Over correcting

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I just wondered how many people do the same as me - when my blood sugar goes very low - 2.5 or below and I have to correct sometimes I get the most overwhelming need to consume as much as I can (within reason!) - which I guess is your bodies way of crying out for what it needs! I have tried to stop myself from doing this - which sometimes works - but more often than not as soon as I have (over) corrected I have to give myself a whallop of insulin or I end up in the 20's! When I am going through this I know that it is wrong - but when you are that low your head is a bit muddled and I just can't help it!
 
Or you could look at it from the other side, you want to eat the sweet things so you take more insulin to reduce your BG to a level where the good things are needed : )
 
I haven't done this in a while, but I used to. I don't think that feeling of needing to feed a hypo can be understood by anyone who hasn't expereinced it. it's very easy for professionals to say '15g wait 15 minutes and re-test'. waiting 15 minutes is so difficult when your body is screaming out for food.

The thing i've found is to only treat with glucose tablets as they are easier to control how much I have.

I know alot of people do the same as you, once feeling better add up how much extra carbs they had and then give insulin for a proportion.
 
Yes yes yes. The absolute worst thing is a night hypo. It usually wakes me up but I am hypo as well as half asleep and have no clue what I should be eating, the only message from my brain is EAT!!! So I end up mechanically munching anything in sight, sometimes the next morning I can't even remember what I ate, and I usually have a really high sugar the next morning as well as feeling lousy. It is also hard when busy, at work for example, you can't sit about for half an hour there are customers to serve, you have to eat and get your brain working again asap.

I also overcorrect insulin. Working out ratios on DAFNE really helped with that but I still panic a little if I am high. The scare tactics used by the doctors sometimes backfire like that with people who are worriers like me, I am so terrified of blindness and amputation and the rest that I tend to have too much insulin, which makes me fat and causes hypos which make me fatter, and then I get told off for it.

I am much better than I used to be though. I have jelly babies so I know how many to have usually, glucose tablets are like orangey chalk, I can't stand them.
 
Oh god yeah. I've done that. I'm now on a pump now which does help but even though when I got lows I still have that desire to consume a whole packet of biscuits or crackers. I have to stop myself to not to do this but when you're brain is all over the place its difficult.
 
I havent done that in ages. But last weekend, i was low and instead of having four to 5 sweets, i have more than 20!
I stopped counting, but i felt like i needed it.

I have never topped up my insulin, i just have what i have, id hate to have more injections. 4 is enough surely haha.
xxx
 
i m soooooo bad at eating everything in sight when i have a hypo!! night time hypos are worst... i'll have about 2 choc bars, cereal and bread... all in one go!! lol
 
if I catch the hypo early I tend to be pretty good at only taking what I need. But if I go really low then I will just eat anything in sight, I always just want to get out of it quickly and in that state think eating more will do that, never works of course and I end up going high then feeling even worse.
 
i am totally the same!

most hypos i can just have a few glucose tablets and a cereal bar or sumefin but then other times i feel soo weak and i just stuff anythin thinkin that my hypo will go away quiker.

but u live and learn lol

xxx
 
another thing I have been told by someone with diabetes for a long time is that 'not all hypos are created equally'
one day a 2.6 can be easily treated with a couple of glucose tabs, another day a 2.6 will make you feel close to death and need to shove all the food you can find into your mouth.
and sometime sit's better to go with instinct than treat with the general rules.
 
That is so right sofaraway! Sometimes I can be at 2.5 and be fine - and shocked that is so low when I do a test - othertimes i have gone to pieces!
 
Phew!

Glad to see a lot of us have the same experience with the eating thing though! I suspected it might be so....!!!
 
Yes this happens to us a lot. Only yesterday my son was down to 2.5 and almost passed out, I gave him a biscuit and some weetabix (it was supper time) but he wanted to carry on eating though I knew he'd end up going high. He then had some toast with Marmite and when I checked him half an hour later he was up to 12!
 
Miss Champers said:
Yes this happens to us a lot. Only yesterday my son was down to 2.5 and almost passed out, I gave him a biscuit and some weetabix (it was supper time) but he wanted to carry on eating though I knew he'd end up going high. He then had some toast with Marmite and when I checked him half an hour later he was up to 12!
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a biscuit and weetabix isn't the greatest hypo cure for a 2.5 and nearly passed out, as this will take time to digest and time to raise the blood sugar, it could even fall further before the food starts to work.

It's better to have some fats acting carbs, lucozade or glucose tablets, then follow that up with the biscuits/weetabix
 
It's a nightmare isn't it? Don't forget that if your blood sugar drops really low your liver will kick in releasing stored glucose too. I tend to go for four swigs of lucozade and 10g CHO depending on how long it is since I injected the quick acting.

Occasionally hypos go on for hours and I get fed up of eating! I hate glucose tablets, but at least they are easy to carry around.
 
I have started to get more night hypos recently. I wake up hot and feel like I coud eat a horse!

I always treat with dextrose tablets, I quite like them actually and usually have one or two weetabix depending how low i am. But it is hard not to eat more, I just try and remember that I will be having breakfast soon!

How low do you need to be before passing out? Sorry to be depressing, am quite new with it all. My lowest was 1.9 and I didnt feel that bad, scarey. Because mostly when I get to 3.6 I feel bad.
 
i have the same problem, it is as if i havent eaten for weeks and its worse at night time!!! i found it really hard to stop myself eating loads but i feel so ill when my blood goes high so i noe just have lucozade and a cereal bar to stop going low again!! i do feel better for it!
 
tracey w said:
How low do you need to be before passing out? Sorry to be depressing, am quite new with it all. My lowest was 1.9 and I didnt feel that bad, scarey. Because mostly when I get to 3.6 I feel bad.
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it's really an individual thing, and again different in the same person. I've seen people out cold and needing glucagon injection with a blood sugar of 2.x

myself I've been LO, which was below 1mmol and alert enough to call the nurse over (was in hospital at the time) and tell her I didn't feel well.
 
1 for me!

Not sure how low you get before you pass out - I know that i have been as low as 1.2 and not passed out - but been off my chops!! Once when I passed out - after I came round the ambulance men tested me and said I was down to 1. Whoops! I find that when I go hypo in the night - and sometimes in the day I perspire so much - my bed ends up soaking and to have to change it - if it happens during the day (not that often i usually catch it first!) - I look like I have just stepped out of the shower - it's awful! 😱
 
My personal recorded low was 1.7, but I was fascinated to read the following in the book 'Survival of the fittest' by Mike Stroud (a truly excellent read!). This was during his crossing of the Antarctic with Ranulph Fiennes:

'Analysis of our samples showed that our blood glucose had been low from day 1, in fact at the very bottom of the normal range. During the last 30 days of the expedition they appeared to be impossible. On one occasion Ran had a level of 0.2 mmol/l whilst I had one of just 0.3. In ordinary circumstances, these would be fatal...It seems that we really did run these impossibly low levels and must have adapted in some way to cope with the situation.'

Well, we are talking about Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud!:D
 
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