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Hypo or not?

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M

Mr Lee

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Type 1
Is it still a hypo above normal levels? I have tried to google this one but with no luck,

This happened to me more than once, last year i was walking in town and suddenly had the shakes, my hands were sweating and my heat beat racing. My legs also felt like lead so i panicked and raced for sugar. Instantly i felt a little better and after 15 mins of sitting down i was back to normal.
To me, this felt like a hypo. the problem is that i had my test machine with me and on checking me levels i was 9.
I am normally always high so it seems to me that every time i get below 10.. i have a hypo? (or is it?)

So thinking ahead, do i panic and go for sugar (if levels above 7) or is it safe to keep monitoring and sweat it out?
 
If you tend to run high then you may experience hypo symptoms at higher levels than a true hypo which is under 4.
 
Because you generally run higher you are likely to feel hypo at higher levels known as a false hypo, you don't need to treat with sugar unless below 4 (or maybe a biscuit if above 4 but below 5 as its longer lasting) if you keep treating higher levels with sugar therefore putting them even higher you will never get used to having normal BG readings, try a protein snack if your not actually low like a piece of cheese as it tricks the brain xx
 
I would like to stress that it is important to sit down and check your reading when you feel like that, before you treat, so that you know what course of action to take. I would hate to think you had dropped into a proper hypo and just ate a biscuit or a piece or cheese, so please do get into the habit of testing when you don't feel right and have a clear plan for what you are going to eat depending upon the reading, as your brain can get a bit muddled when you feel like that. There is also often an urge to overeat when you get that hypo feeling, so you do need to be quite disciplined about what you use to treat a hypo or a false hypo... ie 3 jelly babies for a hypo or maybe half a digestive for a false hypo.
 
Point taken and your right, when first diagnosed all i was given was Hypo-stop gel ? or something like that ?
But it was hard to relate that to real food or drink, i used to drink a whole can of full fat coke when low and ended up feeling worse half an hour later.
Something i did learn from that was, (for me) feelings of high and low was bad, but changing fast from one to another was worse.
 
When I was first diagnosed, and was immediately prescribed Gliclazide, I do not recall being told anything about what to do about a hypo, just a booklet, let alone be given something to treat one. Shortly after I went on a DESMOND course where I was told how slim I was, everyone else was told they had to lose weight, and nothing about hypos.

Because I was only told to test my blood in the morning and evening, I did not even know I was supposed to test when I felt hypo. When I did I felt like I was doing something wrong as I was wasting my prescription. And that I only did to confirm my levels, I never knew you were supposed to test after treating them too until joining here because my body had gone in the opposite direction.

You will do after have to work things out for yourself.

Anyway, sometimes I felt symptoms around but was still well in the 4 mmol/L range, which I assumed just meant a rapid fall. In those situations I never did anything unless the symptoms continued, but they usually went away. Even in the high 3s, say 3.7 or above, I would try to wait it out and see if it could correct itself, depending on how strong the symptoms were.
 
Becka said:
Even in the high 3s, say 3.7 or above, I would try to wait it out and see if it could correct itself, depending on how strong the symptoms were.
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I wouldn't advise that xx
 
Becka said:
When I was first diagnosed, and was immediately prescribed Gliclazide, I do not recall being told anything about what to do about a hypo, just a booklet, let alone be given something to treat one. Shortly after I went on a DESMOND course where I was told how slim I was, everyone else was told they had to lose weight, and nothing about hypos.

Because I was only told to test my blood in the morning and evening, I did not even know I was supposed to test when I felt hypo. When I did I felt like I was doing something wrong as I was wasting my prescription. And that I only did to confirm my levels, I never knew you were supposed to test after treating them too until joining here because my body had gone in the opposite direction.

You will do after have to work things out for yourself.

Anyway, sometimes I felt symptoms around but was still well in the 4 mmol/L range, which I assumed just meant a rapid fall. In those situations I never did anything unless the symptoms continued, but they usually went away. Even in the high 3s, say 3.7 or above, I would try to wait it out and see if it could correct itself, depending on how strong the symptoms were.
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I personally found on Gliclazide even on the slow release version, it was sometime the rate of fall not just the number that effected me more. I once had to sit nearly 3/4Hour in my Chiropractor car park to get my levels up to drive the short distance home. I only tested that time because I was driving and had an hours sports massage.
I also used to get different symptoms too. I had what I thought was a panic sitting having a coffee , the second day it happened I thought it was strange and took my blood sugars, and i was hypo.
 
Kaylz said:
I wouldn't advise that xx
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Although hypoglycaemia is often stated as being under 4 mmol/L, it does not actually have a fixed definition. I see it as the same as not treating a 7.1 as something to panic about but a 7.0 being normal. There is no sudden hard change according to a glucometer's approximate reading but a transitional area as things get better or worse. For me, I would sometimes dip under 4 and come back up and not always with symptoms. I only discovered this when I would have a high 3 reading before eating.

Everyone's body is different though, so you should definitely find what is right for you and not just copy random advice verbatim. But I would say that also goes to treating a 3.9 and a 2.9 the same. If I had strong symptoms and was 3.9 I could reasonably assume I was falling and would treat it fully. But something very mild will either get stronger or not go away, in which case it needed treatment or can sort itself out. Allowing the latter, to me, was better than artificially inflating it when unnecessary.

Mind, as much as I hated hypos (I would often feel a paranoid panic, maybe a similar feeling to what grovesy mentioned?), after a fasting 20.9 last night I am really missing them!
 
I don't believe diabetics are routinely given hypo treatment by medical professionals. I had to go out and buy Dextrose tablets when I was diagnosed and it wasn't even explained to me that I needed 3 tablets to treat a hypo until I saw the dietician 6 weeks later. Coincidentally I had my first hypo the very next day!
Now thanks to this forum, I mostly use jelly babies as they are significantly cheaper.... A bag of jelly babies in Lidl is something like 59p. I have the odd packet of Dextrose reserved to treat sub 3 hypos but a pack usually lasts me a year.... hopefully much longer now I have Libre.
 
@rebrascora you'd be surprised the amount of people who do get prescribed with hypo treatment, there's more than you might think and I only became aware of that when someone asked a question (might have been me actually lol) where was cheapest to get lift glucose chews and everyone jumped in with I should get treatment prescribed on a Facebook group, I don't use jelly babies now as they turn my stomach after a very stubborn hypo lasting a few hours all before and during Bruce's grans funeral xx
 
Kaylz said:
@rebrascora you'd be surprised the amount of people who do get prescribed with hypo treatment, there's more than you might think and I only became aware of that when someone asked a question (might have been me actually lol) where was cheapest to get lift glucose chews and everyone jumped in with I should get treatment prescribed on a Facebook group, I don't use jelly babies now as they turn my stomach after a very stubborn hypo lasting a few hours all before and during Bruce's grans funeral xx
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I used to Dextrose tablets as I was less likely to overdo than with jelly babies.
 
I find Glucotabs (renamed Lift?) better than Dextrosol, as Dextrosol can go very hard if left in a pocket or bottom of a bag for some time.
 
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