Diabetic Doc Appt

Dr W. is very thorough. I was impressed. He was very nice and put me right at ease. Here is what he thinks:

1. Most likely, not diabetes since I'm not going "high". I have all the classic symptoms of hypoglycemia, but a couple of differences. He thinks it is a type of hypoglycemia called Reactive Hypoglycemia. It is where your pancreas does produce too much insulin, but instead of losing weight, you gain it. (Bingo! Could be between that and the prednisone is why I've gained so much). I have to fast for 24 hours - and sit in his office from 8am to 4pm and they'll test my sugar levels 1/hour. I'm doing that in 2 weeks.

2. I've got some nodules on my thyroid and it is definitely enlarged. I have to go in next Friday for an ultrasound. He said with my past history of thyroid problems and the possibility of Auto-immune thyroid disease, and Dr B diagnosed, I'll probably have to go on the synthroid, despite the hormone levels being OK. But, we'll wait and see what the ultrasound says. I've felt for years that something wasn't right with my thyroid despite the test results.

He also brought up the fact that prednisone increases blood sugar levels - and so 2 months ago, when it was increased, I stopped losing my sugar as often and it wasn't going as low. Then I saw a correlation between that, how bad it was in August/Sept versus how it has been since the increase of prednisone. He said that the prednisone is definitely messing with the levels.

He didn't tell me to stop taking it - but I think I will for the next couple of weeks to get it out of my system so they get an accurate diagnosis. I know I shouldn't do this without consulting my docs, but I have a feeling I need to. I'm not on a really high dose, so I should be OK... and even with the prednisone my readings are on the low end. He's going to do a cholesterol check, etc., when I go in 2 weeks.