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Type 1 Am I over treating a hypo

VickyT1

Member
Messages
13
Hi everyone, could I please ask for some advice on treating hypos. Last night four hours after eating my evening meal my levels dropped to 4.1 so I had some lucozade which brought them back up to 7.3, I then ate a slice of toast. An hour later my levels dropped again to 4.1 so I had 4 jelly babies which brought them up to 7.9, I then ate another slice of toast. My levels then shot up (reaching the late teens) throughout the night and this morning they are at 14.2. What did I do wrong? What does everyone else do in this situation? When you are in the low 4’s would you just eat a snack to bring it up and what type of snack (rather than treating for hypo). Many thanks for any advice.
 
Hi Vicky,

Rebound highs are pretty common with hypos & I don’t worry about it too much unless it’s happening frequently. I have a Libra so catch most hypos before they happen. If I’m at 4.5 & feeling ok I’ll just have some toast, if I’m out I’ll have a couple of jelly babies & see what happens.

I’d be more concerned that you treated the first hypo & then dropped back down. I think someone mentioned a while back that lucozade reduced their sugar to reduce the tax burden so it might not be the best thing to use anymore. The jelly babies seems to do the trick though, sometimes I only need 1 or 2.
 

Thanks as always for your reply Tash. Can I ask would you just have a snack if it was before bed? I worry that if I don’t treat with sugar and then a snack that it will drop further in the night. I didn’t feel like I was having a hypo at 4.1 (usually get tingling on my face and lips) so maybe I shouldn’t have been treating it as a hypo. I’ll test the jelly babies to and not have as many as 4 x x
 
I don’t tend to get hypos in the evening so I’m not sure. I wouldn’t like to go to sleep on 4 though so would probably eat a jelly baby & slow carbs, it’s better to be high overnight in my opinion.

Do you take your basal at night? I have mine in the morning so that might be one contributing factor to evening/ night hypos.
 
On DAFNE we learn to treat hypos above 3.5 mmol/l with fruit. I only use fast-acting glucose tablets below this. A small apple 10 grams of carbohydrates will raise my blood sugars 2 to 3 mmol/l.
 
Hi @VickyT1

Just out of interest what did you have for your tea ?
 
I find no matter how I treat a hypo I go high

It’s almost as though the body goes into panic mode and pushed out whatever glucose it can

I accept it as I’d rather be a little high than low

So long as it comes back in control
 
My endo told me that 'lows cause highs', ie when I get a low my body will dump its glucose 'reserves' to try to correct which ,when added to the extra glucose I have taken, causes a high. However I was trying to treat the lows while avoiding the resultant highs, but he told me to ignore the highs and just concentrate on getting rid of the lows.

I think treating hypos is one of those things that differs per person. I was told to take 20g of fast acting glucose and a snack of 20g of slow acting glucose, but I have found that quite often 20g of fast acting glucose alone would send me from low to high. I have a freestyle libre, so I can monitor my levels and can afford to take more risks, but without some continuous monitoring it is much better to have a high than risk a low.

Also, although bread is one of the things recommended as the slow acting glucose snack, for me it takes me a long time to convert toast and bread, especially brown bread, into glucose and it would probably be an hour before my glucose really starts to rise. My preferred slower acting glucose snack is a digestive biscuit (or half of one).
 

Thanks Tash I also take my basal in the morn - it’s strange as my blood sugar dropped into the fours before bed last night. I ate a snack but it didn’t rise and dropped into the threes so had the jelly babies and then another carb snack. It did rise after that but then was in the lower teens all night. Going to mention to the dietician today.
 
@VickyT1 Just a thought process that the fat in the yoghurt could of delayed your carb absorption there, hence the rise later on, there is also the liver response to hypos too as very often our livers will pump some extra in to help us out, that's why we can end up in mid teens later on, the liver will restock later too on so take care to avoid the second hypo then.
 

Many thanks for all this info - I think I may be the same with bread so it’s interesting that you mentioned that. It’s all so new to me but we are all different too so you just have to test and see what works. I have my first appt with the consultant in a couple of weeks so have lots of questions for him . Thanks again for your reply.
 

It sounds like your evening carb ratio isn’t quite right. Are you still on fixed doses or adjusting insulin based on the carbs you eat? If your talking to the dietician today they might advise increasing the ratio so it more carbs per unit. The last thing you want is evening hypos all the time.
 
I go high after a hypo but to be honest I don’t care , as far as I’m concerned getting rid of a hypo is all that concerns me , no matter what my blood sugar goes up to I can always get it back in range quite quick, at 4 .1 I wouldn’t worry too much maybe have a banana or a biscuit I wouldn’t have any fast acting carbs , I can understand highs after hypos due to liver dump and fast acting carbs , I probably wouldn’t have any hypo symptoms til well below 4 on the Libre , I normally take 15 g of fast acting wait 15 mins then take 15 g of slow acting carbs ! However if I’m having a full blown hypo it’s normally the contents of the chocolate section of my fridge then the cupboard then any passing rhino or something of equal size , after that I just deal with the high , hypos and highs come with the territory unfortunately but are definitely easily treated, the important thing I think is hypos don’t happen that often
 
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