Bouncing BG With Hypos

[DumfriesDik]

Yesterday was strange. A normal day except a McDonald's meal inc fries and shake for lunch. A rare 'treat'.

My bloods went up to over 10 as expected and came back down to 5.5 by early evening. Great. And that is when the roller coaster of an evening started. I had four 'yoyo' hypos in quick succession and could not sustain my BG over 5. I was eating slices of brown bread and two glucose tablets every time.

It was 1.30am before my bloods started to climb to 7.4.

At 3am they dropped to 5.6.

At 4am they started to climb from 5.6 with my dawn phenomenon pushing the BG to over 11 by 7am. I am starting to yoyo again, but at a much higher BG level.

This is all observation via my CGM and backed up with finger prick testing. What a night!

Even now my bloods are at 10.7 and that is high for me. The fight continues!

 

[niblue]

Is there a reason for trying to keep the blood sugar readings above 5? I'm assuming that it's a factor in your own situation and the meds you're on, rather than a general type-2 thing (note - I'm not particularly experienced at this stuff!).

I'm also type 2 and a couple of years back (when I was doing a better job of managing it and when my BMI was well under 25) I'd see sub 5 readings quite a bit and it didn't seem to cause any issues (other than the occasional dizzy spell when I got up too fast).

It must be quite trickly to do though, due to the delay between eating something and it then affecting your blood sugar. I've read about the 15/15 thing to manage low blood sugar but don't think it's something I'd ever need to do as I doubt my blood sugar would ever get low enough.

I'll most likely be having my own treat tonight, which is fish and chips (a regular Friday evening thing). I used to eat all the chips myself but nowadays my wife and I get a fish supper and a single fish between us and split the chips.

 

[LonelyFatGuy]

What medication are you on that has you fighting hypos...?

 

[DumfriesDik]

Is there a reason for trying to keep the blood sugar readings above 5?

Because last night I could barely get up to 5 and with so many hypo's happening, I wanted to be higher. My bloods just kept going low, below 4. Enjoy your fish supper!

@LonelyFatGuy thats a good question. I have recently started Ozempic, and have just moved on to the 0.5mg titration. In addition, and the leading culprit is, Gliclazide. I spoke with the diabetic team yesterday and they suggest reducing this. I had been on Rybelsus before Ozempic and I had extended time at 0.25mg for two months.

Today, my bloods have come down to more normal levels, like below 8, but are still bouncing around.

I think without a CGM I may not have been able to pick up these changes so quickly. My bloods have been quite stable for a few months, I think this is what has caught me out. It was unexpected.

 

[Tony337]

Hi
I'm a type 1 of 50 years and am not familiar with your type of medication but a yoyo blood sugar is a yoyo blood sugar.....
Assuming your cgm is a libre then your sensor is 20 minutes behind the reality so i would be doing finger prick tests for accuracy and piece of mind.

My own libre goes off if below 3.2 even if i've already eaten..

I wish you well

Tony

 

[niblue]

@DumfriesDik Good to hear you've got it more under control today.

I did one of the trials for the Abbot CGM a couple of years back and it showed me unrealistically low blood sugar levels (e.g. under 4) a few times (and when it did my finger prick results were higher and more realistic) although overall it generally seemed to be in the range I'd expected. I didn't fee I was getting enough value out of it to actually pay for one though.