Non diabetic... high reading

Good morning Ozarker, and welcome. Yes, 148 is higher than you want. Honey can do that, but to understand this better, you would have to test yourself before you drink the tea with honey and then about two hours later. That would show you how much your blood sugar rose. It would also show you what your fasting blood sugar was (from overnight before you eat or drink anything but water).

Many things can affect our blood sugar readings: food and drink, some medications, stress and illness, heredity. If there are any family members with diabetes, this would be an alert to you to watch your blood sugar. I hope that your doctor includes blood sugar tests in your annual exams. If there are results that are anywhere over 100, you and the doctor would need to be more vigilant and test more often and having a meter at home is a good choice.

Sometimes if we eat late at night and have a lot of carbohydrates like potatoes or bread (any food made with flour like pasta or crackers or food made with sugar), we will find that our morning fasting numbers are high. This 'might' even happen with someone who does not have blood sugar problems.

In any case, since you have a meter, I think you should keep a record of your blood sugar with times, results and what you ate and drank. You would test before eating or drinking something, write the result down with the time, then write down what you eat or drink, then test about two hours later.

Don't freak out or get upset. At this point, I think you can bring your readings lower just by adjusting what you're eating. And, as I wrote above, medications can also affect blood sugar. Do you take any? Do you have any family members with diabetes?

I'm glad you wrote so you can understand what's happening better!

I'm sorry for the loss of your husband. I'm sure you were going through a lot of stress (and probably still are). I hope you have been doing better lately and have some good support from family and your doctors.

For your blood sugar, as I wrote, a journal is best so you can see what's going on. And this is something you can show your doctor if necessary, too. Since you are "grazing" rather than eating an entire meal at one time, just take your blood sugar and write the time and results. Then, eat something that you normally would at that time, and then test about 2 hours later, even 1 1/2 hours later and write the results down. The difference in readings will tell you how you metabolized what you ate or drank. Also, take your blood sugar as soon as you wake up before you eat or drink anything. Fasting blood sugar does tell you and the doctor a lot about your blood sugar health.

Then, don't stress about this. If you don't have anyone in the family with diabetes (maybe this is something you need to ask about, too), then this is good news because very very often, blood sugar problems run in the family. If you are overweight, this also contributes to higher blood sugar the same as not being active physically. As we get older (I know this because I'm 69.) we are often less active for various reasons, so if this is the case, it also contributes to higher blood sugar. You can read the stickies at the top of the Diabetes Forum and the link in my signature for more information.

As for the Librax, it might be why you have some dizziness. If this is more than just passing, please speak to your doctor or the pharmacist. There might be some ways to change it or how you take it. Here is a link that explains this medication: https://www.rxlist.com/librax-side-effects-drug-center.htm#overview

I'm glad you posted! Where are you in the Ozarks? I'm outside of Memphis.

hallelujah.... 115! Now I can go eat something. Earlier I had peanut butter on bread and tea with honey. My meter registers the readings.

No, it's not about digestion. I think it's compared to the 'normal' time that non-diabetics can metabolize food/drink. It's basically comparing how our results are in relation to a non-diabetic's.

I think digestion actually begins in the mouth when the saliva mixes with the food (if I remember my high school science class correctly). Some food affects our blood sugar way more than others. Anything made with flour or sugar (or honey, maple syrup...), rice, grains like corn, potatoes, beans will make our blood sugar rise fast and high, but something like a piece of steak or chicken or fish will not. So, these guidelines that we're given by the doctors are really telling us what level we should be at and what level we shouldn't be at. All this is compared to people who don't have diabetes.

But it's not that simple. Having the elevated reading you had before would mean you don't metabolize the carbs in food and drink as a non-diabetic would. A non-diabetic's blood sugar would rarely spike that high.

Another thing that doctors look at is how long it takes for our blood sugar to come back down to normal after eating. The longer it takes, the more problems the doctor sees for our blood sugar "recovery".

Your 115 after eating the peanut butter on bread and having tea with honey shows that you didn't spike very high as you did before. Peanut butter (the natural kind, not the kind with added sugar) is great to eat and snack on. And of course the bread is a carb but some factors may determine how many carbs are in that bread: how big the slice is, the ingredients of the bread, how many slices you eat. Honey is pure sugar.

I think being aware of this is good but not obsessive. If it makes you eat more vegetables, then this is a good thing! Colorful vegetables like different bell peppers, leafy greens, mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, eggplant, zucchini, radishes, green beans are all nutritious and filling and better for our blood sugar than potatoes.

"Metabolizing" means how our bodies process our food, how it breaks it down into useful nutrients and uses them and how our bodies create waste from the food we eat. So when we eat a meal, our bodies break down the food into what's useful for us and what's not. To get a lot of natural vitamins and minerals, we need to eat lots of fresh (or even frozen) vegetables. Fruit has the same nutrients as vegetables but it also has fructose, a sugar that makes most fruit sweet.

The best you can do for yourself is keep a journal of your blood sugar as I described and the next time you see your doctor, show it to him or her. And check out the link in my signature if you want to do some reading about blood sugar.

But please don't stress yourself out over this. You've been through a lot both emotionally and physically to this point and worrying will make you feel worse. I suggest you eat wholesome, fresh food to keep yourself healthy in the meantime.

I hope the weather isn't too bad in Marshfield. We're in the low 40's here and looking at the 20's and 30's overnight.

I'm sure this has been a hard road for you and I'm glad you have your kids to help you get through this - and don't forget that you're a great help for them, too!

This kind of weather here brings ice more than snow and it's so much more dangerous for driving. It just seems they can't treat the roads here on time.

Take care of yourself and your health. The best you can do for yourself is to learn as much as you can about what's going on. When you see your doctor and get any lab tests done, make sure you get copies of the lab results and keep them in a special file.

Have a great day and post any questions that you have or if you need to talk!