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Is this normal for glucogen?

D

dianehogben

Member
Messages
11
Unfortunately on Monday night, i had a night hypo. unusually It didnt wake me up, and my husband found me unconciuos around 5.30am. he gave me a glucogon injection which raised my sugars as it was supposed to, but left me with a day of sickness and banging headache.
Number 1, is this normall side effests from glucogon,
and number 2, what can I do about not waking up froma night time hypo?
 
Hi Diane, sorry to hear about your night hypo. Glucagon ALWAYS used to make me physically sick. I hated it if I knew someone had given it to me as I knew what was coming. I've heard that this is a common side effect. The headache is probably a post-hypo headache - these regularly occur and can be awful but I think it's because your brain has been starved of glucose (someone will correct me if I'm wrong).

With regards to night hypos they can be caused by a number of things - your background insulin dose being wrong, any extra activity the day before, your insulin to carb ratio being wrong (if you ate carbs before bed?) I would always start with getting the background insulin correct which means doing 2 hourly tests through the night. There is a link on here somewhere with more information about this - perhaps someone would be kind enough to post this here!?!? As always though, always check with your dsn before making any changes.

Hope this helps.
 
See I have been diagnosed for 32 years, so I know all the little things, but its just frightnening to loose the waking up for night time hypos. if my husband hadnt of been there, who knows what would of happened! Actually I think I do know, but just want to think it!
 
Hi Diane,

That must have been horrible for you - I hope you're feeling better now.

I have real concerns about night time hypos as I seemingly randomly get night time hypos, fasting lows or fasting highs with no real pattern. I have discussed this at length with my consultant and he has reassured me that I will always wake from a hypo - my body will correct a too low BG - he has also put this in writing to my GP and copied me into the letter. That has reassured me somewhat, but not completely. Anyway, your consultant can get you a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) on loan for a week so that they can analyse what your BG is doing overnight. In my area, you have to attend a DAFNE course before they will consider this (because they always start from the assumption that you are stupid and are making dosing mistakes -Grrr...). I attended the wretched course and still have the same overnight issues and am still arguing for the loan of the CGM. Maybe it's worth discussing such a loan with your consultant in light of what has happened? There is a thread on here by DunePlodder with a group of members who are self-funding their own CGMs - it is really expensive, but maybe you could look into that? They alarm if you go too low at night and let you have visibility of your BG patterns through the day and night. I am seriously considering this myself.

Anyway, a conversation with your consultant should be your priority. Obviously, this will count against you with the DVLA if you drive, although you won't lose your license unless you have another episode like this.

Smidge
 
I think just with really bad hypos, which it sounds as though yours was, considering you were unconscious, feeling sick and having a headache would be normal symptoms just for the hypo never mind the glucagon.

It must of been quite scary for your hubby.......

I have never used the glucagon but I have had the symptoms you describe..........I have had hypos that have went untreated though, for various reasons, and my liver has always responded in time thankfully....

take care......
 
smidge said:
Hi Diane,

That must have been horrible for you - I hope you're feeling better now.

I have real concerns about night time hypos as I seemingly randomly get night time hypos, fasting lows or fasting highs with no real pattern. I have discussed this at length with my consultant and he has reassured me that I will always wake from a hypo - my body will correct a too low BG - he has also put this in writing to my GP and copied me into the letter. That has reassured me somewhat, but not completely. Anyway, your consultant can get you a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) on loan for a week so that they can analyse what your BG is doing overnight. In my area, you have to attend a DAFNE course before they will consider this (because they always start from the assumption that you are stupid and are making dosing mistakes -Grrr...). I attended the wretched course and still have the same overnight issues and am still arguing for the loan of the CGM. Maybe it's worth discussing such a loan with your consultant in light of what has happened? There is a thread on here by DunePlodder with a group of members who are self-funding their own CGMs - it is really expensive, but maybe you could look into that? They alarm if you go too low at night and let you have visibility of your BG patterns through the day and night. I am seriously considering this myself.

Anyway, a conversation with your consultant should be your priority. Obviously, this will count against you with the DVLA if you drive, although you won't lose your license unless you have another episode like this.

Smidge
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That's interesting about the "always waking up fro ma hypo" situation that your consultant has told you. I have heard of diabetics dying from dead in bed issues and I used to have some stonking night time hypos which my wife has had to revive me from. Personally I wouldn't believe everything that medical experts say because there seems to be a great deal of conflicting information out there about these type of issues.
 
Sorry to hear that Diane, I hope you feel better now.
This is my biggest fear, and makes me glad I don't live alone. Please anyone correct me if I am wrong, but your pancreas (via alpha cells -glucagon) needs to tell the liver to release any stored glucose, and I've had my pancreas removed....
Suffering since Saturday with way too many hypos, similar thing happened to me Saturday night & OH saved me, then at least 2 to 3 times a day since. Today have been reducing my QA which seems to be helping, but can't figure out what has changed..
 
I would challenge your consultant on the 'always wake up from a night hypo' - that has never been the case for me - very occasionally and when it is nearly morning I will wake up, if the hypo is in that deep part of my sleep between 12 and 4am I don't and I can have a hideous hypo. I have had this ever since I was a child - maybe I am an oddity and a deep sleeper. I ended up testing in the middle of the night - I found 1am a good place for me to catch anything. CGM has been the only thing that has helped me with the problem - without having to wake up every night, I am going on a pump at some stage to hopefully help a bit too - I went on CGM before the pump because it's going to take a year to get a pump and that is just too long for me to wait to get it sorted and I was given some money!
 
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On another note some people swear by a teaspoon of peanut butter before bed, or you can get mats that alert you when you get to the sweat stage (I haven't tried either of those tho! I just went with testing in the night)
 
Thankfully I've not had to use the glucogon injection kit but I'm sure the patient info says that nausea and headaches are a side-effect of taking it.

You should monitor your bg levels over the next few nights Diane and make sure your basal insulin isn't set too high, if you have any more episodes like Monday night then you should speak with your Endo.
 
I've had glucagon used 'on me' quite a few times but never felt sick afterwards, but commonly feel exhausted and have a bad headache. Once had a hypo when hubbie was abroad and didn't wake up until 4pm the NEXT day (normally rise at 6 for work). Had had a hypo-induced seizure and bitten my tongue badly, but was otherwise fine.

Now self funding CGM but have not had a night hypo for years since switching background insulin injections to the morning, so certain this was cause of MY night hypos. I definitely get a dip 6hrs after background insulin jabs (glargine), despite manufacturer's insistence there is no peak, just a constant background action.

Contact INPUT via web site for support with funding for diabetes technology. I've not tried to get funding, but may consider in future when £ runs out...


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