Type 2 Quick one (So to speak)

carbohydrates lead to rise in blood glucose levels, and that is what must have happened.Remaining empty stomach for long must have caused you the shaking in legs and hands.

When you have a hypo, your liver releases a massive dump of glucose into your system.

For a T1, you need to be very carefiul with this, as after taking your carbs to get the blood sugar up, you get the double whammy adn can end up running high. It's then very tempting to adjust for that, but it tends to take care of itself quite quickly.

At 4.3, you didn't have a hypo as per the textbook definition of less than 3.5, but I wonder whether you are seeing soem of that effect?

I wouldn't touch weight watchers meals if you are diabetic.

andy williams said:

I wouldn't touch weight watchers meals if you are diabetic.

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I wouldn't touch them if I liked food

I'm on weight watchers and eat the meals all of the time and they don't affect me. There's no need not to eat them.

To treat a hypo you should take 15g of carb and wait 15 mins, then you test again. If it's still low then you take another 15g and wait another 15 mins and so on until you're back to normal again.

It looks like you had more carbs than you needed that's all.

No biggie! Learn from it and move on

Hope you're feeling better now.

Indiana x


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Tigger - these occasional really odd readings can be mighty disturbing, I know, but one piece of advice I try to heed is to test a second time if I have a reading that is way off my expectation. But, as a T2 , my understanding is, that we are very unlikely to have a damaging hypo, in the way T1s can.

I have no experience of Weight Watches meals, so can't comment on what you ate, but your liver might just have been dumping when you ate, and therefor your system had to cope with the liver dump + food?

I find I feel best and my numbers behave best where I don't go to extremes of eating or fasting. If I start to feel that wobbly way, and food is coming soon, I might just have a cup of tea, with milk. But the way your numbers are coming down, your reaction to the 4.3 could just be your body's reaction to a lower score. Once you've seen that sort of number a few more times, it'll seem more comfortable, and is likely to feel fine too.

It's all a bit trial and error to begin with. Five months in, I don't claim to have it licked quite yet!

Tigger 23g of carbs is very little and is just right for treating a hypo if it were quick acting (which it wouldnt have been). I would def say yopur liver dumped leading to higher levels. remember you delayed testing so it probably was on its way up naturally then anyway and the meal prob only helped a little bit.

23g would raise my sugar levels by about 7.5 mmol/l so would be too much for me. It's all about trial and error. Although you didn't have an 'official' hypo, your body will probably take a wee while to get used to having near normal sugar levels again after getting used to having higher levels and so displayed hypo symptoms. 4.3 is a healthy, normal reading for a non-diabetic. I'd take it as a sign that what you're doing is working. Keep testing and learning......

In a way this is good. now you know the sighs of a hypo. And what to do . Eat something high in carbs as quick as you can DEXtTRO's tablets are always in my pocket. When i was on the building i would Hypo 2 or 3 times a day.
If there is someone about tell them whats happening. ( BUT be careful employers done like Diabetics)
Try not to panic, easier said than done.
don't over do the carbs the Dextro tablets take a few minutes to kick in and then your be fine. about 5 tablets should do the trick but test every 15 minutes to see wear you are
Dextros tablets 65 p at tesco and in most chemists.

i'm Out on the beer tomorrow so.....

Good luck

I've had a similar thing happen to me a few times, Tigger, so I tested an hour or so later and my levels were more normal - for me. It's a bit of a shock though! I am aiming to get in the 4s and 5s mainly but because I'm still a 'learner' at all this I often go into the 7s.

When l was first diagnosed and getting my bloods under control l could tell when l was under 5 had what l called a mini hypo. It was explained here that my body go so used to being stupidly high it couldn't handle the lower end where it was meant to be.

I don't have the problem now took maybe a month or so to sort itself out. I didn't have anything major to correct it when l felt it coming on just some milk or a bit of cheddar cheese or broke the end off a bit of biscuit (very small part). My thoughts rightly or wrongly were if l correct to much my body can not adjust to the lower end of the scale.

As your body adjusts the "hypos" will go. And l agree if you like food how can you eat weight watchers *shudder* even though my dogs have turned my cooking down, l can eat my cooking ...albeit reluctantly l can not eat ww so l must have some degree of taste buds left

Have to say l disagree with some comments, joking apart l think the ww meal played a large part along with the liver, unless you have eaten same meal in the past and tested.
I was having 100g of the lidyl yogurt at 3grm/100 and my bloods wanged up to around 6.5 on an almost nil carb meal. Stopped them the other day and same meal without the yogurt l am 5.5 or less post 2hrs.

Mud Island Dweller said:

And also please do not take Caretakers advice in hypo treatment what he had sounds very high for dextrose. He is a Type 1 and so a different kettle of fish so be very wary. Not saying don't try a dextrose but do it slowly and max 1 or even better 0.5 at a time wait and retest.

Sorry Caretaker know you mean well but for a t2 we are 2 different kettles of fish. It is worth putting your type in your signature so new t2 can see that your advice may not apply to them. And t2 should do the same so t1 know the advice may be different.

You know the American saying... 2 people separated by a common language

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Sorry people
I will put my type in the future
i forget that type 2s don't have the very fast hypos that type 1s can get.
i have lost some of my hypo awareness signs and can go as low as 2.5 before i realize. that's why i treat with Dextros

No probs it can get confusing on here
it is worth putting what type you are in your signature like lot of us have info so it shows on your postings ;-)

Mud Island Dweller said:

And also please do not take Caretakers advice in hypo treatment what he had sounds very high for dextrose. He is a Type 1 and so a different kettle of fish

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Have to say, this was exactly the information my consultant told me, 5 dextrose if you have a reading of less than 4, and I am a t2

l would disagree with that always slow and test.
As a t2 your liver is going to dump and you can end up swimming in glucose. He sounds like he wants people to have very high bg. So far l have not had hell of a lot of confidence in dr consultants etc.
Folks here have helped me get myself under control not any nhs person. And my minis like the OP had soon went as my body got used to being low/normal again. It did not take a massive glucose fix to do that

chris9996 said:

Have to say, this was exactly the information my consultant told me, 5 dextrose if you have a reading of less than 4, and I am a t2

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I wouldn't take that approach myself either, as a T1.

A clinical hypo is <3.5.

For me, if <4.5, but >3.5 I'll have soemthing like a biscuit, or one of the snack bars I carry around with me. Like today for example, after a long morning run, I reduced my lunchtime bolus, still ended up having a low at 3.8 walking to the park with my daughter. 30g medium GI carbs bought me back up from 3.8 to 4.6, obvioulsy still a bit insulin sensitive.

As a rule of thumb for a T1, <5 but not a hypo, eat a snack, <3.5, then you reach for the jellie babies, dextro tabs etc.

Mud Island Dweller said:

l would disagree with that always slow and test.
He sounds like he wants people to have very high bg. So far l have not had hell of a lot of confidence in dr consultants etc.

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ElyDave said:

A clinical hypo is <3.5. For me, if <4.5, but >3.5 I'll have soemthing like a biscuit, or one of the snack bars I carry around with me. Like today for example, after a long morning run, I reduced my lunchtime bolus, still ended up having a low at 3.8 walking to the park with my daughter. 30g medium GI carbs bought me back up from 3.8 to 4.6, obvioulsy still a bit insulin sensitive.

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Most of the knowledge I have has come from this site. When I was diagnosed 17 years ago, I was put straight onto Metformin handed a couple of leaflets and told I could most likely go blind. I was later taken off the Metformin and put on Gliclazide, and told that 4 and under was a hypo, if and when I had one I was to immediately take dextrose. If it was just under to take 3 and under 3.5 to take 5. When I saw the dietician she told me to eat carbs at every meal and eat a healthy diet. The next event that stands out for me was being put on Insulin 8 years ago and being told that I would probably have more hypos. I went through 3 changes of Insulin plus taken, Byetta and then Victoza all to no effect. I never heard the terms basal and bolus, till I joined here. I never knew that carbs were anything to do with my bg GI and GL were measurements which some used to diet with, but mine has been calories and/or low fat for over 40 years. I did get told that I was Insulin resistant in 1992, but when I asked about it, I was told that meant it wasn't my fault I was FAT and not to worry. No, I am not saying I am blameless in this scenario, for the first chunk of time I just expected that everyone with Diabetes got progressively worse and ended up with all the complications. When I then developed them, I was seeing new Consultants and they said I could turn this around. Then I came here. Yes the words :***: are appropriate.. Stupid or what? It's all been a heck of a learning curve.[/quote] and as you can tell I still have so much more to learn. Thank you both for helping me along.
Chris X

Just a quick P.S. Sorry Tigger for hijacking your thread.