April 15, 2003
Daily Care, Type 2
Question from Georgetown, Texas, USA:
I am a 52 year old female, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 10 months ago, and so far, I’ve been doing well with exercise and a low carb diet. My blood glucose has been going down to 100-130 mg/dl [5.6-6.7 mmol/L], but twice now I have awakened with a reading of 130 mg/dl [6.7 mmol/L], and it continues to climb to about 140 mg/dl [7.8 mmol/L] before I’ve even had breakfast.
Today, as a little test, I checked when I awoke (120 mg/dl [6.7 mmol/L]) and decided to go to the store an hour later (did not eat breakfast at that point) and checked it, and it was up to 131mg/dl [7.3 mmol/L]. I went to the store, saw friends there (talked about school and teaching starting up tomorrow), and three hours later it had climbed to 142 mg/dl [7.9 mmol/L].
I am scared and depressed. We are trying to control this with diet and exercise for a while, I’m working so hard at this, and I feel like I’m backtracking. Is it possibly the stress of school starting that could do this?
Answer:
If you are doing your best with meal planning and physical activity and you cannot get your hemoglobin A1c down to below 6.5%, then you need to consider medication. Medication is a helpful tool to control your blood sugar and can actually prevent you from getting complications from uncontrolled diabetes. Please talk to your health care provider about whether you need to try some medication.
JS
