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What Causes Back Pain Radiating To Hips Along With Fluctuating Blood Pressures?
Question: I am a 34 year old type 1 diabetic with an insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor. My glucose can go from 40 mg/dL to above 400mg/dL in as little as an hour and bottom out again in the same amount of time. To say the least I am brittle. I have had general malaise for awhile with consistent back pain radiating into my hips and fluctuating blood pressures, the severity of these symptoms increase daily. A recent blood work up showed only an elevated anion gap of 16 and WBC of 14. Any thoughts on what could be the cause? Could my brittle diabetes be the agent or something else causing the elevated labs and glucose fluctuations?
Brief Answer:
Diabetes
Detailed Answer:
Sorry to learn about your symptoms.
1 Yes I understand your glucoses swing from high to low, and vice versa.
2 The back pain is likely unrelated to these glucose level changes, and must be investigated independently, as should the blood pressure fluctuations
3 The elevated WBC likely reflects the chronic cellulitis you have. Treating it properly is expected to improve the WBC toward normal
4 The anion gap can have many reasons. Very high glucoses with ketones levels rising in the blood can eventually result in high anion gap.
Checking blood or urine ketone levels can indicate if this is the case
Diabetes
Detailed Answer:
Sorry to learn about your symptoms.
1 Yes I understand your glucoses swing from high to low, and vice versa.
2 The back pain is likely unrelated to these glucose level changes, and must be investigated independently, as should the blood pressure fluctuations
3 The elevated WBC likely reflects the chronic cellulitis you have. Treating it properly is expected to improve the WBC toward normal
4 The anion gap can have many reasons. Very high glucoses with ketones levels rising in the blood can eventually result in high anion gap.
Checking blood or urine ketone levels can indicate if this is the case
Note: For further follow-up, discuss your blood glucose reports with our diabetologist. Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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