First hypo & i’m alone - help!

Hi Michelle,

I think that should be fine for a meal before sleep if you can have all the banana, apple, baguette.
It seems you took too much insulin for little carb. You did not say how many units you took , what is your carb ratio and if you had some heavy exercise or consumed alcohol yesterday. These are all determining your BG.
I hope it make sense what asking.
Do not worry, please and definitely eat all those things before bed. Good luck!

I would eat the sandwich. Check blood in 30 mins. If it's started to rise go to sleep but set the alarm clock for about 0330 and check your bgs again. Have you got anything to treat a hypo should you go low in the night?

Sorry to read about your hypo, @Michelle6557 - they are rubbish, aren't they?
I hope the worst is over now but remember that after one hypo your hypo-awareness may be a little reduced for a day so make sure you do more checks than usual.
Coke and jelly babies are fine to take to treat hypos. Do you always carry them around with you? Hypos can happen anywhere at any time and they seem to crop up at the most inopportune moment. It's bad enough being alone in a hotel room but next time you may not have a helpful receptionist on hand. So, please make sure you always have hypo treatments with you.

A bit late for you now but when I was first diagnosed, a friend with diabetes suggested I "forced" my first hypo (by taking slightly too much insulin) when there was someone around. I am sure there are people around who disagree with this approach but I found it helpful to have experienced a hypo in a controlled environment: it gave me confidence I knew what to do when it happened "for real".

making yourself go hypo mm not me. i get grotty in the low 4s. caution is needed if low carbing your more likely to go low. you either need to lower your insulin or eat more. a salad is really not enough.

Michelle6557 said:

Thanks for the quick reply. I only take 6 units of basal as I’m probably a bit thin and very low carb. Dietician and consultant are happy with the low carb as they can see it keeps my numbers low and said I’d be less likely to have hypos because I wouldn’t need much insulin. I only have basal.
No alcohol but pretty stressful day. I’ve been a bit low in last few days / seen a couple of 4s. 2.3 was so scary and I’ve never sweated like that in my life! Is there any danger in eating too much carbs now? I don’t really understand why we can only have 150ml of Coke or 4 jelly babies? Why not eat plenty of sugar to knock the hypo on the head? I don’t care if my numbers run high for a few hours after

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Poor you! As someone who used to spend more time than I'd have liked alone in hotel rooms because of work it can be lonely enough without having to cope with your first hypo! Absolutely agree with @EllieM, overdoing the fast-acting carbohydrate to fix a hypo can make you sky high and feeling lousy afterwards and for you with no bolus, no way to deal with that. I always have jelly babies; some in a handbag/briefcase/whatever, and 3 (which are enough for me to immediately fix a hypo) in a tiny ziplock bag somewhere in a pocket. It sounds as if you maybe haven't been given a lot of information about what happens when you are hypo and how to treat it effectively. Eating twice as many jelly babies won't knock your hypo on the head any faster than eating the right amount; it doubles your intake but doesn't halve the time it takes for them to take effect. I eat 3, wait 10 minutes (that's the really hard part because your brain's telling you to eat anything in sight and the sweeter the better!) test my BG and if it's over 4 and rising (my Libre tells me that but before the Libre I wanted to see maybe 4.5 to be happy I wasn't going to plummet again) then eat some longer-acting carbs eg some bread (when working away I'd always carry some digestives as a convenient if not ideal alternative). If still below 4, repeat jelly babies, wait another 10 minutes, test again. It's a real pain, especially when I hypo just as I'm about to dash off to an appointment, but after years and years this is what works for me. Hope that helps and that your day goes okay

helensaramay said:

A bit late for you now but when I was first diagnosed, a friend with diabetes suggested I "forced" my first hypo (by taking slightly too much insulin) when there was someone around. I am sure there are people around who disagree with this approach but I found it helpful to have experienced a hypo in a controlled environment: it gave me confidence I knew what to do when it happened "for real".

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As far as I'm aware they used to do this in hospital when you got diagnosed so it wouldn't come as a surprise....

isjoberg said:

As far as I'm aware they used to do this in hospital when you got diagnosed so it wouldn't come as a surprise....

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Assuming you were in hospital. I was diagnosed over 30 years ago, and lived in Watford. The view at Watford General was not to admit people as they felt people needed to learn to deal with diabetes in the life they live, not as a hospital patient. I was always grateful for that and it worked really well for me; the brilliant DNS was always at the end of a phone. I don't know what's common practice now.

I sympathise with you michelle I live alone and have had so many hypos and someone will come.and check on you im sure just let them know they will keep an eye out.
I am getting so much better after my DAFNE.course adjusting and no more.hypos.it is fantastic to.feel secure and safe I have lowered everything and lost weight but enough of.me wittering on only just to say forget coke.I can only say one word lucozade!!!!
Support for you take care.

I find it interesting that many new T1Ds are given only basal insulin...
I'm a year in and have a totally different approach. For me basal insulin levels are not a concern as my pancreas whilst in the honeymoon phase is still producing quite a bit of insulin. What my poor failing pancreas can't do is give out enough to cope with excess strain put on it - i.e. hoping it will deal with glucose transferred to blood from my food. My strategy is to have hardly any slow acting and have as much fast acting as a possibly can with food, to try and be back in range 2 hrs after m meal and prevent going > 10 mmol/l at any point. I've read that the honey moon can be extended by preventing the pancreas from having to do too much (give it help with meals) and 2 avoid high sugars, at any time, as this accelerates beta cells being attacked by those nasty antibodies.
If you are low carb I can see why fast acting is not required at every meal. I work on 1 unit insulin for 25g carbs, and have 2 units long lasting in the morning and 2 at night.
We are all different I guess, a chronic disease managed by ourselves, just strange how the advice can differ so much! Unless I've invented a new strategy? I do run ~20 miles a week so this will not doubt have an influence, but I have never once had a hypo whilst running.
Good luck with everything!

A type 1 diabetic ONLY takes generic Lantus. OK, I guess I must have missed a chapter or 2 there somewhere. Glad you're OK though. What happens with a hypo is precisely what happened to you. You tend to overeat and spike it up high. Part of that's the stress hormones from being low too.

Michelle6557 said:

Thank you all for your replies and support. Being alone for first ever hypo was scary and you helped so much. I tested at 3.30 4 hours after the hypo and I was 24.3!! Argh. Shows how much my body didn’t like the hypo treatment! Anyway I’m at 12.3 now 24 hours later but ok with that. I’ve been warned it can take a while for blood sugar to stabilise again. I normally see 5-8 at all times.
To those T1 with options on low carb... I’m really interested in your input. I’m going on the principle that low carb means low insulin but do others have other ideas? Also, the morning after a nighttime hypo do you just eat as normal? X

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Yes I eat normally but have the ability to adjust my fast acting insulin to bring my BG down. If your BG will resolve if you eat normally, go ahead; otherwise eating less carbohydrate will help bring your BG down. I also need to take into account how active I'm going to be; that may be something else for you to factor in. Sorry it's not a precise science with neat answers to everything!

andybraith said:

I find it interesting that many new T1Ds are given only basal insulin...
I'm a year in and have a totally different approach. For me basal insulin levels are not a concern as my pancreas whilst in the honeymoon phase is still producing quite a bit of insulin. What my poor failing pancreas can't do is give out enough to cope with excess strain put on it - i.e. hoping it will deal with glucose transferred to blood from my food. My strategy is to have hardly any slow acting and have as much fast acting as a possibly can with food, to try and be back in range 2 hrs after m meal and prevent going > 10 mmol/l at any point. I've read that the honey moon can be extended by preventing the pancreas from having to do too much (give it help with meals) and 2 avoid high sugars, at any time, as this accelerates beta cells being attacked by those nasty antibodies.
If you are low carb I can see why fast acting is not required at every meal. I work on 1 unit insulin for 25g carbs, and have 2 units long lasting in the morning and 2 at night.
We are all different I guess, a chronic disease managed by ourselves, just strange how the advice can differ so much! Unless I've invented a new strategy? I do run ~20 miles a week so this will not doubt have an influence, but I have never once had a hypo whilst running.
Good luck with everything!

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How much basal do you inject please just out of interest?

Always, always make sure you have some dextros to hand. They are a god send. Jelly babies used to be my go to hypo treatment but have returned to the trusty dextros. So easy to dose once you know how to treat a hypo. Also very good at not causing a spike after as you only take what you need.

SueJB said:

How much basal do you inject please just out of interest?

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Hi Sue, I think this q'n is for me? I get confused by the layout of this app sometime?!

So it depends entirely on what I eat, although I do tend to have the same most days:
Breakfast = toast, 50 g carbs = 2 units rapid
Lunch = sandwich, yoghurt, fruit, 75g c = 3 u r
Dinner = meal of ~75 g carbs, again 3 units
So most days have 8 units of rapid.
If I allow myself a takeaway once in a while I can easily calculate 125 g carbs. In this instance I will have 5 units, but 3 units at time of eating and 2 units 2 hours later. This is because the insulin tends to work faster than the time it takes for my body to transfer the glucose into my blood and would end up hypo needing to treat with something only to massively overshoot after - I think this is quite a common mistake made by diabetic folk. I think this delay in getting glucose into my blood is more to do with fat content and processing speed than simply glycemic index, but not that sure, either way this works for me

andybraith said:

Hi Sue, I think this q'n is for me? I get confused by the layout of this app sometime?!

So it depends entirely on what I eat, although I do tend to have the same most days:
Breakfast = toast, 50 g carbs = 2 units rapid
Lunch = sandwich, yoghurt, fruit, 75g c = 3 u r
Dinner = meal of ~75 g carbs, again 3 units
So most days have 8 units of rapid.
If I allow myself a takeaway once in a while I can easily calculate 125 g carbs. In this instance I will have 5 units, but 3 units at time of eating and 2 units 2 hours later. This is because the insulin tends to work faster than the time it takes for my body to transfer the glucose into my blood and would end up hypo needing to treat with something only to massively overshoot after - I think this is quite a common mistake made by diabetic folk. I think this delay in getting glucose into my blood is more to do with fat content and processing speed than simply glycemic index, but not that sure, either way this works for me

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I think I got my basal and bolus the wrong way round... I always do this! Luckily I inject the right type!
Bolus is 1 u for 25 g carbs
Basal = 4 units/day (2 am & 2 pm)