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Think I've had my first Hypo...

Meady74

Active Member
Messages
35
Location
St Leonards on Sea
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Tablets
I think I've had a hypo. Although the NHS diabetes Nurse recons Type 2's cannot get hypos.

I say think, as I had a bit of an episode this afternoon when I came over all funny, felt as if I'd hadn't eaten for several days, really light headed, legs went all jelly. Grabbed the finger prick tester and it was 4.1. Had some sugar in the form of drumstick squashies (80g of sugar per 100g) and felt much better a little while after. The squashies are the kids not mine I hasten to add and they only have them on the rare occasion.

interestingly enough, I don't regularly finger prick test myself regularly, I did a two week stint 3 times a day when first diagnosed to see what was going on and my sugar levels ranged from 4.0 to 9.0. I never felt like I did today though when I want down to 4.0 before. However, I do feel quite rough when I have had too much sugar.
 
4.1 for most people is not a hypo, for me personally that's a 'normal' reading.

If your sugars have been running higher your body will have got used to that so when you've gone to 4.1 it will have gave you 'false hypo' symptoms, did you test after eating the sweets?


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I think your diabetes nurse needs to go back to school as you will get hypos as I have had a good few over the years and I have been a type 2 Diabetic for 20 years and I can remember stuff that the new ones don't know about so the one that you need to watch out for is the light headed and feeling hungry and loss of interest to anything around you and I mean that last one as that is the main one before it is to late as I have been done before for being drunk and disorderly due to a hypo outside so I always carry something that tells them that I maybe having a hypo and to call a ambulance asap so if you have been told that you will not get any you will and it won't be your last one as you will get to know the signs for each one as I have had to learn and I didn't need any nurse or doctor to tell me I just got on with it I'm sure you will also and it will be easier to know now that you do get them then later on by your diabetes nurse at a later stage
 

Well this morning I felt weird too - so as I was at home, managed to test myself too.

I was 4 and felt much the same as @Meady74 .... I am not gonna wait to see if its a false hypo or not - I always carry sweets as it happens all too often.
 
If your T2 hypos are anything like my T2 hypos then your body dumps stress hormones like adrenalin into the system to trigger your liver to release bg into the bloodstream. This happens v fast, and often the hypo feelings are due as much (if not more) to the stress hormones as to the low blood glucose.

This means that by the time you realise what is happening and reach for the meter, your blood glucose has already started to rise. It may have been lower before you tested.

Hope you are feeling better? I always feel like I have been run over by a dump truck, but it passes, and I usually feel fine the next morning.

Have you managed to work out the particular set of circs that set you up for this one? Too long between meals? Too much physical activity or stress on an empty stomach? Too many carbs leading to a sharp drop?

Always worth working that out, if only to learn how to avoid it in future. Hope that helps.
 

Ooh, I had that, very light-headed and legs wouldn't work, this was after I had been to the gym and then rested for a while. I'm just on Metformin and Low Cal diet.
 

Jordi - I disagree when you state "you will get hypos". I would be happy enough with "you could get hypos".

Not everyone has hypos. I have never knowingly had a hypo, and my numbers these days can go very low indeed, and I continue to feel fine. If I feel a bit "off", and my numbers are low, it's usually because I'm plain old hungry and often being tortured by the smells of dinner cooking!

When I was early on in my diabetic journey, I had the odd tired day, or a day when just nothing seemed to hang together properly, but I looked upon that as a transitional phase, and fortunately for me, those days was very few and only individual days. Non-diabetics have those days too.
 

Meady - I can appreciate how alarming it must have been for you and your folks.

When we are trying to reduce our sugars, our bodies sometimes try to thwart our best efforts, and keep the numbers up. Our bodies like routine, and sometimes, for some folks trying to reduce their numbers, once they breech (probably downwards) their usual comfort zone, their bodies "object" and throw out these Feed ME! symptoms.

I would suggest if this episode recurs you try to do something rather gentle, like have a cup of tea, with milk, and see how you feel after a short while.

We're all different, and you have to decide how to tackle this, but please don't panic. It would be highly unusual for a T2 to suffer a medically serious hypo. Any hypo, or hypo style feelings will be alarming and undoubtedly uncomfortable, but to repeat, unless you are taking heftier meds (insulin stimulating drugs or insulin itself), your body would help you out before things got too serious.
 
@Mrsass I must admit, I didn't test after I had the sugar intake but I did feel much better though.

@Jordi77 Well, that was kind of what I was thinking. Particularly if 'technically' your results come back at 4.0 and under you are classed as having a hypo regardless of diabetes type.

@Brunneria Thanks, I am feeling much better and thanks for the pointers. It might have been due to food levels, had lunch at around 12-1 and this was about 4:30 and had had nothing in between. Interestingly enough, I measured again before I went to bed, about 11:30pm and it was 4.3, go figure.

@AndBreathe Thanks for the advice and pointers. It's always a difficult one and I went in the opposite direction this afternoon, too much sugar, felt rough, really rough, lethargic and really ratty. Didn't help that my wife though I was just being a moody sod.
 

Meady - If going under 4 is always I hypo, I live great tranches of my life in hypoland. Clinical hypoglycaemia is defined somewhat lower than 4.0. The 4.0 is relevant to T1s and others on insulin or certain other drugs, because T1s don't have the same level of natural fightback process so must react at an earlier point than others.

Have a read here: http://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepage.cfm?ID=-19922936
 
I was told that if your sugars come at 3.9 then you are having a hypo and your sugars are normal between 4.0 and 7.9 and if they are above that is classed as hyperglycemia and that is in all classes of diabetes as I have T2 but it is the same for T1 to and I am on insulin
 
I was told that if your sugars come at 3.9 then you are having a hypo and your sugars are normal between 4.0 and 7.9 and if they are above that is classed as hyperglycemia and that is in all classes of diabetes as I have T2 but it is the same for T1 to and I am on insulin
 
I was told that if your sugars come at 3.9 then you are having a hypo and your sugars are normal between 4.0 and 7.9 and if they are above that is classed as hyperglycemia and that is in all classes of diabetes as I have T2 but it is the same for T1 to and I am on insulin
 
Having lived in hypo hell, I can tell you that the people other than type1, it is more like 3.5 and under.
However, some people normal and diabetic mostly T2, can live happily in the threes and not have any problems.
But the whole topic is controversial and debatable.

Having hypo awareness can help and you can avoid just by eating something low carb before the hypo occurs.
In an emergency situation always treat it the best way for you.
But be aware of going too high if you have too many carbs to treat the hypo.
 

Yes, as @AndBreathe said, the 4 cut off for hypos is the advice given to T1s and others on insulin or certain other drugs which may have the effect of lowering blood sugar. However, for those who are treating their diabetes with diet alone (not on any medication or with any condition causing hypoglycaemic) a reading of 3.9 could be called a hypo, but that could be considered an unnecessary medicalisation of "being hungry". Because, for those on diet alone, there are no external forces which are going to keep pushing them lower, the body will kick in to take glucose from the liver and even the blood sugars out. 3.9 would be a perfectly reasonable, healthy, fasting blood sugar, but fasting doesn't sound like fun to me, so of course, its sensible to break the fast & eat something if being at those levels makes someone feel rough, their body is telling them it needs to eat.
 
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