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Type 1: When's the last time you had a hypo?

Saturday. Child and I were cooking, I started to feel lowish, tested and was at 4.5 so asked the child if I could have one of the choc strawberries she was making planning to head off a hypo. Then it gets a bit fuzzy but think this is what happened...
She made the strawberry while I focused on getting a pie into the oven. I must have been dropping because next thing she is shoving strawberry in my face and crying because I am refusing to eat it. She is shouting, why did you say you wanted it then? Three strawberries later and 3 jelly babies and I'm reading 4.3 so no idea what I went down to on that occasion.
Felt better within 20 mins.
 
hi
last hypo was a couple of days ago whilst I was at a Carbo counting course! tested 3.5. ate 6 jelly babies. ok within about 20mins.
generally though recovery time for me depends on stability. if I start roller coasting I can feel rough (glazed, cloudy head) for hours.

on the alcohol point....they did say on the course that alcohol can reduce your bg.
 
ps. I've also had the false reading problem due to food residue on fingers. Once tested 28 thought no way, washed hands retested at 12.
now I always wash hands before testing.
 
Aw hell, I did it again.
I did my calculations right and everything. I think. My carb ratio is 1:3.5

Pre-meal BG: 8.0

Meal was..
1 1/2 cup minestrone soup (19g carbs per 1 cup, minus 3g fiber)
1 grilled cheese sandwich, 2 slices brown toast (15g carbs per)

Total insulin needed: About 12, I did 13 considering I was already past the 4-6 range.

Post-meal BG: 3.6! Had to quickly get some sugar. Oops...
 
bobneil said:
Aw hell, I did it again.
I did my calculations right and everything
Click to expand...

Hi, Bob, I see you're newly dx'd. Imagine an old fashioned set of balancing scales - you've got insulin in one pan and carbs in the other. The only problem is that there's dozens of things going on in the background which are shoogling the table the scales are sitting on. You can neither measure nor control those things. Liver is the obvious one, both releases and takes back glucose - my DSN calls it "a sly wee f***er". So, while carb counting is a good starting point, it's inevitable that something will happen which throws it out from time to time. It's frustrating but I've come to terms with it by realising that if something messes up it's either down to me miscalculating, in which case I'll learn from it, or it's just part of the inevitably random nature of the condition about which I can do nothing.

Noticed you had cheese on toast i.e. a mini pizza. You'll read about the pizza effect. The fatty cheese will slow down absorption of glucose from stomach to bloodstream so there's a chance thst even if your carb counting is fine the insulin will have got to work before it's got any glucose to work on. Timing of dose often plays a part.
 
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Right, I understand that something like pizza will need a split dose due to the fat content, I just wasn't sure if a single slice of processed cheese would do anything - or if it had a role in this at all. Like you said, there's a lot of variables at play.

I'm somewhat expecting a hypo this afternoon, and here's why:
My fasting BG was 6.9. After some peanut butter toast, it's still at 6.9. I took 7 units before eating.

The last 5 times I've had this exact same meal, I've had to take 8,9,10,10,10 units and 4 of the 5 times my post prandial BG was higher than before. In other words, I took 7 units to see if it would be enough when it wasn't before.

So, seeing that it's equal before and after right now, that's a first. I've also noticed a trend where my post prandial readings are higher but then drop before my next meal. I can only safely guess that I'll go below 4 in the next 2 hours, but I've got fruit juice if needed.
 
I've only been diagnosed for 16 days and I'm on insulin so I've had maybe 20+ in that short time frame. Much better in the last few days though I had 2 yesterday as I was much more active than I have been in the previous 2 weeks whilst I've been off work.

I'm finding that I was recognising the low levels at about 5.5 with shakes etc but in recent days I've completely missed them and been down to 3.7 or lower and just tested because I felt off but no shakes or anything else.
 

Your body and brain are getting used to hypos, so you're going to slip into them without the signs that it's happening.
Please fix whatever's causing you to dip into them on a daily basis, or it will eventually harm you during your sleep or cause you to suddenly pass out while doing things. Which.. could very easily lead to death from hitting your head.
As for getting shakes at 5.5, are you sure that's not just hunger or something? I don't notice anything until I hit 3.8, which seems to line up with the standard 4-6 range being called healthy.
 
@bobneil the diabetic nurses said I was shaking at 5.5 originally because my body had had months of being used to very high blood glucose levels and then a 5.5 was very low for it. That's why I'm not recognising then until much lower now as I am getting used to lower dg levels. I've already lowered by insulin ratio to 70% during the day and 50% on an evening. It's making a difference. However when I do even the tiniest bit of activity of exercise it affects it. That's the learning curve I'm on at the minute.
 
Me too. I'm anxious to start working out again, but I need to know how to prevent going low during a session or it'll have to end prematurely.
 

Did you do you calculations right though?

39 / 3.5 = 11.1 , so quite far away from being "about 12", you rounded up significantly to get to 12. I think that might be the problem. You're on a pretty tight I:C ratio, maybe avoid rounding up?

Do you know what your correction factor is? Cos you seem to have given 2 units to correct down from 8. If you know how much 1 unit will lower blood sugar that would help you decide how much to dose as a correction.

bobneil said:
Me too. I'm anxious to start working out again, but I need to know how to prevent going low during a session or it'll have to end prematurely.
Click to expand...

Try not to work out with active insulin on board. Keep hypo treatment handy. Test frequently, if you can see you are dropping you can sip a little lucozade and halt the drop before you get to hypo under 4.
 
I honestly don't know anymore. I did some more approximate math, just left out the fiber in the toast. There'd be 55.5g between the soup and the toast, and that ratio gives me 15.8 insulin needed. So ... IF that's correct, I took less insulin than I should have, and still went to hypo. What gives?

My correction factor? I think she said 1 unit drops it 2 mmol. That was a suggestion though, not something that became known through testing.
 
I had hypo yesterday evening (fri 17th) 2.6
Quarter of a glass of lucozade sorted me out in about 7-8 minutes
 
Would have thought the cycling, and walking the dog would bring your levels down, you need to take into account when working out your correction doses
 
I feel bad posting in this thread so often.
It was my first day back to work. I had been sedentary for 3 weeks.

At 2 pm I had a banana smoothie, dosed appropriately because it was the same ingredients, portions, and pre-meal BG as last time, my before was 8.0

I started my shift at 3pm, did some moderate walking and lifting boxes, and by 3:45pm I was at 2.8. Just... a shaking sweaty mess.
I had a bunch of dextrose tablets, and some lifesavers too. By 4:45pm I was at 3.0, so I had a fruit bar and some *******.

That solved it, because I was at 10.3 at 7pm in time for dinner.

I might at least change my lunch to be further behind the start of my shift. I think I was still on the last bit of my insulin when I was doing activity.
 
last time i remember goin hypo was goin out to eat about a couple of months before christmas, but was unsure if it was a normal blood sugar because im so used to being high i don't know what a hypo feels like anymore
 
Sandra_W said:
Would have thought the cycling, and walking the dog would bring your levels down, you need to take into account when working out your correction doses
Click to expand...

Thanks Sandra, cycling and walking the dog are multi everyday normal occurrence and my correction factors already take that into account, but yes people should take those sorts of unexpected 'efforts' in to consideration when correcting.

 
Ugh, I'm upset.
So, I've had at least 5 hypos in the last 3 days - two today. I can't seem to get control of it and I'm about ready to just have a junk food meal to make it go above 8 for a while. I already can't notice one until I'm near 3.0, compared to the noticeable symptoms at 3.8 I had earlier in the month.

This latest one, I'm at 2.8 right now, approx. 3 hours after I had 12 units of fast-acting for my cereal.
I ALWAYS have 12 units for that cereal, it's the same amount of carbs every time too.

The past times I'd either get a slightly higher sugar or I'd drop from an 8 to a 4. This time I didn't even make it to my next meal before having a hypo, dropping from a fasting BG of 7.9 all the way down to 2.8 within 3 hours.

I have to leave the house in an hour and go on a 20 minute walk to work, during which time my sugar's going to drop significantly. So, I guess, I have to raise my sugar before then.
 
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Hi @bobneil, sounds like you are going to have to look at your ratios with your nurse.
 
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