Hypo unawareness

[Jennywren]

Since my teens i have always suffered from hypo unawareness , and this is one of the reasons i was put on a pump ,i was told they hoped i might get my hypounawareness back ,in fact it has got even worse !! As you know with hypo unawareness you get few or no symptoms at all ,But my husnband and sons would reconise certains things like i would become quite and go pale and 😱 arguementative , well since going on pump they are saying they are not reconising when i am low and in fact i was shopping in high streey earlier with husband and a young girl had collapsed so it just made me think check my blood and good job i did i was 2.4 !!!! very worrying and my husband said i was acting perfectly normal .

 

[chrismbee]

I don't envy you - it's bad enough going hypo when you can feel it coming on!
Since none of us would deliberately seek to have a hypo, I can imagine that not even knowing that you are can be quite daunting

PS. Cathy would argue that I am never normal, regardless of my bs ..... although, she will challenge me to test, if she thinks I'm being unusually grumpy/snappy/irritable: "if you're not low, then you'll get a slap"

 

[Jennywren]

Made me laugh im often told youre grumpy is your blood low 🙂

 

[runner]

sounds awful - is there no alert on the pump/ (sorry, don;t know the ins and outs of pumps.)

 

[Robster65]

I would have thought you would be a sure fire candidate to qualify for a CGM meter to tie in with your pump or even stand alone.

Rob

 

[Liz!]

Your pump supplies insulin it does not read your blood sugar runner.

Yes, i know this all too well. the better your control actually, the worse hypo-unawareness becomes as you will get more low blood sugars. They have done research and found that the brain sort of protects itself and becomes used to lows and next time functions better at a lower reading... so you are basically training your brain to work ok at very low levels, which is not good in the long run, but I do not know how to get out of this... I've tried running high for a few months but I still do get lows as i am a brittle diabetic and that doesn't work.

I've been offered the CGM but do not want it as it's so hard to find places for two machines and the bloody thing alarms ALL the time if you have quite a few lows, AND it is half an hour behind real time so i would often catch a low blood sugar and treat it and then it would tell me i was low when I was actually coming up again! And it leaves part of its sensor inside you each time you remove it. they can't know for sure that's not harmful either.

 

[Monica]

Oh nooo.
Carol suffers from the same problem. The pump was recommended too (she hasn't got one yet). I've always wondered about one thing though and this is the perfect opportunity to ask :

Because you suffer from this unawareness, did you ever collapse with it and were not able to treat yourself? Or did you just end up with a high reading afterwards, because your liver helped you out?

I am dreading the day this will happen to Carol, as it hasn't happend yet! And unfortunately, I don't recognise her going hypo either.
Funny thing is, that she always wakes up if hypo at night, which I find very weird.

 

[Jennywren]

Runner - the pump hasnt got a continous blood moitor on , so only find out when check blood with partnered handsey although i know there are new pumps on the market that check your blood automatically but theyt are very new and very very dear
Rob- got pump in september and had got all my sugars next to perfect but i lost my father in law 8 days ago and the stress has just sent bs levels manic , so i dont think they would consider this
thanks for suggestions 🙂

 

[Monica]

My condolences to your loss. xx

 

[Jennywren]

Monica , i have passed out and fitted on several ocassions and i have also (when with somebody with me ) waited to see what has happened and sure enough my blood sugars have slowly started to creep up obviously because of the glucose the liver has sent out , i have never fitted during the night , but do set my alarm to check blood sugar during the night or have had my husband wake me because i have be sweatting and checked my blood and been hypo so treated it

 

[Monica]

Monica , i have passed out and fitted on several ocassions and i have also (when with somebody with me ) waited to see what has happened and sure enough my blood sugars have slowly started to creep up obviously because of the glucose the liver has sent out , i have never fitted during the night , but do set my alarm to check blood sugar during the night or have had my husband wake me because i have be sweatting and checked my blood and been hypo so treated it

Oh not good!! That must have been very frightening.😱

 

[runner]

Runner - the pump hasnt got a continous blood moitor on , so only find out when check blood with partnered handsey although i know there are new pumps on the market that check your blood automatically but theyt are very new and very very dear
Rob- got pump in september and had got all my sugars next to perfect but i lost my father in law 8 days ago and the stress has just sent bs levels manic , so i dont think they would consider this
thanks for suggestions 🙂

Jennywren, so sorry to hear of your loss - Ive just returned to work after a bereavement and can sympathise with effects on BGs. Thanks for explaining about pumps and BG monitoring.

 

[Jennywren]

Thanks for all your replys . Liz i am also classed as a brittle diabetic

 

[falcon123]

I was switched to synthetic human insulin after many years on animal insulin (diagnosed 1967). Although I did not lose warnings of hypos they came late and very quickly giving me only a few minutes to deal with the situation (like 2 or 3). I and a number of other long term diabetics I know were switched back to animal insulins but it was difficult to convince our consultants! A friend's brother who was diagnosed only a few years ago collapsed a number of times because of lack of warning symtoms. These appeared when he was switched to an animal insulin. It may be worth discussing this with your team although you will probably have a fight on your hands. People pumping with animal insulin are as rare as hens' teeth!

 

[Cate]

I have lost hypo awareness a few times in the past, but my consultant explained to me how to get it back 🙂

Basically you lose awareness because your body gets used to having low BS so it's the new "normal". To get awareness back, run your sugars higher than normal (I was told 8-10mmol at all times) for 2 weeks, then bring them back down to 4-7mmol or whatever your usual target is. This *should* improve your awareness.

And yes, I have had hypos where I've passed out without realising I'm hypo and come round to find I'm lying on the floor staring at paramedics... I think that's happened 6 times in 27 years. Once it happened in a hospital waiting room, no paramedics that time but they admitted me on the spot because I had over 100g carbs and sugars were still not responsing - I am a medical mystery lol

I've also had hypos where I've fitted and had the glycogon dump to bring me out of it - that results in 1. an incredibly sore tongue that makes eating and drinking painful/difficult for a few days afterwards 2. a rotton headache the following day 3. hypersensitivity to temperature the following day. Had those more times than I can count/remember but fortunately not recently.