tired. I thiink Im high but am actually in the 2's :afraid:

[parrotletzoo]

I always think I'm high when I'm thirsty. I've just associated the two for so long that it became an assumption but guess what?? Everyone gets thirsty once in awhile!. It took a few good lows for me to figure that one out. I rarely trust my symptoms when it comes to judging my bs level. I'm usually dead wrong.

[Aftiel]

I got clobbered by that once - was SURE my BG was high when leaving work.

Took a few units of fast acting, then hopped in the car to drive home -- oops.

I test like mad ever since then. I have had that feeling betray me more than once.

- Aftiel

[archimeech]

After 22 years of having diabetes, I don't try to guess anymore. I've lost the simplest of signals that used to tell me wether I was high or low. Now, I usually just feel irritable and awful. Either way, it's the same exact feeling. I test at the least 10 times a day now, if not more.

I can't wait for a non-invasive glucometer. my fingers are like window screen. I know what the complication from diabetes is that I'll die from. It'll be some kind of flesh eating Staff infection that I catch because of all the open teenee tiny little holes in my fingers. :(

[Cyborg]

I can't wait for a non-invasive glucometer. my fingers are like window screen. I know what the complication from diabetes is that I'll die from. It'll be some kind of flesh eating Staff infection that I catch because of all the open teenee tiny little holes in my fingers. :(

I know the feeling. I test about 10 times a day myself. I do carry alcohol wipes in my test kits and I restock them daily. I use them every time I test, before and after. Hopefully it will keep the infections away.

[Gangrel]

Come on, the tiny black points on my fingertips are sexy!!!!!!!!!!


I keep waiting for the day that blood just starts shooting out of the ends of my fingers, like some kind of wacky horror movie...... ;)

[jen_slc]

All this talk of phantom highs this week, and now I've experienced several in the last few days! Thanks a bunch guys! LOL. :rofl: I was sure I was high last night (tired, cranky, so terribly thirsty) and I was actually 65. I can't find any pattern with what I eat.

[WhyNotSmile?]

Come on, the tiny black points on my fingertips are sexy!!!!!!!!!!


I keep waiting for the day that blood just starts shooting out of the ends of my fingers, like some kind of wacky horror movie...... ;)

:flowers: I like your sense for humour

[poodlebone]

I rarely trust myself to treat symptoms of a high or low unless I actually check my BG first. MY bosy is so messed up that I can feel one way and actually be the opposite. I wake up during the night to pee all the time - sometimes more than once. It doesn't always mean my BG is high and often it's just because I drank a lot of fluids later in the day. Drinking hot tea will cause me to use the bathroom a lot, and in the cold weather I drink a lot of tea.

Sometimes I wake up with a very dry mouth and I had gotten up a couple of times during the night to pee. I immediately panic and even before I test my BG, I use a ketone strip (since I'm on the toilet yet again!). It's almostb always negative and my BG is either okay or maybe a little higher than I'd like, but not in any dangerous range.

Sometimes I wake up feeling shaky and dizzy. My BG can be fine. I think that's just lack of sleep and waking up before I wanted to doing that.

I'm trying to regain my hypo awareness so maybe I'll have at least one symptom I can trust again.

[Cyborg]

I'm trying to regain my hypo awareness so maybe I'll have at least one symptom I can trust again.

They say if you run your bg a little higher for a short while, you gain some of the hypo awareness back. Perhaps raising your target on the pump for a bit might help.

[Angelique]

Oh ya, been there done that. lol We are so use to feeling diabetic that when we experience a normal human feeling we normally associate it with diabetes. Kinda like when we get angry and someone tells us to go check our bg's b/c there is no way we can be angry for a legitimate reason, it must be our blood sugar.

[poodlebone]

They say if you run your bg a little higher for a short while, you gain some of the hypo awareness back. Perhaps raising your target on the pump for a bit might help.

That's what I've done, and my BGs have been running higher for the most part. Still having some lows but they're not always predictable. Definitely need to rethink my numbers for the afternoon, which is when I'm most likely to go low but I've woken up low a couple of times as well as over 200 since the last changes were made (2 weeks ago).

[Cyborg]

That's what I've done, and my BGs have been running higher for the most part. Still having some lows but they're not always predictable. Definitely need to rethink my numbers for the afternoon, which is when I'm most likely to go low but I've woken up low a couple of times as well as over 200 since the last changes were made (2 weeks ago).

One of the responses to going low is that your liver will dump glucose in response. It's a survival reaction on your bodies part to keep you alive (thank goodness). It can cause you to wake up with elevated bg, but in reality it was caused from a low. I actually think I'm having the same occur with me right now. I'm going to redo my night basal testing to see what's happening.