Hypo - what now?

[Dixiechick]

I'm in my second week of doing lchf, and this week I was really pleased with myself because I seemed to have found a diet that I enjoy and haven't felt hungry at all.
My readings have slowly improved almost to a normal range this week and I've lost a couple of pounds.

Then yesterday happened.
I had a couple of boiled eggs for breakfast, a spoon of peanut butter mid-morning, and a few bits of cheese. For lunch I had my usual - some tuna and mayo with green salad, and two ryvitas.
When I returned back to work after lunch I felt a bit odd - aching muscles when I was walking across the car park and the feeling of moving through treacle.
I got back to my desk, sat down, and the phone rang, so even if I'd had time to test it didn't cross my mind. Whilst I was on the phone call I started to feel lightheaded and in the course of a couple of minutes that progressed to severe dizziness, shaking, slurring, and blackness starting to creep in at the edges. I put my call on hold, stood up, told my manager that I didn't feel very well and fell back down into my chair. Luckily my colleagues are pretty in tune with stuff, and in a couple of seconds someone had got me a full sugar coke, and then an angel cake slice. When I'd stopped shaking enough to test, I did and was 2.3.
I'm on lixisenatide/lyxumia which slows down the absorption rate of food in the stomach, so it took a good 45 minutes to get back up to around 5mmols.
I've never had a hypo before, so now I'm really wary. Not sure whether it happened because I've been feeling generally under the weather (had a really bad headache all day that stopped after the hypo), because of hormones (time of the month also began yesterday), or just a random occurance that won't happen again. I feel absolutely rubbish today... like I've been to the gym and worked out too hard.

So do I continue to LCHF, do I up my carbs a bit over the next couple of days and then try again when I'm back to fighting fit?

 

[uart]

The eating of low carbs in itself is rarely enough to cause hypoglycemia. It's nearly always LC (or LCHF) in conjunction with whatever medication you are taking.

I'm not familiar with either incretin mimetics or lyxumia, so talk to your doctor about it. However you may need to reduce the dosage of one (or both) of these as you reduce your carb intake.

 

[Oldvatr]

I am on LCHF too, and in my case I am on Gliclazide which can lead me to a hypo if I am not careful; For 9 months before LCHF I was never anywhere near 5mmol, so it was not a problem. But LCHF has changed that. I too have had my first near- hypo experience, but luckily trapped it at the start so did not suffer as severely as you did. Mine occurred after a substantial meal of pork chop, baked potato and veg, anf my bgl dropped from 10.5 to 2.1 in 1 hour after meal, so it was a huge surprise. In my case I have adjusted my meds to compensate and although I run close to the wind sometimes, I have not had such a drop since. The advice to see your doctor is important if you want to alter meds, so maybe upping the carbs is an easier option, Softly softly catchee monkey. Anyway you now know what warning signs to be aware of. There is a very good (and FREE) hypo awareness course being offered on this site that I recommend.