I called the nutritionist today to ask what was up. Basically, Ricky's glucose test last week showed that he has reactive hypoglycemia. Basically his CF affected pancreas sends out the insulin late, causing a late precipitous drop in blood sugar (in this case 2 hours after he drank the stuff). His blood sugar during the test spiked like it was supposed to, to 220, but then at the 2 hour mark the insulin hit and it dipped to 50. (That's when he passed out in the parking lot!) It took him the rest of the day to recover.
What does this mean? Basically he needs to be careful to eat three moderate meals per day and snack in between, and not eat a huge amount of carbs at any time. Carb overload followed by reactive hypoglycemia may be what has caused his dizzy/sleepy spells (with irritability) over the past few years. We just finally happened to catch it in a test.
I asked if this meant he will develop CF related diabetes. I was told there's a 50% possibility of this anyway, but he could go on for years this way before developing full blown CFRD. So he'll just keep having the annual testing (oh, joy).
It feels good to at least have some answers.
Going home now... Ricky's bone scan went fine and so did his PFTs. He brought his FEV1 up 10% to 81% in the brief time since his CF clinic visit. Go Ricky!
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