The most FREAKY hypo! Help!

[Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic]

Hello, I have registered to come on here as yesterday morning my husband who has had diabetes 20 odd years now, had to he most awful hypo which COMPLETELY freaked me out - here’s what happen....

6am I wake to him still sleeping but clapping this pattern of claps over and over and then he says ‘hello’ (still sleeping) - I nudged him to wake him up which he did but he then started rolling around on the bed, laughing, clapping so I kinda whacked him to wake him up (I thought he was sleep walking or something) and told him to go and test his blood (our kid climbed into our bed with us so I didn’t want him completely freaked out). Anyway I follow my husband who by this point is completely out of control, he’s running around at 20 miles an hour, he’s jumping up and down clapping/hysterically laughing, swinging on stuff shouting ‘weeeeeeee’. I scrapped testing his blood for a minute as he wouldn’t keep still and I gave him a bottle of lucozade which he downed. I get him down the stairs and test his blood which was 2.4 at this point. He continues to run around, he could take direction from me but he couldn’t answer questions nor would he blinking sit down! He open the fridge and stares into that motionless for a minute where I see his pupils are so dilated I couldn’t see the blue in his eyes.
Anyway after 5 minutes of him continuing to do the above the lucozade kicked in and he started to come to saying ‘oh I’m having a funny 5 minutes’ (you’re telling me mate!!). We spoke with the diabetes nurse who confirmed it was a bad hypo but what the actual F? He woke up as a 5 year old! It completely freaked me out!
He has absolutely no memory of it.

Has this happened to anyone else?
Should I have called an ambulance? It’s all going round in my head now what I should’ve done differently but I am still in shock of what happened!
Thanks for reading!

 

[Robin]

How weird! And how frightening for you, I always feel it must be worse for the person dealing with the situation. It sounds as if you did the right thing. If he was conscious enough to swallow glucose without choking, and he recovered quickly, then there was no need for an ambulance. Being Hypo means that not enough glucose is getting to the brain to fuel it, so odd behaviour isn’t uncommon, but it’s the first time I've heard of it manifesting itself with excess energy. (If ever he’s so hypo that his level of consciousness means he might choke on anything you tried to feed him, then an ambulance would be absolutely the right choice)

 

[Bloden]

Good grief! I read about this once - woman with T1 who was out with friends on a walk was showing signs of a hypo. When a friend suggested she was hypo, she started jumping around, climbing up n down rocks, ending up up a tree, all the while shouting “I’m not hypo! Could I do this if I was hypo?”

I’m glad you were able to get some Lucozade into him - well done @Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic for acting so swiftly. 🙂

 

[helli]

I have read that adrenaline is an insulin suppressant - it sends a message to the pancreas to stop producing insulin. So, I understand my bouts of energy when my blood sugar is low is partially due to the adrenaline which is running around my body trying to send the message but my pancreas can't respond.

My energy is never as pronounced as @Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic husband but I rarely feel sleepy with a hypo like others have mentioned.

 

[Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic]

How weird! And how frightening for you, I always feel it must be worse for the person dealing with the situation. It sounds as if you did the right thing. If he was conscious enough to swallow glucose without choking, and he recovered quickly, then there was no need for an ambulance. Being Hypo means that not enough glucose is getting to the brain to fuel it, so odd behaviour isn’t uncommon, but it’s the first time I've heard of it manifesting itself with excess energy. (If ever he’s so hypo that his level of consciousness means he might choke on anything you tried to feed him, then an ambulance would be absolutely the right choice)

Thank you for the reassurance, when replaying it all in my mind it’s all ‘what if’s?’ going round 🙂

 

[Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic]

Good grief! I read about this once - woman with T1 who was out with friends on a walk was showing signs of a hypo. When a friend suggested she was hypo, she started jumping around, climbing up n down rocks, ending up up a tree, all the while shouting “I’m not hypo! Could I do this if I was hypo?”

I’m glad you were able to get some Lucozade into him - well done @Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic for acting so swiftly. 🙂

Wowzers! Thank you for your reply, it’s kinda nice to hear that it’s happened to someone else 😳🙂

 

[Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic]

I have read that adrenaline is an insulin suppressant - it sends a message to the pancreas to stop producing insulin. So, I understand my bouts of energy when my blood sugar is low is partially due to the adrenaline which is running around my body trying to send the message but my pancreas can't respond.

My energy is never as pronounced as @Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic husband but I rarely feel sleepy with a hypo like others have mentioned.

Thank you for your reply, that’s really interesting! I will definitely watch out for this with him in future 🙂

 

[DaveB]

Hi, frightening. Don't forget the current Lucozade has lower sugars so check that the hypo drink has enough glucose in it.

 

[Inka]

‘Silly’ behaviour can definitely be a sign of a hypo. It’s one of the reasons we’re warned about being mistaken for drunks. Staring into the fridge is just because his brain was running slow.

You definitely did the right thing giving him the Lucozade. Treat then test is what I was told to do with an obvious or bad hypo.

It’s not your husband’s fault nor was he purposely doing it. Please don’t tell him he was acting like a 5 year old. It was beyond his control and not his fault at all.

I hope he can work out what caused it. It sounds like he was very low.

 

[helli]

Hi, frightening. Don't forget the current Lucozade has lower sugars so check that the hypo drink has enough glucose in it.

Given the sugar tax came in a few years ago, I think most people should have adapted to the change of sugar content in drinks by now.
Drinks like Lucozade and fruit juices are definitely easier to swallow than sweets and Dextrose but there is always the potential risk that the recipe will change.

 

[trophywench]

The most important thing to me though when I have had really bad hypos (which hasn't happened for at least 15 years now) (said she putting one hand out to clutch the wood of a dining chair) is working out why I had the hypo, so I can avoid repeating the behaviour which caused it.

So - do you both know why now? And whatever it happened to be - does your husband need any help trying to avoid doing it again? All sorts of things can happen and do - it is one of the most useful things a Type 1 can do - talking to other in the same boat about anything and everything they don't know about themselves already - I've been T1 for nearly 50 years and I still learn things from others, as well as the other way about, which is why I'm still on here and happy to respond when I can add anything.

None of us has a clue how we behave when we're that hypo because parts of the brain close down completely, so it is only what our nearest and dearest tell us afterwards, that informs us whatsoever about it, really. I had one once where my sight, speech and movement ceased but I could hear every bloody word uttered in the room (and still feel like I could cheerfully slap a certain person's face for what she said at the time)

Perhaps it all depends on whether we're more naturally a sloth (always loved sloths, look like they have big grins on their faces but never do anything that makes the observer nervous) or something of a more jumpy nature. as to how we behave?

 

[nonethewiser]

6am I wake to him still sleeping but clapping this pattern of claps over and over and then he says ‘hello’ (still sleeping) - I nudged him to wake him up which he did but he then started rolling around on the bed, laughing, clapping so I kinda whacked him to wake him up

Really weird & scary, always feels drained with bad hypo so no energy.
.

I get him down the stairs and test his blood which was 2.4 at this point. He continues to run around, he could take direction from me but he couldn’t answer questions nor would he blinking sit down!

See if it happens again keep him away from stairs, brain being disorientated could easy miss step & tumble.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Sorry to hear about your husband’s severe hypo @Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic - must have been a very frightening experience for you.

Like @trophywench I would be wanting to try to understand how it had happened, and avoid it happening again, after 20 years his hypo warning signs may have taken a bit of a dent (especially during the night) and some of the counterregulatory hormone responses that can pull you back from the brink may not fire reliably.

What is his hypo sensitivity like normally? When does he normally feel the lows? Just below 4? Mid 3s? Low 3s? Or not until the 2s?

The lower that number the less wiggle room and the more likely severe hypos become.

Hypo awareness can usually be fully or partially restored by trying to completely avoid readings below 4.0 for months or years. I have a degree of ‘impaired awareness‘ and treat anything below 4.8 as if it was a hypo, which means my high 3s awareness is substantially recovered.

 

[trophywench]

...... and I had to do the same a few years ago too - cured mine so I reliably get the warnings again and importantly know exactly what they mean.

 

[Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic]

Really weird & scary, always feels drained with bad hypo so no energy.
.




See if it happens again keep him away from stairs, brain being disorientated could easy miss step & tumble.

Yes this was my thoughts when going over it in my mind. My thought were at the time to protect the children which were in each of our bedrooms which is why I told him to go downstairs. I just couldn’t trust him to be around them whilst he was acting this way - he’s 6ft 3 so hard to restrain if he decided to attempt something.

 

[Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic]

The most important thing to me though when I have had really bad hypos (which hasn't happened for at least 15 years now) (said she putting one hand out to clutch the wood of a dining chair) is working out why I had the hypo, so I can avoid repeating the behaviour which caused it.

So - do you both know why now? And whatever it happened to be - does your husband need any help trying to avoid doing it again? All sorts of things can happen and do - it is one of the most useful things a Type 1 can do - talking to other in the same boat about anything and everything they don't know about themselves already - I've been T1 for nearly 50 years and I still learn things from others, as well as the other way about, which is why I'm still on here and happy to respond when I can add anything.

None of us has a clue how we behave when we're that hypo because parts of the brain close down completely, so it is only what our nearest and dearest tell us afterwards, that informs us whatsoever about it, really. I had one once where my sight, speech and movement ceased but I could hear every bloody word uttered in the room (and still feel like I could cheerfully slap a certain person's face for what she said at the time)

Perhaps it all depends on whether we're more naturally a sloth (always loved sloths, look like they have big grins on their faces but never do anything that makes the observer nervous) or something of a more jumpy nature. as to how we behave?

He spoke to the diabetic nurse who has completely readjusted his pump. We still don’t know why he went so low. She has changed it so he runs high for awhile to get his senses back for hypos.
I am getting him to join this for someone to talk to as it’s made him feel extremely low and vulnerable.
Thank you for your reply.

 

[Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic]

Sorry to hear about your husband’s severe hypo @Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic - must have been a very frightening experience for you.

Like @trophywench I would be wanting to try to understand how it had happened, and avoid it happening again, after 20 years his hypo warning signs may have taken a bit of a dent (especially during the night) and some of the counterregulatory hormone responses that can pull you back from the brink may not fire reliably.

What is his hypo sensitivity like normally? When does he normally feel the lows? Just below 4? Mid 3s? Low 3s? Or not until the 2s?

The lower that number the less wiggle room and the more likely severe hypos become.

Hypo awareness can usually be fully or partially restored by trying to completely avoid readings below 4.0 for months or years. I have a degree of ‘impaired awareness‘ and treat anything below 4.8 as if it was a hypo, which means my high 3s awareness is substantially recovered.

It’s really good to read this as you are echoing what the diabetic nurse has said. She has change his pump so he is running on the higher side as lately he’s getting to low 2s before realising. Thank you for your reply, I’ll show him this thread which will hopefully give him a boost.

 

[Wife_of_a_T1_diabetic]

My husband had some good news today that he has been accepted for a continuous blood monitoring device, which will hope help and give us some answers.

 

[Ditto]

That must have been so scary. Glad for your good news. 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

My husband had some good news today that he has been accepted for a continuous blood monitoring device, which will hope help and give us some answers.

That’s great news! Is it Libre, or one that connects with his insulin pump and can turn off insulin if he is going low and hadn’t noticed? (depending on whether he has a pump that can link to sensors)