Non Diabetic hypoglycemia anyone?

My sugar for a while was up into the 300’s and I went to the hospital to bring it down and a drip bag into my IV of vitamin K after an hour it went down to 105 .. I have type II diabetes and on metformen now and it’s been from 86 (kind of low) to 146 the highest. My heart rate had gone up to 146 but that eventually dropped without medical intervention.

@andytheman your post turned up in a discussion about “Non Diabetic hypoglycemia”. I see that you have “type 11 diabetes”. At any rate I’m glad that after a hospital visit your blood sugar got regulated. 86 - 146 blood sugar sounds like a pretty decent range.

I’ve seen people with a reading of over 400. That is high. I also heard that you can survive at 600 but of course you’re rushed to an ER. An 86 would get you a glass of orange juice. ( it’s morning) where I live. I’m normally between 94 to 102. Great! In fact, they took me off the metformin and I’m still pulling in low but way within range.

A recent hospital visit showed a heart rate (pulse) of 146. The doctor started panicking because it wouldn’t stop going up. It peaked at 146 then went down. But I did pass out and was carried to a bed but I don’t remember who or how they did it. I had no recolection.

I'm 65, female, have had mild hypoglycemia since I was in my teens. After having gastric bypass in 2005 (in Coos Bay, while living in Crescent City, CA), I lost so much weight that I worried both my primary care physician and the surgeon who performed the GB. By 2009 (and after moving to Maine) I began to have stomach pain, not only when I ate. The kind of pain that doubles you over like being kicked by a horse. My primary was baffled, and sent me to a gastroenterologist, who discovered a dark spot on my liver. He scheduled me for an ERCP, which turned out to be a major trial for him (due to the GB) but he biopsied the spot. It was benign, but my liver showed a huge amount of damaged tissue. He wasn't quit sure what to do, so diagnosed me with NASH and sent me to Boston to be seen by a transplant specialist. Turns out that my liver only has 1/3 of it's functional tissue. About this time I began bleeding internally, and it turns out I also (!) have severe anemia, esophogeal varises, and internal hemorrhoids. Until I began bleeding, no surgeon would remove the hemorrhoids, but after an ambulance ride and four blood transfusions, a specialist did. That took a year to recover from. I couldn't even walk unassisted for three months. My family and I moved to Wyoming in 2021, and I had been referred to specialists in the Aurora, CO area. I began having issues with extreme hypoglycemia in 2022 after a DVT episode. I've been tested repeatedly for diabetes, especially when I was at my heaviest (485 lbs.), but my blood sugar hovered around 90, even during my pregnancies (1993 and 1997). All of a sudden I began having what my husband calls dopey episodes - acting drunk, profuse sweating, memory loss. It came to a head about two years ago, when I became combative, and didn't know my family. That was the first of many ambulance rides to the hospital in Laramie. The hospitalist diagnosed me with hepatic encephalopothy - ammonia in my body was not being filtered by the liver, and got so extreme it crossed the blood-brain barrier. At the same time my blood sugar was tanking on the regular. When it causes me to pass out, there's no warning: no black spots in my vision, no lightheadedness. Just lights out. I'd be fully functional at a BS of 40. It seemed to happen more after I went to bed, or when I was getting iron and albumin infusions at the hospital, to the point I was routinely tested before, during and after each infusion. Just since February of this year (2026), I've had the ambulance come to the house 4 times. The one in February the ER docs thought I was bleeding from one of the varises, and I was throwing up bright red blood. They took me to one of the hospitals in Fort Collins, CO, but after four days in the ICU, 22 attempts at an IV *shake my fist*, an EGD, and more finger pokes than I could deal with without crying, they found nothing. NOTHING. This most recent time was last week. Why does this always happen at night, after I've taken my nightly prescriptions, and when I get up to pee? The EMTs are very familiar with my bathroom, and having to move me downstairs to the ambulance. This latest visit, the attending doctor asked me why I was taking a beta-blocker (Nadalol). He stated that that drug could mask the symptoms of low blood sugar. I immediately stopped taking it, and my primary is looking for something to replace it that won't have the same effect on my BS. My husband is a Type II diabetic, so he knows when to check my blood, but he'd sleep through a tornado. Luckily my youngest son heard me hit the floor, and woke Dad up. My BS was 36. A CGM would help, I'm sure, but my insurance won't pay for one because I'm not diabetic! Oh, low blood sugar can kill me the same as a diabetic, but no, I'm not cool enough. Right now I have a goose egg sized lump from my head hitting the bathtub, and a gash on my arm that required stitches.
Today I was asked if I was tested for urinary synchopy. That's how I found this site.
Any tips/help would be appreciated.

Hi Redwoodred,
So sorry you are going through this - and that you are a very interesting case, at the same time. I am a type II DM only when I am on high dose steroids which are used for my asthma exacerbations. I know this is the opposite problem that you have with your sugars suddenly going low.
My thoughts - which may or may not be helpful, but I do know the frustration when our body produces strange effects and it is a mystery on how to get back on track.
- Please have your liver fully checked - yes it is related to blood glucose metabolism and you do mention that you may or may not have decreased liver function or NASH. There are new medications for people who have NASH to help improve liver function.
- Please check your adrenals as well as your pituitary - are they communicating with each other? For me - being on Prednisone for my asthma - has caused mine not to communicate and my cortisol levels vary on a daily basis. As I go down on Prednisone - my sugars go down, but I am steroid dependent. It is a fine line for me to go between Cushings and Adrenal Insufficiency - both of these conditions affect blood sugar.
- Though you are "out of the age limit", type I diabetics (usually diagnosed by age 30), can cause hypo and hyper glycemia. A type I DM would be eligible for CGM, and possibly a service dog - which could be helpful to catch your lows and alert you to try to get treatmeent.
- If you are on a Beta Blocker - for whatever reason, could this be affecting your cardiac rate - causing a change in your blood flow. raise blood sugar levels or increase insulin resistance? However, a major danger is that beta-blockers can hide or mask the warning signs of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), such as a fast heartbeat, shaking, and anxiety. Why Beta Blockers Can Mask Hypoglycemia. https://www.youtube.com/watch may be helpful for you to view.
- Please check all of your medications - especially for interactions, as well as any vitamins you may be taking. Even natural/homeopathic treatments can affect the way our body reacts.
- You may be able to tell from my post, that I have been in the medical field for a long time. (40+ years - RN nursing professor - but not an expert in your condition).
I hope that some of this information will be helpful. Good luck! Pam

Hi Pam;
I know this seems all over the place, but I'll try to address your concerns. I appreciate you taking the time to truly read my post, and respond from a place of experience and relative authority.
- This past Monday I had an appointment with my primary, and I took a list of everything I take, including supplements (Magnesium, Vitamin D3 and a prenatal vitamin for the folate needed for my anemia). My youngest son is a certified pharmaceutical technician and the list was his idea, especially after he's the one who found me on the floor two weeks ago. Interestingly enough, whomever prescribed the Nadalol to me was not in my file, nor why it was prescribed. She (my primary) spent an hour trying to unravel that sticky knot. This primary (she's a NP, not an MD) had been referred to me after the previous primary - an MD - was removed from practice for fraud (she had been taking kick-backs from pharmaceutical companies to write prescriptions for unnecessary drugs). My current primary and I were both wondering if the Nadalol had been prescribed by that MD. Since I don't take it anymore, and my current medical practitioner is trying to find out the why as well as what might safely replace it, I've been warned by both my son and my NP to watch for palpitations, numbness in my extremities and any chest pain(s).
- I also made an appointment with my hepatologist for later this month, and I will ask for a work-up, as well as asking for any new research into medications for my condition. The transplant specialist in Boston told me that any surgeries to my liver would be more of a danger than living with my reduced function, and my MELD scores went way down after treatment started.
- I'm not sure about a full adrenal check, but two years ago, when both the BS issue and the encephalopathy began, my endocrinologist had a series of cortisol tests done. I will ask if that test needs to be repeated, all things considered. I do know that the previous cortisol tests showed zero change in my "chill". 🙂
- I spent a lot of time looking on the Medicare site (and my insurance's regulations) about when a non-diabetic hypoglycemic patient can qualify for a CGM. Oddly enough, both stated that two- to three-severe hypoglycemic episodes have to be documented for the patient to be considered for a CGM. I'm pretty sure that four instances of 911 calls where a GVoke pen is required, ambulance trips to the ER and the associated CT scans (to rule out head trauma), at the least would qualify. My son told me how to call the insurance companies to ask to speak to the physician who makes to approve/deny decisions in regard to approval. We'll see how that phone call goes.

Since this all has been happening (during regular business hours!) in the past week and a half, and on days where I can barely get out of bed due to the headaches, it's an ongoing issue. I promise I won't lose steam, because as my two sons tell me, I'm going to live to be a 120, I'm a bad-ass biatch and a fire-breathing dragon!
I wish the same for you and your struggle, and I appreciate your reading of my issues and your response!
- Lori