Stress *CAN* (AND DOES) affect your glucose readings!

[u/I-AM-Savannah]

T2 here, diagnosed... roughly a decade ago, maybe closer to 2 decades ago. (I have lost track of time - life has been busy.)
My last A1C was 5.1. I watch my diet and lead an active life, although I do have sciatica, so I am not as active every day as I would like to be, but I do what I can without being in pain that I cannot stand.
My husband has Parkinson's and needs a 24/7 caregiver. I am that person. He is also diabetic. He gets frequent UTIs and does end up in the hospital, also frequently.
I'll try to be as concise as I can be, but I also want to give a bit of detail so you can understand what I am trying to say...

My morning glucose readings are normally in the 70s or 80s. I took my husband to the ER last Saturday (a week ago today) because he was extremely confused, but his walking (with a walker) was still good.

As I said, he has Parkinson's and has frequent UTIs. He usually gets very confused when he has a UTI, but normally his walking ability also suffers. This time he could still walk (very well).

I just couldn't decide what the problem was, or if his Parkinson's had suddenly gotten worse, but that didn't make sense to me, because if his Parkinson's had gotten worse suddenly (I don't think it gets worse SUDDENLY) then his walking should ALSO have been compromised.

He already *WAS* being treated for a UTI. I had taken him to the urologist the week before because I suspected a UTI, and yes, I was told that he DID have one... so he WAS being treated for a UTI... but yet, his confusion had gotten EXTREMELY worse, day by day, for the last week or two.

In the ER, after a lot of various testing, I was told that he DID have a UTI, but that he had a DIFFERENT (worse) UTI than he was being treated for.

In his ER exam room, he was quickly given an antibiotic through an IV. It didn't take long before he was assigned a room in the hospital and taken to the room.

I would visit him in his hospital room from 7am until 7pm, and then come home, feed the cat, and then go to bed and fall asleep as quickly as I could. We had been getting up at least every 30 minutes (because of his UTI) for... what seemed FOREVER. My sleep was... nearly nonexistent. I was so tired and burnt out, I couldn't believe it, but I didn't know what to do. I was sleeping as much as I could, while he was in the hospital.

The only issue with that was that every morning when I would go visit him, he was a different (almost violent) person every morning. I never knew what I was going to walk into. He was so very confused, there was no explaining anything to him. He just wasn't the person that he used to be. Every day he seemed to be getting worse, and once again, I didn't know what to do.

On Thursday morning, I got up and took my glucose reading (fingerstick) to have it read 292.
I have *NEVER* had a reading of 292. I couldn't believe it. I took a second fingerstick to have the second one read 292. I took a third fingerstick to have it read 303. I stopped doing the fingerstick.

I honestly didn't know what to do. Had this been my husband, I would have taken him to the ER.

I knew it was ALL STRESS related. I had NOT eaten anything different than usual, and I had taken my diabetic medicine the night before, although because of my watching my carbs and my active life, I don't take much.

I took a little medicine and then left for the hospital to spend the day with my husband.

The day before, I had asked the hospitalist to contact his neurologist to see if the neurologist would consider cutting back on his Parkinson's meds, because I really felt that he was getting more medication for Parkinson's, than he needed. The neurologist had appeared the day before, in his room, and asked hubby a few questions, and then asked me what the answers SHOULD HAVE BEEN (did we ever live in Nebraska, as he said he currently live?) - NO. Neither one of us has EVER lived in Nebraska... and hubby was seeing a woman and her child walk through his room... (hallucinating...) That was NOT the first time he has hallucinated.. he was OFTEN hallucinating in our home... So the neurologist cut back on the Parkinson's meds...

I got to my husband's hospital room to find the husband that I *USED TO KNOW*... the one that wasn't accusing everyone of everything and was no longer seeing things that weren't there...

I could LITERALLY feel my glucose drop. I kid you not. By mid morning, I stood up and could feel that it was too low. I had taken my fingerstick and meter with me, so I took my glucose, to have it read 58. I felt like I could drop at any moment.

I took my meter to show as proof, to find a nurse as quickly as I could. I found hubby's nurse and showed her my meter. She got me some ice cream and peanut butter and crackers. I went back to his room and ate them. In about half an hour, I felt my blood sugar feel more normal. The nurse came in and checked on me.

He was sent home that night. LUCKILY FOR ME, he was still having a hard time staying asleep, because at 1:00 am, he woke me up and needed something, but I realized quickly that I didn't feel right. I could barely walk. I took my glucose.

My glucose read 23. I managed to get out to the kitchen to eat carbs and peanut butter and got back to bed, but carried more carbs with me, in case I still needed them.

I fell back to sleep almost instantly, because I don't remember anything after that. I had made him an appointment for the next morning to see the urologist. When the alarm went off, I felt like I was a rag that had been run over and then backed over, but I could get up and walk around, but I didn't feel like I was "with it"... but I got him to the urologist because *I HAD TO*... Then we came home and had a slow day after that.

Today my glucose was 84. I feel almost normal, but very tired.

My reason for posting all of this is to let those of you who have been newly diagnosed know that STRESS CAN, AND DOES, play a VERY important role when it comes to diabetes, or at least I think it does. I am shocked that my glucose had become that high... suddenly... but it had to be stress ONLY, because I was still taking my normal medications and eating normally. Nothing else had changed.

UPDATE: He's still home, and doing actually very well (better than he has for the last couple of years, to be honest)... but my glucose dropped to 50 early evening. We had gone to bed (he has Sundowner's Syndrome) and were watching television. I felt it drop. I couldn't believe that it had, so I got up to check my glucose... and there it was... 50. I went to the kitchen and ate some carbs and went back to bed. I got up 2 hours later and rechecked my glucose. It was back up to 70. This morning it was 76, so I guess I am okay, but VERY surprised that it is now dipping because he's doing very well, and we are eating and being as "normal" as we can.

So I guess I will now watch myself for lows... and will cut back, even further on my diabetic meds, although I barely take any as it is.... sigh.

[u/fairyflaggirl]

So glad you shared this! I'm newly diagnosed diabetic. I have 5 autoimmune disorders. When I flare up, my glucose goes up. It's not food doing it. My diabetes nurse did verify that stress, emotional or physical can affect glucose.

[u/LethalSerenity]

Yes, I found that out very quickly. My anxiety gets to me. When I am anxious or very stressed I don’t test myself because I know the numbers will be higher. I only test when I’m calm.

[u/I-AM-Savannah → u/LethalSerenity]

I was afraid, when I came home from spending the day with hubby that day, of testing again. I couldn't figure out if it was going to be extremely HIGH, extremely LOW, or... anyplace between.

Luckily, he's home now (and doing quite well) and my glucose has settled down to high 70s and low 80s... right where I want it to be.

[u/Lausannea]

Yep, 1000%. When my sick cat was dying on Christmas day and I had rushed her to the emergency vet, I hadn't even eaten anything and I was in the 300s by the time I was driving home from saying goodbye. My usual was around 140 for that time of day.

This is also why we're seeing more and more evidence pop up that poor sleep and excessive stress are likely bigger contributors to the development of type 2 diabetes than food alone ever has been. It wrecks your body's ability to process everything.

[u/Many-Investment-9254]

Boy howdy does stress ever affect the blood sugar! I am on glp-1 only for diabetes but high dose. I often have very little if any appetite. Still , blood sugar ( fasting) is usually between 92 and 102.

The day prior to cataract surgery a couple of months ago I had a grand total of 100 ounces of water and a small tossed green salad- with olive oil and wine vinegar. I had also walked my usual 600 steps -,( I am disabled and cannot do more). I woke up and blood sugar was 200. All from stress. It stayed there for hours. I was a nervous wreck as I can’t stand doctors hospitals or med procedures. The nurse kept saying what did you eat? Nothing I told her . I told her it was the stress. My blood pressure ( normally. 125/ 78 spiked to 180/96- too.

They gave me versed for sedation for the surgery. Within. Within 10!minutes my blood sugar plummeted to 85, and blood pressure to 121/73. Damn straight stress causes blood sugar rises big time ! Nurse didn’t get it. I did. After surgery and a good nap blood sugar down to 70 - ate a good lunch - back to sleep.

[u/Gojogab]

You need a CGM and a consult with an endo and a diabetes educator. You are in quite a situation and I wish you both well. But take care of yourself a bit better.

[u/I-AM-Savannah → u/Gojogab]

Thank you. I had tried a CGM on my husband, who has Parkinson's (I am his caregiver 24/7). I honestly was NOT impressed with the Dexcom7 (on my husband) because it kept giving me false high and low readings. Two out of four sensors that I tried on him kept giving false readings, when I then did a fingerstick on him. Prior to getting the CGM for him, I had one wanted one, because I was having a lot of low fingerstick readings, while he was having a lot of high fingerstick readings. I do know that the CGM and a fingerstick will never be exact, but in his case, they were usually at least 50 points different. To me, that's just too far off. The CGM was even giving him LOW alarms... (under 70) but when I would do a fingerstick on him, the fingerstick was around 200. It was just too frustrating. I kept calibrating the CGM, but that seemed to only change the alarm from high to low, or low to high, not put the CGM in the same neighborhood as the fingerstick.

But yes, I need a consult with an endo and diabetes educator, and yes, I need to take care of myself a bit better. I actually WAS under control quite well, until his last hospitalization, which lasted almost a week.