Exhaustion

Has anyone got any tips or take anything for exhaustion?
I am really struggling to get out of bed since doing DAFNE.
I was really high for a few months while trying to get doses sorted and I am just not getting well again. Much more tired than before the course and feel ill with exhaustion. Worrying about work etc.

Thanks!

That sound really unfortunate........

I am no expert but the high before bed and in the morning will probably make you feel more tired....

It shouldnt be lasting all day though if your control is reaonable.

Are you hitting targets during the day??

There is the possibility it could be something else but I would put money on that its connected with your blood sugar...

Cafeine might help, or not, as it does not really affect me...

Good luck...

Have your blood sugars stablised since DAFNE?

How are your diet and exercise? What about sleeping? Could it be the recent heatwave draining you?

You say you are worrying about work. This additional stress could affect your diabetes and the diabetes could make your stress worse too. If you have annual leave days, I would take them and work on your blood sugars, and try to relax. Keep in close touch with your dr or nurse if you are unsure.

Athena

sounds like a job for your Healthcare Professional

Alan

Hi All,

thanks for getting back to me. Sorry for not being quick to reply but I do this at work during lunch hours and I have had to take time off due to the DAFNE. I have been in touch with my hospital and have seen them and they have been fantastic. I have been unlucky as I have had about 5 viruses since my course in March so that hasn't helped. I think I do have BI sorted, but because I keep getting ill it is difficult to tell. I have come down with shingles jsut now despite taking time off which is really annoying.
I used to chain drink coffee to keep me going with my diabetes. I had to go down to part-time working eventually because I couldn't sleep at nights due to night time hypos. I drink it during the day to keep going.
however, although it is effective with sleepless nights, it doesn't seem to have the same effect with high blood sugars. I find it strange that I can sleep really well at nights now, yet am more tired than before when I wasn't sleeping! As ofr my diet, it is ussually very good, but since DAFNE I have not been eating as too sick and also too tired to get up to make meals. I have however, been eating since taking the time off. That was one of the reasons for doing this so that I could put what energy I had into eating instead of gong to work. Feel a bit better but now back at work and am deteriorating again although still eating ok. I can't evercise with my diabetes. I did for the first 3 years of it, but a swim on a Saturday morning meant staying the rest of the day in bed to recover and I started hating ecxercise when before I loved it! I was also into hill-walking etc. but it became too dangerous as I would only be able to walk for a few hundred metres and then ahve to sit down for a rest so that had to to many years ago! We have not really ahd a heatwave up here and in any case I have not been out in the sun as I want to stay in bed. Think it is just due to high bg which I am not used to at all.
Correction dose do work but they t ake 4 and a half hours which is really long. My hypos are much worse now too. They are in the 1's now since doing DAFNE probably because of the increased BI- don't know, but maybe that is a factor although you are supposed to feel fine with highs and lows. HAving said that, when you look at the examples in the work book, they bg's are great. Non -one has gone up into the 20's or even the mid-teens whereas my BG's shot up terribly doing DAFNE . I think thisi is probably not supposed to happen at all and your sugars should only have gone up a little bit like to 10 ish as per the examples in the book. tha tis probably the problem. I did go to the chemist's to ask for something for exhaustion, but there is nothing. She did suggest that I may have knocked off iron stores or B vitamin stores by being high for a few months. She says that this can happen to diabetics, and could be the cause of it. However, thsi involves going to my own GP, then gettinga nother appt for a blood tes and I am too tired just now for this. Hopefully the eating again will help this anyway.

Hope you are all doing okay and thanks again for your thoughts and suggestions.
It makes me feel less isolated about all this.

Helen

Helen,
I think you need a chat with a Diabetes Consultant. I tend to agree with others I don't think Diabetes should cause the tiredness problems you have, however only a consultant can answer questions like that and provide a proper diagnosis. Personally I am really lucky and see an excellent consultant at my hospital who seems to know everything even vaguely diabetes related and is happy to have 'long' chats aboout any problems I might be having. It sounds as if it is what you need. You sound like you have a number of issues not all of which are necessarily diabetes related. I personnally think you need to talk to the hospital again, tell them all the things you have posted on here and hopefully they will have some suggestions.
We can all offer opinions but I think you need expert as well as 'lay' help with your problems.

Thanks Marke. I just thought that diabetes makes you tired as I have always been very tired with it and I assumed that all the mucking around with regimes was making me feel worse for the moment. i am sure it will improve and was just looking for tips for what other people had tried.
However, hte hospital has already given me an appointment and I think they thought that becaseu my BI was nearly sorted that that would be me now better. I should e-mail again and see if i can go back to them.

Thanks for your view MArke and to all the o thers too.
Makes me feel less isolated.

Hi Athena,
Just to let you know that since i was diagnosed with diabetes my bg has run consistently high and exhaustion is not the word! When my bg is between 16-late 20's i can hardley move my body because i am so tired, like my body is shutting down and if i shut my eyes for 2 seconds id fall asleep... then when i finally got my hba1c lower it made me feel normal again. Whenever my bg is high my body is exhausted. The only thing i can do is take a couple of units and sleep it off or if i force myself to go for a half hour swim it brings my bg back to normal and i feel ok again. I just assumed that everyone who was diabetic suffered the same sort of exhaustion, but i suppose we all have different side affects.
Maybe i should talk to my consultant about this too! could be anemia?

claire, thanks for that. It reminds me of the most important Diabetes maxim of all 'everyone is different'. My assumption was that exhaustion and diabetes are not connected because I have never come across anyone who has experienced it. However this forum has demonstrated at least 2 people HAVE experienced it. This useful to all of us on the site to know it is possible and that we are not alone if we do experience it. Hopefully it is also useful to HCP's since it shows that people do have this problem and that perhaps it is something that needs research.
Thank you both for your input, the drive behind this site is to allow DAFNE Grads to continue to share experiences and benefits of the course for more than just the follow up meetings. We obviously can't do this without user contributions and anything that helps to highlight Diabetic issues will ultimately benefit us all.

HI Claire and MArke,

You are right MArke, it would appear that everyone is different. I assumed that everyone was the same as I was and that the healthcare professionals knew that when anyone was high they struggled with going to work and everyday activities. It would appear that maybe they don't know this and we maybe need to tell them.
I didn't realise that you and I are different Claire, but that is something that I have learned from this site.
Wish I knew what makes the difference. I always ran my bg's low before DAFNE as I couldn't cope with a high bg at all. Suppose it is a good thing in a way as it stopped you aaveing sneaky treats or anything as just not worth it. I am aware of people feeling fine running their sugars really high too so yeah, everyone's body responds differently.
Glad you have got your bg's settled Claire and hope that you continue to feel better.
Another two people on my course ended up really ill after a couple of months of the DAFNE high bg's too and I think at leaset one of tehm had no tolerance for high bg's feeling tired at 12 which is when I really start to feel bad too.
thanks to you both.