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Dangerous Hypo-no symptoms!!!!

C

cherri

Member
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16
I have been T1 for approx 16yr. Lately i have been getting lows like never before and its really worrying. I live alone with my 2 dogs. My BM is kept quite good usually, i have worked really hard the last 2yr at getting good readings. However, i seem to drop to extremely low levels now and i get no warning sometimes. I came home tonight and tested at 10pm-ish, and my meter just said 'Lo'. I know it must be extremely low cos i have had readings of 0.7, 0.9, 1.3 etc. I had NO warning signs at all, but sometimes i do feel when im going hypo at around 3.5-4. My cousin just happened to phone me one of the times i was really low and said i was slurring my words. Does this happen to anyone else?? I was wondering if its maybe the kind of food i have eaten earlier to cause my sugar to fall so low so fast. Or maybe exercise? I would be grateful for any input/ideas to help stop this happening. I get worried cos i live on my own. If i had passed out in my house tonight, there really is no-one to raise the alarm or help me out :(

Thanks

Lesley
 
Hia Lesley, this must be so frightening for you. I think in the short term you should take more frequent blood sugar readings that would help you as it would give you a bit more time and warning if your blood sugars were dropping. it's difficult but I think you should test during the night as well whilst your bloods are unstable.
Both the food you eat and the exercise may have contributed to last nights low blood sugar but it could also be that your basal or bolus insulin rates are wrong. It's difficult to say without knowing the full picture. Do you count your carbs and inject accordingly? Have you been on a Dafne course? If no, then maybe the next step is to call your diabetes team or GP to discuss what you need to do to next as I do think you need urgent advice, especially as you are on your own at home. Take care and let us know how you get on. Riri
 
Ouch! I'd phone the doc this minute really.

The only advice that I've heard is to run slightly high sugars for a couple of weeks and avoid all hypos if at all possible - it should restore awareness in some/most people.

But I would probably phone everyone with a bit of knowledge and ask for their support and advice and also get checked if there is a reason for your hypo's or the unawareness.

Wishing you all the best.
 
Hello Cherri

You will probably find that if you inject less insulin for the food that you are eating and raise your bg levels up a bit that that will enable you to regain your awareness of your bg level dropping when it reaches somewhere between 3.5 - 4.00mmol. So get your basal dose of insulin sorted first and get your fasting morning bg level to be no lower than 7.5mmol and then also alter your insulin to carb ratios so that all your bg levels will be a tiny bit higher than they have been. Might take about 2 weeks to get the effect but maintain those levels for about 3 months and test your bg a lot more ...... especially the mid morning and mid afternoon (about 6 times a day and once in the night) .

You could also test your basal by not eating any carb but even if you have even bg levels through fasting, keep in mind that bolus insulin action lasts for about 4-5hrs so you may need to eat a small amount of carb if your bg levels are at the same or slightly less than they were when you ate a meal and then alter your insulin to carb ratio to enable your bg level to be a tiny bit higher mid morning or mid afternoon.

All the best..... and don't worry..... lots of diabetic people get this through trying to keep 'too tight a control' on bg. Loads of us have gone on to using pumps which is something you can think about.........
 
Hello lesley.
This is a suggestion to keep you safer whilst living alone in your own home.
Could you ring or contact family or close friends explain your worry and concerns
with being at risk of hypo's home alone.
Maybe get them to call/drop in or phone you at certain times to check that you are well.
If 'no' response or answer when they do - agree a plan of action to suit you all ?
The 'lifeline' panic button is also an option as it will be linked up to the emergency call centre.
All it needs is for you to press the button to activate it.
There is a cost to pay yearly for this though...
Your local GP may have other alternatives of help ,support to offer you?
May be worth discussing your fears,worries,concerns with them.
Hope this helps, as it must be a worry for you suffering hypo's and living at home alone!
This is why I thought of these suggestions with your safety in mind...
Anna.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. I have been looking at this website alot the last couple of months and maybe this carb-counting thing is what would be required. Im up on the North-east coast of Scotland, and the NHS here still promote the 'old' eating. Im on 3 different insulins just now. Humulin M3 at breakfast, Humalog at supper and Humulin I at bed time. I was gonna change to the basul/bolus thing, but the nurse said that i was managing to keep decent readings so there was no need to change. Does it offer alot more flexibility? There are 5 diabetics in my family and were all on different medications :roll: When i spoke to my uncle he wasn't sure what to say cos he has different insulins...my other uncle has had alot of problems..he now has to eat a gluten free diet aswell (poor thing, i wonder what he does get to eat nowadays!!). My dad was diagnosed with T2 two years ago, but he is on insulin and tablets, and i never see my cousin....
I really dont know how to count carbs...I know what type of food would be carbs, but have no idea how to count it all out? I get the feeling im away to have alot of changes coming my way :crazy: I had a pot noodle yesterday, which i dont usually eat-and my sugar was up at 17.8 in the afternoon. I watched a documentary someone linked a few days ago which was really interesting by a swedish doctor(cant remember his name), Ive also watched the 3parts of 'The men who made us Fat'. i will find out if i can get a DAFNE course up here, ive never heard of it before i came on here. Oh dear, i dont even own a set of scales!!!

Lesley
 
I'm not T1 and not subject to hypo, so I have no experience, but Iam a dog person and wondered if your dogs reacted in any way when your levels drop. I have a friend who is subject to seizures and one of her dogs always warns her.
Hana
 
Try to get on a carb counting/dose adjustment course of some sort.
You would need to be using a long term insulin as a background and rapid one for meals. Most people use levimir or lantus as a background and novorapid/humalog /apidra as a rapid though the same technique can be used with a twice daily isophane (like humulin i) It can't be used with mixed insulins like M3.

Being with other people on a course is good . Very few of us meet that many other people with similar problems in 'real life'.
However there is an online course that teaches you how to carb count/dose adjust. There is also a booklet from Diabetes UK (the charity) which is a good introductory guide.
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-dia ... -counting/
(booklet link at tab on the right, course link towards bottom of page)

In the meantime though hypo unawareness isn't a good thing not only for a person that lives alone. For example,It is dangerous if you drive. You really need to contact your Nurse about adjusting your doses. The normal advice to regain hypo awareness is to raise your glucose levels for a while. Test frequently, trying to avoid all hypos.
This is from Ragnar Hanas's Book
If you are having problems with hypoglycaemia unawareness, you should aim for a slightly higher average blood glucose. Above all, you should avoid a blood glucose level that is lower than 3.5-4.0 mmol/l (65-70 mg/dl). Within a fortnight, you are likely to find you can recognize symptoms of hypoglycaemia more easily. By training yourself to recognize subtle symptoms as your blood glucose is decreasing, you will increase your chances of treating your hypoglycaemia in time.
Click to expand...
 
Hello, I too have had hypo unawareness but running a bit higher for a few weeks will definitely help. Don't worry too much about this being bad for you, that's ony if you are really high for ages but if you aim to keep between say 6 and 12 for a few weeks it should help.
When I lost my hypo awareness when pregnant (and couldn't run high, just had to wait until I'd delivered and put up with it) I found my symptoms changed and the first I would sometimes be aware was when I started feeling a bit sick. A few times though I brushed it off as something else as I didn't think feeling sick could be a sign of a hypo. Do you ever get that if so it could be used as a warnign sign.

I'm sure i saw somewhere about dogs that can be trained to raise the alarm if their owner falls unconscious but not sure if this would need to be a special sort of dog or if a dog you already had could be trained! May be worth checking it out though.
 
hello, thanks to everyone again :D . I should be getting a call from my DN today. I found that there is a course in Aberdeen so thats good :thumbup: -thanks Fergus for the link :) I havent had time to look at the other link yet, but i will-thanks pheonix :) . I dont really have family close by apart from my dad who has a VERY strong 'you are responsible for yourself' attitude, so im not gonna try going there :roll: Ive never really thought about the dogs...i dont know how i would train them for that. I realised this morning that my wee schnauzer jumps off the other side of the bed and comes round to wake me up.lol. Oh, just got call from nurse and she said she will get me on the course :D Here we go...

Lesley
 
Good luck with the course. :thumbup: :thumbup:
Re the dog's training, I have found that dogs tend to do a lot of their own training given a bit of help. My collie picks up on any "hypos" and "signals" to me. Also My in-law's little dog trained herself as a hearing dog and responded differently to doorbells, phones (mobile or landline), visitors or other auditory or other stimulus
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. I have been looking at this website alot the last couple of months and maybe this carb-counting thing is what would be required. Im up on the North-east coast of Scotland, and the NHS here still promote the 'old' eating. Im on 3 different insulins just now. Humulin M3 at breakfast, Humalog at supper and Humulin I at bed time. I was gonna change to the basul/bolus thing, but the nurse said that i was managing to keep decent readings so there was no need to change.
Click to expand...

Hi Cherri,
the mix of insulins' you are using is prob, the main cause of your problems.
As your nurse has managed to get you onto a carb counting course you need to change over to a basal/bolus routine otherwise it wont help you and I suspect they wont have you unless you do.
 
Hi Cherri,

There are other regimes and insulin you can use. Animal insulin is often effective for those who have lost hypo awareness in regaining it. Talk to Jenny at IDDT http://www.iddt.org/ and she can give lots of useful advice. I have a 3 injection a day regime similar to yours but with a mixture of isophane and neutral which works well for me.
 
tigger said:
Hi Cherri,

There are other regimes and insulin you can use. Animal insulin is often effective for those who have lost hypo awareness in regaining it. Talk to Jenny at IDDT http://www.iddt.org/ and she can give lots of useful advice. I have a 3 injection a day regime similar to yours but with a mixture of isophane and neutral which works well for me.
Click to expand...

I used to do the same using animal insulin. I use animal insulin in a pump now :) Still have hypo awareness after 47 years on insulin so can't be bad :)
 
I too use hypurin porcine animal insulin and find it gives me 'great' hypo awareness... :thumbup:
Reassuring to hear that carbsrok still has good hypo awareness after so long on this insulin.
Prior to going onto the animal insulin from my previous levemir insulin, I rang and spoke to jenny same morning as saw my DSN in the later afternoon.
She gave me some great tips and advice ...
Hope this helps?
Anna. :)
 
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