Why the severe hypo?

[adrian29459]

Hi all,

I'm going to book another hospital appointment soon but I thought it might also be good to ask some experienced people on here. Its been really odd, especially this morning. I had a severe hypo early in the morning, around 12am, fitting, squashed down the side of my bed. I can't understand why I had this one, especially at this time. I did all the usual routine things, nothing out the ordinary - blood sugars 5.8 at 8.30pm so I have my cereal, weetabix crunchy bran, a very high fibre cereal. Early about 7.30pm I've had my usual glargine dose of 12 units. And I didnt do any exercise (sometimes I jog 7.30-8.30).

I did manage to pull round from my fit by 12.10am with a blood sugar reading of 14.8. This was following some glucogel, but it still also puzzles me how I got up to that reading so quickly. I had another fit on the friday the week before, but I understand why, it happened at around 7pm following a little exercise and probably a slight overdose on my humalog injection for teatime (about 5.30pm).

I'd just like to try and understand why I had the fit this morning and if theres any ways to stop me having them?

 

[iHs]

Hello Adrian

I think what you've got to do now is reduce yr Lantus down one or two units. That should stop you going severely hypo and fitting. If you adjust it then keep monitoring yr bg levels to see if you also need to increase/decrease the amount of carb you are eating. Lantus will have a peak to its action and that usually is about 4hrs. So you injected it at 8pm, then went hypo at midnight (4hrs).

Unfortunately none of the basal insulins will keep people perfectly controlled all of the time. Every now and then they will need to be adjusted - especially the night time doses, but the only way of knowing when to adjust is either by going hypo or waking up in the morning with a higher bg level.
If you find however that you are constantly needing to adjust the basal, then it's time to seriously consider using a pump.

 

[FionaR]

Hi Adrian,
I don't really have any advice i'm afraid.
I just wanted to say you are not alone with taking fits when you go hypo.
My daughter (also type 1 diagnosed in 2006) has very little hypo awareness and goes into a fit when her BG's are low.
I treat her with glucogel in these situations as she is to far gone to try and drink lucozade. Her BG results in reading of 10+ after the glucogel, it works almost immediately, I think that is why your BG goes up so quickly (always make sure you still have something extra to eat after the glucogel or you are going to go low quite quickly again, glucogel doesnt last long in the system)

It is also worth bearing in mind, after excersisng you may not suffer the low blood sugars until the next day, so if you excersiced it could be a delay in your BG dropping

Sorry not much help.

Fiona x