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Night hypos

M

Malcolm.Smith

Well-Known Member
Messages
63
I'm a type 1 diabetic and I've it for 30 years now. I don't really have a problem with hypos during the day as I have plenty of warning. What I do have a problem with is hypos when I'm asleep and I don't notice them. My girlfriend has to deal with it by forcing sugar water down my throat and although iI have no memory of the incident after she tells me I can be very un co-operative, argumentative and intimidating. I also bite hard on my tongue and have muscle spasms so It give me great pain in my mouth and my limbs for weeks after. Last weekend i had one of these attacks and my girlfriend brought me out of it quite quickly. I set my alarm for half an hour later to test my blood sugar which was 5.6 so i went back to sleep. The next thing i know is I'm in an ambulance on the way to hospital after a second attack! I have no idea why my blood sugar dropped again and so dramatically especially after all the sugar water pumped into me during the night.
Does anyone know what i can do to stop this as I don't want to put my girlfriend through this anymore.
I use Glargine long acting insulin and humalin s quick acting throughout the day.
 
Sorry, v quick reply. I would reduce the glargine.
Also, after you have had the sugary water (prefer coke thru a straw myself :D ) and you know that your bloodsugar is coming back up, make sure that you have some long acting carbs, cereal bar etc.

I have exactly the same problem..and also a great partner who occasionally has to sort me out. It doesn't happen often..but it is awful when it does. It is teh same old advice I guess, test your blood before bed..if it is low, and you think taht it is only going to get lower eat something. Generally, if your meal time doses are about right, it is probably your long acting insulin that is the problem.

Most importantlu,,,buy your girlfriend some flowers/chocoalte/wine as a Thank you!
 
Lol yes mucho wine, chocolate has been purchased in the past but me thinks this last one might require something more as we both spent 12 hours in hospital waiting for a doctor to sign me out. I've reduced my Glargine by 3 units but its that horrible thought i get every night before bed wondering if I'm going to wake up in the same bed i went to sleep in with my tongue intact !. I used to get this a lot in my childhood but recently its started happening every other month.
 
Hello Malcolm

I'm sure that there are loads of diabetics logging onto this forum who can identify with you. Unfortunately, Lantus and Levemir can and do cause nighttime hypos every now and again.

The only thing I can suggest is to make sure that you leave about 3-4hrs after your evening meal bolus before you take your basal. That way you can have a better idea of knowing what insulin is doing what to your bg levels. I have found in the past that when I have had a higher than normal bg before my evening meal, if I give myself a larger bolus dose although my bg will be ok before bed, the leftovers from that bolus will most likely still be partly active even though I have allowed about a 4hr gap, so I always play safe now and either eat a bit more carb with the basal or slightly reduce the dose.

Did you by chance eat a meal with lots of fat in it?
 
I was at a restaurant that evening and had lamb tangine and spiced ice cream with pears and a glass of wine during the meal, but nothing overly fatty, why? what effect does that have?.
The Glargine long acting insulin lasts 24 hours which makes it pretty hard to judge when the injections hit its peak performance
 
I am getting my T1 husband to reduce his Glargine, because as a T2 and over 60 myself, I can't cope with episones like last Monday, very often. I think I understandd why so many t1s feed their insulin and develop serious weight problems. It's easier than coping with a severe hypo.
 
Very true. In my teens before the pens came out i had 2 large injections of fast and slow acting a day and fed that insulin which ment if i missed a meal or i did extra exercise I had a hypo but it also ment I ballooned to the size of a small African game animal!. Since I've been on the pen I've lost all that weight and the night hypos disappeared for a while but its just this last year or so they've started to return. Maybe my metabolism is changing as I'm getting older?. Something tells me I wish it were that simple!, they even thought it was a form of epilepsy at the hospital but I know that's nonsense as sugar water doesn't stop epileptic fits!
 
Malcolm.Smith said:
I was at a restaurant that evening and had lamb tangine and spiced ice cream with pears and a glass of wine during the meal, but nothing overly fatty, why? what effect does that have?.
The Glargine long acting insulin lasts 24 hours which makes it pretty hard to judge when the injections hit its peak performance
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A fatty meal can sometimes delay the rise up in bg levels. Doesn't sound as though yr meal was overly fatty like you say. When eating out at restaurants none of us can know exactly how much carb is in a meal so I would say that you probably over guessed the carb value and bolused a bit too much. The glass of wine also helped to reduce yr bg which might explain things.

Lantus for many by the way doesn't really last a full 24hrs. Try leaving off your morning bolus and not eating any breakfast. Your bg will start to go up and up instead of remaining stable.

When you inject yr Lantus do you do it in your tummy or backside? Injecting it in your backside not only slows down its action which might help, but also reduces the stinging effect.


Hana

Insulin will only cause weight gain if someone injects too much which then causes them to go low and they then have to eat to keep up with its action. There is nothing wrong with feeding your insulin. I have done this for years but I don't eat too much carb in any one meal so I balance myself out according to what my bg levels are. I also try to keep to low doses of bolus insulin though. I am about a size 10-12 in clothes and my weight has been around the 55 - 57kg mark for years. I have never been advised to eat lots of carb. All my consultant is interested in is what my hba1c is and whether I have any problems. I just eat a mixture of bog standard food but include a fair amount of veg for my evening meal.
 
iHs said:
Insulin will only cause weight gain if someone injects too much which then causes them to go low and they then have to eat to keep up with its action.
Click to expand...
Not totally true iHs,

Insulin is well known as the weight gain hormone. The scenario you outline is certainly true, but also anyone who eats a high carb diet will put on weight simply because it will require a high level of insulin to metabolise the sugar resulting from the carbs. You mention that your consultant has never advocated a high carb diet, but he is a rarity. You only have to look at the posts that arrive every day on the fourm to see that the advice given by nearly all doctors and nurses is the of the "eat plenty of starchy carbs with every meal" variety.

As you said, feeding your insulin is a solution, and has certainly worked wonders for you. But increasingly diabetics are being taught the opposite approach - eat what you like and adjust the insulin accordingly (the carb-counting/DAFNE approach). Fine if you get it right, but a big problem if you don't!
 
i had a similar problem with night time hypos which stopped when i changed my lantus to mornings :D
 
Funny that, I used to take my Glargine in the mornings but was advised to take it with my evening meal by my GP when i had the night hypos about once a month. They have reduced since i changed to evenings but maybe that's more to do with the extra blood tests I've been doing.
 
just more proof, diabetes affects us all differently, no 2 are the same :D hope u get it sorted
 
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