I'm baaaack with some updated information. It just gets curiouser and curiouser. I picked up a glucose meter at my local pharmacy and played around with it all weekend. I was all emotionally geared up for a premeditated pancake sinfest on Sunday. It would have been doubly sinful due to the fact that I've been off gluten for the last 6 months and I was really looking forward to an intentional indulgence. All in the name of research, right? Anyway, I got to my favorite cafe and they were out of pancakes! Who runs out of pancakes?!?!??!

Quote Originally Posted by Triskeliongirl View Post
Fasting plasma glucose should be below 6.1 mmol/l (110 mg/dl). Fasting levels between 6.1 and 7.0 mmol/l (110 and 126 mg/dl) are borderline ("impaired fasting glycaemia"), and fasting levels repeatedly at or above 7.0 mmol/l (126 mg/dl) are diagnostic of diabetes.
So I didn't yet do the glucose challenge, but I took quite a few blood sugar readings over the course of several days. My glucose level after fasting or sleeping is consistently 130-135 mg/dl. My post-ride "starving shakey shivery feeling like I've bonked" level is around 100-110 mg/dl.

Quote Originally Posted by Triskeliongirl
The 2 hour glucose level should be below 7.8 mmol/l (140 mg/dl). Levels between this and 11.1 mmol/l (200 mg/dl) indicate "impaired glucose tolerance." Glucose levels above 11.1 mmol/l (200 mg/dl) at 2 hours confirms a diagnosis of diabetes.
In spite of the high fasting levels, my post-food numbers only climbed as high as 170 mg/dl. Most of these meals had a goodly amount of complex carbs and a small amount of refined sugars, with fat and protein. It took about 3 hours on average for my blood sugar to get back down to it's "normal" premeal value of 130 mg/dl. Sugary snacks (dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts, mmmm) failed to provoke anything higher than 160 mg/dl, though I didn't actually consume pure sugary stuff without fat or protein to balance it out. I'm hoping that the glucose challenge test will be more revealing.

So... verrry interesting. The biggest question in my mind is the 4 mcg of cytomel that I've been on for the last 4 weeks. I have no idea what my glucose levels were like before starting on this medication. I've been reading around and all the information I can find in the drug handout info, etc. is that cytomel can change blood sugar levels in diabetics, so one should monitor very carefully. I couldn't find much information about how exactly it changes levels. Might it raise or lower them, depending on the person and the condition? Could this just be a temporary adjustment effect of the medication?

I guess I'm a little stunned because I've never thought of myself as being at risk for diabetes. However, that Type 1.5 that you mention is very intriguing to me because I am intolerant to gluten and soy, both of which I consumed heavily until the last 6 months. In general I've never experienced the more common symptoms of diabetes, except during a long walking trip I did three years ago. On that trip, I had horrible edema, constantly infecting blisters on my feet, and neuropathy in most of my toes. I figured it was all because of the difficulty of walking 500 miles in 30 days, and just chalked it up to that. Now... I wonder. Plenty of other people who did the same trip had problems with blisters and sore feet, but not to the degree that I did.

FWIW, right now I still feel more on the hypothyroid side of things, being tired, sluggish, needing lots of sleep, low body temp. I don't feel overmedicated to the point of hyperthyroid with racing heart, hot/flushing, etc. In fact, other than being slightly less lethargic, I actually don't feel much different on the cytomel compared to before I started taking it. My next followup with my doctor is next week, I'll be interested to see what he says about this.


ETA: I did calibrate my meter with the provided glucose situation, and all that. I subjected my sweetie to a few random tests and his numbers all looked pretty good. So I think the meter is giving accurate numbers.