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After low BGs do you feel like **** for very long?

F

fletchweb

Well-Known Member
Messages
408
Type of diabetes
Prefer not to say
Treatment type
Other
Hello everyone,

Just had a low BG episode during lunch. I tested before my lunch time meal and my BGs were at 5.8 (Great!) but as I live in a tourist town, there's cruise ships in port and today is a bit humid with rain - everyone seemed to be in the downtown core where I normally grab lunch. So I decided to do my 5 KM power walk first anticipating that the restaurants/food places would become less busy by the time I was done.

I didn't have my Glucometer with me but by the time I finished my walk I was feeling very low - struggling to remain conscious low. I managed to grab something to eat that would normally drive my BGs up to the teens if I didn't take a shot of humalog first but this time, I didn't bother with the shot, quickly ate my food, bought a chocolate bar and ate that and then walked back to work. I tested myself (hour after eating without a shot) and I was 4.7 so obviously my BGs must of been very low before lunch.
I feel like **** now, exhausted, hard to focus and no energy. I'll probably feel this way for the next 2 or 3 hours.

My question: Does every one else feel like **** after a hypo? Do you find your recovery time in the sense of feeling normal again takes up to 3 hours? Just curious. I'll have to test myself again in an hour or so to make sure I didn't overcompensate with the food.

Cheers!
 
I'm not type 1 but I did used to have bad hypos due to reactive hypoglycaemia and yes I did sometimes feel bad for a long time afterwards. The trick is to get yourself back on an even keel as soon as possible foodwise. Once you've eaten something to get your glucose up, go back to eating better slow release foods.
 
I always feel like **** after a low and I don't think I've ever been that low. And it can take much longer than 3 hours. The rollercoaster of eating to fix a low, then the overcompensation and getting a high and then taking insulin to bring it down is the worst feeling ever.
 
To be honest, it dependss.
It depends how long I go, how long I am low and how I recover.
If I am very low or take a while to notice (e.g. If it wakes me up at night and I take a while then come round), I feel rubbish.
I also feel rubbish if I over compensate and yoyo up to a hyper.
Definitely better to over test than under test. I would not be waiting an hour if I didn't feel great even if I "knew" I had recovered.
 
Hi @fletchweb. Hope you're starting to feel better.
As hypos go, I think the type you've had today are for me the second worst. Nighttime ones being the worst, especially for feeling bad afterwards.
Second worst are those where I drop rapidly, usually attributed to exercise, and even though I hit the carbs really hard it only seems to slow down the rapid drop and doesn't really send my sugars sky high.
Also find in these circumstances that sugary carbs we sometimes have to turn to in an emergency make me feel physically sick for along time after.
I suppose it's just one of those things bespoke to us diabetics and a lot of people fail to understand just how bad it makes us feel.
In answer to your question. Yes in certain circumstances I can feel **** for a good half day after a fast drop hypo.
Tomorrow is a new day and I'm sure you'll be back on top form by then.
 
fletchweb said:
My question: Does every one else feel like **** after a hypo? Do you find your recovery time in the sense of feeling normal again takes up to 3 hours? Just curious. I'll have to test myself again in an hour or so to make sure I didn't overcompensate with the food.
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If I was low to the point where I was losing consciousness (as you were today @fletchweb) then it would definitely take a while to recover, many hours I'd expect.

Generally with hypo's I have no ill-effect afterwards if the hypo is caught in time, but remember in my early days with type 1 hypo's did knock me for six, I noticed once I came off animal insulin's the hypo'hangovers were less severe, don't know if anyone else can relate to this.

Hope your feeling better soon.............
 
Gosh, that sounds horrid, @fletchweb . Sending a hug!

Sometimes I don't feel completely better from some hypos until the next morning. Hypos that are:

persistent
sudden
very very low or
post-exercise

can leave me reeling until the next day.

Thankfully I am having way fewer of the first three on my list than I used to get when on MDI, but more often than I'd like I still get hammering hypos after exercise.

:)
 
Interesting @noblehead . Pork insulin hypos thinking back were far worse in as much that they took longer to recover from. I'd forgotten. Strangely though when I changed to lantus/ novo rapid my first few years of going low/ hypo resulted in me becoming extremely aggressive to the point it actually scared me and I feared for the safety of people around me. An awful situation to be in. After a while everything seemed to change and hypos just became confusion, sweating, blurred vision but gladly no feelings of uncontrollable aggression. Strange, weird and another unexplainable diabetes " thing "
 
Well, I survived another one - about 5 hours have gone by and I don't feel completely my normal but close. I tested a little while after I posted the initial message and I was up to 10.3 (I always overcompensate) so I gave myself 5 units to get it back down and now an hour before my small evening meal I'm at 8.7. Still a bit high for an hour before mealtime but not bad - I'll take it. I usually don't get hypos - guess I should of had something to eat before going on my power walk. :) You would think someone who has lived with type 1 for so long would know that but to be honest - sometimes I forget I have diabetes (like hours at a time) Lol
Nice and interesting responses to my initial post - Thanks ...
 
noblehead said:
Generally with hypo's I have no ill-effect afterwards if the hypo is caught in time, but remember in my early days with type 1 hypo's did knock me for six, I noticed once I came off animal insulin's the hypo'hangovers were less severe, don't know if anyone else can relate to this.
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The animal insulin hypos were killer..! How I never passed out as a kid I'll never know....

These days I can recover from a hypo pretty sharp with no ill effect.. & get on with the day.

A night hypo when it happens can be a cow in the morning.. But I put that down to disturbed sleep pattern & a dopey attitude leading to over treating...? The older you get with disturbed sleep, it may affect you more? (Along with a Lucozade "chaser" after the milk .)

@therower , I'm pretty calm & passive with my lantus/novo.. Feed back comments have been "you looked bored." From a DSN as I tested/corrected at an appointment once.. To collegues thinking I'm "stoned."
I rarely break into a sweat. Unlike with the old porcine stuff..
 
fletchweb said:
You would think someone who has lived with type 1 for so long would know that
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Yeah, you rookie, you!
;):p;)

Seriously though, @fletchweb , we all just do the best we can on this ever-changing rollercoaster, and I am in awe of the words in your signature:

Type 1 for over 51 years
No complications
No complaints

Heck, you've got 20 years on me - and I complain aaaaaaaaaaaaall the time!

Huge respect to you.
:happy:
 
therower said:
Pork insulin hypos thinking back were far worse in as much that they took longer to recover from. I'd forgotten.
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Yes they did, I was using porcine insulin too @therower , seems like a lifetime ago.

Snapsy said:
And generally they're not as fun to get than a drinking hangover...
:D
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So true, tbh I've not had a drink hangover for so long @Snapsy , sensible lad nowadays ;)

Jaylee said:
The animal insulin hypos were killer..! How I never passed out as a kid I'll never know....
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Likewise @Jaylee , probably come close but always managed to treat them myself somehow.
 
Snapsy said:
Blimey, please reassure us that you're not a cocktail waiter with combinations like that, @Jaylee .....
:eek:
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Looks great presented in a Star Wars mug with a jelly baby impaled on a little umbrella! :cool:
 
noblehead said:
Likewise @Jaylee , probably come close but always managed to treat them myself somehow.
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Quite agree. Always had a pocket full of "emergencies" & lived to tell the tale..
If there is an "afterlife"? I won't go into the light.. I'll hone in on the biscuit barrel....
 
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