RH questions

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Veno said:

I was diagnosed with RH a few years back, treated with tablets called eudamine, which seemed to work brilliantly for the last twelve months. However the past couple of months something changed and not sure what, blood sugar levels have dipped more recently after being stable, so much so that for the first time in about two years I collapsed on the floor tonight, passing out for the briefest time.
In the past I have always put it down to just my imagination, it's kind of easier, as I'm a full time career for two people, both of whom suffer from type 1.
My blood sugars on the whole never go above 9.1 as a high and the low blood sugar is often confusing to me, as 99% of the time it dips and somehow my body automatically corrects it naturally, like tonight it went from 1.3 to 6.6 in space of two minutes of me hitting the floor. It wasn't food related because I had a stomach virus so all I could eat was soup.
I know I had a scan because of a small growth on my pancreas but that's now gone to every two years. I suppose what I'm asking is, is this kind of thing usual for RH.
Thanks in advance

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Hi and welcome.
So glad you found us.

I think we need to start with what you are regularly eating during a given day.
The rapid fluctuations is typical RH. The only way I can get control is to avoid the foods that spike my blood levels.
If it was canned soup, it would be full of production sugars for taste and consistency, if it was cream of soup, the cream of is sugar!
There are better alternatives.

Please read up on our forum, there is some great advice on there.

Ask questions, we will try and answer them.
Best wishes

Hi and welcome!

Sorry to hear you are going through this. Lows like that really knock the stuffing out of you.

Yes, I have seen rapid fluctuations from OK, to very low, back to OK again on my Freestyle Libre screen, so yes, it is perfectly possible. And it makes it very difficult to know whether it is REALLY a hypo, or not, because if you miss that 2 minute window of being at the low point, then no one believes you - least of all yourself!

The reason the blood glucose can rise so quickly, and leave us feeling so bad, is because when the body detects the sudden drop in blood glucose, it goes into panic mode and puts your endocrine (hormone system) onto High Alert. This dumps a massive amount of stress hormones like adrenalin and cortisol into the body, which has the effect of suddenly raiding all the glucose stores your body has in the liver and the big muscles. These enter the blood stream very quickly to correct the low. Literally within a very short time.

However, because nothing is free we then have all those stress hormones that need dealing with too - along with the 'feeling like we've been run over by a bus'. I think that zonked feeling is more to do with the stress hormones than it is to do with the blood glucose.

Hope you feel better soon, and get over your virus. My blood glucose is always much more unstable when I have an infection or illness, and food poisoning has been the worst so far.

Take it easy. It can take a couple of days after a hypo like that before we feel right again.

If your symptoms have returned in the last two months, have you changed eating habits? Or had this bug for long?
If not, I would make an appointment and ask for a checkup. Hopefully they will bring your next scan forward.