Hypos - how do you deal with them & what are the first signs

[derailleurs]

Thought I'd start this topic as there are a few people here who have been recently diagnosed...Also for myself, although I've had diabetes for 29 years, I am sure I could learn much more from others.

Also interested to hear what are the first signs you experience. Mine vary - sometimes the first sign is tiredness (and I start yawning a lot), sometimes I get really depressed. That for me is one of the most recognisable signs: If I suddenly get depressed without any reason, I know that it's my blood sugars (or lack of them) doing the trick.

I used to also get really angry/aggressive (not physically) but that doesn't really happen anymore. I have broken up with someone because my blood sugars were low! And no, we didn't get back together afterwards!!

I have Mars bars everywhere, especially around my bed. I don't eat a whole one, usually one third or half. They are good because they don't have any bits in them, and also because I don't actually like them so am not tempted to eat them otherwise. I also carry a box of raisins in my rucksack when I go cycling, they are a gentler alternative as they do not raise blood sugar levels as quickly as chocolate. Lucozade (sp? works for me also, again, I don't like it so wouldn't go and drink it unless absolutely necessary.
I have told my friends and relatives that if I do get a hypo, they shouldn't appear nervous or irritable because that in turn makes me very aggressive and therefore unlikely to eat anything! My ex used to get like that sometimes and it made things very difficult. I knew it was because he was nervous but at the time it didn't help!! So I've told everyone to be kind and gentle, and just tell me that I am going to be alright 'in a minute' and that usually helps.

I've also learnt to control my body somewhat...I don't know if any of you have experienced a state where you cannot control your body movements any longer and you fall down/start hitting the wall/hitting yourself etc? I have learnt to remember (and remind myself) that I need to save energy to be able to get to that Mars bar and believe or not, it does work. Also, I've learnt to reassure myself that I am going to be OK. Being frightened about what is happening can make the situation worse as you're using energy on panicking.

Anyway - I'd be very interested to hear how others deal with hypos, as I said I am sure I can learn a lot from other people here

 

[Diabolical]

I've only been at this gig for a year, but already I've pretty much lost the physical symptoms. The first I know about it, is when I get to about 2.5 and feel wobbly.

I munch down 5 glucose tablets and wait ten minutes. That's it.

I gather that chocolate is a poor choice for hypo treatment as the fats slow down the absorption of the sugars. Or summat.

 

[blackbird]

My symptoms when hypo,
extreme hunger
feeling shaky
feeling a bit 'odd'
tingling
feeling cross with myself
confused
there are other signs too, but can't remember them all lol. I don't usually experience hypo symptoms till I'm below 3.5. Sometimes I don't experience any signs till under 3, which is scary. I eat between 1 and 4 jelly beans depending how low I am. I was told not to eat chocolate as it doesn't act fast enough. If I'm not going to eat a meal within an hour then I will have some carbs to tide me over, otherwise I spike and then drop again.

 

[jopar]

My main symptoms are the feeling of feeling anxious and the good old shakes, and believe you me when I say shake I shake, I can have a good 6 to 8 inch’s movement in my hands…

Other symptoms that I may get as well or just on there own, is the feeling of being slightly spaced out, I have to work to focus my eyes…

I have know that when I’m still just above the 4, that my leg shakes when I’ve got my foot on the clutch when driving!

And the sweats but this doesn’t normally happen until I get to around the 2mmol/l mark…

I use jelly babies to get me out of a hypo between 3-6 depending on what my readings say… I wait 15 minutes and test again to ensure that my levels have or is returning to normal, if they aren’t I have another 3 jelly babies and retest in 15 minutes…

Since using the pump, I have changed when/if I require a slow acting carbs, this is due to how the pump works, if I feel that the basal rate on my pump is running too high, I can temporary turn the basal rate down for a while…

 

[derailleurs]

That's interesting what you say about chocolate - it works very quickly for me. A whole Mars bar has about as many calories as a meal so that'd be a bit too much. Honey is also good but if I'm really low, getting a spoon out and opening the jar is too difficult.

And hell yeah I do get the shakes too! And sweats when I'm really bad. Have not had really bad ones for quite a while...Last week had three mildish ones due to a change in diet, reckon I will have to adjust Lantus this week when I continue.

Does anybody use glucose tablets? How do you store them? I find that they crumble in my handbag and I end up having a packet of flour there and all my stuff covered in white stuff, which is not so nice especially if my 20 quid notes are covered in it too! Should probably get a small microwave container for them.

 

[hanadr]

I no longer get them since I stopped using gliclazide, but the first signs for me were tiredness and feeling "off colour"
the best way to deal with them was glucose tabs.
T1 husband still gets them and just feels "off" If he's not paying attention, he starts being silly. that's when I know. He hates glucose tabs and prefers lucozade, whicch is certainly very quick.
I personally hate it

 

[blackbird]

Ah yes, the sweats! I'd forgotten about sweating, even though it's probably the first symptom I have of night hypos. I do find that when I go very low I can feel really awful, I hate hypos! I haven't tried glucose tablets, although my son loves them, we do tend to stick to jelly beans. Glucogel is also very good, very quick acting, and can be given on prescription.

 

[suzi]

My son Andrew had a 1.3 yesterday, said he'd eaten all his breakfast! then injected, he hadn't and the inevitable happened within an hour. I told him to do his bs and he was so argumentative i knew he was low and he was extremely pale (his eyes always go glazed as well) he was shaking that much that i did his bs (he's 10yrs old, but fiercly independant) with a 1.3 he gulped about 200ml of lucozade that bought him up to 3.5 then after another 100ml he was 7.5 then he fell asleep before he could have some carbs. I let him sleep for half an hour, then feed him. Then i thought that after he has extreme lows at school, poor mite doesn't get a chance to sleep, he has to continue with his school work. Sometimes he doesn't even remember having the hypo, which is really scary.

 

[totsy]

ive been getting a few recently and seem to have lost my awareness, but before this i used to sweat and my tummy felt weird and i felt sickly,then i would shake, i always take 3 glucose tabs ,which takes me up about 3/4mmol

 

[phoenix]

My basal insulin keeps my BS fairly steady so almost all my hypos are caused by too much bolus insulin or not accounting for exercise properly. My symptoms are sweating(though far less than used to,) shaking, general mental fuzziness and anxiety these don't always affext me untill below 3mmol and sometimes not until lower. On the very rare occasion I wake up with a hypo, I just 'know'. Sometimes at slightly higher levels theres just a vague awareness . If I'm doing any physical work/exercise I just run out of energy but sometimes stubbornly continue until I'm too low to carry on (and husband says stubborness is a symptom) .

If BG is very low, or if low during exercise I take a couple of dextrose tablets: 4 carbs from 1 dextrose tablet will quickly raise my BS about 1mmol . I'm on a pump so if I'm carrying on the activity that 'caused ' the low then I'll suspend it for a while or put on a lower temporary basal rate.
If BG is not very low and its mid morning or afternoon, I just have a drink and a jaffa cake type biscuit (8 carbs). Similarly, If its not too low and I'm in the middle of cooking dinner, I'll eat a few pretzls(sp?) and pehaps delay my mealtime bolus a bit.

 

[moonstone]

Depends how low - I had to learn the whole list of symptoms from wikipedia because if I was going between 3-4 I was getting all kinds of random ones, including suddenly crying, sudden hunger, being confused etc. The lowest ones produced the whole thing, waking up hot, getting hotter... take duvet off... hotter... ok really hot now... hot.... the extraordinary sweating with it and the shakes so bad I couldn't get the lucozade ringpull open without extreme effort. And actually feeling like I was slipping into a coma. So they were really obvious. At first I was still always very hungry and really wanted chocolate from being so thin and ill at diagnosis - felt like my body was deseperately trying to put weight on - so in the first few weeks I'd try really hard to work out 100ml of lucozade (not an easy task when you're all over the place and can't focus on the bottle) then eat a Crunchie or Lion Bar too. My DSN said to stop the chocolate as it was slowing down the absorption of the glucose in the lucozade. Always the advice had been to get above 4 then eat 2 digestives or something else with low-GI carbs to keep me stable afterwards as glucose is quick in, quick out again. Then once I asked a question about insulin of a pharmacist and he said he was T1 too and he uses Bassett's jelly babies, as they're covered in fine sugar too, and to have just 5 of them, 15 seconds apart. (It's so much easier to work out than 100ml of fluid from a 330ml can.) If still low 10mins later, have a bit of lucozade or orange juice then the 2 digestives. I once tried the glucose tabs but had to eat 10 of them and only got from 2.7 to 3.8 so I don't trust them now. I was with my best friend and that time my first symptom was not understanding what she was saying to me. When I ran out of tabs we were outside a hospital with no-one else around, late at night, and she went into full panic mode - her little daughter was dangerously ill inside so she didn't cope at all and was battering me with questions, what should I do, what should I do what should I do... I was just laughing and not taking it too seriously while she was panicking that I was going to die. I can start acting a bit drunk when I'm at 3-4... Then it dawned on me we were outside a hospital, dur, so we went into A+E 10 metres away and obtained an emergency turkey sandwich :lol: . Turkey sandwich, STAT!! How ridiculous. Do any of you think it's ridiculous too, that our lives can be saved by jelly babies and digestives?! What a bizarre concept. I've been hypo-free for about 3 months now really happy about that. Seem to have achieved some kind of stability for the time being.

 

[derailleurs]

Wow - three months moonstone, that's great for you

I have to get jelly babies. My doctor, diabetes nurse or any other professional has ever suggested those or the GlucoGel, I am annoyed about that. I've only learnt about those here today. Shows you why these kinds of forums are so important.

 

[jopar]

Moonstone

Reading about some of your hypo's bring back some of the hypo's that I have had in the past...

One night I woke (huuby on nights shift) heart pounding, sweating like a good one... First thought I had a nightmare! so I can remember rolling over and going back to sleep... Next thing I know that I'm coming around sat downstairs, coffee packet of biscutes and meter in front of me... But no knowledge how I got there!!! Meter reading was aroudn 1.2mmol/l mark one only assumes I went on auto polite?

Where I used to work, if I suspected that I was hypo I would have to inform one of my collegues that I was going to the staff room to test... They would give me about 10-15 minutes then if I hadn't returned they would come and check me...

One day I felt hypo, followed the procedure and toddle off... Yes hypo so jelly babies! problem new onopened bag of jelly babies.... And muggins didn't have the strengh to open or the ability to fathom out all this... Found by my work collegues rolling around the staff room, in absolute fits of laughter trying to open the bag, then holding it up to gabbling something no could understand... One of the work collgues managed to get the bag off me and open it

 

[derailleurs]

Some of the things that have happened to me really do give me the giggles now but of course it wasn't funny at the time...

Has any of you hallucinated when having a hypo? Well I have!! We were on holiday with my ex and I saw this couple, with two dogs, and the woman was in skin tight jeans bent over really provocatively...and me, I am accusing my ex of staring at her!! And of course he hasn't got a clue plus is totally confused as this is so unlike me, but also not really a typical hypo symptom either!

I've also had visions of people move on slow motion, these are real people but again, with the connection between the eyes and the brain not working properly, it was like I was being shown a 20s black and white movie. AND all the stupid things I have said to people...! It is funny now but I hate the embarrassement afterwards. I've always been the kind of person who's found it very difficult to admit I have special requirements due to diabetes and sometimes, afterwards, I've felt I've not been able to face the people who've seen me in a hypo. But what do you do? You just have to go there and move on and just remind yourself that they've never been there so they'll never know exactly what it is like to go through a hypo...
These are the things I really hate, these things separate me from other people and sometimes make me feel really lonely. But hey, I've found this place now

 

[derailleurs]

Just to add to the above, the couple and the dogs did not exist at all of course.

 

[TROUBR]

I have been at this since April and don't seem to have much of it sussed - I hypo a couple of times a week (often when I have been to the gym - or when I have been round westfield at lunch instead of sat as my desk - I can't seem to get these right yet!)

I have only once gone below 3 (2.8 the other day) and that was my own stupid fault because I was working and I ignored the initial signs in a mode of " i will sort it in a moment" as I was in the middle of something - won't do that again in a hurry!

My signs are feeling odd and paranoia - I feel like everyone is aware that I am not right and is watching me - hard to cope with in an open plan office!!! I also sometimes get my words muddled a bit - but I do that sometimes normally!!

Generally treat with dextro tablets and then follow with a biscuit / oatcake for carbs.

Louise

 

[moonstone]

Oh my God I'm sorry derailleurs, I shouldn't laugh, but that was funny! Only once so far have I had anything like that, I was in a taxi in the dark and saw a shadowy 20ft tall man jump across the road with a single step. I thought that was a bit odd and when I really thought about it, I realised it probably hadn't happened(!) and I should test as soon as I got in...

And jopar thank you - I've now opened my new bag of jelly babies and clipped it shut!! It was niggling away at me, as so far I've struggled with ringpulls (bad shakes) and bottletops (no strength) and I was kind of thinking I'd just hand it to someone and ask them to open it but of course, I could be on my own. The one at work's open and been used, but the one in my handbag was still sealed. The pharmacist who recommended them said they have to be Bassetts brand only, because of the fine sugar they're covered in, and I could only find them in Sainsbury's. In fact I was in the process of buying some glucose gel packs at the chemist that day and asking something about Lantus when he told me he was T1, and he stopped me buying the gel in favour of getting the jelly babies. He said I have to control how high I go after the hypo as well, and it's easy to make mistakes with liquids and gels but jelly babies are so simple to work out. I prefer the purple ones

I knew I'd found a really good site a few months ago and have trawled through my bookmarks and found this - loads of really interesting info here:

http://medweb.bham.ac.uk/easdec/prevent ... .htm#avoid

Jopar you said you thought you had a nightmare and went back to sleep (yikes!) and that's reminded me, how long is it wise to leave it before you go to sleep after a hypo? One night I ended up staying awake for 2hrs because I'd been warned not to go to sleep after one and I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I'm glad you did eventually wake up and find yourself in front of some biscuits!

 

[moonstone]

I have been at this since April and don't seem to have much of it sussed - I hypo a couple of times a week (often when I have been to the gym - or when I have been round westfield at lunch instead of sat as my desk - I can't seem to get these right yet!)

Hi Louise, I got diagnosed in March so we're practically twins (plus we almost have the same name) and my last two proper hypos were, I reckon, brought on by going walking too soon after injecting + eating. I read here somewhere that some people stop processing food if they start exercising too soon, and suddenly those two hypos made sense, where before I couldn't work them out and they were confusing me. So maybe if you do want to go round westfield you could sit for 15 minutes or so after your food before you go, and see if that helps? And the link I posted above has got more info about adjusting your insulin for planned exercise. Of which I do none, so don't know if it works

 

[malky]

symptoms
sweats
shakes
blured vision
talking nonsense and laughing at nothing
when its really low i sometimes find it hard walking in the sense that when i put my foot on the ground it doesnt feel like its touching it

usually have a couple of glucose tablets or full sugar juice or chocolate depends what is close to hand.

On the case of glucose tablets crumbing try Glucotabs you get a pack of 10 in a plastic tube then you get a refill pack which has 50 tabs in it and they come in 2 different flavours i got mine in asda but no doubt there avaliable else where. I also keep gluco stop in my card incase

 

[fergus]

Hey, what a great thread. It's like a wee confessional in here!
Back when I was at University I found my worst hypos were usually the morning after a night on the sauce. That was a bit scary in retrospect, because I'm sure I probably still looked, acted and smelled drunk so anyone who didn't know me would just assume the worst.
I woke up in A&E in London many years ago to hear the paramedic explaining what was wrong with me to the registrar: 'Scotsman, innit. ****** again!'
Don't have many these days and try to keep a pack of dextrosol in me manbag. They lift me by 1mmol/l each in about a minute - or so it feels.
I lost most hypo awareness many years ago now, so they're very difficult for me to spot. I do feel really depressed when they drop, sometimes so severely that I think to myself, why bother? It's odd how your thought processes just malfunction completely.
Much to the amusement of the neighbours, I once tried to walk out the front door of the house dressed only in a balaclava. But that's another story, for whenever someone begins a thread entitled 'The Gimp.'

All the best,

fergus