ME again!

[hybriduno]

Ok, another couple of questions that no-one at the hospital wants to answer


1. If my son was to have a hypo and i follow the hypo chart, it says once the blood sugars are over 4 to give a starchy snack or if a meal is due to give them the meal and inject after the straight after the meal.......

My question....... do i give insulin according to the previous (b/s) test or do i retest before i inject.

2. If he has a hypo and i follow the plan but then his sugars rocket up into a hyper because of to much sugar, would i treat this with insulin? Would it burn off quick as its sugar rather than carb based? and if i have to inject him with novarapid how would i know what amount to give him?

Thanks peeps 🙂

 

[Northerner]

Hi, I think the generally accepted wisdom these days is that a follow-up snack is not necessary after a hypo has been treated as it is more likely to lead to a later high.

I would inject a dose based on the post-hypo reading, not the hypo one 🙂

There's a danger that, by 'correcting' a post-hypo high, you may end up in a bit of a roller-coaster of a subsequent low, treat, then high etc. If a meal is due then I might include a correction amount in my meal dose. How much you need to correct differs from person to person, and so when doing it for the first few times you need to be cautious. For me, 1 unit lowers my levels by around 3 mmol/l.

Hope that helps! 🙂

 

[pgcity]

Ok, another couple of questions that no-one at the hospital wants to answer


1. If my son was to have a hypo and i follow the hypo chart, it says once the blood sugars are over 4 to give a starchy snack or if a meal is due to give them the meal and inject after the straight after the meal.......

My question....... do i give insulin according to the previous (b/s) test or do i retest before i inject.

2. If he has a hypo and i follow the plan but then his sugars rocket up into a hyper because of to much sugar, would i treat this with insulin? Would it burn off quick as its sugar rather than carb based? and if i have to inject him with novarapid how would i know what amount to give him?

Thanks peeps 🙂

1. Give the insulin as if his level is 4 as it should be by the time you inject. If its below 4 your son will probably still feel hypo and may want to wait before he eats.
2. Don't worry to much about going to high afterwards. There is an effect called a rebound which can occur after a hypo. If you correct for the high after a rebound you can end up hypo again later. What you learn from going to high is how many carbs you need to correct the hypo ie if your son is hypo at say 3.2 and has 15g of lucozade and ends up at 15 4 hours later try 10g next time. How many carbs it takes to correct a hypo is very variable too. I have 3 skittles which is 3g of carbs and this will take my blood sugar up 2mmols. Your son may be more or less sensitive but you will eventually see a patter, hence the importance of writing all his numbers down.

Just to make things even more bewildering there is a possibility that your son may experience a honeymoon period where his body still produces some insulin so his levels may start to even out on their own.

 

[pgcity]

Just shows you we never all agree and you need to see what works for you

 

[trophywench]

Hang on, we're getting a bit in front behind ourselves here!

If you are not going to eat within the next, +/- half/three-quarters of an hour - Give the slower carb snack.

So you go high after a hypo, either by giving too much carb for it OR by receiving bonus glucose from your liver - so what? You don't die of that. Neither does it send you blind, make your legs drop off, or your kidneys fail.

(not unless it happens every day, and it won't.)

It really doesn't hurt you to be high just for a bit, occasionally. Honest.

LEAVE it till your next normal mealtime. Test. BG will no doubt be a bit high. Add a MODEST correction to the dose for the meal (about half what the maths tells you) and RELAX.

Once you've cured the hypo in the first place, nothing else you do thereafter should be overkilled. Just moderate.