Best recovery of a hypo?

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DeathBySpaghetti

DeathBySpaghetti

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I had a hypo last night. It was a 2.9. It was during my sleep, but I did wake up. I normally recover in bed and rest for the day, but I have a lot to do today and have no time to rest. I have to go and try and get my medication today when it’s probably not ready and I also have to upload my pump while I’m on the saline part.

So no time to rest, what is the best recovery apart from resting? What do you do?

I’m tired and exhausted and honestly would sleep. But I also have a bowel condition and need my Imodium as I have a very busy week also and no time to stop. (Occupational Therapy tomorrow, starting insulin on my pump on Thursday).
 
Welcome to the forum @DeathBySpaghetti

If I have a hypo in the night and it is below 3 I would have juice. I keep a carton by the bed for those nasty ones. I set a 15 minute alarm and then wait that long before testing again. When I was on injections I backed that up with a biscuit to avoid a repeat.

With regard to recovering from a hypo, I don’t do anything specific. I just get on with the day, and find I sleep well the next night. I would also try to work out what had caused the night hypo. However it sounds like you are having to manage other health conditions alongside you Diabetes, so that might not be so straightforward for you.

Like you I am on a pump but I am not sure that I have understood your mention of saline. When I was in my Combo pump I just disconnected to do a download and then plugged back in afterwards. Can you tell us a bit more about how you manage your diabetes.
 
SB2015 said:
Welcome to the forum @DeathBySpaghetti

If I have a hypo in the night and it is below 3 I would have juice. I keep a carton by the bed for those nasty ones. I set a 15 minute alarm and then wait that long before testing again. When I was on injections I backed that up with a biscuit to avoid a repeat.

With regard to recovering from a hypo, I don’t do anything specific. I just get on with the day, and find I sleep well the next night. I would also try to work out what had caused the night hypo. However it sounds like you are having to manage other health conditions alongside you Diabetes, so that might not be so straightforward for you.

Like you I am on a pump but I am not sure that I have understood your mention of saline. When I was in my Combo pump I just disconnected to do a download and then plugged back in afterwards. Can you tell us a bit more about how you manage your diabetes.
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Thanks for letting me know what you do.

I am new to the pump. I’m on a Tandem Tslim one. I’ve only had it 4 days, so I am still learning everything. My DSN told me to do at least one upload of the pump during my training with it, so that’s what I have to do today. I’m sure it’s straightforward, but who knows especially after a nasty hypo how quick my mind will get back to its usual self. Is the pump easy once you know what you are doing?
 
The pumps do take a bit of getting used to but they do get a lot easier and make life so much more flexible, so stick with it.

I am not sure how the download works from that pump so can’t help, but I hope that it goes well. Once they have the data your team can help you to adjust the basal insulin. It was because of night hypos that I switched to the pump . It takes a bit of time to get it sorted but many people have a dip in the night, so on a pump it is possible to reduce your basal insulin just before that hypo time to eliminate these.

There are also lots of other advantages to the pump for example using different ways of delivering bolus insulin. Just take things step by step and get used to the different functions. It like you have good support.

let us know how you get on.
 
I got put on the pump because my sugars are always too low or too high, no matter what I do. I barely take much insulin as I rarely eat. I take between 4-6 units for meals and 1-3 units for corrections and 23 of background insulin.
Sometimes my sugars stay high all day when I’m doing everything to bring them down. They put me on the pump so that hopefully will stop them getting too high and low all the time. I think I’m getting use to it now, but it’s still stressful, and I constantly worry I’m doing it wrong. My DSN only spent an hour with me practicing in front of her and then she sent me on my way. But I’m sure I am doing the right thing, sometimes my mind just goes into overthink mode. I definitely have a lot of questions for Thursday.
 
With regard to recovering from a hypo, after treating it immediately, it is a case f treating it like I would a hangover (I call night time hypos "diabetes hangovers"): stay hydrated, take paracetamol if I have a headache and make extra BG checks (and correct if necessary). I am not able to take a day off and rest due to a night time hypo so just do my best.

When I started with my first pump, I did a few set changes with saline before using insulin. The idea was to get familiar and confident with the process before starting on something that could do harm. is that what you are doing with your saline?
 
I just carry on my day as normal and take a paracetamol if needed. Collecting medication and uploading a pump don’t sound particularly strenuous tasks though so you can surely still have plenty rest whilst doing those? Personally, I think it’s better to just get used to carrying on your day as normal and don’t let diabetes dictate your life any more than is necessary.
 
DeathBySpaghetti said:
Thanks for letting me know what you do.

I am new to the pump. I’m on a Tandem Tslim one. I’ve only had it 4 days, so I am still learning everything. My DSN told me to do at least one upload of the pump during my training with it, so that’s what I have to do today. I’m sure it’s straightforward, but who knows especially after a nasty hypo how quick my mind will get back to its usual self. Is the pump easy once you know what you are doing?
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If it's taking more than 45 mins to be back to normal, then there is a problem somewhere and you need to discus this with your medical team. It's normal to treat and carry on after 15 mins but illegal to drive for 45 mins after a hypo. So if you are not functioning correctly then you have an issue somewhere.
 
Uploading the T-Slim is easy, we do it with Diasend (although I think that might have changed to something else now, Glooko? so I might have a little bit of fiddling to do next time!), once you've set up the account and installed the software on a computer then it doesn't take long. Open the software, plug pump in with supplied USB cable, software will find it and do the rest automatically, just don't unplug until it's finished! Even setting up the account wasn't hard actually, I wasn't looking forward to doing that but it was pretty straightforward.
 
As others just carry on as normal, once was in low 2's before being picked up for a funeral, still went staggering down the stairs in heels with assistance, my hypo didn't resolve until near the end of the service despite numerous treatments over an hour and a half, felt like I'd been hit by a bus but still went to the wake and then carried on as normal when I got home, if you need to take a day for recovery there's something going on, yeah we all feel tired but most don't have the option to have a day of recovery
 
DeathBySpaghetti said:
I got put on the pump because my sugars are always too low or too high, no matter what I do. I barely take much insulin as I rarely eat. I take between 4-6 units for meals and 1-3 units for corrections and 23 of background insulin.
Sometimes my sugars stay high all day when I’m doing everything to bring them down. They put me on the pump so that hopefully will stop them getting too high and low all the time. I think I’m getting use to it now, but it’s still stressful, and I constantly worry I’m doing it wrong. My DSN only spent an hour with me practicing in front of her and then she sent me on my way. But I’m sure I am doing the right thing, sometimes my mind just goes into overthink mode. I definitely have a lot of questions for Thursday.
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The amount of insulin people takes varies as we are all different. However if your levels are not ‘working’ then the amounts of insulin you are using need looking at, so I hope that the pump works for you.

You have variable amounts for your meals so I am guessing that you are carb counting, and hopefully having the variable basal rates hour by hour on your pump can help you to match this to what you actually need. That is one of the big advantages with the pump.

Thanks @helli. I now understand the saline bit. We didn’t do that with ours and we’re put straight onto insulin delivery.
 
DeathBySpaghetti said:
I got put on the pump because my sugars are always too low or too high, no matter what I do. I barely take much insulin as I rarely eat. I take between 4-6 units for meals and 1-3 units for corrections and 23 of background insulin.
Sometimes my sugars stay high all day when I’m doing everything to bring them down. They put me on the pump so that hopefully will stop them getting too high and low all the time. I think I’m getting use to it now, but it’s still stressful, and I constantly worry I’m doing it wrong. My DSN only spent an hour with me practicing in front of her and then she sent me on my way. But I’m sure I am doing the right thing, sometimes my mind just goes into overthink mode. I definitely have a lot of questions for Thursday.
Click to expand...
As others have said everyone's needs are different, I actually use less insulin than you do 🙂

You also have to remember Rome wasn't built in a day, so it will take a while for you to adjust your pump to your needs.
Invest in the book pumping insulin by John Walsh it's known as the pumpers Bible, easy to read and understand.
 
helli said:
With regard to recovering from a hypo, after treating it immediately, it is a case f treating it like I would a hangover (I call night time hypos "diabetes hangovers"): stay hydrated, take paracetamol if I have a headache and make extra BG checks (and correct if necessary). I am not able to take a day off and rest due to a night time hypo so just do my best.

When I started with my first pump, I did a few set changes with saline before using insulin. The idea was to get familiar and confident with the process before starting on something that could do harm. is that what you are doing with your saline?
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Yes. I have the insulin put in on Thursday. It’s still very stressful. But I am getting familiar. I just overthink everything and worry a lot about doing the wrong things. I have bad eyesight so my mum does help a lot with it. I can’t wait to use it properly. It warned me of the hypo I was going to have last night, I should have listened but I didn’t unfortunately so it was pretty much my own doing. But like you said it’s just practice so I won’t make that mistake again I will always listen to my pump now.
 
Pumper_Sue said:
As others have said everyone's needs are different, I actually use less insulin than you do 🙂

You also have to remember Rome wasn't built in a day, so it will take a while for you to adjust your pump to your needs.
Invest in the book pumping insulin by John Walsh it's known as the pumpers Bible, easy to read and understand.
Click to expand...
I will take a look at that book. Thanks for the recommendation. I do read a lot so it’s perfect.
 
Hiya @DeathBySpaghetti - great name! Good luck with your pump - I hope it helps you sort out your BG roller coaster. I treat hypos with orange juice, then get on with my day as usual - but with an extra eye on my BG in case there’s a repeat.
 
Maybe longevity playing part but don't get washed out by hypos like did in earlier years, so just treat & get on with day.

Really since using libre 2 with low bg warning have very few now, so great piece of tech that should have been around years before.
 
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