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Well that was new... and odd

AndyS

Well-Known Member
Messages
783
Location
Cambridge
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Last night I made a bit of an error. We all do sometimes.
Wife was cooking dinner and I was working out the carb counts for it all and somehow or another I forgot to divide correctly so ended up essentially counting the meal as 30g more carb than it actually was. What this meant for me is I overdosed by 6 units :eek:

Well anyway what followed next was the obvious sharp hypo, no surprise there then. What was different and new this time was just quite how incoherent and confused I was. It wasnt even an especially bad hypo, only 2.7, but I felt like I was not only hypo but drunk, hypo and also like I had just woken up.
Wife asked me a couple of questions and then insisted I go sit down since I clearly hadnt understood what she said and certainly wasnt resonding as I would normally. Never have I been so confused with a hypo.

On the plus side I did get a mini magnum icecream to chase down 3 lucozade sweets which just nicely covered off my error and brought me back to a 5.5.
Also I did subsequently work out exactly where I went wrong so no worries there and shouldnt see that specific error occur again.

It was just the weirdest thing and I hope it is not a sign of how things will be going forward. Anyone of you who have had T1 longer found that your Hypos changed in this way or do you also just sometimes get weird little blips?

/A
 
It can really depend what caused they hypo with me and how fast I dropped. For instance exercise I get a lot more sweating /heat than a normal hypo, bolus I get really bad hypo symptoms as you described above and If i wake hypo I can be wandering around at 3 and nor realize until CGM beeps.

Hope that helps a bit!
 
I too get really confused when having bad hypo. Tend to get bad palpitations also and as husband says "talk a load of nonsense" without realising what I am saying! (Hey what's new there then!!) I have always been like this and I have been T1 for 37 years,
 
It can really depend what caused they hypo with me and how fast I dropped. For instance exercise I get a lot more sweating /heat than a normal hypo, bolus I get really bad hypo symptoms as you described above and If i wake hypo I can be wandering around at 3 and nor realize until CGM beeps.

Hope that helps a bit!
Hmm.... now that is a thought. This was essentially a bolus hypo and I went from mid 12's, which I was correcting for at dinner, down to 2.7. The rapid change is something I don't recall having before since this is the first time I have made an error of this magnitude and not realised at the time.
Big change in short time, certainly a good working theory.
 
The speed of levels droping for me is significant. T1 30+ years and since having pump 5 years ago my hypo's have completely changed. The only thing I put this down to is the fact that I have less insulin in me...and my levels are so even.

My worst experience was this year though. Being violently sick after a bolus (i think about 18!units) for a chinese. Couldn't keep any food down at all, not even glucogels helped. Knew I was going to crash big time. Told hubby to dial 999. First responders and ambulance helped... But the crash down to that hypo was so severe it was horrible....i think it was because of the speed in which I plummeted.

Normally I have no troubles, in that occurence I knew ahead that I was going to be in trouble but knew there was nothing more I could do.

The funniest thing though was calling the ambulanceman "baldie" when coming round. I would never do that in my normal life....and I kept doing it!! They knew by this time because I was so funny that I was ok and they left.... Before that though apparently I'd been saying "let me die, I've had enough".

As I normally have around 3 units for my meals this was a huge overdose for me and actually just my luck really that I was so violently sick....
 
@AndyS, I expect your bg was falling fast and this is why you felt so awful at 2.7 where you'd be otherwise fine, I had a similar experience last year where I'd injected ahead of my meal and must have left it too long or the insulin kicked-in quicker than normal, felt myself dropping like a stone and needed to use coke to get my bg levels back up, where usually a couple of Jelly Babies is sufficient.

Don't dwell on it and just move on, hopefully this type of episode will be very few and far between.
 
Yeah not dwelling on it.. I was more curious if this could have been a sign of things to come. I agree that the rapid change is probably the reason.
I did manage to work out exactly how I made the mistake so that was the main thing, was just the weirdest I have ever felt for a hypo.

Onwards and levelwards (don't want upwards) :)

/A
 
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