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

Strange hypo symptoms - any ideas?

S

smidge

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,761
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hey all!

I'm just recovering from a nasty little hypo and it's the second in the last two days. First was Friday night when I woke suddenly at 4.30am with a strange feeling and tested at 2.7 and the second was just now. I'd got up early, took my basal at 6am and had my brekkie and Apidra at 6.30am ( trying to recover some kind of insulin routine after a 2 week holiday!). Anyway, I went back to bed for a couple of hours and woke at 9ish with the same strange feeling and again, a reading of 2.7.

Now, I've been in the 2s a couple of times before in the day times and it's been OK - just treated it and moved on, but these last two times I've woken with the an awful metallic taste in my mouth and my lips feeling like I've had ice cubes on them. My arms and legs felt like they were going numb. It was a really scary feeling and made me feel that I needed to act with a greater urgency than 2.7 woul normally make me act with.

Has anyone else had these types of symptoms with hypos? Do they indicate I'm about to pass out? I guess not at 2. 7. Are night time hypos (or hypos when you're asleep) dealt with differently by your body than day time ones? I've certainly never had this type of symptom when awake with a hypo. Any info would be useful.

I'm not too bothered at the moment with why they've occurred as I think that will be connected with period, migraine and lack of routine, but the symptoms are very disturbing, so anything anyone can tell me would be appreciated.

All's well now and I've over-corrected up to 8!

Thanks

Smidge
 
When you have a 2.x hypo in the day time, how long do you wait before treating it?

What I am hinting at, I suppose, is that for this to happen in the middle of the night, probably you will only notice after your liver has tried to dump, then failed or only partially succeeded, which in my body would mean I have been (going) hypo for about 2 hours.

As a guess without knowing it, I would believe it is due to your body's reserves having already been used, so you wake up at a later time in the hypo process than you would if you had been awake and had caught it after 15 minutes on the down spiral of a rapid acting dose.

Re this morning, if we think that the same scenario has happened this morning, but you woke up in the middle of the liver dump, you could well have had the same thing happen +/- the breakfast and then the rapid acting without you really noticing that you'd depleted your glucose stores in the meanwhile.

It's just a guess, though.

The few times I've been below 2, I have normally been in the middle of a walk and my stores would have been pretty empty on low carb and then 3 hours of walking. I get something similar then. The hypo's I get unrelated to exercise are much less troublesome. When I hypo (seldomly, but does happen) during exercise, I will drop rapidly just as I thought I was fine, because there's no more buffer - I'll go really cold, can't coordinate, takes me a good while to catch up on carbs (had 100-150g carb sometimes to still only land me at 5.5), everything will be very unreal and rational thinking won't be my strong side, I can't properly see, my feet and arms will feel detached from my body... So yes, something similar. One time I did pass out after having just had some sugary stuff 10 seconds before, the other time, I managed to get myself up to 3.5 and then drop again etc.

You might want to knock 20 percent off your basal until you get it sussed out. Or at least set the alarm for 3am and be proactive, might let you figure out what's up.
 
The tingling is quite a common symptom. I've read of others with the metallic taste (if you google you'll find a very similar post to your own from 2007 on Diabetes Daily)
Having had 2 fairly low lows in quick succession you are more likely to have another and less likely to sense it a higher levels.
I think you really have to try to avoid them for a while .
I agree with Mileana about cutting your basal and doing some night time testing.
Just to throw another suggestion in though ;the second hypo may have been rapid related... as could the earlier one if you ate late that night.
 
When I was on MDI I had very similar symptoms to you when waking on a hypo. I've had almost complete paralysis on a number of occasions. I find that my insulin needs when sleeping are lower than when awake, so if I sleep when I would normally be awake, hypos are more common, for example I've had hypos when on a long coach journey - normally road travel puts my blood sugar up, but not if I go to sleep. If I have a long week at work and go to sleep on the sofa while my husband is cooking dinner, I sometimes wake up with a hypo even though there's been no active bolus for a few hours - my basal rate is set to be correct when I'm awake.

Unfortunately the pattern is not very consistent so it's difficult to adjust for, just good to be aware so I always have some fast acting easily taken hypo fix to hand - something that can be reached and taken with poor coordination, such as a ribena carton with the straw already in it. This I learned after struggling to get the straw into the hole with hardly any feeling in my arms!
 
Might just be possible that you dropped a lot lower than 2.7 during your sleep which could explain the unusual hypo feelings; agree with the above about doing some basal testing for a few nights.
 
Hey!

Thanks for the replies.

Mileana, Phoenix, I think I will try reducing my evening basal by a unit. I have a sneaky feeling that I need less basal after my period than before. I have to change my bolus ratio quite significantly to account for this, but have never considered needing to reduce my basal. I've actually just come through several weeks where my fasting levels were amazing - in the 4s, which isn't normal for me. Then last week they went up into the 7s and 8s rather inexplicably. Now I'm finding these lows during sleeping, so maybe last week's high fasting levels were actually the result of my liver correcting early morning lows - that's a scary thought! I think some night time testing is required. I agree I need to be extra careful for a while and try to avoid any more lows.

Phoenix - thanks for the link to the other forum. Those symptoms were almost identical to mine. The weird thing is that when I have very rarely had a sub-3 day time hypo, my awareness is very good but I don't get the scary symptoms. I guess I consider 2.7 too low and needing correcting, but not dangerously low. In the day time I would still function pretty well at 2.7 although I wouldn't be fully able to concentrate, but these night time ones made me feel like I was going to die unless I corrected very fast. Just awful.

L0veduck, that's interesting what you say about your body having different insulin needs when asleep. I wonder if that's the issue. I have been out of my routine for a couple of weeks and taking my basal at different times and sleeping at different times. Maybe I've just confused my system!

Ah well, I seem to be OK now, but I will reduce my basal tonight and maybe go to bed with levels a little higher than usual.

Cheers

Smidge
 
Hey Noblehead!

Yes, I am worried that you might be right and that the actual level had been lower. I think I'll set the alarm for a couple of overnight tests.

Thanks

Smidge
 
Smidge...
Just 2 extra thoughts for you ...
This close erratic muggy weather and not quite eating enough has had me caught out
recently!
Am troughing and peaking a great deal at the moment n off my food with strange taste in mouth too!
Weather erratic plus me not eating enough has made me run into trouble... :thumbdown:
Feel rough last 4 days n very grumpy too .
Anna.
 
Oh yes, I'm not from the UK, so unsure on the weather there, but it's a fact that humid and hot at least has me instantly reducing my basal by 30 percent and my mealtime doses by 50 percent if I plan to move around at all. If I catch the forecast, I will reduce from the day before, otherwise I will halve my morning dose as a start.

If that is the weather in the UK, you should perhaps consider doing an 'it's hot' set of insulin rules.

My own are 11 basal from 16, and insulin/carb ratio 0.5:1 instead of roughly 1:1.
 
Hi All.
Have halved my hypurin porcine basal from 20units to 10units when warm,close,mugggy weather.
When weather is cooler have found I need more insulin - so back up to 20units then...!
Split dose my basal too.
How the heck doe's the weather factor "DO" this to us ????
Anyone know?
The balance to stay steady is tricky enough - then the weather factor does this n upsets the applecart !!!!
So annoying is putting it lightly :evil: Am grumpy today n hubby is getting it today !!!
Anna.
 
Hi Anna!

Thanks for the reply. I don't really know what's going on because i can't get my BG to normalise at all. After over-correcting the hypo, I've been in double-figures (or very close to it) all day :crazy: Maybe it is the weather, but I've had enough now! I think my mood is probably about as good as your's :lol:

Hope you're feeling better now.

Smidge
 
Hi smidge...
Nope still up n down like a yo-yo, just tested am 17.6 n am well fed up with it all too !!!!!
As was sitting at just 4.6 earlier ... its a mystery !!!
Feel wiped out and achey now.
Hope you are feeling better soon yourself too.
Thanks for your thoughts smidge.
Know exactly how you must be feeling though... (((hug)))
Anna.
 
smidge said:
my lips feeling like I've had ice cubes on them. My arms and legs felt like they were going numb.
Click to expand...

I have had this too but usually only when my blood sugar is below 1.7mmol/l. My endocrinologist says that it is called neuroglycopenia. It occurs when the blood sugar is so low that the nervous system can no longer function properly. This is what causes the symptoms such as numbness. Here is a link explaining what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroglycopenia
 
Wonderful help and information in your post glucosegirl...
Am sure it will be helpful to smidge and other(s) me included!
Had my left arm go numb n wondered why it was so ???
Many thanks for your informative and helpful post. :thumbup:
Anna.
 
Hey glucose girl!

Thanks for the link. I have had slightly lower levels during the daytime before without the awful symptoms, so I wouldn't expect a 2.7 to cause this although I can understand that your 1.7 would. Like others have said, I wonder if my BG had been lower and was on its way up when I caught it or maybe my meter is reading high so I was actually lower. Very worrying!

Smidge
 
Hey Smidge, have no idea as to the answer as I don't take insulin as you know. just wanted to say sorry to hear about the problem, and i'm sure you'll work it out. Good luck, but you won't need it.
 
Thanks, Grazer! It was a bit scary, but I'm fine now. Just wish I could stop my BG going high at the moment - no idea what's going on :crazy: I guess it will sort out eventually, but it's driving me mad at the moment. I had levels of 2.7 and 11.8 in the same day with no reason - ridiculous!

Smidge
 
anna29 said:
Hi All.

How the heck doe's the weather factor "DO" this to us ????
Anyone know?

Anna.
Click to expand...

When the weather is hot, the heat causes your blood vessels to increase in size.This allows the insulin to be absorbed more quickly which can lead to hypos.
 
Hi Glucosegirl.
At last the answer to the mystery of how and why the warmer weather factor can affect us
so...
Thanks for the post explaining this... :thumbup:
Really helpful info and explains it well.
Anna. :)
 
Hmm, doesn't fully explain it for me, I think.

When it is hot, I will have 0 effect from my rapid acting for the first 1.5 hours. Then it will start slowly lowering my blood sugar around the 2 hour mark and at 3 hours, I will get the full effect. By 3.5 hours, the insulin will be gone.

Normally, my RA will kick in about the 1 hour mark, slowly. Around 2 hours from injection, I will have max effect, but the spike will be less, then it will slowly keep working for about 4.5 hours.

In me at least, I will get a delayed-rapid effect. More delayed, then more pronounced. It took me a while to figure out that it was a delay and sort of stacking of the previous two hours of missing effect.

So, I guess what I don't fully understand is the delay - the rest fits.

A guess of how NovoRapid generally works for me is 10 percent is actively working for the first hour, then around the 90 minute-120 minute mark, I will have around 50 percent of it working, then for the last 3 hours, 25-10-5 percent, it seems. It's a guess, of course, but feels something like that.

When it's hot, for the first hour, 0 effect, then at 90-120 minutes I'll have 10 percent working, at hour 3, I will have about 80 percent of the insulin working, and then the last two hours 10+0 percent of my dose.

It does pose a bit of a problem, or it used to, because I will check around 120 minutes if I am in doubt about my dosing. If I correct while it is hot at 120 minutes, I will definately hypo. If I delay the test to 180 minutes, I will see the numbers I expected on a cool day at 120 mins or even slightly less than that.
 
Back
Top