Hypo Stomach Spasms

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Manda

Manda

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi,

When I get hypos they are always in the night and wake me up, the first sign that I'm having one is that I get really strong stomach spasms (along with shaking and feeling weak etc). Does anyone know what causes the stomach spasms? My stomach muscles ache loads the next day - can't find anything online about it!

Thanks 🙂
 
Wow. No I have never heard of that one. Sounds horrible x
 
That sounds nasty! Various sources I have found say that stomach pain is more often caused by hypers rather than hypos. I assume you are testing when this happens to you?
 
The important thing actually whatever our hypo or hyper signals are - that they are strong enough to wake us up if necessary - and DO something to correct whichever it is.

It's not a symptom I've heard of before, but every one of us is different Manda.

You need to take some action the prevent the night-time hypos though - so get in touch with your medical team as soon as possible, tell them what's been happening and discuss doses and timing of basal insulin .
 
Manda, glad to hear that someone else has this.

When I get it in the middle of the night as I reach for the jelly babies/satsuma my mind goes into overdrive thinking it is some sort of post surgery complication.
 
The_petal said:
Manda, glad to hear that someone else has this.

When I get it in the middle of the night as I reach for the jelly babies/satsuma my mind goes into overdrive thinking it is some sort of post surgery complication.
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Ahh I'm glad it's not just me too!! I have now asked my Diabetes Nurse about it - she said it's an adrenaline rush reaction, as my blood sugars are dropping quickly my body is going into panic mode. Occasionally I'll get the stomach spasms in the day too and think I'm having a hypo, then I'll check and I'm on 8mmol so completely fine - I assume this just means my blood sugars are dropping quickly and could soon be low. As unpleasant as it is I'm grateful to have them as a warning sign to wake me up 🙂
 
Bronco Billy said:
That sounds nasty! Various sources I have found say that stomach pain is more often caused by hypers rather than hypos. I assume you are testing when this happens to you?
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Yes I am, I tend to be between a 3.8 and 4.8 when I wake in the night with stomach spasms. It's not a sharp pain, just a deep ache as my stomach muscles get tired from the spasm! Have spoken with my Diabetes Nurse since and she says it's an adrenaline rush reaction as my bloods are dropping fast! At least it wakes me up haha 🙂
 
If you are going hypo in the night - your basal insulin dose needs adjusting or the timing of the jab changed, possibly both and/or change in insulin type - cos whatever you re doing now certainly doesn't match what you body needs, does it?

Has anyone ever suggested deliberately waking up in the early hours an during the night and testing to try and identify at what time your BG starts to go down, how low it actually drops, how long that lasts and what happens before and after?

It's unacceptable - to you obviously - but ALSO from a medical POV, to go hypo in the night more than very occasionally and it needs sorting out. So tell whoever you see you want to get it sorted, please and ask what you can do to find a solution.

It won't be instant and you need to make a fair bit of input and analysis into this. The sooner you get started on identifying what occurs, when, the sooner it can be ironed out.
 
I used to get horrible cramp in my legs during severe hypos, I wonder if it’s a similar thing.
 
trophywench said:
If you are going hypo in the night - your basal insulin dose needs adjusting or the timing of the jab changed, possibly both and/or change in insulin type - cos whatever you re doing now certainly doesn't match what you body needs, does it?

Has anyone ever suggested deliberately waking up in the early hours an during the night and testing to try and identify at what time your BG starts to go down, how low it actually drops, how long that lasts and what happens before and after?

It's unacceptable - to you obviously - but ALSO from a medical POV, to go hypo in the night more than very occasionally and it needs sorting out. So tell whoever you see you want to get it sorted, please and ask what you can do to find a solution.

It won't be instant and you need to make a fair bit of input and analysis into this. The sooner you get started on identifying what occurs, when, the sooner it can be ironed out.
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I agree - I've tried lowering my basal by one unit for a couple of weeks, then have woken up to higher readings around 10mmol in the morning. I wonder if I'm using too much fast acting with my dinner and it's staying in my system longer than I realise. I've only recently started using fast acting and am waiting to attend a course on how to use it properly, I think once I'm using that correctly, I'll manage to avoid hypos and find the correct basal. I have an appointment booked next month so will ask more then too! Thank you for you advice! 🙂 x
 
Which insulins are you actually using Manda?
 
Manda said:
I agree - I've tried lowering my basal by one unit for a couple of weeks, then have woken up to higher readings around 10mmol in the morning. I wonder if I'm using too much fast acting with my dinner and it's staying in my system longer than I realise. I've only recently started using fast acting and am waiting to attend a course on how to use it properly, I think once I'm using that correctly, I'll manage to avoid hypos and find the correct basal. I have an appointment booked next month so will ask more then too! Thank you for you advice! 🙂 x
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Hi Amanda
When I was in Injections I found it difficult to manage levels over night with the basal insulin. As you say this may also be a bit of left overs from your evening quick acting.

For the basal insulin you could talk to your diabetes team about splitting this. I switched from Lantus to Levemir so that I could do this. It enabled me to reduce my night time dose to avoid hypos in the night, without having to change my daytime one. I was also able to reduce the day time dose if I knew I had a very active day ahead, without mucking up the night time dose.

To overcome the impact of the bolus (quick acting) I find it helpful to eat earlier in the evening to allow that to have finished its job before I go to bed. It is still a problem if I eat very fatty food in the evening, but those cause issues at any time of the day.
 
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