Dealing with Hypo's

[sw11bloke]

If i get my carb ratio incorrect and I take a little too much insulin and then get a hypo, will my BG keep falling because of active insulin or will the consumption of lucozade start workinganyway even if i have too much active insulin?

My problem is that I often get my carbohydrate counting wrong or I eat something with a low GI so the insulin starts working faster than the food is absorbed. I then have a really bad hypo. I drink 100mls of lucuzade and my BG carries on falling and then I panick and end up drinking a whole bottle. Eventually my BG starts going up and then the low GI food gets absorbed and my sugar keeps rising until its in the 20's and then Im advised not to correct.

Do others experience this too or do you just drink 100ml of lucozade and sit down and hope for the best? I live alone so hypos really scare me.

If i have active insulin and hypo, will 100mls of lucuzade work?

 

[Switch2501]

I usually get "the hunger" when I hypo, I find it quite hard to stop eating until the hypo stops.

Saying that if I'm on top of it, a bit of licozade followed by some carbs usually does the trick. Eg some toast or hobnobs.

Best bet is to just test 10 mins or so after you've had something and keep testing at 10 min gaps until your sugars are in "normal" (for you) range.


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[jayne15]

Hi my daughters team say '4's the floor eat something sweet (coke or glucose tablet or lucozade) and then have something to eat ie a biscuit or a sandwich or a cereal bar)' the thinking behind this is the sweet will rapidly increase the blood sugars and then the something to eat will maintain the blood sugars. this works a treat with my daughter.

 

[ewelina]

I had it a lot at the beginning. Overeating sweets and ending up with massive levels that needed more insulin. Now I know that most of the time I need about 10 g of sugar. if i going to eat within hour I dont take anything else. It difficult to stop on few sweets as I usually get very hungry with my hypos but its all about selfcontrol. Try not to panic, sit down for few minutes and if you still feel shaky after 10 minutes eat another 5g of sugar and test again. As i live on my own as well i used to panic a lot but now im much more calm.

Another thing is proper carb counting to avoid hypos. You need to spend some time on educating yourself

 

[mrman]

Agree with other comments, sugary drink to correct hypo followed by 10 to 15 carbs to sustain and test five mins later to make sure your above 4. For the diary drink I have three sips of lucozade. If I had 100 ml I would sky rocket too.

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[pumppimp]

Hi SW11bloke,
It all just really depends on how much insulin you've over calculated and how low your blood sugar is? What are your ratios that you are working to, how much does one unit bring your sugars down by (correction dose) and how much would you give for 10g of carbohydrate? If we know that it will be easier to work out. For myself I would usually have half a bottle 380ml bottle so that's 190ml That would usually correct something in the 2.5-3.2 range and bring it up to around 7 or 8. if I'm about 3.3 to 4 then I would only have a big gulp which usually brings me up to 6 or 7. I know what you mean about over correcting if I have a bad hypo I quite often would get a panic attack which makes me think I'm still really low so will quite easily polish off a bottle or two then end up in the high twenties feeling miserable for the rest of the day.
To avoid going low would it maybe be possible to split your dose with your meal if you're having something that's low GI. It's very easy for me to do on a pump but not much good if you really hate injecting.

 

[sw11bloke]

will 3 sips of lucozade followed by 10 -15 grams of CHO start raising you BG even if you have active insulin present while having a hypo? I have had hypos where my BG has dropped from 4.5 to 2.9 within 10 minutes even tho I drank lucozade when I first tested at 4.5.
I once hypo'd for over an hour. I would test and my BG would be 3.2. Drink lucozade and then test 5 mins later and my BG would go up to 3.8. Id have some carb and then 10 mins later I would drop to 2.9..... this whole sequence would go on over an hour until such time where I just cannot take anymore glucose because I feel so sick and then Id have to call an ambulance or take glucagon andthen wait for the medics.
One occassion it took over 2 hours to get my BG over 4 and I or my Diabetic dr cannot explain this.

Has anyone else had this?

 

[Fallenstar]

hi Sw bloke

Have you had your Cortisol levels checked, constantly low blood sugars, or very hard to treat Hypo's can be due to poor Adrenal response ,ie low cortisol, or even full blown Addisons .This is more common with Type 1 diabetes . It may be worth getting a check up with your GP or Endo for this as it sounds like your are going to great lengths to correct your Hypo's . There may be an underlying reason for this.

 

[Nimster]

I always find that Ribena brings me back to normal after feeling low from a hypo...chocolate is of course a no no because the sugar apparently takes a while to get in to the blood so always stick to sugary drinks or glucose tablets

I've realised that my carb ratio in the morning is incorrect because i would wake up with a low bloodsugar and then later on in the morning my blood would lower itself even more (my lowest being 1.3 mmols) so i find it a problem at times when it comes to carb ratios :/

 

[iHs]

Chocolate may be a no no but it works fairly ok for me. 3 or 4 squares of that lovely CDM or something similar has me back to right as rain within 10-15mins and even though it contains some fat, I have a feeling that the fat content enables bg levels to remain more stable and not drop down again which sometimes can happen when lucozade is used.

 

[sw11bloke]

thanks for all your useful information.
@Fallenstar.... I will speak to my endo to see if i can have those tests you have mentioned. Thank you.

At the moment.... I personally think its my BI insulin thats messing me about. I tested before bed last night and I was 12 (11pm). At 1 I woke up and it was 8. I had a 5 gram biscuit and at 3 I was 10 so I will drop my pm BI from 9 units to 2 and then carry out the same testing again tonight.

 

[ewelina]

I think you shouldnt have eaten that biscuit in at 3 and you would wake up with good levels. What time did you take your insulin with evening meal?

 

[sw11bloke]

i had my evening meal at 6.
I felt I needed the 5gram biscuit because it felt as tho my BG was dropping. I took my basal at 10:30pm. If I dropped from 12 to 8 then I would have dropped even more by 3am. I probably would have been about 6 at 3 which means my basal is a bit high. BG should not drop or increase more than 1.6mmol during the night. If it does, then sureley this means my basal needs adjustment.

I also think that my dinner carb ratio should be increased perhaps from 10:1 to about 8:1.

 

[ewelina]

You definately went to bed with too high BG so you need to change your carb ratio (or mayby you underestimated carbs in your dinner?). I will tell you how it works for me. i go to bed with 7/8 (and i know it wont drop as my dinner was few hours earlier). Basal doesnt hit much so i wake up with 5/6. Probably you need to adjust your basal then if you drop that much. Experiment with insulin doses but slowly. Hope you will get it right soon