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Type 1: Delayed hypo

Rickmac1988

Active Member
Messages
43
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Morning all,

Yesterday morning I went for a 5K run, when I got back my blood was 6. I didn't really feel hypo after it however later in the day I started feeling the symptoms. Before bed my blood was 6.7 however I was starting to feel very faint and shaky.

Before going to bed I had, 5 glucose tabs, a whole pack of giant chocolate buttons and a can of coke... a real binge.

This morning my blood was 13, however I still feel as though I'm having a hypo - do I need to treat with more sugar or am I still feeling the symptoms for another reason?

Any help appreciated!

Thanks,
Rick
 
Hi Rick,

You need to go with your meter readings. In none of those scenarios are you hypo and eating glucose isn't going to change that. Hypo is when you have a blood glucose around 3.5mmol/l. What you were/are experiencing are hypo-like symptoms.

The feelings of faintness and shakiness are likely to be linked to your exercise, but if they don't abate, I'd suggest that you go and see a GP.
 
The only situation where I feel hypo but am not actually low is where i've been exercising and my BG levels have dropped suddenly and can feel shaky, which happened yesterday after gardening. Mentally I wanted to have glucose however after a BG test I was 4.5 so not low enough to treat. You simply have to test more frequently to check
 
13 is a lot to wake up to in the morning. I wonder if all those sugars caught up with you in your sleep by giving a hypo, and then your liver came to your rescue (over-compensating as usual ...)?

How often do you go above 10? For example: I could be fine with 5-11, but if it goes any lower or higher than that, then weird symptoms will appear. 11 is where my fatigue, disoriented, confused, sluggish kind of symptoms appear. At 12 I get the weird taste in mouth. If 13 or higher, then it's extra insulin time. What I'm trying to say is that you're having the classic hypo-like effects by not having enough insulin onboard.... so the cells in your body are literally starving. Maybe it's not the exercise that caused your sickness, but the over-compensation.
 

As long as you've washed your hands and retested to make sure those readings are correct, then No you're not having a hypo at 13.

Keep testing frequently and watch out for an impending illness as a possible cause of your faintness. If the feelings continue and you're not ill, then I second the advice to see a doctor.
 
Stress could a factor too, worrying or being anxious can put bs into double figures, it can with mine.
I hope you can find out what is going on and you get relief very soon.
Take care.
 

Thanks @tim2000s - it was a bit of a weird one really, I've not really experienced feeling hypo for such a long time. I do normally go with my blood meter but on this occasion I knew I was feeling low so felt it wasn't right. Probably was due to exercise which makes it more frustrating!
 

13 is probably good for me on a morning truth be told. However it does make me question how low did my blood go if I was able to eat a full bag of giant buttons, a can of coke and glucose tabs?! It's a mystery!

Good points though - my sugars have been up and down for quite sometime now so this probably has effected the symptoms somewhat!
 
Rickmac1988 said:
However it does make me question how low did my blood go if I was able to eat a full bag of giant buttons, a can of coke and glucose tabs?! It's a mystery!
Click to expand...
I think the evidence is before you on your meter. You were never actually low, and eating that lot made sure you weren't. If you typically run relatively high (you yourself say that 13 is good for you in the morning and your glucose levels have been all over the place) then hypo symptoms do tend to occur at a higher level than when you're hypo.

It's probably worth taking a step back and trying to get everything a bit more balanced. Bouncing around usually indicates one of two things. Either there are things going on in your life at the moment that means that your diabetes has to take a back seat, or that you need to take a time out and re-address you basal insulin and following on from that, your I:C ratios. Hopefully it's the latter and it's something that you can get fixed!
 
As I understand it (from a keep fit crazy friend so possibly not very scientific), through the night your muscles repair and take (something) out of your blood, so whatever time of day you exercise, you need carbs before bed...works for me
I also find carbs and insulin both work differently asleep to awake (note to self about falling asleep straight after tea and testing high before bed) x
 
Just a thought as this all seems a bit wonky, When you monitor you get a reading for that moment with no indication of whether your 13 is on its way to 17 or 7 so if you get an out of whack reading you need to test again shortly after. You need to cut out the binging compensation too.
 
Stress actually makes my bg numbers go down, not up.
Exercise used to make me inject half my normal quick insulin dose. Now I don't bother with halving.
I have lost all my hypo warning signs but have got two new, reliable ones;
1 When we look at the sun. we close our eyes quickly and get a white image on our black retina; this white round image appears on my eyes [open or closed] and is warning me.
2 There is a small fluttering in the near foreground, eyes open.

I would love to have readings which have an arrow next to it [see ayceejay comment]
 
If you are used to your blood sugars running high then yes a reading of 6 might make you feel like you're hypo... its the signals all mixed up cos your normal blood sugar is higher. Try and get your readings down and hopefully your feeling of being hypo will return and your blood sugar will actually match up to how you are feeling.
 
Eat a banana instead of all that sugar, it will slowly release the carbs and is a healthy version compared to all that sugar, especially after exercising!
 
If I take carbs at supper time, even if I inject at bedtime, I wake up with high bg. I also find a big difference in my Insulin;carbs ratio during a single day. 1:10 in the morning. 1:20 after 6pm.
 
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