Advice on hypo awareness

[Tracey167]

Hi all
Went to see my diabetic nurse last Thursday because I keep having hypos and I have lost awareness of them, the nurse reduced my insulin (all humalog by 2 units) and told me to run my BG's high for 1 week to bring my awareness back but she did'nt tell me how high i should run them and because i very rarely have high BG's (only on odd occcassions) when they reach over 16 which since doing it they have it makes me feel really rough, thirsty, keep going to the toilet and also I don't feel hungry.

Sometimes if its really high like friday night after I had a small bowl of porriage like I sometimes do if I feel a bit hungry to tied me over through the night but 3 hours after my BG was 24 I can sometimes feel nausea. I had no choice but to give myself 2 units of humalog along with my half dose of levemir (9 units morning and 9 units at night) which I was also told to do,to try and bring it down which it did thank god, my levels went down to 7.7 by the morning.

Does anyone know how high I should run them because I don't like feeling like this, and does it work will it bring my awareness back?
Tracey

 

[cugila]

Methods for Reducing Hypoglycemia Unawareness

Raise blood sugar targets for two to three weeks in order to avoid low blood sugar. As a Type 1 your normal levels should be no more that 9 mmol/l at any time, so if your Nurse told you to run high I would imagine staying within those limits should suffice. Not too high, but high all the same.

Test blood sugar more often, providing more data to make more rapid adjustments.

Increase protein intake and reduce carbohydrate intake, reducing insulin requirements.

Use the data from additional blood sugar tests to note the different symptoms experienced at specific blood sugar levels.


You could also just phone the Nurse and ask what levels she wants you to achieve......?

Oops....here is the link to the full article.
http://www.diabetes1.org/news/Reversing ... nawareness

 

[kegstore]

Depends on what you class as "normal" levels and also what the cause of the unawareness is. For me, 6 mmol/l is my target so when I was trying to regain awareness I raised this to 9 for a couple of weeks. Made absolutely no difference apart from making me feel a bit rough, which unfortunately points at the other major reason for unawareness - autonomic neuropathy, and you can't do much about that except stop it getting any worse by exercising really tight control. Some people find changing insulins makes a difference to awareness though; with this in mind I'm about to switch to Apidra so will report back.

 

[noblehead]

Tracey

Good advise so far. I don't imagine your nurse meant running double figures. I would run slightly higher than normal, say 7-8 and see how that goes. As always, and in all cases, if unsure consult your diabetes specialists who will clarify matters for you.

Good luck

Nigel

 

[Lucie75]

I've been asked to run between 6 and 12 mmol for the next 12 weeks to get hypo warnings back. Have to say though, I'm finding it ever so hard. Hope you get on okay.