Low sugar level 3.1

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Tony Dolby

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Type 1
Hi am newly diagnosed with diabetes and struggling with the management via insulin i feel i haven't had things explained very well in hospital. For the last 3 days my levels have dropped to 2.8, 3.3 and just now 3.1. The hospital discharged me several hours after dropping to the 2.8 and they gave me glucose drink to bring it up. At home now and not sure how to deal with this and why its happening to me
 
Hopefully someone who is Type 1 will chip in but at levels below 4 you are actually hypo so need to have something sugary to bring your level back up. People often need a Fast acting sugar like full sugar coke, or jelly babies or glucose tablets. !5g then test after 15 mins and repeat if necessary until it is above 4, then have some slower acting carb like a biscuit or cracker and cheese.
As to why it is happening, you are not having carb to match your insulin. Probably more complicated than that.
@rebrascora perhaps you could add your two pennyworth to help Tony
 
Have you been given a number of a diabetes team at the hospital? As recently diagnosed you should be in regular contact with them so they can help you by reviewing your results and adjusting your insulin doses

Are you on a fast acting and slow release insulin? Are you injecting set units of fast acting for meals? If so then this may be too much for you but it may also be that your slow release insulin is too high as well, are the hypo's at the same time each day?

As @Leadinglights has mentioned treat with 15g fast acting carbs and then retest after 15 minutes, if still below 4 then repeat the process until above 4 and then take slower release carbs like a biscuit, slice of toast etc

I'd definitely get on to whoever is dealing with your care for them to have a look xx
 
Hi @Tony Dolby sounds like your doctors discharged you without much explanation.
You should always carry some fast acting carbs with you such as jelly babies, fruit juice, dextrose, …
When you have a hypo (under 4.0), you need to
- eat/drink 15g fast acting carbs
- wait 15 minutes and test again
- if still under 4.0, repeat the 15g fast acting carbs
- if over 4.0, each 15g slow acting carbs such as a biscuit or packet of crisps

However, if you are hypoing a lot, it suggests your insulin dose is too high and you need to talk to your doctor to reduce your dose.
 
When your blood sugars drop too low it’s because you have too much insulin in your body. If you are newly diagnosed then your diabetes team are probably still trying to work out how much insulin you need, unfortunately every one is different and things can change over time as well. So your medical team should be in touch with you lots for the first few weeks until you are reasonably stable.
A hypo is a blood sugar reading below 4.0 and should be treated with fast acting carbs, e.g. sugar, glucose, sugary drinks etc. The rule is eat 15g of fast acting carb (which is roughly equivalent to 4 glucose tablets, 3 jelly babies, one glucose drink or one 150ml can of full sugar coke), then wait 15 minutes, then test again, and repeat if you are still below 4.
Some people then follow up with some slower acting carb such as a biscuit to prevent them dropping back down again, this is very individual though, some need it some don’t.

If you are having hypos every day then that suggests that your insulin doses need reducing a bit, get in touch with your doctor or diabetes nurse though, don’t try to do it yourself until you’ve learnt more about it. It can also change depending on what food you are eating and how much you exercise.

What insulins are you on and what instructions have you been given? It’s all very confusing at first but you’ll get the hang of it, please keep asking questions, we were all newbies once and nothing is too silly! Welcome to the forum
 
helli said:
Hi @Tony Dolby sounds like your doctors discharged you without much explanation.
You should always carry some fast acting carbs with you such as jelly babies, fruit juice, dextrose, …
When you have a hypo (under 4.0), you need to
- eat/drink 15g fast acting carbs
- wait 15 minutes and test again
- if still under 4.0, repeat the 15g fast acting carbs
- if over 4.0, each 15g slow acting carbs such as a biscuit or packet of crisps

However, if you are hypoing a lot, it suggests your insulin dose is too high and you need to talk to your doctor to reduce your dose.
Click to expand...
Reading Tony's other post he has been told to take 14 u semglee at 11.30 each day.
 
If you’re Type 1 you should be on two different insulins, rather than a bigger amount of one insulin. Can you tell us a little more about your diagnosis?

But for now, you should be phoning the hospital or your GP for advice about lowering your Semglee and preferably going on to a basal/bolus regime - ie a basal/slow insulin like Semglee and a bolus/fast insulin to deal with your food. You’d then have less Semglee and inject the bolus insulin when you eat. I’d also ask to be changed from the Semglee personally as a twice-daily insulin like Levemir makes it easier to adjust day and night doses to avoid hypos.
 
I remember coming home from hospital - it was a confusing and scary time. I knew I needed more information and I spent a lot of time trawling the internet (granted there’s a world of information out there… but sifting for the relevant and reliable stuff can be exhausting!) - so in addition to this site (which is good) I would suggest reading one (or both) of the following:

Take Control of Type 1 Diabetes - Dr David Cavan

think like a pancreas - Gary Scheiner

I can’t speak for anyone else but I found the more I knew, the more comfortable I was with my diagnosis and the more I could understand what was happening with my body and what might be impacting it/ my blood sugars - perhaps more importantly I could really engage with my diabetic team…

Either way best of luck.

I would also echo Inka in suggesting you might want to talk to your team about your dosage and the types of insulin you are taking.
 
Reading Tony's other thread, I'm not sure we can be much help at the moment without knowing more about the background to the pancreatitis that has brought him here. Sometimes a full basal/bolus isn’t appropriate to start with, if the pancreas is still able to produce some insulin, and it may be compounded by it working in fits and starts.
It may be useful to read this thread, from a fellow pancreatitis sufferer, @Tony Dolby .
 
Sorry to hear about your hypos, and the lack of information you’ve been given @Tony Dolby :(

Hopefully you can book a phone appointment with your Dr or contact your DSN to discuss reducing your Semglee dose in light of your lowered BG readings.

Good luck!
 
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