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

Weird and scary symptoms this morning of a pre hypo.

C

char87

Active Member
Messages
39
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi

This morning I woke up with sugar level of 12- not sure why it was higher but I corrected with my usual ratio and ate breakfast. about half an hour alter, I was on the train to work when I started yawning lots- I wasn't tired but felt like I didn't have enough air.I then went really dizzy and had black patches in front of my eyes and a loud ringing in my ears and was really hot- I couldn't stand up at all. I tested my sugar with help and it had dropped to 4 so not actually a hypo- I have good hypo awareness and never have these symptoms before. I don't know what caused it or if it was diabetes related, but I thought it may be because of the fast drop in my levels and that although the test showed 4 it was on its way furter down? Has anyone had this or heard of this before? After I ate some jelly babies it started to get better and I feel fine now- was just quite scary so am keen to know if it was diabetes related or not.
 
Over how short a period was the bg level drop. What you describe could be considered as "false hypo" symptoms, induced by a rapid drop in bg levels, which is quite a common problem.
 
No idea if it was diabetes related or not but your reasoning about it coming down so quickly may be why you felt so bad.
I had a really high morning the other day, I was 15.8 when I woke up and had breakfast. Two hours later I was 6.6, and 3.2 a little after this. I felt horrendous, much worse than a regular hypo, but I put this down to the speed at which my levels came down.
 
It was about half an hour from when I tested and corrected to when I started feeling ill. My usual hypo symptons are feeling shaky but I can deal with them and after 3 jelly babies Im fine. Today I felt like I couldn't see or hear and I couldn't stand up without feeling like I would pass out - have never heard of a false hypo before but I will look into it! Thanks for the advice.
 
Sounds like your bg levels were dropping like a stone, had you not taken on board some glucose I'm sure it would have dropped much further . I had this happen last year whilst eating my evening meal and it can be a scary experience, if you were rushing about to catch the train this might have speeded up your insulin absorption.
 
Yeah i didn't go high after 3 jelly babies when i tested a bit later, so I think it was definitely on its way down more. Normally i just get the hypo symptons and thats it, so this was something quite new, even after 20 years of type 1! Reassuring to hear its a common thing although sorry others have gone through it too!
 
I hope that you don't mind a T2 interloper, I ended up in this thread by mistake.

My BGs were very high for a long while before starting insulin in March and I've had a couple of false hypos since, including the start of one yesterday at 5.5 I had a horrible one a couple of weeks ago at 5.8, which at the time was the lowest I'd been for many months. I had similar alarming and rapid symptoms, plus my heart was racing. My hearing went and my vision started blacking out and I was very hot and sweating. So it sounds as though yours was a similar reaction to the rapid drop rather than the actual level. I think it might have been @noblehead that told me about false hypos, it was new and unexpected to me as a long term type 2.
 
That sounds very similar indeed to what happened to me- thanks for the input and hope your's stop soon. I haven't been running that high at all apart from a high last night and this morning - my hba1c has between 6.6- 7.1 for the last year so would have thought I was used to being lower - it does sound as if it was the rapid drop. I did do a lot of exercise yesterday so probably more sensitive to insulin today and should have corrected a bit less. Hindsight!
 
char87 said:
Yeah i didn't go high after 3 jelly babies when i tested a bit later, so I think it was definitely on its way down more. Normally i just get the hypo symptons and thats it, so this was something quite new, even after 20 years of type 1! Reassuring to hear its a common thing although sorry others have gone through it too!
Click to expand...

Looks like you caught the hypo just in time, as said I had this happen last year and not had another episode since so hopefully yours will be much the same, but its good that you went on your instinct and warning signs to act straight away, I think for anyone who thinks they may be going low quite fast that its best to treat it and correct later if they are mistaken.
 
Bloods dropping quickly seem to give horrible symptoms of hypos.

As blood testers aren't 100% accurate it could be that your machine is reading slightly higher and you were hypo.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bloods dropping quickly, especially shortly after injecting, gives me the most horrendous hypos. Last time few months ago, when I misjudged carb content of a big bread roll. After an hour started feeling very anxious and panicky, but sugar I took seemed not to keep up with the drop rate. Scary
 
Back
Top