Rebound after hypo

[gemma486]

Had a hypo during night had a bowl of cereal and a banana my bloods were 2.3 this morning they were 18.9 so have done 15 units of insulin but they have only come down to 17.6, I now have a hypo hangover which to be fair could be down to the fact they are so high I have just had a slice of toast and an egg should I do more insulin or not cause I don't want to drop again

 

[bethan90]

No do not take any more insulin to correct your blood sugar. You shouldn't take correction doses for 18-24hrs following a hypo. I know it's hard when your blood sugar is so high but taking a correction dose will most likely lead to another hypo, and the cycle continues.
Make sure you are treating hypos correctly- 50ml lucozade or 3-4 glucose tablets. Wait ten minutes, test again and if your BS is above 4 have something that will keep you up such as a banana or a slice of toast. A bowl of cereal with a banana is slightly extreme I think, probably has upwards of 40g of carbs in it, none of them particularly fast acting.

 

[picklebean]

Bethan is correct. I only recently discovered after 20years of T1 diabetes that I've been over-treating my hypos the whole time... Resulting in elevated sugar levels post hypo, which I then tried to correct and the whole cycle starts over again.

You usually don't need a lot to bring you back up and a lot of people take in far too much carbohydrate and of the wrong kind. My consultant said it's a matter of waiting it out even though you feel awful. Taking the recommended amount and type of CHO will work but you have to be patient with it.

I personally can't stomach lucozade or glucose tabs - they tend to make me vomit. But my consultant recommended a small carton of fruit juice (200ml) which is 20g of fast-acting CHO plus something like one or two digestive biscuits (for ease of availability) or something of a similar level of CHO.


Cereal isn't great because the milk has fat in it and that slows down the absorption of the sugar. I think that's why fruit juice is recommended, plus the mini cartons are the perfect hypo-sized portion.