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Hypos

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kevinr

kevinr

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi everyone. I am suffering with a hypo at the moment and I feel rough and I keep getting these hypos there isn't a week goes by that I have had at least 3 hypos in a week. I use to take 110 units of insulin am and pm but my Diabetic dietitian told me to lower it over the course of a week as I was taking too much I now take 85 units but I am still getting hypos. I hold my hands up and say that I don't eat lunch as I normally forget about it. I have my cheerios for breakfast then I don't eat until 16:30 I know I must be doing something wrong to keep getting hypos would it because I don't have lunch? I am still set in my ways of eating breakfast first tea, dinner later and have done that when I worked on the furnaces.
 
Hi @kevinr what type of insulin are you taking?
Your message suggests you may be taking one fixed dose injection of a mixed insulin. The great thing about this is it’s just one injection per day and you don’t have to think much about it. The downside is that it requires you to eat the same amount of carbs every day at about the same time. Basically, you have to eat to your insulin rather than dost insulin according to what you eat.

I have Type 1 which is different to type 2. But I take what they call a basal-bolus insulin regime which is a combination of a base level insulin which aims to keep my levels stable in the absence of food and a fast acting is to “mop up” the carbs in the food I eat which I calculate the dose for every time I eat. This requires more injections (at least one per meal plus one extra as the background) but gives far more flexibility to miss a meal.

Bearing all this in mind, if you continue with your current insulin, you will hypo if you do not eat enough for the insulin you take at the time the insulin is most “active”.
You may find it easier to change your insulin.

i recommend discussing this with your diabetes team.
 
Hi Helli. Sorry about the delay in getting back to you but I was driving a Coal Train through Tees Valley Yard and I was struggling with it. I am not a train driver for real it's a video game I am playing. To answer your question I am on Humulin M3 Seven days a week and I take Trulicity 1.5mg every Monday morning I know Trulicity isn't insulin but I was told to take it. I don't take any tablets for my Diabetes I use to take Metformin but it made me very sick so it got stopped. I am starting to get confused with the amount of insulin I need to take and I struggle with remembering to adjust it. That's why I have problems with it but my Diabetic nurse is giving me a call on Thursday morning to try and help me sort it out. I think I will be heading to my Diabetic Centre on Friday.
 
@kevinr I believe Humulin M3 is a mixed insulin which means you need to eat to your insulin and will go high if you have more carbs ms go,low if you have too little which I think is what is happening when you miss out a meal.

When you talk to your diabetic nurse, it is probably wot the describing your typical day with regard to what you eat and when so she can help you chose the best treatment. And remember that you have to take it so it should be YOUR choice based on her advice not her choice.

Good li I.
 
Hi Helli thanks for your reply I will be honest with you but I am not very keen on my Diabetic nurse but I have to listen to what she says I might not like it but at the end of the day it's my choice what I have for lunch. My Dietitian keeps telling me to do this do that eat this you have to eat this whether I want it or not. I feel as though they are treating me like a child at times I am 67 years old since being a Diabetic I must have put 10 years on my age it's all confusing to me.
 
Hi @kevinr I was on mixed insulin briefly many years ago (I’m Type 1). Your Humulin M3 contains a mix of fast and slow insulin. The fast is to deal with your breakfast, the slow to deal with your lunch very simply. If you’re not eating lunch, then that’s probably what’s causing the hypos - because you have the slow insulin kicking in around lunchtime but you’re not having any lunch (carbs) for it to work on, so, instead, it’s sending you low.

Mixed insulin requires regular meals and the same carb amounts each day. If that doesn’t suit you, you could ask about a once or twice daily injection of basal/background insulin and then a separate fast insulin that you could inject when you eat. If you don’t eat lunch, you’d simply not have the fast insulin at that time (because you weren’t eating). You could just have it at breakfast and tea. That should help reduce your hypos.
 
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