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First severe hypo

C

chrismbee

Member
Hi all,
I've been Type 1 for over 32 years and have generally been very stable - last Hba1c was 53, which I was quite pleased with.
I am a 50 yr old male in good general health, with reasonably active lifestyle.
Highs & lows have always previously been explainable and usually my own fault.
However, I experienced a severe hypo the other night, whilst asleep, that required medical intervention by an emregency paramedic. In the end, a shot of Glucagon was needed to get my BS back up. The only explanation I can come up with is that I may have mistakenly taken fast-acting, Humalog, at bed time instead of my usual dose of basal insulin, Lantus.
This has dented my confidence hugely as well as frightening the life out of my wife, who watched me fitting for half an hour and feeling completely powerless.
Immediate preventative measures, other than exercising much greater caution with bed-time injections, is to acquire some glucogel. I also intend to see my GP to get a prescription for a Glucagon kit.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience, especially to hear about the psychological effects it may have left you with.
 
How awful for you and understand this has knocked your confidence.

There's a pen called Memoir which has a built-in memory device that works with Humalog insulin, you can also buy devices that fit on the end of pens used for lantus called Timesulin, by using both you can double check that you have given yourself the right insulin before going to sleep which might give you some reassurance.
 
I sympathise hugely. Before I got my insulin pump, I had a number of awful nocturnal hypos, including at least one with what looked like seizures. I also had one where I somehow fell and cut my face. Horrible things.

Yes, they did leave me with psychological problems at the time. I was afraid to sleep and quite tense even when I did sleep. I found it a very frightening feeling to not know what was going to happen during the night.

For me, my pump sorted those severe hypos completely.

Take comfort in the fact that you've not had anything like this before, and that you think you know the reason why you had it. That makes it far less likely you'll have another one.

If you're nervous, then you could set an alarm during the night and test your blood sugar. I found that a reassurance many nights. Also, if your wife is able to wake you at the first sign of anything unusual, that'd be good as for me I found that the hypos progressed quite quickly and I was unable to eat anything after a few minutes.

It's completely normal to feel shaken by this for a while. Fingers crossed it was a one-off and you'll soon be able to forget it pretty much and enjoy your sleep again.

Best wishes to you.
 
noblehead said:
How awful for you and understand this has knocked your confidence.

There's a pen called Memoir which has a built-in memory device that works with Humalog insulin, you can also buy devices that fit on the end of pens used for lantus called Timesulin, by using both you can double check that you have given yourself the right insulin before going to sleep which might give you some reassurance.
Click to expand...

Great info - never heard of these devices before. Will deffo be looking into them.
Many thanks for your helpful input.
 
azure said:
I sympathise hugely. Before I got my insulin pump, I had a number of awful nocturnal hypos, including at least one with what looked like seizures. I also had one where I somehow fell and cut my face. Horrible things.

Yes, they did leave me with psychological problems at the time. I was afraid to sleep and quite tense even when I did sleep. I found it a very frightening feeling to not know what was going to happen during the night.

For me, my pump sorted those severe hypos completely.

Take comfort in the fact that you've not had anything like this before, and that you think you know the reason why you had it. That makes it far less likely you'll have another one.

If you're nervous, then you could set an alarm during the night and test your blood sugar. I found that a reassurance many nights. Also, if your wife is able to wake you at the first sign of anything unusual, that'd be good as for me I found that the hypos progressed quite quickly and I was unable to eat anything after a few minutes.

It's completely normal to feel shaken by this for a while. Fingers crossed it was a one-off and you'll soon be able to forget it pretty much and enjoy your sleep again.

Best wishes to you.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your reply.
32 years of stability (diabetic, that is - 'er indoors may dispute other forms!) and good hypo awareness - whilst awake - have always kept me at the back of the pump queue and, to be honest, I don't actually fancy the idea of one. I suppose my recent experience has dispelled any complacency and highlighted the need to consider the potential seriousness of IDDM at all times.
Again, thank you for your kind words.
 
hi chrismbee
welcome to the forum :)

i have popped in a link to an earlier discussion on lantus as a long acting insulin.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/lantus-users.67760/

I have had a couple nocturnal hypos that could not be explained by carb ratio to bolus insulin.
a couple were fairly severe and needed assistance from a neighbour but were spread out over a 8 year period.
 
As this is a one off then your theory of accidentally injecting QA rather than Lantus sounds the post plausible. A Memoir or Echo pen will help somewhat. We had a thread on this about a month ago and one of the suggestions to prevent it was different coloured pens of different designs, kept in different places.

Sorry to hear about your incident it sounds unpleasant for both of you. I have seen how distressed my loved ones have been from witnessing a fit. It is not nice.

Regarding the glucagon kit, the thinking I hear from HCPs nowadays is that it's not worthwhile non medical personnel attempting to use them. They are very fiddly and the person trying to use them, whether that's you or your wife, is likely to be very distressed while trying to use one.
 
I have different coloured pens and place my Basal on my pillow for the nighttime (once a day) injection. That way the risk of using the wrong pen is quite low. The way I do my MDI I never take two insulins at the same time of day.
 
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