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

overtreating a hypo

linda321

linda321

Well-Known Member
Messages
118
Location
West Sussex, UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I always seem to overtreat a hypo. This is what happened last night:

4.04am woke up with hypo 3.2mmol/l 4 dextrose tablets
4.13am BS 3.6 4 more dextrose tablets
4.21am BS 4.2 half a piece of toast (for carbs)
4.30am BS 5.1

7.18am BS 10.8!!!

Should I be more patient? It's always difficult as I want to get back to sleep! In the daytime I'm impatient too.
Any advice or tips?
 
Hypo recovery for each person is an individual thing .
BG levels will climb gradually back up .

We always wish and want for a quicker response when in Hypo mode .

Glucose replacement will always act faster than a carb food eaten .
So if I want a quicker fix with a hypo I go for jelly babies ...
Eat 4 of the dinky kiddies sized ones - test again - then treat further if needed .

Sugar sourced will get a quicker response than carb food source .
Is my usual rule of thumb with myself .

Lucozade always sends me TOO high too fast - so for this reason I avoid this .
Its about working out what suits you best ... :)
 
linda321 said:
I always seem to overtreat a hypo. This is what happened last night:

4.04am woke up with hypo 3.2mmol/l 4 dextrose tablets
4.13am BS 3.6 4 more dextrose tablets
4.21am BS 4.2 half a piece of toast (for carbs)
4.30am BS 5.1

7.18am BS 10.8!!!

Should I be more patient? It's always difficult as I want to get back to sleep! In the daytime I'm impatient too.
Any advice or tips?
Click to expand...
I don't think the toast will have started to kick in within the 9 minute gap so I would have left at least 1 1/2hrs for that one. As for the Dextrose tablets, I'm not sure but someone will be able to tell you.
 
Hi Linda, there's simple rule to remember 15 minute rule. treat hypo with 15 carbs wait 15 mins then retest. treat again if not going up. As you were going up then the hypo was being fixed.
Hence your 10.8 @7 AM.
Lots of us do over treat hypos on occasion so you are not alone.
Perhaps consider having a glucose drink by your bed. I use a marker pen and mark the bottle at different levels so that I know how many carbs have gone down the hatch.
 
Anna is right that treating a hypo is an individual thing and some require more or less glucose, obviously how low you go will determine how much glucose you need to recover.

At some point everyone has over-treated a hypo, it's not nice when you wake up low and all you want to do is treat it and get back to sleep, it's at times like this that there is a tendency to over-treat even though you know it may be wrong.

For a bg level of 3.2 with no IOB I would take 2 jelly babies which would be enough to get my levels back in range.
 
Hi. I think you took too many glucose tablets. I might have taken 2 and then waited up to an hour to test again or taken more if the hypo got worse or didn't go away. As others have said this is personal. May be taking the initial 4 tablets was sensible but I would have waited longer afterwards? If you have difficulty managing your blood sugar I would ask the GP to move you to the Basal/Bolus regime. Two insulins and some more injections but much better control.
 
Thanks everyone! I'll definately try some jelly babies. I hate the dextrose tablets! And I'll try to be more patient and test 15 mins after instead of 5.

As for switching to basal/bolus regime, I really want to do this but have decided to wait until after my holiday. We are away for 4 weeks - New Zealand - in March and I think it will be easier to manage with just 2 injections per day.
 
Back
Top