My libre alarm is set to go off at 4.2 mmol/L but it didn't. When I checked it said 2.1 (but contour 1.9). I can't get the BSL back up despite copious orange juice. But my question is, why didn't the alarm sound?
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My libre alarm didn't go off
- Thread starter plantae
- Start Date
Could I have been unconscious?!
I live in a country area and the ambos are takinng forever to get here. I'm just typing randomly in the hope to stay awake. I had a hypo today at about midday but got bloods back up to 10.9 so I took my bolus for dinner thinking everything was ok. Before dinner I had eaten nothing but one banana for 36 hours (no bolus, but had basal last night... I'm rambling now)
I live in a country area and the ambos are takinng forever to get here. I'm just typing randomly in the hope to stay awake. I had a hypo today at about midday but got bloods back up to 10.9 so I took my bolus for dinner thinking everything was ok. Before dinner I had eaten nothing but one banana for 36 hours (no bolus, but had basal last night... I'm rambling now)
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D
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Unfortunately, there have been some issues reported with Libre and its alarms recently. I believe these are related to recent updates to phone OS versions.
However, I am concerned you are experiencing hypos at such a low level. If you have limited hypo sensitivity, it is usually recommended to raise your target BG and run it higher for a few weeks to regain your sensitivity.
As has been shown by your Libre alarm issues, technology can fail. Therefore, it is important to be able to manage without it. As scary as it is that the health care system is struggling, please remember people are celebrating 40, 50 and even 60 years with diabetes and most of this was without today's technology such as CGMs, pumps, fast acting insulin, ... even finger prick technology is relatively new.
However, I am concerned you are experiencing hypos at such a low level. If you have limited hypo sensitivity, it is usually recommended to raise your target BG and run it higher for a few weeks to regain your sensitivity.
As has been shown by your Libre alarm issues, technology can fail. Therefore, it is important to be able to manage without it. As scary as it is that the health care system is struggling, please remember people are celebrating 40, 50 and even 60 years with diabetes and most of this was without today's technology such as CGMs, pumps, fast acting insulin, ... even finger prick technology is relatively new.
I don't feel hypos at all. I found out today that after a hypo I am very tired and have a headache but at the time I feel nothing
Ambos still not here. Blood sugar is up into the 4s now though. This is twice today I've been below 3Edit: Diabetic nurse has decreased my basal for exactly the reason you've mentioned: so I might become aware
Sorry I'm a bit dim at the moment, but what do you mean by "experiencing hypos at such a low level"? Before tonight I've never, that I've known, been below 2. Edit just scrolled back and I think the lowest I've even been is 2.1. I'm 4.8 now so it's going up. Probably didn't need to call the ambos, but... 1.9 scared me a lot. Maybe I do feel it but just don't notice? I know that I made some comments on here that just didn't make sense so I deleted them
Edit: I was 8.8 (8.9 on contour) when I ate dinner so I took my bolus. Seemed safe. But I dropped VERY quickly. I think I was 4.4 ojne hour after dinner and then had a nap and was in the 2s! I went to 10.9 after treating my earlier hypo
Edit: I was 8.8 (8.9 on contour) when I ate dinner so I took my bolus. Seemed safe. But I dropped VERY quickly. I think I was 4.4 ojne hour after dinner and then had a nap and was in the 2s! I went to 10.9 after treating my earlier hypo
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I'm newly diagnosed and have a libre. I'm sitting in a hospital bed right now with very high blood sugar levels because I was very low earlier today and I ate too much too try and correct the lows. Am I upset? Yes of course I am. I feel as though I've let all my loved ones down and I am on the verge of tears. I feel like a failure. But I'm going to beat this. I'm not going to let this control my life.
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(Quote of post from original location of post #7)
Hi @plantae I hope you are feeling better now.
Honestly, hypos are the worst. And they are not your fault, some people genuinely have more trouble in managing them than others, though hopefully yours should become much easier to cope with once your diabetic team have got you on the right insulin dose/regime, whatever that is.
Hopefully you can sort out the non working alarms and maybe talk to your team about having hypo treatment that is slightly faster than orange juice???
I appreciate this must be very scary at the moment but I do feel that if you hang in there you will get on top of this in the end. I urge you to push ypur diabetic team for help.
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I don't know who you were replying to there, but I think what was meant was some people feel hypos coming along in the fours, or sometimes even a bit higher. I know you have expanded to say you tend not to feel them at all.
Yeah, that's right. Sorry if my message was unclear. I don't feel any different at all when I go low although reading my writing I can see it's different when I'm low... I'm just not aware of it at the time (Edit: although I must say that reading back on my comments after the fact it seems as if they were written by a different person! I need to learn to recognise that at the time, not afterwards). My glargine has been keeping me pretty low, in the fours or low fives for the most part and my diabetic nurse has reduced my dose to keep me a little bit higher so I can, hopefully, learn to feel them. Plus I guess if I'm in the sixes instead of fours or fives I have more time to respond. Last night my BSL dropped in like 10 minutes for no apparent reason and when you're sitting at 4.1 baseline a drop of 1-2 mmol/L is a big deal (or, for me at least it is).
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Glargine. Lantus I think the brand name is but that's not on my pen, just "insulin glargine (rbe)". I'm not sure what the rbe stands for
The hospital has given me 2 tubes of Glutose 15 gel to tide me over until the tubes I ordered online arrive. I suspected that I should have been having creon with my orange juice because my pancreas doesn't produce much amylase (confirmed by blood tests) which breaks down the fructose into glucose and the other sugar that it contains. They were a bit dubious but agreed that I should have pure glucose on hand
To summarise. I had 5 hypo events yesterday. Most of my messages were written when I was in the twos so I apologise if they sound irrational... most of them sound irrational to me reading back.
One hypo event I completely overcompensated and went up to 22. Three others I went into the high 8's and low 9's. But they took too long to treat. The one where I was waiting for the ambulance I was between 2.1 and 3.0 (measured by contour not libre) for over an hour despite the orange juice. The Glutose gel they gave me brought it up in about 10 minutes. They kept me at hospital until after lunch today to do scans and stuff and to make sure I'm stable. 6.2 at the moment so I feel a bit more comfortable. DN also visited me in hospital and we've come up with a plan on what to do in future so that I don't have to call an ambulance. I have the tubes of glucose for emergencies (another 10 should arrive by post by Monday) and my libre alarms and glargine have been adjusted. So, I will be treating anything in the 4s as a low for the time being to save me from going into the 2s
One hypo event I completely overcompensated and went up to 22. Three others I went into the high 8's and low 9's. But they took too long to treat. The one where I was waiting for the ambulance I was between 2.1 and 3.0 (measured by contour not libre) for over an hour despite the orange juice. The Glutose gel they gave me brought it up in about 10 minutes. They kept me at hospital until after lunch today to do scans and stuff and to make sure I'm stable. 6.2 at the moment so I feel a bit more comfortable. DN also visited me in hospital and we've come up with a plan on what to do in future so that I don't have to call an ambulance. I have the tubes of glucose for emergencies (another 10 should arrive by post by Monday) and my libre alarms and glargine have been adjusted. So, I will be treating anything in the 4s as a low for the time being to save me from going into the 2s
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That sounds very constructive. Have you had any luck on the non working libre alarms? It may be worth phoning Abbott?
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Hi again,
Sounds like you got it covered.
If you are using Lantus. My Lantus experience with the dose being too high. (Even marginally.) there can be multiple lows daily.
Just hitting it with fast acting carbs does do the trick in the short term, but to reduce the risk of a recurrence an hour or so later.
Follow it up with longer acting carbs..
I am fully hypo aware, but Lantus for me can be a slow subtle creeper on the lows unlike Novorapid or even the porcine stuff I used as a kid.
Best wishes.
This is exactly what happened! I got BSL back under control 4 times (5th I could not) and within an hour I was hypo again with the libre alarms waking up the neighborhood. Looking at my graph the hypos are essentially exaclty 1 hour apart. I'd been having orange juice followed up by bread with honey, but I wasn't taking my Creon. In future I'll take creon with the long-acting carbs. 5th time I could not get it under control
I've been naughty and skipped my NovoRapid dose with dinner. This is probably against medical advice, but they did withhold it in hospital this morning. I have to ask my DN about this. The reason I skipped my NovoRapid with dinner is because I was 4.1. To stress, I'm not advising other people do this without medical advice, but 4.1 was too low for me to be comfortable with. It's now 2.5 hours after dinner and I'm 5.4. I didn't kill myself at least
and I'm checking every 30 minutes with contour not libre. My reduced lantus injection is due in 30 minutes. Let's hope it goes ok
So this means your dinner didn't need the insulin, looks perfect to me.
I regularly have meals that don't need insulin, it all depends on the amount of carbs in the meal and my current BG.
Do you use fixed doses per meal or do you adjust your dose depending on carbs and current BG?
