Hypos during the night

Hope this does

grahamrb said:

Recently my wife has had several hypos (3 last night) during the night for no apparent reason even though the reading before she goes to bed is quite good at about 10.

In our house 10 is good even though a bit high.

After the hypo she takes the jelly babies or coke then waits 10 minutes to have a biscuit then has to get up to clean her teeth by which time she is wide awake finally gets off to sleep then the alrm goes off telling her she is low agin.

Does anyone know what causes these hypos since it it is not doing her any good.

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Hi I've got a freestyle libra aswell I'm type 1 , what i have noticed is there is a big delay in showing a rise in sugar levels after eating , so if your wife has a low and something to eat it takes quite a while to start to rise on the phone app , which results in the alarm going off again when it's not necessary, she would be better off having her recovery snack or lucozade , then a slice of toast or something and trust that it will rise ok once the freestyle libra catches up , also it's a good idea to get to know your slow release carbs to have at meal time which are better to get through the night on , hope this helps and good luck

grahamrb said:

Guess what, we didn’t use the libre last night , no hypos
Some time ago one of the nurses said that I was being too scientific, I now realise that she was correct,

I have now come to the conclusion that dealing with type one is an art form!!

We have dinner anytime between 6pm and 8pm, depending on what we are doing
Bedtime is normally 11.30 to midnight so there is normally 3to 4 hours after dinner.
Tonight’s reading was 23 so there won’t be hypos tonight
Why it was 23 is anyone’s guess we’ve both stopped worrying since there is no point
My wife recently had a fall and hurt her hip and is suffering pain

Would this have an effect on the readings?

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Yes bad pain increases my blood sugar quite dramatically. Perhaps she can get better pain relief and see if that helps. 23 is worryingly high though. Take care.

I've a weird thought - does anyone think there is a chance that her Acinar cells / digestive enzymes are not working properly? If she is not processing the carbs properly, then the carb/insulin count can be 'off', especially if her biggest meal of the day is dinner.

It also might be worth doing a Thiamine test (B1) next time blood tests are done. Pancreas' use a lot of B1, deficiency of it affects the pancreas' function, and our ability to use it and absorb it reduces significantly as we age.

EllieM said:

I am confused why she is being told to increase insulin if the issue is lows?

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Me too.

grahamrb said:

Apologies for not responding earlier
You suggested testing the pancreas, but the pancreas doesn’t work that is why she takes insulin
When my wife last saw her nurse the nurse was far more worried about the lows than the highs saying that if the lows are sorted out then the highs will automatically be sorted and told my wife to increase the long acting insulin dose from 18 to 20 units
Very little change
So we ensure that the readings are at least 14 when we go to bed
It then seems to take longer to get to a reading of 4 or less in the early hours
When it gets to under 3 she normally wakes up but nevertheless I am very worried

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I have sympathy for this because I, too, am experiencing lows in the night. However, this cannot be the solution.

To deliberately ensure you have blood sugar that high on a regular basis is bad for the body.

grahamrb said:

Recently my wife has had several hypos (3 last night) during the night for no apparent reason even though the reading before she goes to bed is quite good at about 10.

In our house 10 is good even though a bit high.

After the hypo she takes the jelly babies or coke then waits 10 minutes to have a biscuit then has to get up to clean her teeth by which time she is wide awake finally gets off to sleep then the alrm goes off telling her she is low agin.

Does anyone know what causes these hypos since it it is not doing her any good.

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear this, aswell as basal rates being too high, also check BG to make sure cgm is reading right after the first hypo.

Sorry to hear you are having so many hypos. I was informed by my DN that in the event of a hypo, take your jelly babies, or coke to bring you BG up, but to follow this a small carb meal, toast or sandwich, in order to prevent the occurrence of another hypo. This has been my way of treating a hypo.

Are you finger pricking to confirm the L2 reading? I have found the L2 will read lower than actual BG reading when the L2 readings get into hypo territory. As already mentioned, compression lows are relatively common with the L2 as well. What do you have the "low" alarm set at? Mine is set at 5.0. I find that when the alarm goes off, I have time to finger prick and if necessary start taking action to avoid a hypo

Is it possible that you are over dosing your insulin with your evening meal? I have heard of diabetics who rigidly take a set amount of insulin per meal, every meal. I can't see the logic in that personally. Why would you take the same amount insulin for a chicken salad as you would for meat pie and chips? The carbs in each are vastly different. I take my BG reading before each meal, and calculate the amount of carbs in my meal (as best I can), I then adjust my insulin dose to suit. I also set a timer for 1 hour and 2 hours after each meal to check if my calculations were correct, and the insulin did its job effectively.