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Low Blood Sugar reading

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C

CBee

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hello

Last night I had my lowest reading last night (1.9) whilst I was trying to fall asleep. The only symptom I had was my heart suddenly racing and then once I'd tested, I broke out in a full sweat and went really hot.

Today I feel really tired and wrung out. When I was on my carb-counting course, I got told when you should go to the doctors/ hospital with a high blood level and ketones and when to go with low blood sugar level but I can't remember the number for the low sugar level and wondered whether any of you knew or what your advise for today would be as I'm still new to all this.

Thank you 🙂
 
Hi,

how long have you been diagnosed......

An experienced diabetic would probably not feel the need to attend any hospital or clinic with high or low blood sugar.....

If you feel that you are in danger, either with low blood sugar or high, you should definitely seek advice....

When you are low you should treat it with quick acting sugar, so sugary liquids, gluco gel, gluco tabs, jelly babies.......if you can do this without help you are safe........if not you will be getting help from someone else, likely a paramedic......

being high is less critical than low, but can cause problems if left to escalate especially if ketones are present and levels are rising....if you are high with ketones then you should apply the rules you have been given to process them, if you are not aware of any rules or you continue to present ketones then you should seek help at hospital.....
 
I've been diagnosed for a year and 2 months now. I treated it okay and my levels went back up quickly which was good as sometimes they can take a while. I think I was just worried as its never gone that low before without any of my usual symptoms like my hands shaking.

I've wondered for a while why it is worse to be hypo? I still feel like such a novice sometimes!

C 🙂
 
CBee said:
I've been diagnosed for a year and 2 months now. I treated it okay and my levels went back up quickly which was good as sometimes they can take a while. I think I was just worried as its never gone that low before without any of my usual symptoms like my hands shaking.

I've wondered for a while why it is worse to be hypo? I still feel like such a novice sometimes!

C 🙂
Click to expand...

As long as you were able to treat it OK then try not to worry - just see if you can work out what might have caused it so that you can try to avoid it happening again. I used to get similar warnings for night hypos - it is often difficult to distinguish them when you are sleepy. I also get hypos where it is only when I see the number that I get all the symptoms! You might not have been as low as the meter suggested because there is a degree of inaccuracy in them.

The main danger with hypos is that you may drop too low to adequately treat them, in which case you may go unconscious without someone else's help. With highs you can usually take some sort of action yourself, however high you are.
 
My view is if you're able to walk and eat, you don't need to go to hospital for low blood sugar. However, anyone who passes out from low blood sugar should immediately have the paramedics called out for them (which is obviously hard to do if you're passed out!)

I also wouldn't necessarily check myself in for high blood sugar and ketones unless I was consistently very high with very high ketones no matter what I did. In that instance though, if it was in office hours I'd call the doctor or diabetes clinic first rather than A&E.

However, other people will obviously feel more comfortable getting higher level treatment sooner and they should definitely do that. At the risk of sailing against the prevailing wind though, I would say there is far too much generalised panic over hypos. Yes, they can be extremely dangerous but providing you have good awareness and always have ready access to glucose they should only be a minor inconvenience rather than a medical emergency. 1.9 is a bit low though - I'd be worried if you didn't pick it up sooner and it would be worth investigating why your BG could have got so low without you knowing.
 
Thank you both for your advice 🙂 I wasn't too panicked but just felt awful and still getting used to my body not doing it all for itself any more.
C 🙂
 
Hi CBee.

I've been told when you have very low hypos & feel awful, I've been told it's down to your body releasing adrenalin (I don't know why)

I hope the feeling didn't last too long for you
 
CBee said:
Hello

Last night I had my lowest reading last night (1.9) whilst I was trying to fall asleep. The only symptom I had was my heart suddenly racing and then once I'd tested, I broke out in a full sweat and went really hot.

Today I feel really tired and wrung out. When I was on my carb-counting course, I got told when you should go to the doctors/ hospital with a high blood level and ketones and when to go with low blood sugar level but I can't remember the number for the low sugar level and wondered whether any of you knew or what your advise for today would be as I'm still new to all this.

Thank you 🙂
Click to expand...
Hi CBee,

Sounds an unpleasant experience for you. The racing heart etc. are caused by adrenalin, as Laura said, which is the "fight or flight" hormone, secreted as an emergency response to your having insufficient glucose circulating. The adrenalin would have stimulated your liver to release stored glucose, your lungs to breath faster, and your heart to pump faster to quickly circulate the glucose and oxygen around your body. After which you would have felt washed out I'm sure.

As far as going to hospital, we would only go for a diabetes reason if we were unable to manage at home - e.g. Hypo that would not rise back up to normal level despite repeated treatment (can sometimes occur with vomiting bug). We wouldn't go in for a one-off low if he came up ok, unless he had actually lost consciousness. For high levels plus high ketones, we would only go into hospital if unable to bring down the BG level and get rid of the ketones with extra insulin within a few hours, or if he was unwell e.g. vomiting.

It would be useful if you could work out why you had the hypo to avoid it happening again. Had you been more energetic than usual that evening or had less to eat at dinner perhaps? Did you check your BG before bed?

Hope you have a better night tonight 🙂
 
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