• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Type 1 Low sugars

T

tracymcd

Member
Messages
6
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi I need a bit of advice my dad is type 1 diabetic and last month he was in hospital with ketone acidosis so he was told to increase is insulin intake but since he has done this his sugar levels can go from being like 23 straight down to 2 in less than 10 mins os this normal as other day he passed out with no one around and lay there for almost 4 hours and yet they wouldn’t send an ambulance cause his sugars went back up just told him to phone his dr and he did that but all he seen was the nurse and all she did was take blood should his sugars be dropping that low so fast that he passes out also has slurred speech to the point where my cousin thought he had a stroke
 
tracymcd said:
Hi I need a bit of advice my dad is type 1 diabetic and last month he was in hospital with ketone acidosis so he was told to increase is insulin intake but since he has done this his sugar levels can go from being like 23 straight down to 2 in less than 10 mins os this normal as other day he passed out with no one around and lay there for almost 4 hours and yet they wouldn’t send an ambulance cause his sugars went back up just told him to phone his dr and he did that but all he seen was the nurse and all she did was take blood should his sugars be dropping that low so fast that he passes out also has slurred speech to the point where my cousin thought he had a stroke
Click to expand...
Hi Tracy,

That doesn't sound right at all, how is he checking his BG levels, meter/sensor?

Speaking from experience I have never dropped from a high to low in 10 mins, can take up to an hour to get that low for me, depends on how he is testing as there may be an issue with how it's being measured, I normally hit a wall of resistance when high and would still need a big correction to get myself down too, so just from tweaking his insulin it sounds odd he is having this reaction.

Does he have a specialist diabetic nurse ?
 
He measures it with a free style libre sensor in his arm it’s meant to last 2 weeks but after the last reading of it being high it stopped working but he didn’t know as he usually gets an alert but he didn’t so he passed out and when he checked using his meter it was 2 something
 
Its possible it could have been a faulty sensor and he had been not nearly that high all along

Even when not faulty if the sensors show too high, or less than 5 they should really be verified with a meter, as they can be quite inaccurate at either end of the scale
 
tracymcd said:
Hi I need a bit of advice my dad is type 1 diabetic and last month he was in hospital with ketone acidosis so he was told to increase is insulin intake but since he has done this his sugar levels can go from being like 23 straight down to 2 in less than 10 mins os this normal as other day he passed out with no one around and lay there for almost 4 hours and yet they wouldn’t send an ambulance cause his sugars went back up just told him to phone his dr and he did that but all he seen was the nurse and all she did was take blood should his sugars be dropping that low so fast that he passes out also has slurred speech to the point where my cousin thought he had a stroke
Click to expand...
The only hypoglycaemia that I have heard of that could do that is a pancreatic condition, such as insulinoma.
It doesn't seem that your doctors is taking it seriously enough.
It also seems to me that increasing his insulin, which will exacerbate his blood count of insulin and can only drive down more his BG levels more.

Best wishes
 
The only reason I can think of for injected insulin to cause a rapid drop in blood glucose would be if it was accidentally injected into a blood vessel. Insulin should be injected into fat not into blood vessels.
As others have already said check blood glucose via finger prick rather than relying on a CGM for high and low values.
 
tracymcd said:
He measures it with a free style libre sensor in his arm it’s meant to last 2 weeks but after the last reading of it being high it stopped working but he didn’t know as he usually gets an alert but he didn’t so he passed out and when he checked using his meter it was 2 something
Click to expand...
Sounds like he was low already and the sensor wasn't reporting this as it was knackered, it's always important as others have said to cross check with a glucose meter, sensors aren't perfect and also contact Abbott to report this fault too, they will replace the sensor, I try to sensor check myself too, do i actually feel like i am going low and I trust this sensation above all else. Just unfortunately it's caught him out,

In regards to insulin changes, this could of been a one off, so under the care of his team, review his readings to check they are bringing him into range ok before diving in to make any adjustments.
 
Back
Top