Discussions By Condition: I cannot get a diagnosis.
Irritability, fatigue, forgetfullness - Goes away with food.
- Posted By: F4ion1
- November 22, 2007
- 04:19 PM
I have been dealing with this for over 2 years and am currently getting tests from a third doctor, but have yet to get a diagnosis.
My symptoms occur multiple times a day. I wake up and drink my coffee and go eat breakfast. I feel great for 2-4 hours but then start getting extremely tired, irritable, trouble remembering things, & sometimes shaky. I have problems carrying on normal conversations during these times. My whole mind just feels cloudy. Once I take a break and eat a meal I'm back to my normal self for 2-4 hours until the symptoms start coming back. This cycle repeats itself after every meal.
First Doctor - after normal blood work diagnosed it as Reactive Hypoglycemia(he never gave me any kind of sugar test). He told me to eat a low sugar diet. He did say I had slightly high cholesteral and wanted to put me on Lipitor. I tried the low sugar diet and it didn't help.
Second Doctor - Got normal blood work plus the sugar test(The one where you drink the sugar drink and they test your blood sugar every hour). He said the sugar test looked normal but still diagnosed me with Reactive Hypoglycemia. He told me to eat a low carb - high protein diet. It didn't fix anything other than I was hungry all the time, even right after I ate.
Third Doctor - I am still getting tests but so far he had me test my own blood sugar before and after every meal for a week. I did and he said my body processes sugar great. He ran normal bloodwork and said I am in picture perfect health. He is currently running tests for Vitamin Deficiencies.
Does anybody have any info that could at least point me in a general direction of what may be causing this. I have researched till no end on the net and haven't found anything. It makes it really hard to socialize when everything has to be done within the 2-4 hour windows.
Thanks in advance for any insight.
7 Replies:
-
Are you sleeping badly?Means you don't go into deep sleep so when you awake you feel mostly fine, then you eat and drink coffee (stop coffee to ease out the bad parts as it wears off into a low) gaining you energy and your fine until the cafine runs down and your energy quickly burns up (quicker than usual because of your tired body) Then you eat and regain energy and are fine etc. etc.Sleep better/take a break from what you do (Escape stress)Densoman 5 Replies Flag this Response
-
Thanks for the reply...As for sleep, I sleep like a baby for 7-8 hours nightly. I rarely wake up during the middle of the night & I bounce out of bed when the alarm goes off. As for the quality of that sleep I'm not sure. Is there maybe something over the counter I could try (Tylenol PM or something), to see if I'm not getting the REM sleep that I need.As for the stress, The symptoms still occur just as bad on the weekends when I'm for the most part stress free.F4ion1 2 Replies Flag this Response
-
Has your doctor checked you for Insulinoma? - This is a tumour of the pancreas. Have your blood checked for glucose, insulin, pro-insulin and C-peptide when you experience the symptoms of hypoglycemia.Anonymous 42789 Replies Flag this Response
-
I know he tested me for Insulinoma a few weeks ago and it was negative.Not sure about the others but my next appt is in 2 weeks and I'll ask him about those then.ThanksF4ion1 2 Replies Flag this Response
-
They all seem to be suggesting you have too much sugar, but if you're crashing after your food digests and the sugar is leaving your system, wouldn't that be suggesting low blood sugar?I do think the blood tests aren't going to help much if they haven't already. Try going in for a CAT scan or something, get a look at your organs and your brain, make sure they all look normal. Also, have your Gall Bladder checked. I know that sounds off, but it starts to work after you eat, maybe it is releasing the poisons it is supposed to be holding in?PagaNovelty 14 Replies Flag this Response
-
I think the Dr's have been on to something about the hypoglycemia and I will tell you why. I experience the same thing. It is not your diet. If you add sugar to your coffee this is the cause. It is not true hypoglycemia so therefore it does not show up in test. What happens is when you consume coffe with sugar your body gets a rush and produces more insulin to burn this sugar and since your body is producing the extra insulin your body then crashes and at that time you cannot function and think and you become shaky until you can reach for something to eat and this clears it up because your body brings your sugar back too normal. I couldn't give up coffee so I had to start eating special k with extra protein and then snack within a couple of hours if I use a lot of sugar. I also try to cut back on the sugar I am using. Play around with this and see if this could be what is happening to you. See if it related to the coffee, see if only happens after coffee. Or see if you can leave off processed sugar and see if this makes a difference. Good luck.Anonymous 42789 Replies Flag this Response
-
I became nauseaus yesterday while working in my yard. I reconnected to my oxygen and sat down to see if that would help. It didn't. I had been so happy, I was enjoying what I was doing and the beautiful day. I tried to think what could have happened. I had cleaned a picnic cooler with clorox, took several bites of my apples to see if the were getting ripe enough to pick, potted some plants, pinching off some leaves that were beginning to mold or mildew and ate a handfull of raspberries. I had to come in and grab something to eat, turn my oxygen up as high as it would go, have an urgent bowel movement and go to bed I was feeling so ill. I noticed I also looked pale. After stripping off my clothes and grabbing some more food it still took me several hours to begin feeling better.I have concluded that it could have been an allergic reaction to my raw apples most likely or also the clorox fumes or spores. I craved carbohydrates and feel the sandwich I ate helped... soThe symptoms you have are the same as I found an apple allergy, low blood sugar or cafine can causeI believe I might become hypoglycemic from not eating regularly; all of my blood test come out normal.I am fairly certain that I would keep my blood sugar more even if I ate the six small meals a day that a diatitian recommended but that I have been so stressed that I can't add the dicipline to do.Many things have caused me to feel nauseaus most of my life. I couldn't live without promethizine for my nausea eventhough I already take zertec, a steroid inhaler and nasal spray.The reason I am on oxygen is because I have pulmonary arterial hypertension from hypersensativity pneumonitis. I never smoked and have always avoided smoke. Also, I have never been able to tolerate caffine. One of the things mentioned when I looked up apple allergies was that young children can not articulate how certain foods that they have reactions to are the ones they refuse to eat.I have concluded that I am odd, have strange reactions and should accept it and follow my doctors orders as closely as possible and listen to my body...and keep a prescription of phenergan on hand. Then have sense enough to go to bed until the nausea passes.akapplelady 1 Replies Flag this Response
