Morning glucose test - higher when cold?

Have you considered or discussed the "dawn affect" with your DR?

I’ve been diabetic for nearly 45 years. I can tell you that EVERYTHING affects blood sugar and vice versa; blood sugar affects EVERYTHING! Everyone is different. There is not a “one size“ diagnosis, treatment or prognosis. @Itssjs mentioned the “dawn effect”. There is another similar phenomena called symoji (sp?) effect. They are things that can help explain patterns in blood sugar. Sometimes nothing makes any sense. Just do your best with a lot of testing, data collection, trial and error. Be thankful for the victories. Try again after the flubs. Know that you aren’t alone. My thoughts and prayers are with you as you travel this journey.

Never heard of "dawn effect" or "Symoji". Will check into these. This is what i'm finding out. EVERYTHING effects your blood sugar. Thanks for help. My doctor is useless. $75.00 co-pay whenever I go and still no answers. I pay out of pocket to see a dietician. Doing this on my own by changing my lifestyle. It's a ride!! I've lost 30 pounds and dropped A1C to 5.8. Just working on getting on track after the Holidays. Again, thanks for the help.

Kateia, you are being successful if your AIC is so low. I have the same problems with getting help but at least Medicare pays for things. I have been trying to diet but my waist keeps getting larger, so I am thinking the insulin really isn't working inside my body. Once I ate fat foot in the middle of the night and woke up to much lower blood sugar number. Low carbs is supposed to make your body use stored fat for energy and that isn't happening to me. Something is pinched in my lower back and I have awful pain but think it is the metal cage doing the pain. I am going to the chiropractor tomorrow because he is the most helpful to my spine condition. Yesterday I ate leftover waffles and bacon from the freezer and had lower blood sugar this morning. I didn't exercise. I am refusing to get upset about my problems and am taking things in stride. Do we know what is in GOLO and some of these new products for dropping weight?
I am not going to use anything that I don't know what is in it. I bought a product on the web and it sits on my pantry shelf. I am ready to let it all go except that I have to get into a nice dress for my granddaughter's wedding in August. I am planning to garden in pots and waist high benches this year. Dorisena

I live rural but close to the city where there are many specialists. Some years ago my neighbor saw a team of specialists for her diabetes which came from her third pregnancy, and they were no help, so her husband, the architect, made charts and collected the data from her testing and eating procedures, took them to the doctors and showed them how they had succeeded in lowering her blood sugar through diet and exercise. They were amazed but didn't trust her charts at all. She seldom used insulin after that, controlling the disease with her plan. She learned her body's responses to food and exercise. She managed it with determination and confidence and had good health, but knew what to do if the blood sugar dropped when we went canoeing down the river. I am often sent to specialists by my primary doctor, so he doesn't have to deal with my chronic problems. I can have access to specialists but must wait for an appointment most of the time. Last May I went to the emergency room and they contacted my shoulder doctor directly. That helped. But I still waited 11 days for an emergency appointment with him. That's the way it is these days. At the famous The James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University, my sons is scheduled for radiation but must wait on the date because they have too many patients. I hope his cancer waits as well. Dorisena

@dorisena. I hope your son gets in soon for radiation. Is there another doctor who can advocate for him?

I think my PCP sends me to specialists not because he doesn’t want to deal with something, but because he knows the specialist can deal it with it better. He actually wanted to take care of my hypothyroidism and diabetes but I prefer going to the most knowledgeable doctor possible.
JK

Dear Dorisena I agree with much of what you have written as I have experienced the same. I also, have thought of gardening with high tables. Wonderful idea. Getting back to the glucose readings: I have had the same experiences with the readings. The only way I get fairly better readings is if I lose much weight but still the pot belly with a weight of 140 pounds and I am 5'7" tall. We are what we eat and must listen to our body.

The doctors at the hospital where my son had his prostate surgery were the ones who sent him to The James Cancer Hospital. You are correct, the primary doctors don't want to work on the tough, chronic concerns. My doctor switched to pediatrics and is a salaried doctor for the big health corporation. It is not like the old days when the doctor tried everything possible to help you get well. They change doctors often and seem to have new staff and nurses quite often. I am not that comfortable with the new style medical care, but I can see another doctor on my doctor's day off. I like that. My son starts radiation the end of the month now. We wouldn't be so tense if his father had not died of metastasized prostate cancer with a tumor on the spine. It grew fast. Doris

@dorisena I too do not like the current medical system of salaried doctors. They are now businessmen with 9 - 5 jobs. If a patient is in the hospital they don't even visit them, it's all up to the hospitalists. So, unlike businessmen, they never even have to work beyond their regular hours.
I have not found too much of doctors changing, although I have lost a couple of doctors due to relocating which is much easier when they have not built up a private practice. I have some issues with my PCP but I do actually think he cares -- during his office hours. When I first went to him I honestly felt he went above and beyond that, but not anymore. The system got him. I think my local hospital is worse than most. When I had a number of occasions to be in Mass General, doctors who were not at all involved with what I was there came by to visit me!
You have raised one of my pet peeves.
JK

@contentandwell I agree completely. In the last six months this trend has run rampant in our town. The hospital (a small, local, individually owned and run by a local Board of Directors) bought out almost all of the doctors in town. The hospital runs everything from billing to treatment. It does not work. The practice my PCP is in refused to "join" the big boys, so we can see her and they have an answering service on the weekend, but that practice cannot send patients to the local hospital since they don't belong to the system. That's what happened to my endocrinologist (the only one in town). They ran him out and hired a young woman with Dr. in front of her name and got it from a "university" from in the middle of the West Indies somewhere. Other practices have joined and a lone, rogue dr. doesn't have a chance. They join and as JK said they work 9-5 and have no bookwork or concern for patients. Recently my husband's heart doctors in a bigger city have joined their business hospital association, but they are with a very large hospital, so I am not anxious when we see them. However, in the small town, it's wrong and chaotic and very dangerous.
Carol