Dont know what to do

[Claire91]

Does anybody have probems controlling their blood sugars. I have a phobia of going below 8.. cause i went unconscious before and my doctor said that i need to get it controlled now otherwise if i control it in afew years...it will be to late..I've had councelling and it didnt work. Dont actually know what to do . I always seem to have hypos in my sleep
ive increased my insulin cause i got told to have another meal before i go to sleep.. but it still stays the same..

 

[aymes]

What insulins are you on? Have you had the opportunity to do an educational course lime dafne? Before I did dafne I was similar, in that I was scared of keeping my numbers at an acceptable level, in case they then went low...creating my own buffer zone! For me it was cracking the basal dosage that helped me, once I knew I could remain steady a lot of the fear went.

 

[Claire91]

im on glargene and novarapid in the morning at lunch i have novarapid and at tea time i have glargene and novarapid

 

[Robster65]

Hi Claire.

I find hypos quite terrifying at times but my GF stays very calm which helps me.

In the daytime, I feel ok as long as I have plenty of fast-acting food with me. My coat pockets usually contain enough to feed a family of five for several weeks.

Do you get strong hypo symptoms or have you not allowed yourself to get that low ?

It may help if you get someone you trust to sit with you and deliberately allow your BS to drop to about 4, then eat something like a couple of jelly babies.

I know phobias are very real fears and it's not a simple thing to push through it.

Rob

 

[Claire91]

Well im a nursery nurse and i have 10 n a half hour shift. once ive had my lunch hour at 12 i worry that it will get low. I also had abad experience 4 years ago.. I went so low i went semi conscious....very close to unconscious! I just get really scared and worry. cuz ive always been hi i grt shaky at about 10..

 

[Robster65]

I've had loads of hypos in the last few weeks which I was worried would decrease my sensitivity to them. I felt low yesterday and tested at about 6.5 which I reckon was my subconscious convincing me I was going low.

When I go off the scale, below 1.1 on my meter, as I did at 3.30am last night, if I don't catch it in time, I start to 'twitch', then after a while pass out and convulse quite badly.
I've not done this for many years but it is the fear of it that haunts me. I can now remain reasonably calm provided I've had plenty of glucose but the more it happens, the more I trust the food to bring me back up and the less I panic.

The reason I'm no longer 'running a bit high' is because after 32 years, I've had my first real scare at the eye clinic and decided it was time to get it under proper control.

Were finding it tends to settle at around the 5 or 6 mark for most of the time and can anticipate when it might go low, or high, and get the right amount of food and insulin to cover it. Sometimes we get it a bit wrong.

We were out 2 days ago walking round town and I felt low, tested and was about 2. We sat down, had some jelly babies until I was feeling ok, then carried on. It does become second nature.
I realise working with kids is difficult, but maybe you could practice when you're at home and gradually experiment with work days ?

Rob

 

[rossoneri]

Clare,

Yes severe hypos are really tough. I imagine that fighting a phobia like yours is tough too.

Like Rob I have had a few severe hypos over the years including ones where I have woken up to find myself in A&E or with an ambulance paramedic waiting for me to open my eyes after they have given me a glucose shot. I have absolutely hated it every time this has happened but I have also learnt that the best thing to do is to try to understand why it happened and take action to reduce the likelihood of it reoccurring in the future.

Is it anything in particular about going into a coma that scares you or is it just the thought of becoming unconscious by itself?

Getting the "hypo shakes" when your blood glucose drops below 10.0 would seem unlikely but not necessarily impossible. At the very least I would get your meter calibrated to ensure that it is giving accurate readings. I would agree with Rob that if you have hypos on your mind then you might think one is happening when your level is perfectly fine. That is why it is always wise to test, if you can, to be sure.

In the period after your lunch do you have the option at say 2.30pm to have a snack like an apple, a banana or a couple of digestives with a cuppa? This would be a precaution against your blood suger dropping off as the day continued but is small enough to not merit an extra injection.

Have you tried or thought of trying Continual Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS). I could give you a description of it if you have not heard of this before although I am sure there is plenty about it on this forum - search for CGMS.

With regards avoiding night-time hypos I would strongly advise taking a look at a thread where Northerner describes his recent efforts to avoid waking up with a low blood sugar. It can be found here and provides a lot of good insight although it is quite long now!

I really hope that you do start avoiding the hypos and that you also have success handling your perfectly understandable phobia.