• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Unexpected hypo

KEV-81

Member
Messages
11
So I'm late 30's and type 1 just over a year now. Mdi and bloods usually controlled between 5 & 10 mmol/L.

Yesterday I had lunch at 12:30, bloods were 5.7 pre food and at 4pm they were 7.9 (not quite enough insulin I know but drive at 4pm each day).
Went home and by 4:45pm I was hypo at 3.5mmol.

I don't understand the hypo though as I shouldn't have any insulin onboard over 4hrs after my novarapid shot for lunch, and I didn't over exert myself to bring bloods down. Dropping from 7.9 to 3.5 within 45mins for no explanation has me confused?
 
It is unusual to drop so far so quickly without any exercise.
I wonder if the 7.9 reading was correct - perhaps the meter was having a funny turn or you had some carbs on your fingers. Even something as innocuous as printing ink you can pick up when reading a book can affect BG readings.
 
duration of fast acting insulin is meant to be 4 hours -- but many people find it has a "sting" in the tail
and can last up to an hour longer

Part of the answer might lie in what carbs you had at your lunch time meal.

also agree with @helensaramay -- accuracy on meters is +/- 15% so you could have been as low as 6.7 at 4pm
and as high as 4.0 at 4:45pm

I also note your 4pm test was only 3.5 hours post lunch bolus -- so you did have a bit of IOB ( insulin on board )
as you were driving home.

a further thought .............as a year into diagnosis perhaps honeymoon period ( so body still producing erratic small amounts of insulin )
 
Thanks for the replys.

Good point on the meter readings, the 7.9 may have been off ..... the 3.5 was definitely correct as I could tell I was going hypo as rarely go this low.

I believe I am still in the honeymoon period as sometimes the insulin I think I need varies from one day to next.

Wish I had a Libre sensor on at the time, would have given me some helpful information
 
It happens to all of us. Fortunately not much to you, but it's a blip on the radar screen it sounds like to me.
 
Back
Top