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Have I just had a hypo?

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PhilGT

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi there all

I would like your expertise to determine if I've just had a hypo?

Bit of background information
Found out 6 month a go that my a1c was 91
3 month ago I was put on 2 x metformin 500 and my a1c dropped to 39 so they lowered me down to 1 metformin couple of weeks ago I had another a1c and it was 35 and they took me off it completely

Last week or so my glucose levels have been all over place, I had brunch one day and my glucose shot up to 10.... few days later o had larger meal and the sugars were 7..... So all over the place

Fast forward to today

Sat at work (office job) and started to feel funny

Started get to get pounding every time my heart beat but no pain

Then I went mega light headed and before I knew it I was dizzy and sweating beyond belief...

Spoke to my mum as to if it's something she would know the cause and she recommended to check my blood and it was 4 mmol

Drank a few cans of full fat cola had a packed lunch and some fruit incase it was that and bloods went upto 18 mmol the chest issue stopped but was replaced by a banging headache

Took 3 hours and few snacks after lunch to start to feel normal again.

Any advice would be appreciated as I've never had this before and frankly it scares the shi* out of me
 
Technically you weren't hypo at 4.0 but if you usually run a fair bit higher (which you shouldn't) your body will recognise the dip down to 4 as not right and react accordingly with hypo symptoms.

You then had FAR too much carb - but when we're hypo our brains don't work properly and it can be hard to stop eating or drinking. One small can of Coke (the size you get as a mixer on aeroplanes) should be plenty.

I think you need to test more and see if you ARE running higher in a morning, or what?

The pounding head is simply the after effects of the hypo and then the soaring hyper, after it - another very good reason in hindsight - not to over-treat a low!

If you aren't running higher, then I have no explanation so I think you'd need to see your doctor. From a normal level say 5.5 or so, a drop down to 4 should not cause such violent symptoms - but id you are say 10 and then plummet mega quickly - boy oh boy - yes you do get exaggerated symptoms. Hope my explanation makes sense to you!
 
I agree with Jenny, you seriously over treated the low blood sugar. One can of full fat coke would fix it. If it should happen again, drink one can only, then test about 15 minutes later. That should be quite sufficient. The banging headache wasn’t just due to the post hypo effect, it was the massive glucose overload as well, because just drinking coke will send your BG sky high in a very short time.

The one thing that troubles me is that if you are not on any medication then you shouldn’t get hypos. You may get lowish BGs like any normal person, but not symptomatic hypos. Nor is there any reason for your BG to plummet. You say that the chest symptoms didn’t disappear until after you drank the coke and had a packed lunch. Those symptoms clearly weren’t due to low blood sugar if they weren’t suppressed by the coke within minutes. You need to speak to your GP and describe this incident as you have above, which is what you would have done for sure if you didn’t have Diabetes.
 
Ok so atleast that explained the headache then

Woke up this morning feeling fine but bloods were 3.8 before breakfast so will test shortly

But yesterday felt soooo much worse but better bloods I do t get it

Could it be because my body has been used to running mega high?
 
Don't think so, Phil to be honest.

Naturally one's BG is far more likely to be higher first thing in the morning than lower - so 3.8 is actually lower than it really should be unless you'd eg just finished manually mowing a good sized lawn or a session of circuit training - ie just after strenuous exercise. (Unless you're both morning people and had done - how can I put this? - 'something else' strenuously before breakfast! LOL)
 
Bloods are wierd today in General

3.8 on getting up upto 4.5 after 60g carb in museli
Pre lunch 4.6 upto 4.9 at 98g carb sandwiches and bag of crisps

Seems too low to me will test before and after tea

Did have a walk after lunch but nothing taxing strolling around town shopping etc
 
This all rather suggests that what you experienced originally weren’t hypo symptoms when your BG was 4.0, if you can carry on life as normal with similar figures. I still think you ought to report those symptoms to your doctor, just to make sure nothing else is going on. May I ask how old you are? You don’t have to answer that, of course.
 
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