Sudden Hypos (after covid?)

Hello everyone. I'm the daughter of a parent with diabetes. My mum first started with type 1 diabetes when she was 40 and has had it for 20 years. She has always been well controlled, takes insulin 4 times a day, hypos at most maybe twice a week, some weeks doesn't hypo at all. In the past month she has been having more hypos than normal at lower BG than normal. She had several at 2.8 and 2.5. Yesterday she had a severe hypo. It tested 2.5 so she drank isotonic fruit juice as usual but it dropped even more, rapidly, and she said she couldn't speak or move and was having uncontrollable jerking head movements. Luckily the juice she initially drank must have kicked in and her BG went higher and she was fine afterwards. Her BG the next morning before breakfast though was 20. She has never had a severe hypo before. They have always been in the BG levels of 3. I've never been worried about her hypos before because they were mild and self managed easily. But now I am extremely worried about her. We don't know what's causing these more frequent hypos or why they are so low. She had a couple of "mild" hypos last week with BG levels in the 3s so I don't think she's developed hypo unawareness. She blamed the warmer weather but it's not hot anymore, it was only 21/22 degrees C yesterday. A month ago she had covid and I wonder if that may be the cause. She still has a lingering cough and some tiredness 4 weeks after symptoms started.

Has anyone else had low blood sugars after having covid? Everything I've read online only mentions high blood sugars because of covid, not low.

NicoleC1971 said:

Firstly, I'd expect your mum to have higher bgs if she is still fighting a virus but an indirect effect could be that she is eating less or lost a bit of weight. Both things would make her more sensitive to insulin. I'm assuming nothing else has changed.
I think she needs to adjust her basal and bolus insulins or eat more to avoid unpleasant hypos which must be horrible for her and worrying for you.
She could try and work out if she is having the hypo within 2 hours of a meal in which case her bolus to carb ratio needs adjustment or whether she is just generally going much lower all day long in which case it could be the basal. And finally Diabetes UK.org run a free Careline so you could speak to them or suggest your mum does so.
I hope she irons this glitch out soon.
I'd hope that she also has a diabetes nurse to chat this through with.
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Thanks for the advice. Her blood sugars were never high even during the worst of covid. She isn't eating less, the hypos have happened at various different times of day and night. She checks her bg before every meal and at bedtime and they haven't been unusual. She doesn't have a diabetes nurse or speak to anyone regularly about it, she just has the annual diabetic checkup every 12 months at the gp surgery.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've read that a CGM has a delay of up to 15 mins, so how does it prevent hypos with such a delay to the alert?

This basal and bolus stuff is all new to me. My mum takes Humalog 3 times a day with meals (short acting insulin) and a long acting insulin just once with supper at bedtime.

EllieM said:

The basal is the long acting, her humalog is her bolus.

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Thanks.

RobertJ said:

I have Covid-19 right now and I seem to be going low all the time. The actual virus is just a normal cold but my insulin requirements seem to have dropped to unforeseen levels, it's very strange. Has this been anyone else's experience?

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I'm sorry you're experiencing it and I hope you feel better soon. Thanks for sharing, I think that everyone responds to covid differently and there are some effects that aren't yet documented.

ashleyneildas said:

I had Covid a month ago and I also seem to be having sometimes several lows during the day now especially if I do any kind of activity?

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Thanks for sharing. It's interesting you are still having lows a month after covid. It's nearly 6 weeks ago and the lows are still happening pretty much every other day. Some are related to activity, others when it's almost meal time, others have been random.