Newly diagnosed and couldn't get blood sugars to go up

[trophywench]

Its finding the paper bag to breathe in and out of that's the main prob these days! 😉 But - it jolly well does work to slow breathing down and also if you get hiccups.

Because of the excellently rewarding effect that chewing a hypo treatment thoroughly before finally swallowing has on me when I'm anywhere near 4.0 I've deliberately chosen to use 'partially rehydrated' dried apricots since I thoroughly enjoy them hence munching away at each one virtually ad infinitum is no chore - except being forced to eat the first one quicker when I'm 'high 3s' - I resent that cos they're not to be wasted trivially

They're roughly 5g carb apiece.

 

[PattiEvans]

Hi Patti - thank you so much, I just need to hear that it will get better and I won't have the terrible panic and fear which is unbearable. I will also order this book now and have a read. How long did it take you to feel confident and not worried Pattie?

For a couple of months I was terrified, but then after a particularly nasty hypo my husband said "You use the internet for everything, just get on there and find the help you need". I went online and found a newsgroup (the fore-runner of forums) and met some helpful people, just like on here... and they helped a lot and I remember about 3 months in saying to hubby "I'm not going to let this thing beat me" and I dived into research about it and how to handle it. I also had a very very helpful DN at my surgery and found I could discuss things with her. To be honest it's a long time ago and I can't recall exactly but I'd measure the confidence coming in a fairly short few months.

 

[Inka]

Hi - I am feeling incredibly anxious tonight as I had the arrow pointing down in the night last night and about 3 hours ago. I took the lift tablets x 4 and a banana and the blood sugar started to come up but I continued to feel extremely faint and nauseas and think i may have been experiencing a panic attack. It is now 3 hours since this happened and I am still shaking and feel nauseous and so fearful. Are they now getting better for you? Did you have severe anxiety/panic and if so how did you handle it? If you had a libre reading of 6 with arrow going downwards and have that sinking feeling in your stomach is this when you would take the glucose chews? thanks for any info

It might be a panic attack or bad anxiety, but hypos too can cause nausea sometimes and make you feel a bit rough. I wouldn’t panic with one downwards arrow. Two down arrows is a bit more concerning but if you have your Low alarm set at 5.6 or are at a higher number when you spit the arrows, you should have plenty of time to treat it. Sit down with your hypo treatments, your blood glucose meter and a screen (to distract you), treat and relax.

I’ve had Type 1 more than 30 years and for the vast majority of those years I didn’t have any kind of CGM. It was ok and we managed, including overnight 🙂

 

[SimonP]

@Ann wainwright the risk from harm with hypos is more than often if the person has "severe" hypos, so they are unable to help themselves or loose consciousness. I don't know how often this is, I have had 2 of these "severe" in nearly 20 years so for me it is not a huge risk. My DSN said it is not "common" but couldn't give numbers or data.

Or if having a hypo when doing something else exercise or driving, then injury due to this is a risk, again it is not a huge number of people with diabetes.

There are side effects if you have too many too often, but the odd hypo although they are awful and should be avoided will not harm you too much, and are unlikely to kill you unless they are "severe". I know they feel awful. And they should be avoided, but try not to panic, not at 5, or above, its a good level.

I'm curious as to the deleterious side effects of being hypo - obviously there are some cases of people who do indeed die, though this is afaiu a very rare thing, but there is also a commentary that running low also does long term damage. I've read some things about incidence of MI being more prevalent when hypo which is probably understandable as it's produces acute stress (though properly hypo though from what I read, not just below 4 mmol/l. Certainly the effects when your BG is down around 1mmol/l, from an admittedly imprecise BG meter, are quite significantly more pronounced than at say 3mmol/l).

I need to do some digging, though tbh what's done is done and doesn't seem to have had too much of a negative effect (he says 😉). I habitually ran low while I was a teenager and young adult, my HbA1C was on the order of 4.5% in old money (which is apparently ~25mmol/mol in new money, which is quite low!) and I was constantly eating and would usually wake up in the morning hypo (not helped by alcohol at uni I'm sure 🙂).

It is obviously not ideal, however the body does tend to do a reasonably good job of waking you up to ensure you can find food. There's doubtless a reporting bias (you only hear about the bad cases) and similar to my thoughts on the newfound fear of ketones, a "slightly" biased guidance which aims to avoid all potential immediate risk.

With that said, I do like having a CGM to wake me up earlier than I would on my own!

 

[PhoebeC]

With that said, I do like having a CGM to wake me up earlier than I would on my own!

I don't wake up on my own, and I know this is an issue for others. Until I had the libre I didn't even know I went low at night.

I really wanted the data myself when the DSN was talking about it on week 4 of pump dafne.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I'm curious as to the deleterious side effects of being hypo - obviously there are some cases of people who do indeed die, though this is afaiu a very rare thing, but there is also a commentary that running low also does long term damage.

I’ve also heard that increased incidence of hypoglycaemia (including the lower-level minor irritation ones) is associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction, and atrial fibrillation.

From a quality of life perspective they are also unpleasant and (if driving is part of life) can involve extremely irritating 40 minute recovery waits when you wanted to be on the way somewhere.

My personal experience (having been another who ‘preferred to run low’ for many years) was that more time at the alert level 3.5-4.0mmol/L leads to those being harder to spot, and more time below 3.5mmol/L and even into the 2s.

With every hypo your brain adapts and changes to ‘do better’ next time. And eventually your warning signs are reserved to only be fired at lower and lower levels. Essentially you can end up with Impaired Awareness of Hypoglycaemia.

And research shows that people with IAH are 6x more likely to experience Severe Hypos (needing help from a third party because you can’t treat it yourself). And increased SH is associated with risk of the really grave consequences. Plus you can’t drive.

I think we also have a tendency to normalise our experience. Looking back I’m horrified of my previous hypo frequency, and the negative impact it had on my family.

 

[SimonP]

I think we also have a tendency to normalise our experience. Looking back I’m horrified of my previous hypo frequency, and the negative impact it had on my family.

Absolutely, I don't think it was a good thing to run so low all the time (though given the choice of running low vs running high for many years, I think I'd do the same again).

The point I was trying to make (though @PhoebeC has sort of scuppered that, which is not a bad thing as mine was an n=1 example) was that I, at least, wake up and can treat lows so it's perhaps not something to be quite so nervous about, especially as there's, in my experience, not a sudden cliff edge (of not being able to sort yourself out) as soon as you drop below 3 mmol/l (or whichever threshold one choses.) But, n=1, we're all different.

 

[SimonP]

I don't wake up on my own, and I know this is an issue for others. Until I had the libre I didn't even know I went low at night.

I really wanted the data myself when the DSN was talking about it on week 4 of pump dafne.

How low out of interest? I typically won't wake up unless my BG is less than 3.5mmol/l and at that point I will wake and definitely feel low and know I should really sort it out

I now set my CGM overnight low alarm to 3.5mmol/l (without IoB, I would do things differently if I'd needed to take a large pre-bed correction) and am happy to bump along at around 4mmol/l (assuming the CGM is accurately calibrated) which is classified as being "hypo" for us, but not particularly abnormal for non-diabetics.

 

[Inka]

Why not bump along at 5 though @SimonP ? It’s safer surely?

 

[SimonP]

Why not bump along at 5 though @SimonP ? It’s safer surely?

Because 5 is higher, and as I split my evening bolus and typically get some DP, I tend to have a somewhat U shaped BG profile overnight. I'm content if the DP doesn't manifest and I end up staying down at 4 (having misjudged one of the many factors, probably exercise though) though I would of course prefer to be a bit higher (I sleep better).

I otherwise if it's only going to be a transient dip I only want to be woken up by the CGM if I've badly misjudged it.

 

[PhoebeC]

How low out of interest? I typically won't wake up unless my BG is less than 3.5mmol/l and at that point I will wake and definitely feel low and know I should really sort it out

I now set my CGM overnight low alarm to 3.5mmol/l (without IoB, I would do things differently if I'd needed to take a large pre-bed correction) and am happy to bump along at around 4mmol/l (assuming the CGM is accurately calibrated) which is classified as being "hypo" for us, but not particularly abnormal for non-diabetics.

I can't really say as I don't wake up, but under the level 4.4 on the libre and in the red zone on the CGM graph so we can say it is lower than I would like, and also likely hypo, when I have tested it has been between 2 - 3. My libre low alarm is set at 4.6 as a low event, I would rather fend off lows at a higher level, and have had this alarm set higher before. Because at 4.6 the only action I am taking is resting and taking on some glucose.

 

[PhoebeC]

The point I was trying to make (though @PhoebeC has sort of scuppered that, which is not a bad thing as mine was an n=1 example) was that I, at least, wake up and can treat lows so it's perhaps not something to be quite so nervous about, especially as there's, in my experience, not a sudden cliff edge (of not being able to sort yourself out) as soon as you drop below 3 mmol/l (or whichever threshold one choses.) But, n=1, we're all different.

Yes, it is lucky you wake up, and I hope this lasts for you. It takes me hours of being low to wake up, and it is not a nice experience.

Mine can be a sudden cliff edge also. One thing with diabetes is its very different for us all, and even can do its own new random thing whenever it likes. As soon as you start to think "this is it, I know my normal, I've got this" the playing field changes. Which is fine. We are adaptable.

 

[Mikey57]

Hi all
I have only been diagnosed two weeks ago - I'm 58 yrs so pretty old for this to happen. I wanted to ask peoples advice please about something which happened today. I had a hypo last week which has scared me incredibly and my blood sugars tend to run high so if they start to drop I get scared. Today they started dropping from 10 to 7 and then to 6 and 5.5. I took 4 jelly babies but there wasn't any effect, after 5 mins I took another 5, then another 4/5 to no effect, I also drank a carton of orange juice. I felt I was going to pass out but think that may have been anxiety. Eventually with a sandwich it came up to 18 (1.5 hours later). Please does anyone know why after taking all that sugar it did not raise my levels. Thank you so much - Ann (very anxious person at the moment 🙂

There is a delay factor, always. Mike