Hypo unawareness

Hi DaveDisco,

If you only started on insulin 2 weeks ago you will not be suffering 'hypo unawareness' as described by some T1s. This only happens after years!

However, if you've only been on insulin for a couple of weeks, I am assuming your BS have not been controlled aswell as they should prior to this. Your body gets 'used' to feeling high and some people can get symptoms of hypos even if their BS drops but is still relatively normal (just lower than normal for them).
As your body becomes used to being more in control with the insulin and being at a normal BS level, it will not feel symptoms until much lower. This could explain what is happening to you.

What I would be more concerned about is the massive sudden symptoms you are getting-severe shakes etc. This would indicate your sugar level is dropping very fast indeed. Could this be down to too much insulin as you get used to controlling how much to use? I know if I get my dose massively wrong I get very sudden symptoms when I drop very fast.

It might be worth phoning your DSN for some advice (or someone else?) on who to adjust your insulin doses. Are you on Basal Bolus?

Tasha x

Dave

Now you've been a diabetic for a couple of weeks, so hopefully your blood glucose should be more stable, it might be that you need to adjust one of your insulins..

You need to look at your all monitoring, look to see if there is any patterns to your hypos, as this will help to determin what actions to take...

Ask yourself these questions

When are they hypo's happening?
Am I'm at work or home?
Have I had a meal?
Are any of my meals a lot different timing to other times?
Have I been working or exerciseing?

If you are hypoing after a meal then it might be that you need to change your insulin ratio for that meal,

If you find that you are hypoing after a meal at work, but not when at home then you may need to change your insulin ratio for work meals and keep your home meals the same...

If you find that if you don't eat, and your levels are raising then this could indicate that your background levels aren't enough and you need to increase your background insulin

If you don't eat and find that you go hypo, then this could indicate that your background insulin is too much...

It is not unusual after you have started on insulin, to hit what they term as 'honeymoon' period where you insulin needs become reduced/low this can last weeks, months then you find that your insulin requirements increase...

As for your symptons, it could be that you are having very suttle symptons that you are missing because you are just busy and haven't noticed them... The best way to deal with this, is work out the situations that you would be danger of hypo i.e while at work etc and carry out an extra test at these points...

Some of the difficulties with eating etc, could be just how you are going to react at these levels, or that if you've been running higher as a normal the reaction could just be a lot stronger to a certain extent how someone copes and reactions can be very individual and you don't always get the same reactions every time..

I've normally get quite a good hypo warning, but it hasn't been unknow that when I've been busy, so decided to take a BG test to see how I'm fairing, to find that I'm functioning on 1.7mmol/l with out any apparent symptons, mind you with saying that I didn't last long I did on that occasion have just enough time to warn someone that I was in trouble...