Hypos

Hi Gazza and welcome to the forum. There will soon be some type 1s arriving who will be able to help you with information about hypos and tell you about their experiences. In the meantime have a good read around the forum and use the search engine and you will already find some useful information.

Nearly a year after diagnosis, you are probably not still having "false hypos" where you feel hypo, but actually it's your body's response to feeing lower than you have been.
I believe that DAFNE (Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating) graduates are told to expect a couple of hypos per week, and to treat with fruit juice.
For myself, it depends on the circumstances eg I wouldn't be too unhappy by hitting 3.5mmol/l 30mins after finishing a run, but wouldn't want to run up at that level more than once in a blue moon, and would never allow that to happen when driving.

Gazza,

One hypo a week isn't classed as bad control for someone like yourself who is type 1 and injecting insulin. I use to have 2-3 hypo's a week only 2 years ago, but since completing the DAFNE course (dose adjustment for normal eating) I can go as long as 2-3 weeks without a hypo, they can be limited with careful management and with some forward planning (i.e reducing insulin dose when planning on exercise) but it's impossible to stop them completely and every type 1 will experience hypo's no matter how well they control their condition.

Nigel

oh dear, i often twice a day have readings of 3 or under and treat with sugar

Hi Gazza
I'm a Type 1 diabetic and have been for 36yrs this year. Make sure you do pre meal testing and then two hours after eating for about a week and this will show you some sort of pattern, your insulin may need adjusting or up your eating to having a small snack ( small banana, wholemeal bread or a couple of crackers) as these will give you a slow release of carbs. If you still aren't happy contact your diabetic nurse and they will advice you what to do.
We are here to advise and be a friend if you need.
Tracey

Hi Gazza
If you can get onto a DAFNE course, do it, it teaches you everything about carbohydrates and insulin.

How many times a day do you test your blood sugar? Do you test before meals and before bed time?

I am also a Type1 diabetic - 32yrs but I'm afraid that I don't agree with the advise that Tracey69 has given you about two hour testing after you have eaten - this all depends on what insulin you take.
This is advise given by DAFNE:
Soluable insulin i.e. Actrapid/Humulin S Hypurin Porcine Neutral when injected begins to have a glucose lowering effect within 30 minutes, it peaks between 2-4 hours after injection and can affect the blood glucose level for up to 8hrs.
Quick Acting Analogue Insulin i.e. Humalog/NovoRapid/Apidra works very quickly, less than 15 minutes after the injection, peaks between 50-90 minutes and may continue to affect the blood glucose level for 2-5hrs.

So if you can imagine you have eaten, you inject and inbetween the 2-4/5hrs your blood glucose is/has risen/rising so a 2 hour test after eating will probably show a high reading, cause you to worry, maybe take extra insulin which could lead to a hypo.

I am on NovoRapid and find that a 4hr gap gives a good indication on whether I have calculated the carbohydrates with the correct amount of insulin. I won't go in to anymore detail about insulin correction because if you get on a DAFNE course you will learn about that.

Sarah

A classic from the BBC website today on hypo related story, "The condition is commonly associated with Type 1 diabetes, when the patients inject too much insulin, miss a meal or drink alcohol" . Always wondered where I was going wrong!!!