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Terrifying hypo :(

phdiabetic

Well-Known Member
Messages
879
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I honestly thought I was going to die this morning, so I'm very happy to be sitting here telling you all about this now. I have excellent control, and a keen sense of hypo awareness (I can feel it around 4 most of the time) but even though I picked up this hypo early, it went wrong anyway

This morning I had my usual breakfast, usual bolus, and once my IOB was down to virtually nothing I started to get ready for the day. When I was brushing my teeth, my head felt funny (and my cgm said 5.8, a slight decrease from earlier), so I had a couple of mouthfuls of juice. The next cgm reading was 5.0, and I still felt funny, so I did a fingerprick and got a 3.7. Had a juice, and sat down to wait until I recovered before I finished getting dressed.

8 minutes later, the cgm said I was 4.3, and I felt the need to do another fingerprick - 2.6 That's a massive decrease, considering the short amount of time, having no IOB, and having drunk about 20g of sugar. I had 3 more juices immediately (yep, that's about 60g sugar, but I didn't want to get any lower) and yelled for help. My dad sat with me in case I needed glucagon, and I reviewed the procedure with him while I waited for the next fingerprick. Thankfully, my blood sugar went back up again! The thing is, I had about 70g total carbs, and my blood sugar peaked at only 7.1 :/

I don't know what caused this - I ate the same breakfast I do every day, same doses, no other medication changes, no illness, and hadn't done any physical activity yet apart from the incidental exercise of getting dressed. I lowered my basal for the time period in which I had the hypo, and the few hours before, and I will be running my blood sugars a bit higher today in case anything else happens.

Thanks for reading, I just really needed to get this off my chest.
 
I know this one well. The wretched type of hypo that comes on strong and refuses to let go. You correct it, yet the symptoms persist for ages. Enough to drive you bananas!!
 
leslie10152 said:
I know this one well. The wretched type of hypo that comes on strong and refuses to let go. You correct it, yet the symptoms persist for ages. Enough to drive you bananas!!
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You're so right about the symptoms lasting for ages! I somehow felt much worse when I was on my way back up through the 3's than I did when I was 2.6. And once I'd recovered I was still sweaty and my head felt weird, although it was most likely just due to anxiety about the whole situation.
 
Hi @phdiabetic . Not the best start to the day. Glad to know that you managed to keep conscious and in control, sometimes panic / stress sets in and that just exasperates the situation. Hope you feel better soon, but wouldn't be surprised if the effects last the rest of the day.
You'll probably never figure out what happened and if you over scrutinise it will drive you crazy. Just one of those diabetic things.
Have a good day, keep an eye on those levels.
 
Hi @phdiabetic Glad your ok

It was a good job you remained rational, it sometimes hard to when a hypo strikes, I've had the same, I do agree with rower that when I've started going low that if I'm stressed about it then it can make the hypo harder and slower to treat, I've learned that stress and using my brain more than usual can cause me to go low it just burns through glucose at a faster rate, so this could of contributed.
 
Although it's scary remember it can take 45 mins until you're back to normal and longer sometimes depending on how low you are. Try not to get stressed about it, it does make it worse. Remember that the cgm has a time lag of about 20 mins, the meter of about 5-10 so your real blood sugar is already lower. Therefore when you see you blood sugar drop further within 5 mins of treating all it may be doing is showing what you were 5 mins ago. Treat with the amount you normally would (taking into account IOB if any) wait for 15 mins well away from food as you'll want to eat and eat and then test again. Remember different remedies do act at different rates. I'm a juice fan but a lot of people on here swear by lucozade as they say it acts faster.

How long have you been diagnosed? If not long it's possible you're in the honeymoon period. Otherwise there are all the usual unplannable reasons e.g. hormones, weather, stress......

Well done for handling it well and I hope the rest of your day goes better.
 
There's a reason for everything: remember that the cause of your rapidly declining BS's was an excess of insulin (for whatever reason, but you know that's the cause). Therefore your intake of sugar was taken up by the excess of glucose pretty quickly. This was not a "normal" situation, whereby drinking 4 juices would have resulted in a BS of 25-30. You did the right thing. I remember getting intravenous D50 by a paramedic once and waking up in bed. I said "I'd better eat something pretty quick here" because an amp of D50 only has 25g of sugar, and that was going to be gone before you know it.
 
Did you have alcohol the night before? Even one pint of beer can do the trick, because it blocks your liver, and prevents it from releasing glucose into the blood, therefore effectively looking like you just had an injection. This effect is usually 5-6h after a drink, and I need about 40g of carbs (always juice in my case) to get back to normal. It usually lasts for about 1-2h.

I completely agree with previous posts, the BS going down even after juice can simply be the lag between blood reading and actual values. Also the juice takes a bit to counter-act.

I used to get very scared, but now I know that even the WORST hypos I've ever had always come back up after some juice. It's all about being patient, controlling regularly, and trying to control the stress to avoid weird feelings. I like to watch some stupid tv show or something for 5 min if I feel very stressed to keep my mind off it. But calling your dad was a very good thing.
 
It's completely exhausting when this happens! The low sugars could have been caused by anything - too much insulin, a slight change in hormones, slightly longer for your breakfast to kick in etc. The CGM isn't quite accurate in that there is a five minute delay between your actual reading and what the meter shows you (I was told this by an Abbott Freestyle Libre rep at my local hospital), so it's a pain in these situations where you need constant, UP TO DATE values. I stopped using it because it told me I was 2.8, I wasn't experiencing any hypo symptoms so did a BG check and I was 8.0! I've heard on here though that if you stick with them they do really work once they're calibrated to your body. Good job calling your dad, when your head is muddled in hypo state it's often the last thing you think of to get help. Really hope you're feeling better now though
 
You'd never convince me to use a Libre based on comments here. Not that we can get them in the US anyway (maybe for a reason). The Dexcom will alert you via your phone when you pass below about 4.0 which could be lifesaving. The Libre doesn't do anything when you approach low.
 
@TheBigNewt Given how much cheaper the Freestyle Libre is often a person does not have the option of a Dexcom.
 
No alcohol. I don't drink - I think it would far too dangerous, with no positives, to risk having a hypo that glucagon couldn't fix, even though I've never needed it before. Also I might not be able to make the correct treatment decisions while drunk.
 
Totally agree about the Libre -that's why I'm using dexcom now! Once the libre told me I was 'LO' for about 45min (I had a hypo around 3.0 but came back up, and it was still reading low when meters told me I was in the 8's). I called the Abbott people and they said that the sensors are sometimes inaccurate on the first day - well if what the libre said was even close to correct, I'm pretty sure I would be dead instead of having this conversation about it! Anyway I actually found that the libre worked best when I first got it, and then over time they became less and less accurate.
 
ringi said:
@TheBigNewt Given how much cheaper the Freestyle Libre is often a person does not have the option of a Dexcom.
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Yeah I hear it's cheaper. And your NHS doesn't cover it as a rule. What I never got was the cost of those CGM systems for say 6 months including the sensors the readers the whatevers.
 
TheBigNewt said:
Yeah I hear it's cheaper. And your NHS doesn't cover it as a rule. What I never got was the cost of those CGM systems for say 6 months including the sensors the readers the whatevers.
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The key thing driving insurance coverage of CGM in the USA is the cost of ER services. They are generally more than 10x what they are in the EU. That makes CGM cost effective.
 
tigger said:
I'm a juice fan but a lot of people on here swear by lucozade as they say it acts faster.
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Lucozade was extremely good at raising your blood sugar. Unfortunately, the carbs in it have been halved thanks to the Sugar Tax. Still looking for suitable alternatives.
 
Dodo said:
Still looking for suitable alternatives.
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GlucoJuice is good @Dodo , a bit expensive but cheaper when you buy in quantity, I get mine from Amazon.

Each bottle contains 15g of fast-acting glucose, I like the product as it fits easily into pockets, it works incredibly fast and is worth the money IMHO.
 
Thank you. I will take a look.
 
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