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Hypo on metformin

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Makes sense, I put all my symptoms down to all the sedation I’d had, went on for months. Looking back, they were all diabetes related.
 
Unfortunately there's only one diabetes nurse here in hospital (well what passes for hospital) - the one I saw when in hospital who was extremely dismissive of my other needs and kept saying they weren't relevant.

So, today I've had hypos again. Two. I've been checking my blood sugars a lot more than usual.

I've done a lot of readings (12!) the lowest is 3.6 (which I had twice) and a high of 10 after having breakfast -weetabix and milk (which I have juice with - cherry, diluted so low sugar). I did struggle a lot with mental mental this morning and I know that can drive my readings up and down. But since then it's been nowhere near that number, the other readings are all between 5 and 7. My last reading before bed is 7.8. I know when I hit 4.8 it drops really rapidly so I must take action then.

I'm so tired of all this.
 
Sorry to hear that about the nurse - it's so frustrating when they don't take everything into account. I've had that a lot with consultants over the years. Of course your conditions will interact with each other, and everyone's diabetes is different and will react to different things like illnesses or stresses or whatever.

I think high readings mid-morning are quite normal, a lot of people find they are most insulin-resistant in the morning. 10 at that time is (while not ideal) not too bad, especially as most of your other readings today were really good. It's the 3.6s which are more of a problem given that you're not on hypo-causing meds. You might want to think about following the advice for Reactive Hypoglycaemia and eating little and often, I think that does help those of us who are prone to hypos.
 
becca19962014 said:
I have had a few. Especially in the last two weeks since I upped the metformin to twice a day. Including during the night which means I'm panicking the moment I go to bed it'll happen again. I'm now sleeping with jelly babies again. I try to aim for about 7.5 before bed, but am having a lot of nightmares/terrors and am wondering if that's effecting it too.

Am thinking I'll go back to one in the morning. Due to see GP this week so can let them know.

I'm on slow release but I wonder if it's dumping in my system as I've had happen with other so called slow release meds.

My mental health is pretty much constantly severe depression with anxiety/agoraphobic attacks daily. Had one this afternoon, an exact mirror of the hypo but my blood sugars were 7.9. Unfortunately referring for another mental health assessment due to deterioation meant everything else stopped until assessment which won't be for weeks, if ever, as the assessing cpn has demanded my GP stops giving me daily medication collection from pharmacy saying I must show willing by taking responsibility for the choice to end my life and my GP won't do this due to duty of care - the point of the referral was she's concerned for my welfare!

It's frightening to find I'm having hypos on top.

I cant see diabetes team as my last hbA1bc was 40, not that they were helpful, all I was told was zero carbs and sugar and lots of fruit and veg (which didn't work for me at all), lots of exercise (physical disability makes that hard) and aim for readings in the low 4s (I was having many many hypos on that advice).
Click to expand...

Who have you that advice?

Have a look at

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/managing-your-diabetes/testing
 
I'm sorry I don't know what part of the post you're referring to.
If it's the aim before bed it was diabetes GP as I was waking in the night having hypos. I must eat about an hour before bed because of meds I'm taking for other conditions. I can't have those meds without food, and if I leave it much longer than an hour find I can't sleep.

This morning is really high (7.5) as I woke at 2am with it really low again, and went back to sleep really quickly so I assume food was still hanging around my system.

I've had difficulties in the past with slow release meds dumping in my system suddenly causing me problems.

I'm testing more right now for two days because I'm trying to see if my panic attacks are that or actually reflected in blood sugars. I self fund testing.

I also eat roughly every two hours so I can take meds which require food.
 
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Though this morning was "really high" it didn't actually peak anywhere near what it did the day before. I did nothing more than the day before. My attempt to control my mental health failed, though I at least tried, but I saw it did make my BG plummet. I decided to eat a small portion of an Alpen bar an hour before lunch to see if that had any effect in terms of stopping the hypo I've been having and it worked a treat - kept it at 4.8. After lunch it went to over 8 but i ate more than yesterday and then after a short nap it stayed the same. I had a big roast dinner, before it was (mostly veg) and two hours later (no food only water in that time) it's 6.9 and no mental health issues during that time, except a minor panic attack.

My ibs has been a lot better today as well - my stomach was having such huge spasms I could see them happening (I've a huge stomach so that's really bad I could see them). I'm seeing GP tomorrow and am taking my readings with me. Obviously I've halved my metformin as well so I'll need to discuss that. Just doesn't seem to be making any sense in terms of getting up early and finding my blood sugar is increasing not decreasing whilst waiting for breakfast (have meds must take before having food).

The big thing is though I now know that the "thump" I've had in my chest is definitely a warning for a hypo. Before I'd been having something to eat around that time anyway but not treating it so continuing to feel unwell for sometime now I know what it is I can sort it quite quickly. I discovered my corner shop does small bags of jelly babies (3 for a £1) so I bought several of those so I've one in my bag/coat/bed at all times and o don't find myself tempted to munch on the left overs in a bag as they're so small there's barely none left!
 
I'm trying to keep it fairly stable. I think you're right about the tolerance of machines.
It's just really so I can get an idea of any links with what's going on with me generally. I'm using my thread to keep notes for myself for tomorrow.

The information I was given was wrong in the first place, so I'm trying to find a normal for me, if that makes sense. Looking at the average for the last week it's 7 but before Monday I was only testing first thing and last thing at night so it's not really accurate.
 
It sounds to me as though you are dealing with this really well, Becca - the extra tests are showing you exactly what's going on and if you can treat the hypos and still keep your blood sugar under 10ish I think you're doing as well as anyone else with hypos and better than a lot of us! Trying to find a normal for you makes a lot of sense.

I shouldn't worry about waking at 7.5 now and again, I wouldn't call that really high - and if you think of it as a really high waking reading then I presume it's not happening every morning, so if you're usually waking lower than 7 that's good.

And it is normal for blood sugar to increase rather than decrease while waiting for breakfast, so that's not something to worry about (so long as it's going to 8ish and not into the teens) - getting up triggers your body to release stored glucose to deal with the day. This effects me really badly - if I had no breakfast I'd still have to have a couple of units of insulin, or my blood sugar would be mid-teens by mid-morning!
 
becca19962014 said:
I'm trying to keep it fairly stable. I think you're right about the tolerance of machines.
It's just really so I can get an idea of any links with what's going on with me generally. I'm using my thread to keep notes for myself for tomorrow.

The information I was given was wrong in the first place, so I'm trying to find a normal for me, if that makes sense. Looking at the average for the last week it's 7 but before Monday I was only testing first thing and last thing at night so it's not really accurate.
Click to expand...

For me, for realistic testing, it was two hours after eating, or when I felt really bad initially.
 
Again I think the morning figure being "really high" was misinformation. Usually it's around 6. I know it's not a massive increase but given lack of support with this I'm unsure as to what is and isn't a massive increase. I was told for example under no circumstances to let it get to 10. When I first noticed it doing that and rang GP in a panic they were very very cool about it and wanted to know what my problem was.

Thankyou for the explanation about getting up, I'd not realised that though of course it makes sense. I also have a lot of pain first thing getting out of bed so was wondering if it was actually a response to that, I find being in a lot of pain can cause issues as well.
 
To begin with I was doing checks after two hours but stopped as I found it was stable, which actually looking at those figures now it still is. I'm more interested in when feeling unwell or shaky and what's going on then. I am beginning to think I need, for now, to continue with the testing to see if there are patterns with regard to it being higher or lower than my normal and things like bad headaches/dizziness and other things I'd been told were "just" panic/PTSD symptoms. Especially as the things I've been given to Help with those issues do not always work, so far some of those have been either a high or low spike in blood sugars which would explain why they're not working as well as other times which is reassuring.
 
GP said my readings are fine and not to worry and expect hypos - it is possible it's the metformin not working 100% correctly. I showed all my readings for the last few days and, as someone else mentioned the 10 which I was so scared by is apparently totally normal and having an average of 7 despite the 10s is apparently very good.

The bad news is the mental health team have rejected my referral as at team meeting it was decided "I'm fine". Devastated doesn't really cover it.
 
Hi Becca, sorry you didn;t get a more helpful response. Did you specifically ask about Reactive Hypoglycaemia? I would guess that many GPs will not be familiar with this.
 
I know the GP has diabetes themselves. I didn't ask about that, no. She did say it could be the slow release not working properly which has been a problem for me with other meds. I'm to monitor when I can and let them know.

But

To be honest I was very distressed at having my mental and social care assessments refused, as much as I'd been dreading both, I'd actually (stupidly) begun to think maybe things could improve on those fronts. So much of what was discussed has gone out my head now.
 
So sorry to hear about that, Becca, sounds like they don't understand what life is like for you at the moment at all :(

It does sound as though you're managing the diabetes well with all the extra testing though, and working out how your blood sugar effects your mental health and vice versa will be really helpful in the long term. I think you do have to work out your own normal when you're juggling other conditions with diabetes, standard advice will not always be relevant, and it does sound as though the advice you've been given in the past has been rather mixed (to say the least). It's good that the GP wants you to keep monitoring now, and that she's aware that the slow release meds might not work properly for you.
 
Before I attempt sleep I just want to say that my GP does understand how difficult things are for me. Ive been there several times a week for the last two weeks and they've really tried, it's not my GP. I don't want people to think it is. She was clearly angry that her referral has been refused.
 
That's good, and don't worry - I don't think you gave the impression that it was the GP at fault. But having a GP on your side is really important. I had a lovely GP at my last surgery and even though she wasn't responsible for my diabetes care or my ME care and didn't know very much about either, it was really good to have someone who listened to me and treated me with respect and fought my corner when necessary.
 
Today I've had the opposite problem. My BG was 14 an hour after eating! I'd not slept (horrendous day and night after yesterday) and woke to find I'd obviously eaten in the middle of the night. When I had breakfast, which was late (so meds were too) as I was panicking about getting out of bed it was 8.9. I'm 99% sure it was the juice i had with breakfast which I didn't measure out (I know) and I didn't have my usual drink after it either (again needed to get out and terrified). I only tested because i was feeling so dizzy and yuck, I almost went to bed I'm glad I didn't now. Then I felt even bloody worse! I've never had it that high before!!

Anyway, I made myself go out then thinking walking might help, twenty minutes later it was 12.2, 90 minute after eating my monitor said it was 10.1 but ten minutes later (literally drunk a bit of water and just sat there) it was reading as 8! Half an hour ago it was 4 and I was feeling shaky and starving so I had a low sugar Alpen bar is usually have half way through the morning with those meds and didn't as I was scared to and now it's 6.5 and im due my next meal.

But I'm terrfied I'm going to get the hypos again.
 
I found it took me a week or two to settle down, after changing anything.
I never felt good if my BG went below 4 either, but I soon stabilised and thankfully stay around a low of 5 now.
 
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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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