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Type 1 Perpetual Hypo

Marco7757

Member
Messages
9
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Other
Hello there

Yesterday, I experienced something really nerve wrecking. I had dinner and I probably injected too much insulin. No big deal, it happens all the time and is usually easily corrected by drinking some orange juice or similar.
However, this time, orange juice showed no effect. After thirty minutes, I was still too low. Again, I drank some juice, with the same effect: none.

This went on, and after five (!!) hours and at least one liter of orange juice I rage-quit and drank half a liter of sweetened buttermilk to be able to sleep.
Of course, in the morning I woke up to find out that my sugar had been extremely high the entire night.

What happened? Why did the sugar I consumed not correct my blood sugar?
Why was I stuck in this hypo for five hours (I was sitting at home watching TV, no exercise)?
Has anyone experienced something similar? If yes, how is it solved?

Is it possible, that my body cannot take on more fructose after I certain amount of time? Is this why the milk (lactose) showed an effect when all the orange juice did not? But then, where did all the fructose of the orange juice go?
 
Did you follow up the juice with some long-acting carbs?
 
What did you have for dinner?
My only thought is, if it was something fatty it would delay the absorption of carbs.
 
No, I did not follow up with long-acting carbs and haven't done so in 11 years ... is it something you do? Why?

It was some bread with cheese, a glass of milk and a yoghurt. Nothing too fatty.
 
Marco7757 said:
No, I did not follow up with long-acting carbs and haven't done so in 11 years ... is it something you do? Why?
Click to expand...
When you hypo, your liver can release stores of glycogen as a response to get your BG back up. These stores need replenishing and your liver will do that on your behalf regardless. So after a hefty hypo (even though you've treated and got back in range) - your chances of having another within the following 24 hours are increased, basically because your liver is stealing sugar from your bloodstream.

If you massively over-correct hypos then what I've mentioned above often goes un-noticed.
Marco7757 said:
It was some bread with cheese, a glass of milk and a yoghurt. Nothing too fatty.
Click to expand...
There can be a fair amountof fat in what you've eaten. Yoghurt, cheese and milk are what I'd call high fat foods. Bread also contains fat, although nowhere near as much as the rest of your dinner. That can certainly slow the uptake of carbs into the blood stream if they're sitting in your stomach.

Apologies for butting in @azure, pretty bored today

Did you have any hypos in the 24 hours prior to the one that took you hours to recover from @Marco7757?
 
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Marco7757 said:
Is it possible, that my body cannot take on more fructose after I certain amount of time? Is this why the milk (lactose) showed an effect when all the orange juice did not? But then, where did all the fructose of the orange juice go?
Click to expand...

Regardless I'd stock-up on some fast-acting glucose like Coke, Lucozade or Glucojuice.

I've not had a hypo go on that long, however I did once inject my basal insulin twice and had a hell of a time keeping my bg levels up through the night, what made things worse I was working nights at the time
 
Marco7757 said:
No, I did not follow up with long-acting carbs and haven't done so in 11 years ... is it something you do? Why?

It was some bread with cheese, a glass of milk and a yoghurt. Nothing too fatty.
Click to expand...

If I've miscalculated my bolus, I often eat extra long-acting carbs to make up for the wrong bolus. I don't always do it, but sometimes I find it necessary.
 
Hi. I would have taken glucose tablets rather than orange juice together with some slower-acting carbs. Yes, fat can delay absorption.
 
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