night time hypos

[nuttytart0200]

Hi

Was diagnosed june 08 and immediately put on 2 x 500mg metformin twice a day, this brought my HbA1c down from 17 to 6.5 and I have been in that range ever since.

About 6 months ago I started having hypos before my evening meals (even though I'd have a snack between dinner and evening meal to stop this) when I tested my bg it was coming out at 3.3 or 3.4 so I would have to eat my glucose tabs to bring it back up to normal. Along with the hypos I would wake up in the morning with a very bad headache (not a migraine because I suffer with those too) and drenched in sweat.

I have been to my gp and he reduced the metformin to 1 500mg twice a day but I am still waking up with headaches and tonight, before my meal I had another hypo at 4.4 which is still low for me.

Just wondering what could be causing this. I have changed my diet and lost 4 stone, I don't smoke or drink, I do suffer with arthritis of the spine and some other joints and take a lot of pain meds. I worry about the night time hypos most.

Please advise

Thanks

Carol

 

[Northerner]

Hi Carol, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about the problems you have been having. What sort of levels are you at before bed? Although you may be getting the symptoms of a hypo, you are on the very lower limits of what a person without diabetes might be, so it should not present a danger to you. It might be an idea to try a few night time tests, at around 3 am, to see how low you are at this time - generally considered to be the point at which the liver is releasing the lowest amount of glucose.

You sound as though you are doing very well generally. Do the lows occur after a particularly active day? The effects of increased activity can lower your levels for up to 40 hours afterwards, so this may be another consideration.

 

[Steff]

Hi carol welcome to the forum sorry to hear of your hypos as has been said your close but not quite at a hypo levels but nevertheless the symptoms can't be nice for you I hope you get some good advice on this one I'm sure you will so stick around this is an amazing forum x

 

[nuttytart0200]

thanks for the reply

I haven't tested before bed time so maybe I should give that a go and test at 3am.

I have woken up a few times around 3 or 4 am needing the loo and thought I felt ok but then woke up at my normal time with a real heavy head and wondered where that came from. I also wake a lot due to pain in my back and when I need to turn over.

I will give it a try and keep you posted.

Thanks again
Carol 🙂