Lots of hypos recently. What to do?

[LaughingHyena]

Grrr, have had a bad few days for hypos.

It started just over a week ago, I thought it was because my husband was away so I was probably doing more (and more stressed) than usual. However he's been back a week and they are still happening.

I've been using some temp basals, but there isn't much predictability so I set up another profile this afternoon with lower basals throughout. Dropped from .8 to .75, so not a huge change. I kept all the time slots, just dropped the same amount off each one.

Have I done the right thing? What would other people do?

I've left a message for my DSN, and will of course keep up with lots of testing.

 

[Northerner]

Could it be the warmer weather/change of seasons? I've been having to reduce my insulin over the past week or so and still getting a lot of hypos.

 

[Sally71]

Hi Laughing Hyena

If you have been having hypos every day for a week or more then I would suggest that your main basal needs changing, you don't necessarily need to set a new one up. That's diabetes for you, every so often it all changes for no obvious reason, although I've heard quite a few people say that the warmer weather might be to blame!

Are the hypos at the same time every day? If so you need to reduce the basal a bit from 2-3 hours before the time when the hypo is likely to happen. We usually go in increments of 0.03; I'm dealing with a child though so don't know if adults can get away with bigger jumps! Then you have to be prepared to wait 2-3 days to see the full effect before you can decide whether you need to drop it a bit more.

If the hypos are not happening in any particular pattern then you might have to drop the basal across the whole day (might be a good idea to speak to your DSN first before doing this!).

You only need to set up a second permanent basal if you have very different routines on different days, e.g. Shift patterns for example. My daughter has one for school and another for holidays as she is a lot more active when in school than when out of it. Otherwise it is easier if you just stick to the one basal pattern and tweak it a bit every now and again when necessary. TBRs can be handy for experimenting if you're not sure how much to adjust it by but obviously you don't want to be setting them up every day for a long time!

Hope that helps 🙂

 

[LaughingHyena]

Could be the warmer weather, I can't say I've notice it having an effect before but then my levels were so erratic last year I doubt I would picked it up.

So far I haven't noticed any pattern, they seem to be happening at all times of day, not so much at night though. Hence my thought to reduce the basal all day.

I set it as a second pattern so it would be easy to go back if it doesn't work, rather than any expectation that I will change between them.

Hopefully I'll get to chat to the DSN tomorrow, she's usual pretty quick to get back to me. Meanwhile 4.1, so off to find something to eat before bed I think.

 

[HOBIE]

I know stress & thinking about things does my blood in. I am quite an active person with a manual type job & could not believe when I started getting hypos when not really at work but stressed to bits. (Someone owed me a lot of money & didn't pay). Good luck sorting 🙂