Rapid heartbeat?

Hi and welcome. Sorry you've had some odd feelings. From what you write it could be an incident of hypoglycemia which has various symptoms like pounding heart beats, dizziness, confusion. With GD in your past, you may still have problems with keeping blood sugar normal. Cutting out sugar (and any carbs like food made with flour, potatoes, etc.) for that length of time would allow your body to get used to a lower and more normal blood sugar level - which is good - but then if you eat something with sugar or other carbs, your body will react with a blood sugar drop. This happens a lot after holiday meals when people feel like they have to take a nap.

So, your reaction is normal but you really need to see your primary doctor, too. Unfortunately this can be on-going if you do start eating or drinking anything with high carb content. When this happens, normally people who eat smaller meals and do not eat heavy carbs do better avoiding these symptoms. A piece of protein (meat, chicken, fish...), vegetables, salads, cheese, nuts work well for meal plans.

Do you have anyone in your family who has diabetes?

I don't know why the body does this, to be honest. Diabetes is on my mom's side so we have a history there. When I was in my 20's I found that I had to take a nap after I ate a bowl of oatmeal with maple syrup. In those days (back in the 1970's, yeah, I'm that ancient! lol), I was single and really didn't understand nutrition and didn't care anyway. I liked oatmeal and this was Quaker Oats and it was winter. I thought it was a good breakfast, but within minutes I had to go to sleep.

When a body does not metabolize carbs normally, we have to deal with the results which can be very high blood sugar which has its own set of symptoms and then sometime afterwards we have to deal with a big drop in blood sugar which makes us sleepy. We may react differently to various degrees but that's the general picture. People who are genetically inclined (like me and probably you) need to understand how we metabolize carbs. Check out the link in my signature for lots of information on blood sugar.

A non-diabetic will eat food with carbs in a typical meal and insulin will help guide the blood sugar into the cells where it is used for energy. This is from sharecare.com: "Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that helps the body store and use glucose. Think of insulin as the U.S. Postal Service and glucose as the mail; insulin is responsible for delivering that glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream into muscle, fat, liver, and most other cells so that your body can use it for fuel."

However, for some reason in some people, the blood glucose cannot get into the cells and we don't get that energy. We are insulin resistant.

The best and only way to diagnose any of this is by blood tests: fasting, random, the A1c (an average of 90 days) and the definitive glucose tolerance test (GTT).

No one is a doctor here as you know, but from my own experience and from what you write, you are dealing with blood sugar issues now which are best controlled by a decent food plan of very low carb to control your blood sugar. Again, only a doctor can diagnose this and it would have to be with blood tests. If you have a blood sugar meter, you could test your blood sugar yourself. I can help you interpret the numbers.

I'm glad you posted. Taking control of your health is really important.

Yes, I do think getting a meter and testing will help you see what's going on. I know you're also dealing with Lyme and that's complicated. Blood sugar problems and diabetes is not a temporary condition but I do know it can be controlled before it leads to complications especially if you're type 2 which is the majority of cases, the one that runs in families.