Hypo

wilcl4

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Just had my first hypo. 3.7. Man that is a weird felling
 

noblehead

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Always good to get the first one out of the way @wilcl4 , as Azure says at least now you know the symptoms to watch out for. Best wishes.
 
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therower

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Hi @wilcl4 . Welcome to the forum.
Still recall my 1st hypo many years ago. Tried climbing out of bedroom window, only stopped by dad who couldn't figure out what all the noise was at gone midnight. Both parents picked up on what I had told them " if anything strange happens, give me food" they also remembered what I said about not eating sugar. Consequently s sugar free jam sandwich was administered.
Both of them were so stressed they called 999. An ambulance duly arrived and I spent the rest of the night in a+e, with a rather attractive nurse feeding me glucose and another sandwich.
You have been lucky, a weird feeling is something I would have preferred ( maybe with the a+e nurse just to keep an eye on me):):):)
Take care every hypo is unique.
 

Juicyj

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Agree with @therower each one is unique.

My philosophy with hypos is to understand why so too much insulin, miscalculation with carbs, too much heat, exercise etc ? Knowing why helps improve your knowledge,

Am just recovering from a 3.3 so I am sympathising with you :)
 

Goacher55

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The first hypo that I was aware of was when I ended up in a heap in the gym. Looking back, there were several other occasions where I now realise my bg was low.
The second really bad hypo was when I ended up in a crumpled heap in a classroom - I was teaching the class
Oops
 
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Scott-C

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Just had my first hypo. 3.7. Man that is a weird felling

Welcome to the club! I don't know how they teach hypos to newly dx'd now, but when I started out, it was, "you might feel a bit confused." Talk about understatement!

A few tips:

You've been recently dx'd so you might think, ok, balance that triad of carbs/insulin/exercise and it'll all be ok.

Most of the time, yes, it will be, but there's a lot of unpredictable randomness going on with T1 which shoogles the scales a lot, so it is inevitable that you will hypo again. That is not a failure, it's just what T1 is, so don't get on a downer if you hypo unexpectedly. We all do, despite best efforts.

The dividing line between being in a good zone at about 5 or 6 is pretty close to being hypo at below 4, so (there's different views on this), a general take on it is that if you're managing well, a few moderate hypos are almost inevitable.

You've probably been told this already, but it bears repeating. Carry fast sugar with you all the time. If you're wandering around the high street, sure, there's lots of shops selling sweets, but if you've got a hypo coming on quick, standing in a queue to buy a Mars bar isn't an option. Carry about 50g all the time in your pockets.

And in the house too. All well and good having carbs in the kitchen but if you hypo in your sleep at a 2, getting to the kitchen to get them is like climbing the Alps wearing flippers, so keep glucojuice, glucotabs, sweets etc right next to the bed.

Don't overcorrect a hypo. It's always tempting to feed your face till you feel better, but because it takes time for glucose to get into the bloodstream, you might find yourself metering before the last food shows up, so you'll eat more and end up in the teens and then you're on a rollercoaster bolusing to bring that down again.

Most modest hypos can be sorted with 10 to 15g, wait 10 to 15 mins, see how that's doing, rinse and repeat if it's not working.

Apart from that, it's all pretty straightforward.....

Best of luck, mate, this can be an infuriatingly frustrating condition, but you kind of learn little tricks over time to make it less so, and there's lots of deeply experienced people here who'll chip in with a view if it's not going to plan.
 

karen8967

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1 remember my first totally over reacted ate that much ended up hyper sometimes i do get little warnings sometimes not so just be careful and best of luck x
 
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Natt

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Should I be worried, my son (dxd 5 months ago) doesn't feel any symptoms? On several occasions he was 3.2 or 3.4 before dinner and felt just fine??How is that possible?
 

azure

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Should I be worried, my son (dxd 5 months ago) doesn't feel any symptoms? On several occasions he was 3.2 or 3.4 before dinner and felt just fine??How is that possible?

Was he distracted by something?

Is he familiar with his hypo signs? Sometimes the signs can vary so its not as easy as watching out for just one feeling. Hypis can give a number of feelings and physical,effects.

How is his control? What range of blood sugars are you seeing?
 

Natt

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Was he distracted by something?

Is he familiar with his hypo signs? Sometimes the signs can vary so its not as easy as watching out for just one feeling. Hypis can give a number of feelings and physical,effects.

How is his control? What range of blood sugars are you seeing?
He is doing very well knock on wood.always in range, low doses of insulin and very little variation in bgs. What troubles me is that he doesn't know what hypo is, as he has never experienced the symptoms.We were shocked a couple of times seeing (and double checking) his low numbers and he said he was feeling just fine?? Could his treshold be lower and how much lower that is??
 

azure

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He is doing very well knock on wood.always in range, low doses of insulin and very little variation in bgs. What troubles me is that he doesn't know what hypo is, as he has never experienced the symptoms.We were shocked a couple of times seeing (and double checking) his low numbers and he said he was feeling just fine?? Could his treshold be lower and how much lower that is??

I take a hypo to be technically under 3.5 but for all practical daily Type 1 things as under 4.

He should be feeling a BS of 3.2 and 3.4. Are you sure he's not running too low without you realising eg overnight? Yes, people can have a lower place they feel hypo at, but those are usually people who are losing their hypo awareness. I'd certainly mention it to his DSN.

I'm going to tag @catapillar as she has experience of not feeling a hypo come on.
 

Natt

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50
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I take a hypo to be technically under 3.5 but for all practical daily Type 1 things as under 4.

He should be feeling a BS of 3.2 and 3.4. Are you sure he's not running too low without you realising eg overnight? Yes, people can have a lower place they feel hypo at, but those are usually people who are losing their hypo awareness. I'd certainly mention it to his DSN.

I'm going to tag @catapillar as she has experience of not feeling a hypo come on.
Yes that is what I am also thinking about that may be hypo unawareness.We have a 3 month check up with his endo on Friday and this is the first issue I am going to ask her about
 
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Yes that is what I am also thinking about that may be hypo unawareness.We have a 3 month check up with his endo on Friday and this is the first issue I am going to ask her about
I don't think you have mentioned how old your son is or what he was doing when he hypoed. Pre-diabetes (as i before I had type 1 - I was never diagnosed as "pre-diabetic), it wouldn't be unusual for me to feel light headed after running around or slightly grumpy if I hadn't eaten for a while or not concentrate properly. All of these I now know are hypo symptoms.
Is it possible to get a trial Libre? If he sees when he has hypoed, he may be able to retrospectively associate the feelings with a hypo and learn for future awareness.
 

cireland

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Tablets (oral)
It's interesting I've been Type 1 now for almost a year but I am not yet on insulin, yet over the weekend before lunch I tested my blood and if i'm honest I normally really only test in the evening after my main meal, but about 3 hours after my breakfast (yes it was a later breakfast!) I tested my blood just before making lunch and it was 3.4, did it again, 3.5 and again 3.4 and I had eaten probably about 60grams of shreddies (yum!) with some honey on top and half a bowl of milk... I am not sure how I got that low considering I am only on Metformin but I certainly had zero side affects from my sugar levels being at that level...
 

Natt

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50
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I don't think you have mentioned how old your son is or what he was doing when he hypoed. Pre-diabetes (as i before I had type 1 - I was never diagnosed as "pre-diabetic), it wouldn't be unusual for me to feel light headed after running around or slightly grumpy if I hadn't eaten for a while or not concentrate properly. All of these I now know are hypo symptoms.
Is it possible to get a trial Libre? If he sees when he has hypoed, he may be able to retrospectively associate the feelings with a hypo and learn for future awareness.
He is 11.Actually couple if times it was after whole afternoon of watching movies so no activity.And also couple of times after playing in the water..We have bought libre but it fell off 2 times during the summer (probably from salty sea water) and now he doesn't want to wear it again
 

catapillar

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He is doing very well knock on wood.always in range, low doses of insulin and very little variation in bgs. What troubles me is that he doesn't know what hypo is, as he has never experienced the symptoms.We were shocked a couple of times seeing (and double checking) his low numbers and he said he was feeling just fine?? Could his treshold be lower and how much lower that is??

If he's on insulin, which I'm assuming he is as a type 1, the threshold is 4 and under 4 is hypo. He should be getting symptoms at 4 really, no symptoms is a bit concerning. Hypo symptoms are incredibly variable. Is hypo symptoms, or the lack of, something you have discussed with your DSN? They might be able to discuss symptoms with your son.

It is important to be hypo aware and hypo awareness can be regained by avoiding low blood sugar and running a bit higher for a little while. Well, to be honest, low blood sugar should always be avoided. Your brain needs glucose to function and cannot function at low blood sugar levels (ie under 4), you can't make memories when low.
 
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Natt

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50
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Type 1
If he's on insulin, which I'm assuming he is as a type 1, the threshold is 4 and under 4 is hypo. He should be getting symptoms at 4 really, no symptoms is a bit concerning. Hypo symptoms are incredibly variable. Is hypo symptoms, or the lack of, something you have discussed with your DSN? They might be able to discuss symptoms with your son.

It is important to be hypo aware and hypo awareness can be regained by avoiding low blood sugar and running a bit higher for a little while. Well, to be honest, low blood sugar should always be avoided. Your brain needs glucose to function and cannot function at low blood sugar levels (ie under 4), you can't make memories when low.
Thank you for the answer, I could not get a hold of his endo in August when it all started and this Friday we finally have an appointment.I will discuss this in detail as I am rightfully concerned about his lack of awareness
 
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emmay

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Thank you for the answer, I could not get a hold of his endo in August when it all started and this Friday we finally have an appointment.I will discuss this in detail as I am rightfully concerned about his lack of awareness

When I was first diagnosed my symptoms for hypos were very different to what they are now, previously my legs used to tingle, but this doesn't happen anymore. Instead my vision typically starts to blur however if I'm not reading anything I don't always notice, also sometimes I just feel hungry or tired or ratty, these are all normal things for everyone so it is very difficult if u are type 1 to work out that actually it's more than the feeling itself and by that point ur blood sugar may have dropped lower which makes understanding anything difficult.
Hope it goes well Friday