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Hypo awareness

ConsultingTimeLordElf

Well-Known Member
Messages
50
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi guys,
I'm currently 14 years old but have been diabetic since I was 12.
I currently have very little hypo awareness. This means I don't tend to feel my hypos. For example I've just had a blood sugar of 2.8 and didn't feel it.
Does anyone else have little hypo awareness and can relate?
Any comments/advice would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You need to make your parents and diabetes team aware that your hypo symptoms are impaired, that way they can work with you to help restore them and keep you safe, so do tell everyone so that they are aware there's a problem.
 
Ive never known anyone loose it in 2 years or so young, so as noblehead said let your parents and diabetic team aware or this as son as you can
 
ConsultingTimeLordElf said:
We have made my care tram aware but nothing has happened in terms of sorting it.
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Ask your parents to ask why they are not doing anything, they should have an action plan in place to help you restore your hypo awareness symptoms.
 
My parents tell my care team every time we go for an appointment but still nothing happens.
 
ConsultingTimeLordElf said:
My parents tell my care team every time we go for an appointment but still nothing happens.
Click to expand...

Well you could mention it to your family gp and ask them to chase things up for you, the diabetes team shouldn't be ignoring the fact that your losing your hypo awareness symptoms.
 
I've never really had hypo awareness but it has been worse recently. A few weeks ago it was 1.9 before I felt a tiny bit different to normal.
 

Hi

There are so many things that an adult diabetic could say to you about bg levels, hypos etc but most diabetics benefit greatly from making friends with their bg meter and testing bg about 6 times per day.and then by eating some carb mid morning or mid afternoon, stops insulin from lowering bg levels too much. The other way is to reduce the basal by 1u at a time and test bg levels and use an insulin to carb ratio which can be adjusted through bg testing. Its important to calculate the carb content of food first though so that the correct carb ratio can be found.
it might help yr psrents and yourself if you buy the book think like a pancreas and you register online to do a carb counting, bolus, ratio course called
BDEC carb counting .....google it. Its free and helps to make bolus basal insulin easier to use without really low bg levels.
 
morning and welcome to the forum

this is quite worrying. I would suggest that perhaps you ( or your parents ) write to your hospital care team outlining your concerns ( and if possible backed up with your meter results in a spreadsheet ) -- copy to your GP .

it makes me wonder if you are not being believed because perhaps your HbA1c results are in the desired range.
this to me makes it even more important to get it sorted quickly as you may be experiencing unwanted highs as well as these lows.

keep us posted on how you get on !!

by the way -- i too suffer from impaired hypo awareness but have been T1 for 42 years -- another thought might be a change in types of insulin
 
Hi himtoo,
I'm currently on a waiting list for a combined CGM and pump. Thanks for your advice and yes my hba1c has been in the desired range. However, I did have a reading of 1.9 a few weeks ago and only felt this slightly. This was very dangerous as I was walking around school unaware of how low my BS was. I also don't feel my hypers either. Today is a good example because I ahd two hypers in school and did not feel them.
Will keep everyone updated on how everything is going. Thanks for all the advice.
 
Hi,

There's some great advice already given..

I wonder if you should also check your meter to make sure it's calibrated properly. Or giving the correct readings?
 
Hi,
I've checked the meter and it is calibrated. It's just I don't have any hypo awareness so my parents have a constant worry when I'm out.
 
Another option is to try a different type of insulin. Some people find they can not detect hypo's when using analogue insulin's so trying one of the older insulin types might be a way forward for you.
 
ConsultingTimeLordElf said:
Hi,
I've checked the meter and it is calibrated. It's just I don't have any hypo awareness so my parents have a constant worry when I'm out.
Click to expand...

One of the best things I did for myself after talking to a pump consultatnt was to change my bg targets from 5mmol to 7mmol before eating food and allow a bg rise of 2.5mmol 2.5hrs later so this made the rise allowed to be 9-10mmol. By doing this my awareness of a hypo changed and I no longer experienced a really low bg below 3mmol. Even though I now have a pump, I dont try to control my bg levels too tightly but I also eat low carb which for me is about 70g per day.and that helps a lot too.
 
Levemir is much much better than Lantus especially where hypos are concerned. Its action is milder.
 
Hi iHs,
I never knew that so thank you very much. At my next appointment I shall suggest it.
Thanks again
 
ConsultingTimeLordElf said:
Hi iHs,
I never knew that so thank you very much. At my next appointment I shall suggest it.
Thanks again
Click to expand...

I can not make out why your hospital hasnt recommended that you change to Levemir because of your hypo problem??? The downside to Levemir is that it usually needs to be injected in the morning and in the evening but its control combined with the correct insulin to carb ratio for the bolus, is much better and the severe drop in bg like some experience with Lantus, is no more. Using bg targets to calculate your bolus insulin helps no end as well.
 
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