When to call an ambulance

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

Rokaab said:
Well it means it would likely work a lot lot faster than it otherwise would if it goes straight into the blood stream

Possibly that's what happened then. My average BGL today (according to Libre) is higher than normal but I'm not too worried. It's below 10 and I'd rather a being a bit high than terrified of having a hypo alone

Edit: Since I've been on insulin I've had hypos before but all those other times jelly beans or orange juice fixed them. What freaked me out is that last night the levels came up after doing that but then dropped back down almost immediately. The libre alarm was going off every 10 minutes. The hospital did venous blood tests and it was not an error. Scary

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

And now I'm injecting glargine. Wish me luck

EllieM · Jan 12, 2023

plantae said:
And now I'm injecting glargine. Wish me luck

Did the previous low happen just after a glargine injection? (And good luck, though I doubt you need it).

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

EllieM said:
Did the previous low happen just after a glargine injection? (And good luck, though I doubt you need it).

It did actually

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

plantae said:
It did actually

I'm ok Finger prick says I've dropped just 0.1 mmol/L. Which is nothing (as you know)

Antje77 · Jan 12, 2023

plantae said:
It did actually

Oh my.
Glargine/Lantus can do this if you accidentally hit a capillary. It's rare to happen but if it does it's very scary. Other insulins can't have this side effect (although they all can work a bit quicker when hitting a muscle, it's nothing like a 'Lantus low').

It happened to me once and it's the reason I changed to Tresiba.

EllieM · Jan 12, 2023

plantae said:
It did actually

Ah, ok, I've had 2 lantus lows in 15 years of using lantus and they were pretty scary. (Basically my bg shot down much lower than if I'd injected the equivalent amount of bolus, humalog in my case).

I now wait 30 minutes before going to sleep after a lantus dose and also split the dose (that's probably overkill but it works for me).

Now I'm not at all saying that that is what happened to you but if it is then it's very rare. And if it happened again you would know that you need much more glucose than normal.

https://www.healthcentral.com/article/lantus-lows

There are a few threads about it on this forum (at least one by me).

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

Antje77 said:
Oh my.
Glargine/Lantus can do this if you accidentally hit a capillary. It's rare to happen but if it does it's very scary. Other insulins can't have this side effect (although they all can work a bit quicker when hitting a muscle, it's nothing like a 'Lantus low').

It happened to me once and it's the reason I changed to Tresiba.

Well that might be what happened then. I didn't even remember the blood until someone above mentioned it. But after reading the comment I did remember there was blood from the injection which doesn't normally happen

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

EllieM said:
Ah, ok, I've had 2 lantus lows in 15 years of using lantus and they were pretty scary. (Basically my bg shot down much lower than if I'd injected the equivalent amount of bolus, humalog in my case).

I now wait 30 minutes before going to sleep after a lantus dose and also split the dose (that's probably overkill but it works for me).

Now I'm not at all saying that that is what happened to you but if it is then it's very rare. And if it happened again you would know that you need much more glucose than normal.

https://www.healthcentral.com/article/lantus-lows

There are a few threads about it on this forum (at least one by me).

The hospital had trouble getting my levels back up into a safe range. I doubt I could have done it myself. Ringing the ambulance was right in hindsight

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

my blood sugars shot down really dramatically. I got them back up but then within 10 minutes they were down again. Same in hospital with more accurate tests

Deleted member 527103 · Jan 12, 2023

jaywak said:
You can get a glucogel substance on prescription

Some people seem to be able to get it on prescription. I certainly have to fun it myself.

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

What I mean by dramatically is from 5 something down into the 2s in 10 minutes (according to libre... contour was 3 something I think). It was scary. I was alone and didn't really know what to do

Antje77 · Jan 12, 2023

plantae said:
The hospital had trouble getting my levels back up into a safe range. I doubt I could have done it myself. Ringing the ambulance was right in hindsight

You absolutely did the right thing!
Unlike myself when I had the Lantus low. I passed out for a couple of hours, my last thought being 'now don't close your eyes or you'll never wake up again'. I obviously did wake up, but I think that's only because I had a substantial meal a couple of hours before taking the Lantus, and because I had been eating a lot of sweets and drinking undiluted squash right up to passing out.
I was still in the high 2's or low 3's when I woke up some two hours later.

So yes, I definitely should have called an ambulance at an earlier stage.

If I would have no choice but use glargine, like @EllieM , I'd definitely use the same precautions as her: splitting the dose and watch like a hawk for at least half an hour after injecting.

Here's some more information on the technical side: https://www.diabettech.com/diabetes/lantus-lethal-or-lifesaver-doc-gbdoc/

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

Antje77 said:
Oh my.
Glargine/Lantus can do this if you accidentally hit a capillary. It's rare to happen but if it does it's very scary. Other insulins can't have this side effect (although they all can work a bit quicker when hitting a muscle, it's nothing like a 'Lantus low').

It happened to me once and it's the reason I changed to Tresiba.

That's probably the explanation then. Something to discuss with my health team. There was definately blood when I injected which is not normal

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

Antje77 said:
You absolutely did the right thing!
Unlike myself when I had the Lantus low. I passed out for a couple of hours, my last thought being 'now don't close your eyes or you'll never wake up again'. I obviously did wake up, but I think that's only because I had a substantial meal a couple of hours before taking the Lantus, and because I had been eating a lot of sweets and drinking undiluted squash right up to passing out.
I was still in the high 2's or low 3's when I woke up some two hours later.

So yes, I definitely should have called an ambulance at an earlier stage.

If I would have no choice but use glargine, like @EllieM , I'd definitely use the same precautions as her: splitting the dose and watch like a hawk for at least half an hour after injecting.

Here's some more information on the technical side: https://www.diabettech.com/diabetes/lantus-lethal-or-lifesaver-doc-gbdoc/

You passed out?! That's my worst nightmare. I'm glad you were ok

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

Unfortunatley I don't think I'm hypo aware. I honestly don't feel much different when I'm hypo. Although I just noticed that on LibreView I have a note "feel sick" in my logs just before I called the ambulance, so perhaps I do and just don't remember

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

I don't remember making that note

Rokaab · Jan 12, 2023

plantae said:
I don't remember making that note

I know when I drop really really low, my memory just sometimes does not get stored at all so in those cases I will never ever remember what happened in that 'forgotten time'

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

That note "feel sick" is bizarre. Clearly I entered it but I have no recollection

plantae · Jan 12, 2023

I remember talking to people on here and it was very comforting, but I don't remember writing that note!

When to call an ambulance

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