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Low Sugar Seizure

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W

Westerner

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Type 1
Hi All

Has anyone ever had a low blood sugar induced seizure?

I had one, one week ago at 02:30 am. The first time ever I have had an overnight hypo that hasn't woken me up. Instead I woke to find three paramedics around my bed reporting a rising sugar of 2.1. I don't know how lowe it went, or more importantly - why? Pre bed glucose was 8.1, and I didn't do anything else out of the ordinary?? Am still not 100% now.

Has anyone else suffered anything similar?
 
Really sorry to hear this :( Hasn't happened to me, although I have had completely unexplained night hypos (see My pancreas is trying to kill me!) that have fortunately woken me up because there would be no-one to call the paramedics - glad to hear you got help, I hope you are fully recovered very soon, it sounds really horrible :(
 
Westerner that sounds horrible, hope you are feeling better soon. So far I have woken up and have not experienced any seizures. Must be very scary.
 
Hi Westerner, what a very frightening experience for you, I hope you are feeling a bit better.

I have had seizures when I've lost consciousness from hypos. It is a very unsettling and scary thing to deal with both for yourself and anyone witnessing it. I had a brain scan to check for other causes but it didn't show any other problems.

I was using Lantus at the time I started having fits whilst hypo, my blood sugar was dropping very low from my bed time reading without giving me hypo warnings.

Can your diabetes team loan you a CGM to see what is happening through the night? I don't know if you use a pump or MDI, but my hypos with fits were the reason I started to use a pump. I hope you are able to sort out the reason and get some reassurance.
 
Poor you, Westerner. What a horrible experience. I hope you are back to your 100% self soon.😱
 
Dear Westerner, im sorry to hear this happened to you. This happened to me 7 years ago i woke up to find my neighbour who is a nurse who called paramedics because my eyes were fixed and dilated. I had drunk 3 glasses of wine the night before and even though i tested normally before bed i think i should have eaten a small something. I know ths wasn't in your case and it was scary for you.
 
I've had two. One where I didn't wake up at all. Another when I was living in London. I was partly aware. I thought I was reaching for my lucozade, but actually my arms flew around everywhere. I ended up crashing out of bed, which woke my landlord up. That's all I remember until the paramedics were there.
 
Thankyou all. Clearly I'm not alone, all of your stories as horrible as they are to suffer, are fascinating to hear.

As I've stated, I have the cause of the seizure - the extremely low blood sugar. But whereas that was horrible for my partner who witnessed it (I was completely unaware), and I have had post seizure aches and pains for a week now; the main oddity is why? Why did I go so low and get no hypo warnings?? Very odd. I may never get to the bottom of it

I've since changed both insulin vials (lantus & novorapid), and both pens, and my meter! And am more fastidious at hand washing before testing in case I got a false pre bed reading. Can't really do anymore than that!

Cheers!
 
Is there any chance you were running a temperature? I had a seizure in hospital, but was running a high temp having caught the lurgy they all had. My blood sugars were up in the 30's so nobody was expecting a hypo. The consultant said the high temperature possibly caused the hypo and contributed to the seizure. Thankfully haven't had one since, and I hope you don't either 🙂
 
Sorry to hear of your experience Westerner. Can I just play devil's advocate and ask how do you know that you normally always wake up when you are hypo during sleep? Unless you have a CGM, the most you can be sure of is that sometimes you wake up due to a hypo. You can't assert unfortunately that all episodes of hypoglycaemia always wake you up. We have occasional CGM sensors for my son, and it's been a complete revelation how often he slips into the hypo range and does not wake up. I'd recommend you ask your hospital for a trail of CGM, just so you can get a clear picture of what your levels are actually doing during the night.
 
I've been searching for a thread of this nature. My type 1 history is. 'Littered' with seizures as a result of hypos.

I've never known why when I go really low it results in a seizure and I'm not just slumped into bed or chair like many people's hypos. I've never gone a year without a hypo of this nature. This being a great issue in my adolescent years with ambulances regularly coming to school and seizure like hypos in many a public place. In reality I'm probably lucky to still be here with such instances of this type of hypo on a football stadiums concrete steps for example.

My recent management of the condition has been better in that my last two hba1c have been in the green bit of the graph the Diabetes team uses.

Though however hard I try I seem to have a set back with my seizure like hypos. My warning signs when awake seem decent now but my last two major hypos wetter in the night. Ihave a pump so I'm going to do some bought with no insulin in my system then see if things have stayed stable come morning. In the past I've become really depressed but I'm determined to manage/beat this now.
My body had always reacted like this to a extreme hypo if this wasn't the case I'd think in the last few years the occurrences where as a result of some loss of brain function etc from previous incidents.

I'd be glad to hear any experiences/advice from others
 
I have been having seizure hypos for many years and was warned that they could cause brain damage but in the early days (over 50 years ago) there was no way of checking your BGs and urine testing was only useful for checking running high. My BG just drops so fast for some unknown reason that causes it and I have not had hypo awareness again for many years. Since being on a pump it has made a world of difference but I still dread the next one happening. I think wearing a CGM all the time would help but only if it has a very loud alarm that would warn you that your BG is dropping fast.

jusme
 
Hi Andrew, and welcome to the forum.

How do you you manage your diabetes, injections or pump? Using a pump may make things easier as you can programme your basal insulin to your own needs over 24 hours. There are also different ways in which to deliver the insulin for a meal which is useful.

It might be useful to put a case for being given a Continuous Glucose Monitor which would alarm when you drop too low but it does not sound as if you have a lot of warning.

Is there any pattern to when these events occur? Keeping a records of your BG, carbs, insulin might show a pattern in them.

I hope that you get something sorted
 
Hi Andrew and welcome

I have no insulin from 23.00 - 05.00 'cos if I do I hypo. A cgm would be great for you - though not easy to achieve funding. My diabetes centre lent me one for two separate weeks (I'm currently self funding one - ouch😱) which was useful. Perhaps your centre does the same. It's fascinating being able to see what's going on all the time. It doesn't, of course, explain why but it gives you a fighting chance of working things out.
 
Welcome to the forum, Andrew D.
If you're not aware of hypoglycaemia and suffer hypo seizures, continuous glucose monitoring or FreeStyle Libre would seem to helpful. Some diabetes centres can loan CGM machines for a week or two, but rarely continuously. A few offer Libre for short periods, but most users have to buy their own meter and sensors.
Do you get any hypos which you can either detect yourself or which don't result in a seizure?
Presumably you don't drive, due to needing help with hypos, so have you looked at getting disabled bus pass and / or railcard?
 
I was going to suggest a Libre, which if you have some disposable income (ie spare money) would be cheaper than an all singing all dancing CGM. - and were I you, I'd have already bought one.

However - when was the last overnight Basal test you did? cos I think you need to be doing this - if it isn't anything you did (cos we all perpetrate User Error from time to time!) - then it has to be the action of the insulin and your body's re-action to it, doesn't it?
 
I've had a couple of seizures during hypos, but only when the BGs have fallen really fast so my body has no time to adjust. If I go down slow, I seem to keep my marbles. Can't add to the advice already given, but I feel for you.
 
What's classed as a hypo seizure? Is it collapsing from hypo as opposed to slipping gently into a hypo coma? Often wondered this as I had a hypo in work which resulted in paramedics attending some 5 years ago. I was asked in hospital about how/what happened but I don't remember - one minute I was on the chair in the office and the next thing I was out cold. My colleagues said that I appeared to be having a fit and I was also questioned by my GP afterwards as to whether I urinated or did I fit? This wasn't at night Westener but it seems similar to what you experienced. Very scary for you, especially at night.
 
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