Hypo

[Kaylz]

Ok so not very clued up on a hypo never having had one (well not while I've been up and about suspect I may have had night time ones though woken up a couple of times sweating really badly, confused then in the morning have a really sore head) so I know to take dextrose tablets, jelly babies etc and I know if my next meal is due to eat that so I'm assuming if my next meal isn't due and I have to have a slice of toast etc so I don't drop again I still inject to cover it (sorry for my thickness) x

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

No, don't inject if you weren't about to inject and to eat anyway - but also don't have a slice of toast, it's far more than you need to stop your bgl dropping again! Treat the hypo with jelly babies or your glucose tablets or fruit juice or whatever, and wait 15 minutes and test again to make sure your bgl is back to normal. Then eat a much smaller amount of slow-acting carbs and don't have any insulin. I eat a TUC biscuit, which is 3g carbs, or if I still feel a bit woozy I might eat a Ryvita, which is 7g carbs. A slice of toast is more like 20g carbs, far more than you need and instead of stabilising your bgl it will send it sky-high, on top of all the glucose.

Obviously if you were about to eat anyway, you need to inject for the carbs in the food you were going to eat. I often have the TUC biscuit before I inject/eat anyway, so the slow-acting carbs have a chance to stabilise my bgl before I start adding other types of food.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

PS Not knowing and asking isn't being thick, it's being sensible!

 

[Kaylz]

Ah right ok so say I had a hypo at like 2:30pm I would eat whatever to bring my levels back up check in 15 minutes then have something like a TUC to tide me over till i injected for my tea at 4:30, do I check anytime between the 15 minute mark and when I'm due to eat x

 

[Kaylz]

Btw that must be like the only thing I haven't looked up nutrition information for and I don't know why as I love them fantastic that they are so low carb, that will be going on the snack and shopping list haha thanks 🙂 x

 

[Mini-Vicki]

when I have a hypo, and it's not near meal time, I just have enough jelly babies to bring my BG up to a normal level, I check 15 minutes later and again about an hour later to ensure I haven't over corrected, and gone hyper.
I don't eat anything else until my next meal time, unless I continue to drop, in which case I'll have a ryvita and some cheese, or a couple of jacobs crackers and Philadelphia.
I've just found this works for me, diabetes takes a lot of trial and error and is certainly a continuing learning process.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

do I check anytime between the 15 minute mark and when I'm due to eat x

I wouldn't check again unless I felt I needed to, but as Vicki says it's trial and error, so you may need to do the occasional extra check the first few times it happens until you've worked out what works for you. If I didn't have the TUC my bgl would keep climbing for a bit and then plummet and I'd be hypo again, but a lot of other people can do what Vicki does and not normally bother with the slow-acting carbs at all, so it varies from person to person.

 

[Radders]

Whether I need to top up with a slow acting carb depends on the reason for the hypo. If I've overestimated the carbs in a meal, and it's less than 4 hours since the bolus, then I may well need a top up snack to stop me dropping low again. If the hypo is when there's no bolus active then I would not need to eat anything else.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

The only way to tell whether you will generally need follow-up carbs after a hypo is to try it (or try it without) and see. It used to always be recommended because it can be tricky to tell what caused the low, and if your body has deposited any stored glucose as part of your recovery it can make subsequent hypos more likely later on. However if you find any follow up carbs tend to leave you high when you next check, then you might decide you are better off without.

Diabetes is infuriatingly individual and in the early days it can mean a lot of checking and rechecking until you understand what generally happens - and then just keep an eye out in case that changes over time!