New diagnosis- Hypos

[jasperc]

I'm a week into my 9 yesr old sons diagnosis and still crying more often than Im not. He on the other hand is amazing. "Mum don't worry you'll be fine doing my injections" The hardest part for him is having to adapt to how much and what he can eat. For me, at the moment, it's the thought of dealing with hypos which terrifies me. I've heard about them, read about them, but so far no sign if anything like them. Do they occur more than hypers? Are there signs? Might they never happen? Grateful for any advise, words of support.


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[carb-counting-mum]

Re: New diagnosis- Hypos

Aww...it's so hard isn't it? My 8-year-old daughter was diagnosed in December and I felt so overwhelmed.
Re. hypos...I think it's fair to say you should expect these to happen from time to time, I don't think you can avoid them altogether.
My diabetes nurse said a child with good control could expect to have 2 hypos a week on average. If I look back at the first 2 months since my little girl's diagnosis, we've had times when she had 3 hypos a day, or 5 hypos a week, but also a week without any hypos. This week she is running a little high and hasn't had any hypos at all. Re. signs...I honestly can't tell when she is low, I only know when I test her. Sometimes she will feel a hypo (she feels shaky), but not often. But other kids can feel hot, sweaty, have a spaced look in their eyes. It all depends on the child. We find Lucozade works fastest for her, to get her levels up again, followed by a snack.

I know you feel all emotional, I think all us parents feel like that, especially in the beginning. But it WILL feel better, you'll see. You'll feel more in control and not panicky anymore. I felt so helpless at the beginning, but I'm more confident now, that really helps. Your son sounds like he is coping very well, kids are absolutely amazing how they just seem to accept these things.
Read all the posts on here (especially the parents section) and you will know you're not alone.
Hugs x

 

[jasperc]

Thanks, I know they will come but they are thing I fear the most as I feel like it will be a real crisis


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[jayne15]

Re: New diagnosis- Hypos

Thanks, I know they will come but they are thing I fear the most as I feel like it will be a real crisis


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I remember my little girls first one it came about 8 days after diagnosis when she started honey mooning, I was like **** **** ! but a glucose tablet and a butty she was fine. My daughter goes pale, moody, shakey ( shes says this starts in her feet and legs) she has had most of her hypos at school and usually recognizes them and then tells the teacher- they have been fab sorting them out. She has had them in the park, on the train and last week in the swimming pool ! at first youll probably be a little stressed but to be honest now we just get on with them and so will you.

 

[jasperc]

Thanks Jayne. This is reassuring as I almost think of them as being a life or death situation requiring the glucagon pen. Do you send snacks to school with her or does the teacher hold them? I assume you carry the glucose tablets with you wherever you go? Do you give your daughter extra juice through the night or check her blood sugars through the night? I'm still so full of questions


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[jayne15]

Re: New diagnosis- Hypos

meg has a little bag I pack each day for school shes 7. She has a morning snack which she has during lessons and an afternoon snack which has about 3 oclock. in the bag she has a banana or pack of mango or something similar and 1 round of best of both with ham or cheese on it. she eats a normal school dinner which includes sometimes a cake if her BM is below 7. in the bag she also has her testing kit (she has always done her own sugars but the teachers know how to if need be.) she has a tube of glucose tablets and a tube of glucogen. I have never had to use the glucogen or inject glucogon. The lowest hypo she has had was 1.9. basically the rule of thumb is 4's the floor have something sweet ( small full fat coke/glucose tablet/ lucozade) and then something to eat. She normally hypos before lunch so she usually has 1 glucose tablet and then gets to the front of the queue for dinner- or even eats with the infants as they eat earlier. I take her bag everywhere and even tested in the swimming pool (me in the pool while she sat on the side !) last week. the life guard minds the bag. we have been fairly lucky through the night but have a general rule of thumb of trying to get her BM between 7-9 prior to bed-this can be a little difficult in the early days of insulin and honeymooning. if her sugars are below 6 going to be she has a piece of toast ( best of both) as this will release sugar slowly through the night and hopefully keep her her within range. when below 6 we always check again before we go to bed and usually its fine. we have only had to feed her once at 2 am. Meg was diagnosed in October so still early day but honestly you will be fine-we diddnt sleep for the first couple of weeks worried she wouldn't wake up but shes been fine. we always try and give her a high carb dish for tea as this will continue to release sugar overnight. The diabetic nurse went into school to educate all her teachers and they have been absolutely fab. Apparently the honey moon period starts at about day 8 ( it did with us to the day) so thats when things may start to get a liitle unsteady. Pm if you need to there are loads of us mums on here all going through the same thing.

 

[jasperc]

Thanks Jayne, that's extremely helpful.
What about her insulin? Rhys has been set a mix of short and long acting (5 units) before breakfast which sees him through to lunch at 2.30 when he has a dose (3 units) of short acting just before his lunch. His school timings are funny- a 20 minute snack at 10 and another at 12.30. He will have a small snack for both of these snack times. Then he has another dose of short acting before tea at 6.30 then when I go to bed at 11 he has 7 units of long acting.


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[jayne15]

Re: New diagnosis- Hypos

Meg is only on 2 doses at the moment breakfast and tea she was on a mix then weaned onto just long acting She does tons of sport so this has kept her insulin at the minimum. she has crept up this week so we have introduced 1 of actrapid in the morning and at tea. You will prob find his insulin levels reduce as he reduced his sugars. currently meg is on 4 long acting and 1 short acting for breakfast and 2 of long acting and 1 of short acting for Tea. (initially she was on 5 times those doses) you must be up the wall with all those injections.

 

[maxies-mom]

Re: New diagnosis- Hypos

Hello - so glad I am not the only one floundering around worried about Hypos. We are 3 weeks into our T1 journey and so far the one coping best of all is Max (8) who despite his utterly inept mother is doing fabulously.
I was so completely exhausted the other night, and our doc had changed dosage that day, that in the evening I gave Max his morning dose of Humalog... holy hell.
As it turns out, it was brilliant. We didn't get the 2am high that confuses me so much that night and so inadvertently may actually have stabilised the lad further (and not killed him like I thought I had). I still tested him once an hour through the night and he was steady eddie at 6's all the way through. I have also become a stealth tester. Max doesn't even wake up.

A great tool I find is the software that goes with our Accucheck monitor. Called Smart Pix, it is a hugely useful way of analysing all the data. We can see a trend line for times of day over weeks or just a week and trends for how we are doing overall. It is a confidence builder, highlighting immediately where we need to rethink meals and rethink snacks and so on. So far only 3 very insignificant little hypo's and very few highs, only 3 that have needed fast acting to stabilise.

I pray we never have to whip out the glucogon

 

[jayne15]

Re: New diagnosis- Hypos

maxis-mom- Megs dad did that we are human after all pity it was my christmas night out when he did it which of course meant I couldnt go -result from their perspective ! hourly BM;s overnight but so relieved everything was ok with a few early morning snacks ( 4am and 5am) we are human after-all and non of us are perfect we have such a big responsibility and can only do our best.

 

[jasperc]

I totally empathize!
How often do you check through the night? Our consultant said no need as Rhys has a slow burning dose at 11pm. I'm sure I'll want to check though.
Does Eddie wake up when you check his sugar at night?


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[maxies-mom]

Re: New diagnosis- Hypos

Max doesn't bat an eye - I have become like a night bandit with mosquito skills. I test at 10 when I go to bed and at 2am but if its been a funny day then I do 12 as well. As we get stability, I am sure the night prowling (armed with lancet pen and preloaded monitor) will become less frequent.
We are having a bizarre night tonight though - screeching hypo within 20 minutes of eating dinner and dinner was absolutely perfectly fine and included a full fat iced tea so I really cannot figure this one out!
Must go - bed calls.
Loads of love from all of us to all of you
xxx Philly

 

[jayne15]

Re: New diagnosis- Hypos

we always check before she goes to bed and only check again at 11 if the bed time number was less than 6. we only check through the night if shes ill or her BM's have been unstable.

 

[CambridgeLass]

Re: New diagnosis- Hypos

Hi. We are 2 months in, little girl is almost 7. At school she always takes her glucose tabs with her. She sometimes doesn't realise, she could be in the 3s and be acting normal, or like today she was 2.8 and knew she was low and told us. At school she usually alerts the teacher is she feels dizzy. They have a hypo box of snacks to give is she feels hypo. The lowest we have had so far was a 2.4 - this was at school before lunch. Feeling dizzy, lathergic. are classic signs. I never let her go to bed less than 5.5. DNS said not less than 5. We've finally got a good lantus dose so her morning numbers are good, we were going low before. I don't test in the night at the moment. If I starts to see things change I would. Unfortunalty mine is a light sleeper and will wake up. At the start I had to do night readings and it was quite tramatic as I had to wake her - I knew she would jerk her finger if we tried otherwise. She was NOT a happy girl being woken up I can tell you. Dread doing that again. Have been told if we change regime then would need to record night time doses, and of course sick days.

 

[Vic70]

Hi my son was 5 when diagnosed I don't let him go to bed unless he is at least


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[Vic70]

8 he is now 7 years old still finding it very hard he just takes it in his stride such an amazing little boy x


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[rayraysopp]

Re: New diagnosis- Hypos

Hi- I have been diabetic for almost 22 of my 25 years. It's not all so bad once you get your head round it- he WILL be fine and you'll be fine too and you'll all learn how to cope and this will one day all be second nature to you.

Some people even with all the experience of diabetes, don't have hypo symptoms, some do. It's very individual..I am fortunate that I do. He will probably start recognising symptoms once he gets his head round it all. I know a 12 year old who has been diabetic about a month now and she had her first one the other day...and guess what? She's fine

One rule though, do always carry glucose tablets or lucozade or mini mars bars around with you and have a little emergency box for him at school, I still have an emergency box at work! It really is second nature; my handbag essentials- phone, purse, keys, glucose tablets, spare infusion set and lip gloss lol!

Smile you'll get there xx