I'm post-op day 4. Twice in the hospital they had to give me intravenous dextrose because my sugar was in the 60's. I didn't have symptoms, they found it on routine blood sugar checks. The doc thought it would even out once I got off the clear liquid diet and started having my protein shakes.

Today I got dizzy and shaky, checked my sugar, and it was low again. I don't really have anything with sugar in the house, so I mixed protein powder and a teaspoon of sugar into some unsweet applesauce to get it back up. Now I'm just sipping protein shakes continuously because I'm on full liquids for 2 weeks post surgery. I'm going to call the office tomorrow to let them know it happened again, but I'm wondering if anyone else had that problem and what they did for it.

I have Type 2 diabetes and have been off meds since before surgery, but have never had any issues with my blood sugar dropping, even when on my diabetes meds.

I didn't have a ds, but I did have low bs the second night after my surgery. I was sleeping and they found it during a bs check. It was 49 and I drank some fruit juice to get it up. Mine never dropped that low again, but my fasting has been in the low 80's most of the time now without medication.

i would keep checking and maybe get some glucose tabs just in case or fruit juice worked for me.

Some patients experience a condition called Reactive Hypoglycemia after bariatric surgery. But generally this condition appears much later than a few days after surgery.

https://www.stjoes.ca/patients-visitors/patient-education/f-j/PD 7972 Reactive Hypoglycemia after Bariatric Surgery.pdf

1 hour ago, James Marusek said:

Some patients experience a condition called Reactive Hypoglycemia after bariatric surgery. But generally this condition appears much later than a few days after surgery.

https://www.stjoes.ca/patients-visitors/patient-education/f-j/PD 7972 Reactive Hypoglycemia after Bariatric Surgery.pdf

Thanks for the info. I'm not sure I fit into that category because I was on clear liquids the first two times, and I have been following my liquid protein diet to a tee since coming home. It sounds like reactive hypoglycemia happens when someone eats the wrong thing and spikes their blood sugar, which then falls rapidly as well. It's definitely good information to have though, for when I'm further down the road I will keep it in mind when tempted!

James, your article prompted me to search other articles regarding blood sugar and weight loss surgery. I found this one from 2005, which is interesting. I'm going to look more tomorrow, but for now I need a good nights rest.

Thanks Apple and James for your replies!

I agree with Apple1; it's a good idea to have something like fruit juice on hand just in case and check your blood sugar often. I'm diabetic and have had low blood sugar maybe three times . . . nondiabetics have no idea how scary and dangerous it is. For example, I like my fasting reading to be between 80 and 100. I don't panic if it gets up to 120 or 130, but if it's down to 60? A little lower and I'd be in a coma, so yeah, it's scary, and I'll admit that monitoring it during this process is going to be something I do very carefully (and often).

You're aware that this can happen now and know to monitor your blood sugar, so you have the right tools--best of luck. Hoping that diabetes will be a distant memory for us both in the future!

If you're not on medications and are hitting lows like that, that's rather worrisome.. it does sound like it's possibly some type of overstimulation of the kidneys, either by some kidney malfunction or by the liver pushing it to produce too much insulin. Ping-ponging blood glucose around OR date isn't that uncommon, but generally there's an easy explanation that involves meds like Metformin. Please update us OP on what's going on.

Edited June 5, 20179 yr by PatientEleventyBillion

I think you meant pancreas. The pancreas makes insulin.

Many of us have chronically high insulin levels preop due to years of insulin resistance.

Hopefully your system will figure out that you don't need so much insulin anymore and will stabilize.

Definitely work closely with your team to work through this.

Good luck!

Edited to add:

I read the article about the increased activity in the pancreas. Not sure what would cause such a thing, but this screams keep sugar in the diet under a super tight control to me.

Think about it. You drink some orange juice because you are trying to fix a low blood sugar. But now you've just signalled the pancreas to increase insulin!

The constant sipping of protein shakes sounds like a reasonable solution for right now. As your diet expands, you'll have a job figuring out what to do...

5 hours ago, Berry78 said:

I think you meant pancreas. The pancreas makes insulin.

Many of us have chronically high insulin levels preop due to years of insulin resistance.

Hopefully your system will figure out that you don't need so much insulin anymore and will stabilize.

Definitely work closely with your team to work through this.

Good luck!

Edited to add:

I read the article about the increased activity in the pancreas. Not sure what would cause such a thing, but this screams keep sugar in the diet under a super tight control to me.

Think about it. You drink some orange juice because you are trying to fix a low blood sugar. But now you've just signalled the pancreas to increase insulin!

The constant sipping of Protein Shakes sounds like a reasonable solution for right now. As your diet expands, you'll have a job figuring out what to do...

Yes, that's what I get for posting when tired.

The juice thing does make sense due to how quickly simple carbs pass through the body. During my liquid phase I'd constantly be feeling lows because my liver would send the signals to make more insulin but because the drinks I had were already through me the insulin was there unnecessarily. OP did say they had lows before taking the juice though. Interesting situation.

Edited June 5, 20179 yr by PatientEleventyBillion

I talked to the PA today and one of the nurses. Apparently this is not uncommon after surgery, or at least they see it enough that they have a plan for it. I'm going to check my glucose a few times a day and if it's running too low the suggestion is to make a shake with milk and powdered mix (instead of the pre-made I've been using) because the milk should have enough carbs and sugars to bring it up without spiking too high. The hope is that this issue is temporary and once I transition to actual food I won't have to worry as much about it.

Best of luck to you.

@ChaosUnlimited how are you doing?

@Lexington1020 Hi there! I'm doing great, thanks! I didn't have any further issues with my blood sugar dropping, and it's staying pretty stable now. I have lost a total of about 60 lbs since January when I started this journey, and about half of that is just since my 5/31 surgery.

How are you doing? It's almost a month since your surgery, right?