Hypos - What's your symptoms ?

[pmailkeey]

Hi all,

I just wondered what signs and symptoms people got to indicate a hypo ! I don't mind discussion but the thread is primarily to list folks' indications of a hypo. If your list matches one already mentioned, please just give it a thumbs up / 'like' / '+' - or whatever you do on this forum to agree with a posting ! Cheers. Can you please list symptoms in the order they occur ? Thanks.

I'll start the ball rolling, starting with the first symptom:

1. Loss of appetite
2. Feeling 'odd'
3. Sweatiness.

What comes after that, I don't know 😉

Mike.

 

[Kaylz]

I can't list in the order they occur as they occur in a different order quite often

Shaking
Sweating
white spots in my vision
xx

 

[Ljc]

If I have one while asleep. A very sudden waking with a dreadful urge to pee, rubber legs which is not good when trying to get to the loo. I’ve got a tub of glucose tablets in there lol, shaky, confusion.


Not in any particular order
When awake. Tingling lips, feeling odd , sleepy, moody, confusion shaky, vision problems , rarely now the hypo hunger.

 

[Inka]

Sweating
Lack of concentration eg I’ll read the same paragraph 3 times and just can’t focus on the content
Blobby lights in my vision like when you come indoors from being out in the sun
Tingling lips and face
A feeling of panic and breathlessness
Weakness and a lack of coordination
Racing heart
Knowing what I want to say but getting it jumbled up

Just a few of them!

 

[PattiEvans]

Not alays in the same order:
Hunger
Shaking
Confusion.

 

[martindt1606]

If I fall to 2.9 - walking on clouds / marshmallow

 

[helli]

The lack of concentration is probably the key symptom for me. Even when I work out the cause is a hypo, I easily get distracted treating it.
I also lose all interest in eating so the idea of over treating a hypo is alien to me - I am not interested in eating anything.

If I go “too low”, I get cold sweats, shakes and flashes in my vision.

 

[grovesy]

I have had migraine type symptoms.

 

[nonethewiser]

Always get hunger pangs.

 

[Lucyr]

I can’t give an order, it varies every time

• Light headed
• Cold sweats
• Feeling cold
• Pins and needles in my face
• Shaky hands, difficult to coordinate to test bg
• Pale skin, am told I look like I’m about to faint
• Confusion, slow or no response to people asking me question
• Lose ability to speak, with stuttered/slurred speech/not able to organise sentences
  
  I don’t get a racing heart as I take beta blockers which have the side effect of masking hypos. Fortunately the signs above still make me aware of hypos most of the time.

 

[Robin]

Lack of concentration/co-ordination. I stumble over words and trip over my own feet.
Shakiness.
If at night, I wake up feeling odd, and just 'know'
If I'm dropping very fast, green blotchy patches coming and going in my vision.
If it’s a very slow drop, just into hypo territory, hunger.

 

[rebrascora]

I have only been diagnosed 2.5 years but my hypo symptoms have changed a bit during that time.

The first symptom used to be blurry peripheral vision particularly whilst out exercising.
If I am sitting still I often feel wooly headed, like I am isolating from my environment. It is hard to explain but no doubt people who experience that will understand. There might be an element of tinnitus to it but very mild.
Tingly lips and tongue although I haven't had that for a while.
Inability to express what I want to say when I am talking to someone..... this is a common one.
Restlessness.
Getting stuck in a cycle with a thought process which can sometimes involve treating the hypo.... so I will get stuck doing something and insist on trying to finish the task and then test and treat hypo even though I know I feel hypo and it is important to leave the task and do that straight away.

Bad hypos my vision goes black each time I blink so there is a period after my eyelids open again when there is no picture/sight.
The sweating and heart pounding and wobbly legs tends to happen as I am recovering and I am guessing is a response to adrenaline release.... I really don't like that feeling at all but thankfully don't get it every time!... Usually it is when my levels have dropped fast or I have gone below 3

If I wake up through the night I rarely feel anything much in the way of symptoms, but like @Robin, I just know.

I seldom get the "eat the fridge" hunger pangs anymore thankfully, which really helps to prevent over treatment but there was a time when I did..

 

[JJay]

Feeling wobbly
Tired
Tingling lips
Feeling a bit disorientated
Strong urge to finish whatever I'm doing before I treat the hypo (bad)
Short temper (my husband has had to apologise for me in supermarkets on more than one occasion!)

Not necessarily in that order and by no means all symptoms every time

 

[Ljc]

Just remembered two new ones, it was a mild hypo but I lost the ability to speak and had palpitations.

 

[Kaylz]

Strong urge to finish whatever I'm doing before I treat the hypo (bad)

I have this too and it really could be dangerous but I just can't stop xx

 

[Jade]

My legs feel like really heavy like made with lead.
Excessive yawning.
I get distracted and want to finish what doing and ignore I’m low even if cgm beeping at me.
Very cold and clammy or hot and sweaty.
Can vary if suddenly dropped get wobbly or if very gradually dropped low especially in morning when asleep get less symptoms. Sometimes just know something is off. Last week could see cgm line was in mid 4s for few hours. Felt lead legs and hot and tested and was 3.5.

 

[rebrascora]

Interesting that so many of us have that urge to complete a task before dealing with the hypo and it is quite a strong and frequent occurrence for me. Sometimes when I do eventually go to scan and treat my hypo I will insist upon entering the hypo treatment into my Libre reader before I eat them and because my brain is struggling to function I find it difficult to do that simple task and it takes me so much longer than the normal few seconds it should take, but I stubbornly will not get my hypo treatment out and chew on it until I have recorded it.

 

[Jade]

Logical thinking isn’t possible when low. I tend to think I kill of a few more brain cells with each hypo! I have lost inhibitions in the past and done some silly things.

 

[JJay]

Interesting that so many of us have that urge to complete a task before dealing with the hypo and it is quite a strong and frequent occurrence for me. Sometimes when I do eventually go to scan and treat my hypo I will insist upon entering the hypo treatment into my Libre reader before I eat them and because my brain is struggling to function I find it difficult to do that simple task and it takes me so much longer than the normal few seconds it should take, but I stubbornly will not get my hypo treatment out and chew on it until I have recorded it.

And probably many of us who welcomed the Libre2 because of the alarm feature still manage to dismiss the beeping as a nuisance and don't treat our hypos in a timely manner. Quite ironic, really.

 

[helli]

And probably many of us who welcomed the Libre2 because of the alarm feature still manage to dismiss the beeping as a nuisance and don't treat our hypos in a timely manner. Quite ironic, really.

I set my alarm higher than hypo so I am less likely to be distracted/unfocused when I need to treat ... and it stops me reaching hypo levels.


Unless I am distracted by something unrelated to diabetes and convince myself that because I am not hypo at the moment I can carry on with whatever else I was doing.
My excuse is "I am human"