I DONT UNDERSTAND THESE HYPOS!!!

sugar2

Well-Known Member
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833
I am nother one who found that the lantus "profile" didn't meet my "profile"....I changed doses and timing of doses, but could not avoid the peaks and troughs of the profile of lantus showing in my BG readings.

I changed to levimr..and it was so much better!
I wonder N, if, because of you admirable new regime, that perhaps you are taking inslin (as you should) for snacks..when maybe you didn't do this in teh past? That could, in the past, have masked the fact that your basal levels were a little high? I know that was certianlythe case when I decided to take my ontrol seriously!

Best of luck.
 

Riri

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1,174
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Pump
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The conservative party, people who are cruel to animals and aggressive people
Hia fallenstar, no - I cant say I felt rough on lantus but sometimes diabetics accept more day to day worry, stress and feeling lousy and don't necessarily attribute it to their insulin - this was the case with me anyway. The pump ! Only on saline so far - just as well as 3 our of the 4 cannula sets I put in from last Wednesday failed. I go back tomorrow and hope to try a different set but I will ask to stay on saline for the time being (continuing to do MDI at the same time). As I'm soooo frightened of hypos my BSs are on the high side so not much chance of going low - my head knows this is wrong but I'm having big issues accepting this so I'm being referred to a specialist to see if they can help me with this real fear of hypos (and constant testing).
 

Herbie72

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85
Can you say what your fear of hypos is, Riri? Is it a fear of losing control etc or actually going unconscious? And when do you start feeling symptoms? Good luck! :)
 

Riri

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Hello - I used to have goodish hypo awareness and would defiantly feel shakey etc. at 3.2. However last Christmas I had literally no hypo warning and fell unconscious and ended up in casualty. This was the first time in 12 years this had happened. Ever since then my confidence has been shattered and I fear passing out again more than anything. Now, because I test so often, I hardly give myself a change to go low. However the other day I felt mildy queasy (nothing like I felt with a hypo before) and I was at 3.6. The other problem I have is that lucoazde/dextrose/jelly babies don't seem to always get me out of hypo as quickly as they used to so I panic. Sometimes it can take 20-40 minutes for my numbers to move from 3.6 to 4.2 - they even dip below 3.6 after taking the fast acting glucose. My diabetes team are aware of this but offer no real advice on this issue.
 

Herbie72

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85
Riri said:
Hello - I used to have goodish hypo awareness and would defiantly feel shakey etc. at 3.2. However last Christmas I had literally no hypo warning and fell unconscious and ended up in casualty. This was the first time in 12 years this had happened. Ever since then my confidence has been shattered and I fear passing out again more than anything. Now, because I test so often, I hardly give myself a change to go low. However the other day I felt mildy queasy (nothing like I felt with a hypo before) and I was at 3.6. The other problem I have is that lucoazde/dextrose/jelly babies don't seem to always get me out of hypo as quickly as they used to so I panic. Sometimes it can take 20-40 minutes for my numbers to move from 3.6 to 4.2 - they even dip below 3.6 after taking the fast acting glucose. My diabetes team are aware of this but offer no real advice on this issue.

Sorry to hear that, Riri. That must be pretty scary. Sounds similar to the honeymoon period, when post-diagnosis, the pancreas starts kicking in with insulin again. Probably isn't, though. When I did my DAFNE course, at least three of the other people there had a similar experience to you, ie lack of hypo warning signs. I seem to remember them being on way too much insulin, full-stop, and once they'd drastically reduced their background and almost started again from scratch, things picked up and they started getting symptoms back. Hope you get it sorted soon!
 

Nicklenocky

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Messages
56
Hi all....thanks for all of your input so far and i find the case against Lantus fascinating. After a whole week of feeling extremely ill, I went to the doctors yesterday. It seems I accumulated lots of symptoms all at the same time which may or not be related to each other....as mentioned already the aggressive, constant headache, in addition to this I have also been suffering from palpitations, dizziness and extreme nausea. I tested for ketones in my urine on monday night and nearly fell off my chair when i saw I had 3...even with all my hypos! Anyway....its turns out I had swollen lymph nodes which means I have an infection, so at least that explains the nausea and general feeling ******. We were also able to rule out anything serious regarding the headaches and the consultant believes these are related to stress (I am always skeptical of people blaming symptoms on stress but who knows!). He had also tested for iron levels and thyroid function, the results of which I will get this evening.

So, the point I wanted to make is that perhaps my blood sugars have been so erratic due to the infection I had. I dont actually believe this to be the case, but until I feel 100%, I wont look into the results so much at the moment. I will be back to bug you all in a week or so with daily results once i am better!

I am really sorry to hear about your experiences with Hypos Riri, I know that it only takes one bad experience to alter your way if thinking and I completely understand your fear.

I did express my concerns regarding lantus to my consultant. He kind of brushed me off saying that Lantus is the best and I will never get good control with Levimar. I really want to come off the Lantus and believe there is nothing wrong with experimenting with different insulins (i also read a few things about Lantus that worry me slightly). But I basically got a big, fat no from my consultant. The fact that I am not really able to justify logically why I should come off it didnt help my case. He reasoned that my hypos were due to illness and has told me to reduce my lantus by 2 units. Anyway until I am better, I wont stress too much about it at the moment.

I did want to ask you all one question though....I dont have much experience with ketones. When I tested on monday, I got 3 as I said. However 6 hours later and many litres of water later, I tested again and was negative. I dont really understand this. Is it normal for diabetics to get ketones often? Can we treat ourselves without going to hospital? Can you get ketones with very low blood sugars?
 

Riri

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1,174
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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The conservative party, people who are cruel to animals and aggressive people
Thanks for your concern all. I should add that have lst 2.5 stone in the last 10 months (from 12.5 to 10.0). I feel brilliant for it but this could have changed my body and absorption dramatically as well. Also, panicing for me seems to bring my BSs down not up - They've done a siacthin (spelling?) test to look at adrenaline but this was normal.
 

Fallenstar

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Messages
546
Firstly Riri, sorry to hear about that experience with the Hypo, I can fully understand and empathise with how you feel. I make no wonder you feel like testing so much. Because of the nighttime Hypo's I used to get ,I am such a poor sleeper now...it is amazing how insidious these things become and then we get ingrained reactions to them. You were right in saying we just expect them though with being Diabetic. That we just expect not to feel well ect, and except it as part of our lives. When actually their are genuine reasons and solutions out there. I really hope the pump works for you Hun and well done on the weight loss, Fantastic. That will certainly make a difference to your sensitivity but hopefully things will settle with the pump. Do let us know how you go on.

NN: Well good news in one way I suppose in that there is an explanation as to why these things may have been happening to your control with the virus, and even low grade viruses that are barely detectable to us will have a knock on effect with our control.
I don't know a huge amount about Ketones but do know that even if you have missed a meal or are a non Diabetic and on a diet you will produce some Ketones, Obviously you had a high number there and should have been looked at by a Medic.
An infection can cause Ketones which you had, and you are now feeling better so that could explain that. Also you were nauseous and not eating maybe, which would also give you them. Glad that has settled down for you.

I got fobbed off at least 3 times by my Endo and GP about the Lantus even when they knew I was struggling and I said I didn't think it was right for me. It took my DSN's who to me are the best for care, well mine are , to listen and sort me out. If things do not settle for you and you feel it might be this then push for it. It is your body, your Diabetes and you are the one who has to live with it. The change in insulins have made an unbelievable difference to me and my control...Wait and see how you go on though at least until this virus leaves your body, which can take a bit of time.
Take care, hope you feel better soon
 

nigelho

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Messages
227
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi Nicklenocky,
Sorry to hear about your dropping BGs. I agree that you could be on too much lantus and maybe, even too much novorapid. What do you do for your work??? .. I too have problems with fast dropping BGs when I do any physical work.. I'm a grocries online driver and the job is pretty physical at times. At the end of my shift I've gone from 10s to 3s within 1/2 half hour while sitting in the canteen, I have to make sure that I eat a sandwich or a carb snack. I've found that I cannot wait to have my tea around 5-6pm as most people otherwise I'll be in hypo.

I've looked at your times and readings and it seems that you need to 'snack' between your meal times. I know it doesn't sound like how diabetics should eat but maybe that's what your body needs. Trying to keep my readings around 4-7 is TOO LOW for me especially when I'm at work. I use less bolus insulin during work days to keep me from going into hypo. I also run between 7-10 during work days and a bit less on my day offs. I used to be on novorapid and levemir and later lantus but after 3 years I had to CHANGE insulins to PORCINE because of the BADDDDD side effects on analogue insulins.

Please don't get het up if your BGs are higher than 4-7. Remember we are all different and our body's needs respond differently. Seeing that you drop quite quickly during the day try reducing the lantus and even reduce the novorapid by a couple of units.
 

iangill100

Member
Messages
8
Tom,

Several issues that you could consider:-
- is my needle length too long? Some of these hypos are close to the time of injecting
- is my injection technique right - this can affect absorption
- is my carb ratio right?
- is the type of food I am eating being absorbed to quickly or slowly
- do I have delayed gastric emptying

I would suggest possibly reading some books such as "think like a pancreas". This can help significantly.
 

ivinghoe

Well-Known Member
Messages
89
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
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I recently did a course similar to Daphne and one thing I learned from the course is that you may need to take into account "insulin stacking" .. novorapid whilst quick acting usually remains active in the body for around four hours so you need to be careful if you are injecting if the elapsed time is less than this. So although you are calculating what dose you need you may need to knock off 1 or 2 units to compensate for the residual active novorapid?