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hypo changes on pump please advise

A

amzyjamzy

Newbie
Messages
2
hi all.
i hope you can help
ive been on a pump a year now was on carb counting befor always had nite time hypos
all was well wen changd to pump now but starting to get fed up
i feel a bit lost
my hypos hav changed
i now have them for at leadt 2 hours i eat the 6 jelly babies they recomend but have to eat much
more than this normaly ending up in 2cartons orange juice,full pack of fruit pastiles,a hypo stop,
and stil later on wenbi do my bm i never go high afterwarfds always around 6
i take my pump off until bm come back up but this takes a good 2 hours to do so

my symptoms now arr pins and needles in one side of my face, and left arm
numbnes in these areas, and often a terrible migraine which lasts all night,
completly useles cant even stand up food given to me

ive always been very upbeat about my diabetes and always protested that it doesnt stop me from doing anything
but im really starting to hate my diabetes and really starting to get down

does anyone else have these symptoms?
id just like to know if ther any other pumpers who get thes symptoms so that i dont feel such alone
and that someone believes me

thanks so much ifbu reply
 
Yep I believe you...

However, it does sound as if your basals are running too high, orherwise it wouldbe easier to 'climb' out of the hypo.

I have had times where it can take me almost an hour to be back to good levelsand stable. It hugely depends upon the physical work, the temperature, and more. It is evenmore noriceable now with a cgm of how long it can take to rise to a good level.

I went tbrough a phase very similar to you whenmy personal circumstances changed so much. I do believe you totally, on the food and time angles that you state.
I didnt get the physical signs that you are experiencing though... However, I firmly believe the qty of jelly besns I ate was responsible for horrible problems with my stomach and bowel... Now I do not have jelly babies at all... Just soft mints from bp/m&s, mint kendall cake, butter tablet, fudge, dolly mixtures or waitrose soft mints from their petrol stations. These for me andmy stomach and bowel, act a lot faster thanjelly babies.. And hugely nicer to eat!!!

You got to get your basals right though..you can't go on like this.
 
Hi amzy jamzy,
I know how you feel as well. Leading up to my wedding although I think hormones were to blame as well I was -80% on my basal and still going low. I woke up on my wedding day and my husband had to come and sort me out cause I couldn't even stand up. Whenever I have quite a few lows in a row I always get numb feeling in the back of my neck and tonuge. I agree with donnellysdogs It might help if your overall basal was lower. Also if I've had bad lows in a short space of time whatever the reason I always put my basal less for the next 24-36hrs for me it's about -20% this helps stop getting another bad low as your liver needs time to get back its stores. Another thing is I usually have lucozade for hypos because I feel it brings me up a lot quicker than eating sweets although if you do over do it the highs aren't very nice either. When I'm at work if I'm low I have to get back up quickly to get back to what I'm doing as it's all time sensitive lab work. Eating was too much of a faff lucozade was much quicker and easier to get at I keep one on the shelf outside my lab so I only have to be out of the room 5 minutes.
We've all been where you are and still have to go through the same stuff I hope you manage to get your levels fixed soon.
Laura
 
Hi

Using a pump is not always easy as there are so many changes to the settings that can be made that it starts to become confusing as to what changes to what settings you need to do in order to get yourself ok...

As you are going so hypo after you eat food... have you thought about changing the carb value in the bolus to see if that makes your bg levels a bit higher. Have you got the acting time of the insulin set correctly? TBR's are also a good way of stopping lows but if needed to be done continuous, then it probably means that there's something not right with the hourly basals. I agree very much that Lucozade works quickly but that's not practicle when out and about. Whether or not you need to eat something more in addition to just Lucozade or Jellybabies partly depends on how long is left before the bolus has finished its action.

I would try to do some basal testing, probably first thing in the morning and then if you can, carry on with it until tea time. I usually can get away with eating just 1 rasher of back bacon as a sort of meal as that tells my brain that I've eaten something and I dont find myself starving. If I eat 2 rashers, then the protein starts to affect me but Im ok with just 1.

Can you say what pump you are using and what insulin?
 
Thank you so much for replying to me!!, and thank you for your extremly valuable comments,
a real big thankyou!.
Im on humalog insulin and an animas2020 as im a lifeguard i need it to be waterproof.

i hadnt even thaught about the acting time of the bolus, im very naieve about my pump settings as i believe i was ony told the very basics to get me going s i think i need to revisit my consultant, something that sounds very silly but until your comments i hadnt really thought of as i thought i knew quite abit about the pump but clearly not.

Thank you so very much abot your ideas for hypo treats!, i hate jellybabies and would definatly prefer butter tablet or dolly mixtures!
also i am due to marry in october laura, so thankyou for your comment as (silly again) i hadnt thought too much about my bms on the day and of course my hormones and emotions will be wild and my diabetes leading up to it and on the day had taken a bit of a back seat with all the preps.

thank you all so much, im going to do the basal rate testing like you suggested (great idea about the bacon!) and im going to book a clinic at hospital with my consultant to find out about the bolus rate change etc
but the most biggest thanks to the three of you is for replying to me as i have felt alone with the symptoms i am now getting and noone has seemed to believe me, so many thanks!
and definatly no more jellybabies hoooorayyy!
amy
 
Hi

Dolly mixtures are roughly 2g carb per sweet.

Butter tablet I think is very high in carb so you would probably only need a very very small piece (about the size of your thumb nail) so dont go overboard with it until you know how it affects you.......

Do you drink many cups of tea or coffee with milk in them at all, and if you do, have you included them in your basal rates or do you bolus for them? I drink loads of tea and coffee throughout the day, so I just included the milk content in with my basal rates.

Another option to basal testing and eating is to eat some sugar free jelly to fill you up so come lunch time you could eat that and just have the 1 rasher bacon in the morning.... Dont eat eggs as they deffo push your bg levels up......
 
IHs definitely right on butter tablet... Which I love.. Eveb when hypo the maximum would be a thumbnail piece... And it is one of tbe nest immediate hitting raisers I've had.. It really is so much a sugar hit!!

Theres great help from here to sort out hypo's on pumps.. Basics I was told by my consultant . If hypo at 2 or hours after food bolus then its bolus.. All orher times alter your basals.
I know of one person who was going low at 2pm and her dsn told her to change the 2pm basal.... She didnt thankfully... But some dsn's, same as mine who wanted me to lower all 24hr time slots by0.1...totally out and wring advice from my dsn... Just check out on here as well if you need help because sometimes hospital help is **** good and sometimes it can be totally wrong..

Are you honeymooning after wedding?
 
Just thought I would mention about eating bacon........

There is bacon that is cut in thin rashers and bacon that has thick rashers. Bacon is fairly high in protein so unless a very thin rasher or small one be used, a better option might be to use some mushrooms as they are very low in carb and not too high in protein and just omit the milk in cups of tea etc for the first 2hrs when doing a basal test.
 
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