"Proper" Hypo followed by "Phantom" Hypos ?

[Glue_Coze]

Hi all,

First post here so please be gentle

I have been Type 1 for approx 17yrs (age 32 now) and have always had very good control. Good HBA1C results and no complications. I have had two bad hypos during this time, both whilst asleep and after exercise and not eating enough food. As I was asleep I never felt them coming on, just woke up in a really bad daze with low sugar levels. Have always had hypo warning symptoms, but never like the ones I describe below.

However recently I had a really bad hypo where I felt totally spaced out and really felt the hypo coming on. I know what caused it, I had been out drinking lots of alcohol and not monitoring my levels closely. So the morning after drinking, I was sat with my friends and almost felt like I had an out-of-body experience. It was kind of like a panic attack type feeling, shaking, anxious, nauseous and very paranoid. Kind of felt like my brain was spinning around in my head :crazy: and was genuinely scary . Anyway I remedied it with a few cokes and some biscuits. It did take me a few hours to come out of it and the best part of a week to feel fully over it though.

But since that episode I seem to get low blood sugars almost every time I drink alcohol now, which I have never really had before as it has always been manageable with food and/or insulin. Pretty much every time I have drank alcohol since that one bad hypo, I now go hypo the following day, without fail. I also then get phantom hypo feelings for days afterwards.

I almost feel as if that ONE major hypo has now made my body hyper-sensitive to alcohol and now every time I drink it my body reacts to it in a bad way, and then continues to for days afterwards with phantom hypos.

Obviously I have now cut out alcohol completely to prevent it happening again, but would be interested to hear anyone's thoughts on why this might have happened following that initial bad hypo and why my body now reacts so adversely to alcohol when it never used to?

 

[SamJB]

Hmm, strange one. I've never experienced it and would definitely not like to give up alcohol! I'm going to point out the obvious here, but you could have a snack before bed when you've had a drink.

I always monitor myself very carefully during and after a good alcohol session. A few years ago I had a really bad hypo that made me lose consciousness. This happened the morning after a night out.

With the phantom hypos, I experienced this after my bad hypo, but for many months. Even years, actually. In my case though it was down to anxiety.

 

[Glue_Coze]

Hey Sam, thanks for the reply. Nice to know when other peeps have had similar experiences.

I have always been able to drink and maintain fairly stable sugar levels and if I'm honest I really wouldn't like to give up alcohol completely. However at the moment since that pretty bad hypo, my body just seems to be in complete disarray. I'm off the booze for now, but even without that my sugar levels still seem difficult to manage.

But the worst thing is these phantom hypos ever since and these happen quite often now, even without touching a drop of alcohol. I've never had them before, but again seem to have been triggered by that bad hypo. I find myself being quite paranoid about it and I might feel lowish, but when I test my sugars I'm like anywhere from 6 to 10 mmol/l. It's weird and after years of really good control, which I sort of took for granted, it's a completely new experience to me and kind of disheartening.

 

[SamJB]

I can't say for sure, but it sounds like what I went through. I had that bad hypo a few weeks after I was diagnosed and it really sent me off on the wrong track. I became terrified of hypos and was very anxious about them. I started to experience what you are describing, thinking I was hypo when I was just anxious and being very paranoid about it. For me one of my hypo symptoms is anxiety, so it was difficult to tell the difference at times.

For me being in a routine and low carbing has given me fewer and more mild hypos, which has helped a lot with the anxiety. In fact it's pretty much gone. Since I've been low carbing I've not been in the 2s; the lowest I've been in nearly a year of low carbing is 3.7. Whereas before I'd be in the 2s fairly often. If what you are describing is what I went through then unfortunately there's no magic wand, I just learned to tell myself that I can always deal with hypos so long as I always had a source of glucose and my glucose meter on me. I always make sure I've got a bottle of Lucozade with me for the next day when I've been drinking.

 

[purrple11]

Have you changed insulin recently? I changed my short acting a few years ago and found I could feel hypos well ahead of actually dropping into hypo, I take this as a good thing as it helps me to know well ahead of time and prepare for it. I don't always hypo though so I do wait to find out.

Also, you're getting old dear! I too am 32 and am to celebrate (sort of) my 20th dianniversary this year. I found once I hit 27 that alcohol affected me much more than when I was younger. I drink very little these days because I'm so afraid of the hangovers! However, I do still enjoy my nights out and I will drink but I no longer do shots, I drink water in between alcoholic drinks and I drink more water when I get home. Always go out with a good feed of starchy carbs and never have any booze that is especially sugary, like cider.

Don't be afraid of booze, just control it.