Concussion and Vertigo

S

Sav

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I collapsed in a store hitting my head ended up with long cut and bruising to head, spent 5 days in hospital. I normally have about 10/12 of Humulin a day but all the time I was in hospital I did not have any or the first 3 days at home as blood glucose was low. However over the last few weeks my blood sugar levels have been out of control and am now taking 32 of Humulin a day. I am not eating any different than before and drinking plenty, has anyone else had problems for concussion or vertigo, many thanks.
 
Still trying to so sort out my blood sugars high during the day and over the last few nights below 4,5, once it showed up as below 4 4 times.
 
Hi.
Sorry to hear you had a nasty fall whilst shopping. I hope you are fully recovered from that.

As regards your Humulin, is it Humulin i (suffix letter i may be in green)? Do you inject it just once a day or twice and if just once is it morning or night?

Are you monitoring your levels with a Libre 2 or other Constant Glucose Monitor? And are you saying that your levels dropped below 4.0 several times during the night? If you are using Libre, do you double check these low readings with a finger prick before treating or are you not waking up and just seeing the lows on the graph the next morning? If the latter then are your alarms turned on and if so, what do you have them set at?
Libre and other CGMs are prone to what we call compression lows if you lie on the arm with the sensor on it causing a false low, so a series of dips into the "red" might be where you have rolled over and back several times in your sleep when tossing and turning or they may be genuine lows because you are taking just one dose of Humulin instead of 2 and it is resulting in too much basal insulin overnight. Many of us need less insulin during the night. I take a similar acting basal insulin to Humulin and I need lots in the morning as soon as I wake up (usually 20-22units), but only a few at night, usually anywhere between 0 and 5 units. If I have had an active day when I have done lots of physical work or exercise (a long walk or lots of gardening) I need less at night otherwise I will drop below 4, so I reduce my dose and if I have been more sedentary for instance when it has been raining and miserable, I increase my evening dose a bit. This is what works for me, but may not work for you, I am just trying to explain how insulin needs can change and why you might be getting lows during the night or that they might not be real lows (ie possibly compression lows from lying on the sensor)
 
rebrascora said:
Hi.
Sorry to hear you had a nasty fall whilst shopping. I hope you are fully recovered from that.

As regards your Humulin, is it Humulin i (suffix letter i may be in green)? Do you inject it just once a day or twice and if just once is it morning or night?

Are you monitoring your levels with a Libre 2 or other Constant Glucose Monitor? And are you saying that your levels dropped below 4.0 several times during the night? If you are using Libre, do you double check these low readings with a finger prick before treating or are you not waking up and just seeing the lows on the graph the next morning? If the latter then are your alarms turned on and if so, what do you have them set at?
Libre and other CGMs are prone to what we call compression lows if you lie on the arm with the sensor on it causing a false low, so a series of dips into the "red" might be where you have rolled over and back several times in your sleep when tossing and turning or they may be genuine lows because you are taking just one dose of Humulin instead of 2 and it is resulting in too much basal insulin overnight. Many of us need less insulin during the night. I take a similar acting basal insulin to Humulin and I need lots in the morning as soon as I wake up (usually 20-22units), but only a few at night, usually anywhere between 0 and 5 units. If I have had an active day when I have done lots of physical work or exercise (a long walk or lots of gardening) I need less at night otherwise I will drop below 4, so I reduce my dose and if I have been more sedentary for instance when it has been raining and miserable, I increase my evening dose a bit. This is what works for me, but may not work for you, I am just trying to explain how insulin needs can change and why you might be getting lows during the night or that they might not be real lows (ie possibly compression lows from lying on the sensor)
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Thank you for your reply I am on Humulin and take a dose 1/2hr before my evening meal, I don't sleep on the arm my Libra 2 is on and also check it with a finger prick regularly . I have asked about taking it in the morning but told to keep taking it before dinner. My fall was due to my blood pressure crashing, I had told my Dr that I kept feeling faint knew it was not low blood sugars as the were fine, but was told Humulin did not affect BP. However feeling faint only happened after starting it, have always had high BP before that and on a lot of medication, I am now on 1 tablet a day after collapsing and have just had a 7 day continuous ecg machine on, for iregular heartbeats. My BS seem out of control for what I am eating, although I am not very active due to the concussion and vertigo. Was doing so much better on Metformin and Glicazade.
 
Sorry to hear they were genuine nocturnal hypos and it should be a priority to prevent these so if they are a regular occurrence then do keep pushing to change your insulin regime as I feel that would reduce the risk. Taking the Humulin in one dose at night may well be the problem.

The night your levels dropped below 4 four times, what did you treat each hypo with? Have you been given advice on how to treat hypos..... often referred to as the rule of 15? I hope you keep hypo treatments next to the bed, so that you don't have to get up when you are sleepy and hypo and wander around the house looking for something.
 
I have glucose sweets, plus chocolate and sugar drink, so it soon goes up, just wish someone would listen.
 
That all sounds rough and worrying for you. Has the doctor given you anything for the vertigo? Some of the older anti histamines like stemetil can help with vertigo but might not be suitable in your case. It may be worth checking though. It sounds like they’re trying to find the cause of the dropping BP so hopefully that will get sorted. With your night time lows, what sort of time do they occur? If early in the night then a slow carb snack like some crackers before bed may keep your levels up. If later in the night you could drop your insulin a bit and see if it levels out even if you’re running higher in the day (as long as it’s a responsible number) as hypos are more dangerous in the short term and you can then deal with the highs later once your health issues are sorted.
 
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