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False Hypos??

samowen268

samowen268

Well-Known Member
Messages
103
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
hi all, I've never experienced this before and probably because my bloods were constantly high until a few months ago when I took back control!
but despite the eye and muscle problems, I've been feeling okay diabetes wise, however in the last 4 days I have been constantly feeling like I'm having a hypo, I feel really weak and my whole body feels drained of energy (and a constant need to stretch weirdly), but I test my bloods and they're 9.3!

I would have thought if this was a side effect of controlling my bloods after so many years I would have had these months back when I first started to take control??

thankyou in advance for any advice of assurance you can give! not used to feeling like this haha x
 
Do you normally see 9.3? It could be that you're having hyper symptoms at those levels and hyper and hypo symptoms can be rather similar.

Feeling tired, achey, worn out are symptoms of high blood sugar, and heading towards double figures is a high blood sugar.

How do you feel when you're euglycaemic? Or what target range are you aiming for?
 
I'm exactly the same, in that my bloods were consistently above 10 for a long time up until about a month ago. The hypo symptom can be due to your blood sugars being lower than your body has become used to, I feel the same, sometimes I start to feel sleepy and warm, i've tested and I've been in the 6-7 range. Your body needs a long time to re-adjust.

High readings also make you feel sluggish and drowsy, as they make the blood become more 'syrupy'. This it harder for oxygen in the blood to get where it needs to go, chiefly the brain. So you feel tired. Diabetes Fatigue is actually a thing, believe it or not!

Now I know that for me, a reading of 9.3, while being out of target is not particularly high. In comparison to what I've regularly been for the last few years, it's **** near perfect! I probably wouldn't correct for it if I weren't eating anything. A lot of people on here would disagree, but that is what works for me. For you that high-ish reading (especially if you've been controlling it for the last few months) could be the reason you're feeling worn out, as I said above about high readings.

To put a spin on things, it may not be anything to do with your diabetes. You could just be tired, or have a slight vitamin deficiency, etc etc. It's more common that you'd believe. Next time you go for a blood test at the hospital ask 'em to check your iron levels too.

Hope this helps hun and hope you're feeling better soon!
 
Shannon27 said:
I'm exactly the same, in that my bloods were consistently above 10 for a long time up until about a month ago. The hypo symptom can be due to your blood sugars being lower than your body has become used to, I feel the same, sometimes I start to feel sleepy and warm, i've tested and I've been in the 6-7 range. Your body needs a long time to re-adjust.

High readings also make you feel sluggish and drowsy, as they make the blood become more 'syrupy'. This it harder for oxygen in the blood to get where it needs to go, chiefly the brain. So you feel tired. Diabetes Fatigue is actually a thing, believe it or not!

Now I know that for me, a reading of 9.3, while being out of target is not particularly high. In comparison to what I've regularly been for the last few years, it's **** near perfect! I probably wouldn't correct for it if I weren't eating anything. A lot of people on here would disagree, but that is what works for me. For you that high-ish reading (especially if you've been controlling it for the last few months) could be the reason you're feeling worn out, as I said above about high readings.

To put a spin on things, it may not be anything to do with your diabetes. You could just be tired, or have a slight vitamin deficiency, etc etc. It's more common that you'd believe. Next time you go for a blood test at the hospital ask 'em to check your iron levels too.

Hope this helps hun and hope you're feeling better soon!
Click to expand...

Thanks, glad someone else has had issues with high blood sugars! Until this thread I didn't realise 9 was high ish haha I thought it was good, exactly lol this time last year it would have been irregular for my bloods to be below 10!

my nurse says I'm not allowed to sleep unless my bloods are above 8! so difficult to balance all this out!

had my iron levels tested already as I'm in an ongoing investigation, apparently my iron levels are excellent which shocked me, had really bad problems with my vision and leg pains lately, however apparently a lot of this is also down to regaining control of BG, having a nightmare with this re adjustment business!!
 
catapillar said:
Do you normally see 9.3? It could be that you're having hyper symptoms at those levels and hyper and hypo symptoms can be rather similar.

Feeling tired, achey, worn out are symptoms of high blood sugar, and heading towards double figures is a high blood sugar.

How do you feel when you're euglycaemic? Or what target range are you aiming for?
Click to expand...

9.3 is excellent for me, I did consider that because my bloods are so well controlled now that possibly 9.3 is too high, however I've tested and been 10/11 and felt fine recently too, possibly i think my bloods were dropping because I tested 10 mins later and it was significantly lower than before, struggling atm !
 
Leg cramps and wonky vision are symptoms of high readings too! I don't get the cramps a lot but when I do, they wake me up in the night, and I am one deep sleeper :P yeah they say the target values are between 4 and 7, which is the best thing to aim for really but if you are between these you really need a bit to eat. Obviously the lower you are the more essential it is.

I totally agree with the night time reading of 8! Nothing worse than going hypo in the night. This is one of the few other things that can actually wake me up, luckily! Generally, if I go to bed and my bloods under 8 I have a slice of toast. It's only if I'm hypo or near hypo (<4.5 for me) that I eat AND stay up.

Do you go for eye screening every year? They may be able to suggest something to help with your eyesight. Its ridiculous that they don't liase with opticians, the eye screening people aren't allowed to talk to you about glasses etc but opticians don't look for diabetes related problems in the eyes when they do eye tests. I'd recommend seeing an optician separately, if you feel like glasses or contacts may help.

Do you carb count etc and have ratios for your carb intake compared to insulin intake? This is a bit of a pain but completely worth the satisfaction of having decent readings :)
 
samowen268 said:
9.3 is excellent for me, I did consider that because my bloods are so well controlled now that possibly 9.3 is too high, however I've tested and been 10/11 and felt fine recently too, possibly i think my bloods were dropping because I tested 10 mins later and it was significantly lower than before, struggling atm !
Click to expand...
Maybe consider going on a CGM device, Continuous Glucose Monitoring? The Freestyle Libre has a lot of good reviews, unfortunately it's not free on the NHS yet :( I tried it but I was a bit unsure as it gave me a few inaccurate readings in the first day, apparently that's normal though, after the first 2 days it settles down. Lots of people on here love it! No finger pricking at least :)
 
I'm recently diagnosed too and when I first started monitoring my levels they were consistently in high 20s or unreadable (pre insulin)

On Saturday morning I was convinced they were really, really low as I felt very light headed. Tested at 10 - which to be fair to my body IS low compared to where it has been for probably months.
 
Circuspony said:
I'm recently diagnosed too and when I first started monitoring my levels they were consistently in high 20s or unreadable (pre insulin)

On Saturday morning I was convinced they were really, really low as I felt very light headed. Tested at 10 - which to be fair to my body IS low compared to where it has been for probably months.
Click to expand...
@Circuspony did you get any symptoms when you were going really high/unreadable? I noticed that it works the other way too, that if you're high for a long time there's a much higher threshold for when you start feeling the symptoms? I would have to be above 20 for me to start even feeling thirsty!
 
Shannon27 said:
@Circuspony did you get any symptoms when you were going really high/unreadable? I noticed that it works the other way too, that if you're high for a long time there's a much higher threshold for when you start feeling the symptoms? I would have to be above 20 for me to start even feeling thirsty!
Click to expand...
When I first went to the GP I was drinking a lot. Literally I would finish a drink and 5 mins later feel parched. I'd also lost a load of weight and my distance vision had gone blurry. My blood results in the surgery just read 'high' on his monitor, which he told me was 35+.

When they told me then it looked like diabetes I forced myself to stop the obsessive drinking and if you'd asked me then I'd have said that I wasn't drinking a lot - blood results were still high 20s / 30s. Then they finally started me on insulin I realised that I wasn't anywhere near as thirsty any more. Yesterday I felt it about an hour after lunch and my reading was 22. I'm actually having to force myself to remember to drink! (although its nice not to be having to plan my day around toilet breaks!)
 
I really don't notice prominent hyper symptoms even now and I've been diagnosed nearly 11 months now. I was mostly asymptomatic at diagnosis in DKA, felt a bit tired but mostly fine. Thankfully I have pronounced hypo symptoms so no trouble there, I remember some false hypos at first when I decided on a target range and worked towards it.
 
Shannon27 said:
Leg cramps and wonky vision are symptoms of high readings too! I don't get the cramps a lot but when I do, they wake me up in the night, and I am one deep sleeper :P yeah they say the target values are between 4 and 7, which is the best thing to aim for really but if you are between these you really need a bit to eat. Obviously the lower you are the more essential it is.

I totally agree with the night time reading of 8! Nothing worse than going hypo in the night. This is one of the few other things that can actually wake me up, luckily! Generally, if I go to bed and my bloods under 8 I have a slice of toast. It's only if I'm hypo or near hypo (<4.5 for me) that I eat AND stay up.

Do you go for eye screening every year? They may be able to suggest something to help with your eyesight. Its ridiculous that they don't liase with opticians, the eye screening people aren't allowed to talk to you about glasses etc but opticians don't look for diabetes related problems in the eyes when they do eye tests. I'd recommend seeing an optician separately, if you feel like glasses or contacts may help.

Do you carb count etc and have ratios for your carb intake compared to insulin intake? This is a bit of a pain but completely worth the satisfaction of having decent readings :)
Click to expand...

I have had so much trouble with my eyes, my nurse said because my brain was running on high sugar intake for such a long period of time that as soon as I stopped I would have eyesight issues, I see everything grainy and pixelated it's honestly awful and at first I didn't know what it was which lead to an onset of anxiety attacks, not had a fun year! I've been diabetic since I was 5, and yet it's only now that I'm 18 that I've started to take control of my health, so there is a lot my body is still getting used to, my bloods are always below 10 now which is a MASSIVE improvement after those awful years lol.

Yes, my last eye screening said I had slight Maculopathy, the stage before retinopathy and my nurse has said the little bleeds in my eyes will reverse themselves if I carry on with my new blood glucose control which is a relief! 5 months now and still waiting for my eyes to re adjust, I think the false hypo sensation is also another side effect of my body running on dramatically less sugar, glad you're similar to me with the toast thing before bed, I have a slice of toast too if my bloods are below 8! and I have pretty good awareness of low bloods, so I'm usually aware by the time they've gotten to 4.0, however i am appalling at knowing when my bloods are high unfortunately !
 
Shannon27 said:
Leg cramps and wonky vision are symptoms of high readings too! I don't get the cramps a lot but when I do, they wake me up in the night, and I am one deep sleeper :P yeah they say the target values are between 4 and 7, which is the best thing to aim for really but if you are between these you really need a bit to eat. Obviously the lower you are the more essential it is.

I totally agree with the night time reading of 8! Nothing worse than going hypo in the night. This is one of the few other things that can actually wake me up, luckily! Generally, if I go to bed and my bloods under 8 I have a slice of toast. It's only if I'm hypo or near hypo (<4.5 for me) that I eat AND stay up.

Do you go for eye screening every year? They may be able to suggest something to help with your eyesight. Its ridiculous that they don't liase with opticians, the eye screening people aren't allowed to talk to you about glasses etc but opticians don't look for diabetes related problems in the eyes when they do eye tests. I'd recommend seeing an optician separately, if you feel like glasses or contacts may help.

Do you carb count etc and have ratios for your carb intake compared to insulin intake? This is a bit of a pain but completely worth the satisfaction of having decent readings :)
Click to expand...

Plus I do carb count! But only been accurately carb counting this year also! it's a bumpy ride!!
 
Hey @samowen268 Massive well done on getting a grip on things - it will take time to right both eye issues and your 'false' hypos, and in turn the eyes will also improve, keeping a close eye on your control will also help anxiety, running high seems to go hand in hand with anxiety, I definitely had an anxiety issue when I ran high so getting more stable blood glucose control helped me cope better mentally. Have you been on DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating) yet ?
 
samowen268 said:
I have had so much trouble with my eyes, my nurse said because my brain was running on high sugar intake for such a long period of time that as soon as I stopped I would have eyesight issues, I see everything grainy and pixelated it's honestly awful and at first I didn't know what it was which lead to an onset of anxiety attacks, not had a fun year! I've been diabetic since I was 5, and yet it's only now that I'm 18 that I've started to take control of my health, so there is a lot my body is still getting used to, my bloods are always below 10 now which is a MASSIVE improvement after those awful years lol.

Yes, my last eye screening said I had slight Maculopathy, the stage before retinopathy and my nurse has said the little bleeds in my eyes will reverse themselves if I carry on with my new blood glucose control which is a relief! 5 months now and still waiting for my eyes to re adjust, I think the false hypo sensation is also another side effect of my body running on dramatically less sugar, glad you're similar to me with the toast thing before bed, I have a slice of toast too if my bloods are below 8! and I have pretty good awareness of low bloods, so I'm usually aware by the time they've gotten to 4.0, however i am appalling at knowing when my bloods are high unfortunately !
Click to expand...
I have some background retinopathy but it hasn't affected my eyesight that I can tell! I was young too, 4 when diagnosed, nearly 22 now. I'm just getting out of the rebellious stage where you're trying to be like everyone else ha!

Sadly your body chemistry doesn't change instantaneously, it would make some things much easier to puzzle out! One person on here has said that she had bad eyesight which has since cleared up but one of the symptoms for her, while upset she tasted one of her tears and it tasted sweet. And when you have a problem and you don't fully know what it is, it's horrible because you already feel like the diabetes is an illness and now there's something else but you don't know what!

Like I said, I've only recently really started looking after my diabetes. One reason is that I was getting exhausted while driving, and started nodding on the motorway. I work a long way from home so driving at least 100miles a day is average for me. I looked it up (ah the power of Google!) and I learned about diabetes fatigue. I figured I couldn't keep feeling like that and risking myself every day, so I'm working at bringing my HbA1c way down. I haven't nodded for nearly 3 weeks now, which feels fantastic :)

Carb counting is a rollercoaster! And if that ain't a good song lyric I don't know what is haha!
 
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