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Type 2 Hypos….

D

Duchess4eva

Member
Messages
18
Type of diabetes
Type 1.5
Treatment type
Insulin
Good morning all
Last night I took my eye off the ball and gave myself way too much insulin for what I ate. As a result , about an hour later I had one of the worst hypos I have had in years… it dropped down to 2.8 on the Libre sensor and 3 on the blood glucose test. It was late at night and I started to get sweats and shake. I literally nearly ate everything in my house! . I panicked as I was running out of glucose tabs.. it took a good 40 mins before I started to feel normal again but like i said, i went into complete panic mode because both the libre and the blood glucose metre were not budging.
Hypos take a lot of me and before going to bed i saw my readings were now getting high so I gave myself about 5 units of insulin. I was knackered and fell asleep. This morning my libre has been beeping like mad! I woke up on 13 and saw all night I was high hothering between 13 and 18. I am really disappointed in myself because I was doing great in my target during the night and I messed up. I know I over compensated when I had the hypo but instinct took over and I just couldn’t stop eating
. Sorry to have a moan. Please tell me I am not the only person that ends up like this? Later on this morning I plan on eating just protein for breakfast like eggs.
Any advice would be appreciated
 
Sorry you experienced such a nasty hypo.
You are definitely not alone in wanting to eat the total contents of the kitchen (including the stuff that has been at the back of the cupboard for so long that you have forgotten why you bought it).
The general advice for hypo treatment is the 15/15/15 rule.
Eat 15g fast acting carbs like jelly babies or dextrose or fruit juice
Wait 15 minutes and test again.
If still under 4mmol/l eat another 15g fast acting carbs and wait 15 minutes to retest.
Repeat until (after the 15 minute wait), your BG is over 4mmol/l.
Then eat 15g slower acting carbs like a biscuit or packet of crisps.

I know those 15 minute waits can feel like an eternity which is why I put a timer on my phone.

And the tests should be finger pricks rather than Libre because there is a delay which is most noticeable when our BG "turns" (e.g. starts rising from a hypo).

Hopefully, this will not happen often but you should be prepared if it does.

Finally, take care today. A deep hypo may result in another within 24 hours so be extra vigilant.
 
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Thank you

I usually rely on the finger prick because i know its more accurate but this time the BG was reading 3 and the Libre was on 2.8 so it was defo low and yes that lag is annoying…. I did test after 15ms and it hardly changed so i panicked… again lol . Great advice though (the 15g)
 
Duchess4eva said:
I am really disappointed in myself because I was doing great in my target during the night and I messed up. I know I over compensated when I had the hypo but instinct took over and I just couldn’t stop eating .
Click to expand...
Please don't blame yourself!
When having a hypo, the brain doesn't get enough glucose to function properly, but you still need to make treatment decisions with that only half working brain. No wonder that it doesn't always work correctly.

I think instinct is exactly the right word. The brain feels a very large threat and clearly tells you what you must do to make the threat go away: EAT!
The higher functions of the brain, like making rational choices, are put on the back burner until the impending disaster has been averted.
 
I did the exact same the other night, gave too much insulin for what I ate. Ended up at 2.9 and I get that panic when the libre arrow is still going straight down, it's hard not to react. I ate 6 fruit pastilles and just waited out the 15 minutes. Had the shakes and extreme hunger but didn't have those symptoms till I was below 3. And then of course the resulting spike afterwards. But I totally get the need to eat and eat I could so easily have eaten lots of carby food at that point!
 
Been watching it like a hawk today…. It took ages to come down but im back in the green thanks to more protein… yep, that dreaded arrow drop
️
 
The lowest I have had for a hypo is 1.8 and I'm still here to tell you about it as I was on my way to work and driving and I called into McDonald's and orded the more highest carb drink you can get and it has everything in it I've cream and coffee and and milk shake and warm hot chocolate and milk and sugar and then on top I had 3 double cheeseburgers and fries as I knew I would be on my feet all night and I changed my BM and it shot from 1.8 to 13.9 in five minutes and that was the quickest way I could get my sugars up that fast and be alert in minutes and after that my sugars never dropped over the night because I was snacking as much as I could and when I have a hypo now I just aim for hot chocolate with milk and sugar let it cool for a few seconds and take small sips and my sugars always head back up quickly for me and I normally carry sweets with me as well but that's the quickest way to get your sugars up fast is hot chocolate with milk and sugar
 
@Duchess4eva - I can really identify with your story. I'm not on insulin, but going LC combined with my diabetes meds has resulted in my BG dropping into hypo zone. When it first happened a few days back, I overcompensated by eating several portions of a cake that wasn't mine to eat. It didn't even consciously register until the cake was gone.
 

Yep.. hot chocolate is like kryptonite to diabetics. My dentist also thinks its worse than sweets on my teeth but thats another matter….
 
I haven't had a hypo for a few weeks The last one I had I posted on here. What I did notice when my blood sugars go low, and they usually go to around 3 mmol/ls, (they have gone down to the high 1's on the odd occasion) on these occasions my liver doesn't correct the low. So I have to eat something sugary to bring it back up. Tests were all normal. I'm also very fit and burn a lot of calories. Small amounts of ketones in my pee every time I test it, so I must be burning fat. I'm assuming my glucogen stores are depleted. My pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin either, maybe it's a combination of all these factors. I am much more aware now than I was.

Ed I meant glycogen not glucogen
 
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A blood sugar level of 2.8 to me is not going to cause a panic. All I will do is take 3 teaspoons of sugar and wait to see what is like in 15 or 20 minutes. When I was younger it was a teaspoon per .5 below my target of 5.0 to 5.5 but with age this has lowered.

However I have been a type 1 diabetic for 60 years. My Hba1cs are between 5.0 and 5.5 and I have very minor background retinopathy, my kidneys function perfectly and I have no neuropathy. Because the Hbas are so low I do have hypos but my level would need to below 1.5 before I would be in trouble and even then I wouldn't need to be hospitalised.

I am in touch with a couple of other diabetics like myself and we happily live with low blood sugar levels.
 

I’m afraid I’ve done that! The other person didn’t understand!
 
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