What are your hypo symptoms?

[grainger]

I also get hunger and nearly always overeat and spend the rest of the day yo-yoing 🙄

For a 3+ hypo I tend to get the shakes, tingly lips and just feel off. At night I now wake up insanely hot (I didn’t use to wake so I’m happy about this)

Anything lower and I start to lose concentration, mix up words and generally feel awful.

Have been angry a couple of times but thankfully not a lot. I always find it incredible how one tiny change in your body can make you act and feel so completely different.

 

[rebrascora]

I sometimes find it difficult to tell the difference between a menopausal hot flush and a hypo as the symptoms of both are similar. Usually I correctly ID the hypo but often I test to check just in case, when it is in fact just a hot flush. I haven't had any below 3, nor do I want to, as the ones I have had have been scary enough. Legs going wobbly is usually the first thing I notice and then feeling warm, but not usually unbearable like the hot flushes and heart races. As others have said, I find it harder to select and insert a test strip and marry up the end of it to the spot of blood due to trembling. I usually ring or text someone if I am on my own and I have to really concentrate just to operate my phone and make sense... a bit like when you are drunk and you have to really focus to not slur your words.

 

[Lanny]

My heart races & the I can hear the blood pounding in my ears! That continues until my BS rises so, I, in italics, know my brain’s back to normal. BS may rise after 15 minutes of treatment but, it REALLY does take my heart, & my brain I think, about 1 hour so, taking the 15 minutes after treatment test is ok, the Driving rules for 45 minutes after recovering from a hypo & BS is above 5 is spot! Spot on with fingers sign emoji!

I get jelly legs, dizziness &, so I’ve been told, go greyish green in the face! Sometimes sweating if it really low or drops very fast! 😱

 

[Flower]

My physical symptoms have gone over the years but before they faded I did once lash out at my friend like a bare knuckle fighter. Considering my legs were too weak to hold me up I have no idea where I summoned that energy from- adrenaline really lived up to its name as the fight or flight hormone -the poor man had a cut and bruised eye from me fighting just before I passed out.

The last clues I had that I was hypo were seeing a matrix of psychedelic coloured spots across my vision where I'd had all my laser burns and it gave me time to react. Over time these also faded.

Without the adrenaline rush and physical symptoms I'm unaware of being low but my brain does get confused in the same way (even though I'd argue it doesn't) minus the shaking panic to do something and quick. I look at my meter with a reading of 2.5 and calmly think 'I know, I'll go and do the vacuuming, clean the windows' etc not my normal thinking even though I feel normal. Like @Sprogladite I find myself putting things in the wrong place, questioning why I'm finding it difficult to fit the washing in the kitchen bin or carefully putting my reading specs/phone/meter in the fridge.

Cgm is a life saver but it isn't the same as your own inbuilt warning symptoms however weird and faint they become. I do struggle to make myself react and not wander off finding jobs that don't need doing whilst my brain is in need of instant glucose.

 

[MeeTooTeeTo]

Alexa "What are the symptoms of hypoglycemia?"
Answer "According to the NHS website: Early signs of a low blood sugar include feeling hungry; sweating; tingling lips; feeling shaky or trembling; dizziness; feeling tired; a fast or pounding heartbeat; becoming easily irritated, tearful, stroppy or moody; and turning pale. If not treated, you may then get other symptoms, such as: weakness, blurred vision, difficulty concentrating, confusion, unusual behaviour, slurred speech, clumsiness, feeling sleepy, seizures, and collapsing or passing out. Hypos can also occur while sleeping, which may wake you up during the night or cause headaches, tiredness, or damp sheets from sweat in the morning."
😱 LOL she knows her stuff!!

 

[Bronco Billy]

Alexa "What are the symptoms of hypoglycemia?"
Answer "According to the NHS website: Early signs of a low blood sugar include feeling hungry; sweating; tingling lips; feeling shaky or trembling; dizziness; feeling tired; a fast or pounding heartbeat; becoming easily irritated, tearful, stroppy or moody; and turning pale. If not treated, you may then get other symptoms, such as: weakness, blurred vision, difficulty concentrating, confusion, unusual behaviour, slurred speech, clumsiness, feeling sleepy, seizures, and collapsing or passing out. Hypos can also occur while sleeping, which may wake you up during the night or cause headaches, tiredness, or damp sheets from sweat in the morning."
😱 LOL she knows her stuff!!

You’re lucky the NHS was quoted. There was an item on BBC Breakfast this morning about the NHS partnering with the manufacturers of Alexa to give medical advice. However, you have to be very careful about how the question is phrased otherwise the sources aren’t quite as reputable.

 

[trophywench]

I understand she only gives the info printed on the NHS website.

We don't have one (Alexa) but seeing as there she was on the telly in front of me on the News - I jokingly asked her what insect caused this bright red splodge on the back of my left calf (never had any such reaction to any bite I've ever had in 69 years) Pete replied on her behalf to tell me not to be stupid, she can't see it! LOL

 

[MeeTooTeeTo]

You’re lucky the NHS was quoted. There was an item on BBC Breakfast this morning about the NHS partnering with the manufacturers of Alexa to give medical advice. However, you have to be very careful about how the question is phrased otherwise the sources aren’t quite as reputable.

@Bronco Billy
Yes, @Northerner posted that news earlier on another thread, this was just me being a bit mischievous (as I sometimes am) 😉🙄

 

[Ljc]

Over time my warning signs have changed. I used to get tingling lips that spread to my face , terrible hunger , jelly legs, trembling so much it was hard to get the strip in the meter or apply blood to it and confusion.

Now I get spots before my eyes, tiredness , clumsiness, jelly legs , a need to wee and can get a bit annoyed, trembling . Confusion usually sets in when I go below 3.0. I have on one occasion sat there testing every 15 mins going lower and lower , it wasn’t till I reached 2.2 that in my really fuddled state I thought I needed to actually do something about it then shortly it came to me what i needed to do.
I quite often get the hypo hangover.

If it’s a slow drop I usually only feel sleepy.

If I hypo when asleep. I wake up really suddenly with an awful urgent need for a wee , I mean the ministry of funny walks kind of urgency which is potentially dangerous when you have rubber legs. I have sometimes wondered what visitors thought when using our bathroom or downstairs loo when they see my pot of glucose tabs sitting on the shelf near the loo, no one has mentioned them yet .

 

[mikeyB]

These days, I just get a slight gnawing feeling in my stomach in a parody of hunger. And my mobility, even with crutches, plummets. In the night, I just reach for the bag of JBs on the bedside table and go back to sleep after, but in the day it’s a real problem. I can be standing still, staring at the bag of JBs on the kitchen counter, and almost unable to move. Weird.

I get there in the end, though.

I do get ratty, as well, though not with other folk, just the Diabetes Fairy, the quantum destroyer of impeccable control,

 

[Northerner]

You’re lucky the NHS was quoted. There was an item on BBC Breakfast this morning about the NHS partnering with the manufacturers of Alexa to give medical advice. However, you have to be very careful about how the question is phrased otherwise the sources aren’t quite as reputable.

Interestingly, a few months ago I noticed a dip in the number of forum sessions as shown by Google Analytics. I've since discovered that this is likely due to the fact that Google has moved from simply being a search engine to an 'information hub' - when you type in a search term, Google will attempt to pick out responses to that search term. So, for example, if you type in 'diabetes symptoms' it will give you a list of answers, followed by the list of popular sites. It hadn't occurred to me, but this can mean that instead of going to a page on (for example) the Diabetes UK website, people are just reading Google's answer and not visiting the suggested sites.

 

[daducky88]

Fall over and break bones, so far 4 times this year, honest ask @eggyg.

Blinking, you poor sausage.
Maybe need some swim arm floaters as bash protectors at night?

 

[daducky88]

Nasty. I've only done that once, a couple of years ago now. Three metatarsals (though exactly how they broke is anyone's guess). Since using the Libre (and with changes to the insulin regime) I've avoided such severe hypos (at least so far). (Haven't woken up to a paramedic for years, now.)

But sure, hypos vary between individuals. My mum was warned when I was first diagnosed (decades ago now) that I might become violent, so presumably that's one reaction (might be rare, I guess, and just be very memorable).

I fell in the rockery once and gashed my forehead. I'm not too sure how long i was in there before i picked myself out. It was still day time. At least i mowed the lawn beforehand.

 

[daducky88]

I sometimes find it difficult to tell the difference between a menopausal hot flush and a hypo as the symptoms of both are similar. Usually I correctly ID the hypo but often I test to check just in case, when it is in fact just a hot flush. I haven't had any below 3, nor do I want to, as the ones I have had have been scary enough. Legs going wobbly is usually the first thing I notice and then feeling warm, but not usually unbearable like the hot flushes and heart races. As others have said, I find it harder to select and insert a test strip and marry up the end of it to the spot of blood due to trembling. I usually ring or text someone if I am on my own and I have to really concentrate just to operate my phone and make sense... a bit like when you are drunk and you have to really focus to not slur your words.

I know whatchoo mean about shaky hands when low. I get the sweats too. And wonky thought and progressively overbearing tiredness at weird times. One just has keep try to get the strips in. The worst were those old fashioned foil covers on strips with no perforation and massive elastic resistance. Manys the time when younger i thought never get the strip open to test myself.

 

[SB2015]

Apart from blurry eyes and feeling a bit weird in a very mild one,
I have recently started to get tingly lips if I get below 3.5.

If I get to the stage of being shaky and feeling sick, I don’t bother testing I use JBs first. This occurs most when I am engrossed in something and ignore the early signs. If I was wrong I can correct later. Better than passing out.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

I've had a whole range of hypo symptoms, but also many hypos with no symptoms at all.

If I'm plummeting fast I tend to get one or more of hot flushes/pouring sweat, dizziness, shaking, talking gibberish, and an urgent need to go to the loo.

But if it's a gradual hypo, because low blood sugar is normal for me, I don't tend to get symptoms at all now, except that sometimes my brain can be a little more foggy than usual and I can sometimes spend ages doing something I don't really need to do (eg obsessively going through every category on a website, when I went there to look for one specific thing). Like @Flower I tend to be very calm but a bit confused.

At various times I've also had blurred vision, pale skin, raging hunger, hypo hangover, and I had one the other day when my arms seemed to me to be disassociated with my body, which was really weird (though thankfully it wasn't bad enough to stop me being able to test). I've never been violent or anxious or panicky though.

Occasionally I get sleepy, which is confusing as that's normally a sign my blood sugar is too high, so I test expecting it to be 15 and it's 3.

Like @Robin and @Ljc I tend to wake up really suddenly if I have one in the night, which is good given how little aware I am when I hypo during the day. I don't very often have them in the night though - which again is good, given that I often have 2-3 during the day, and can be hypo for ages without noticing.

 

[daducky88]

Apart from blurry eyes and feeling a bit weird in a very mild one,
I have recently started to get tingly lips if I get below 3.5.

If I get to the stage of being shaky and feeling sick, I don’t bother testing I use JBs first. This occurs most when I am engrossed in something and ignore the early signs. If I was wrong I can correct later. Better than passing out.

JBs?

 

[daducky88]

I've had a whole range of hypo symptoms, but also many hypos with no symptoms at all.

If I'm plummeting fast I tend to get one or more of hot flushes/pouring sweat, dizziness, shaking, talking gibberish, and an urgent need to go to the loo.

But if it's a gradual hypo, because low blood sugar is normal for me, I don't tend to get symptoms at all now, except that sometimes my brain can be a little more foggy than usual and I can sometimes spend ages doing something I don't really need to do (eg obsessively going through every category on a website, when I went there to look for one specific thing). Like @Flower I tend to be very calm but a bit confused.

At various times I've also had blurred vision, pale skin, raging hunger, hypo hangover, and I had one the other day when my arms seemed to me to be disassociated with my body, which was really weird (though thankfully it wasn't bad enough to stop me being able to test). I've never been violent or anxious or panicky though.

Occasionally I get sleepy, which is confusing as that's normally a sign my blood sugar is too high, so I test expecting it to be 15 and it's 3.

Like @Robin and @Ljc I tend to wake up really suddenly if I have one in the night, which is good given how little aware I am when I hypo during the day. I don't very often have them in the night though - which again is good, given that I often have 2-3 during the day, and can be hypo for ages without noticing.

Yes i get the sweats too sometimes descending although more often in the hypo.
I restored hypo awareness by religiously correcting to a min of 6mM rather than some lower molarity and the 6mM lower target has really helped reduce the hypo freq and restore awareness, more or less.

One thing i dont like in a hypo as i have a fear of suffocation is the that ambulance staff try to stick on an oxygen mask. In hypo, my primitive conciousness interprets the action as interfering with breathing. I wonder if there'd much difference if they just laid an oxygen tube near the mouth rather than place a breather over the mouth and round the back of the head which involves alot manipulation of the body.
And also what order are pramedic actions undertaken eg blood test glucagon oxygen or blood test oxygen glucagon. I'd like to think the glucagon happens directly after the blood test if <4mM and unconscious. Then less time passes before euglycaemia is restored.

 

[nonethewiser]

You’re lucky the NHS was quoted. There was an item on BBC Breakfast this morning about the NHS partnering with the manufacturers of Alexa to give medical advice. However, you have to be very careful about how the question is phrased otherwise the sources aren’t quite as reputable.

Bit late for a april fools joke.

 

[Ljc]

JBs?

Jelly babies. They are a favourite hypo treatment for many people, I can’t have any in the house as I would scoff them.