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Scary moment

S

Sara Grice

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1.5 LADA
Pronouns
She/Her
This has happend twice now during the evenings....it scares the bejeebus out of me when i see it..
Last time it was about half an hour later in the day.
I used tk have such good controll but recently things have started to get unpredictable. And i dont know what the difference has been

Did some relaxation exercises because without that I think ide be to scared to sleep tonight
Screenshot_20250504_205155.jpg
 
Sorry you were so scared.
Can you provide some e background?
When and what did you eat?
What else have you been doing today?
What is it that scared you? Remember, CGMs tend to over egg high readings and, at 8.3, you have a long way to go to hypo.
Did you check your Libre readings with finger pricks?
 
helli said:
Sorry you were so scared.
Can you provide some e background?
When and what did you eat?
What else have you been doing today?
What is it that scared you? Remember, CGMs tend to over egg high readings and, at 8.3, you have a long way to go to hypo.
Did you check your Libre readings with finger pricks?
Click to expand...
I all had is some sweet potato fries, 1 chicken thigh and roasted peppers but that was back at 6 o'clock, I want doing anything apart from taking on the phone to someone, didn't feel any different, then once I was finished I checked and I saw that.
HHaven't done anything paticularly strenuous today either
What do you mean by over egg??

When this happend last night it was a bit later on (about now actuly, 18:20 ish)
Honestly it's so so hard to tell myself to calm down and not on checking my sensor as much when I see what could have been a hypo if I didn't catch it. But I'll never get over my hypo anxiety if I keep doing this...it's just so hard to not do anything.
 
Im curious.. what to over people who aren't as high anxious and hyper vigilant do when they see a drop thay hasn't quite gone into hypo range yet? Do you just leave it and hope it stops? Thats the biggest hurdle u need to get over is my self control. I'm starting to run high lately and I know that can be just as bad....need to be a better diabetic and let things happen
 
Sorry to hear you are scared (Not at all uncommon) - I had a downward arrow about half an hour ago but it just turned out the carbs I had with my dinner took a bit longer to start their (evil!) work - all levelling off now though so hopefully it will do the same for you - my latest graph below:

1746391252350.jpeg

I wouldn't be concerned about at all with an 8.3 and downward arrow but I completely understand how it can be disconcerting (a downward arrow scared the life out of me to begin with!) - just keep an eye on it (But not too much as it will make you even more anxious!)

Try not to worry - it does get easier 🙂
 
Like @mashedupmatt i would not be concerned by a downward arrow when my BG is higher than my target BG and I still had active fast acting insulin on board (within 4 hours of my last bolus).
What is your target BG and did you take it into consideration when calculating your bolus for your meal?
 
Sara Grice said:
Im curious.. what to over people who aren't as high anxious and hyper vigilant do when they see a drop thay hasn't quite gone into hypo range yet? Do you just leave it and hope it stops? Thats the biggest hurdle u need to get over is my self control. I'm starting to run high lately and I know that can be just as bad....need to be a better diabetic and let things happen
Click to expand...
I was same as you in the beginning, what is your alarm set at 8.3 not low. Yesterday I was at cemetery looked at Libre before driving 5.7 going down fast, decided to wait a bit before driving. Alarm went off took 2 jelly babies waited for it to come back up, which wasn’t long. In the beginning I would off panicked, it just takes time to be confident with it
 
helli said:
Like @mashedupmatt i would not be concerned by a downward arrow when my BG is higher than my target BG and I still had active fast acting insulin on board (within 4 hours of my last bolus).
What is your target BG and did you take it into consideration when calculating your bolus for your meal?
Click to expand...
Sorry I didn't see your message before going to bed, I dunno my target right now is to try and keep it within the green, and in terms of calculations..I don't know how to do that, my diabties clinic have me on set insulin for every meal...which sucks but there rationale is that I am very easily overwelmbed and carb counting would be to much for me. I do think their right, but it definitely gives me less freedom

I don't even realy know my carb to insulin ratio, a formula I've found says its probably around 1 unit for 17g of carbs. But they don't want me carb counting so
 
Last edited:
Sara Grice said:
Im curious.. what to over people who aren't as high anxious and hyper vigilant do when they see a drop thay hasn't quite gone into hypo range yet? Do you just leave it and hope it stops? Thats the biggest hurdle u need to get over is my self control. I'm starting to run high lately and I know that can be just as bad....need to be a better diabetic and let things happen
Click to expand...
To answer your question precisely- at 8.3, 2hours after a meal, and with insulin still on board, I wouldn’t give it a second thought. But I do carb count, I know roughly how fast the meal is likely to release its glucose, and I also know that Libre is likely to be reading 1.0-1.5 lower than my actual BG. I have my low alarm set at 4.9, which gives me plenty of time to take action to ward off a hypo. And I’ve been doing this for 30 years, 22 of them without Libre. Diabetes doesn’t control me, I just manage it as best I can. Sometimes things go awry, and you either learn from it or put it down to the Diabetes Fairy and move on.

All this comes with experience and practice, and that leads to confidence. You will get there!
 
Hi @Sara Grice it might be useful to ask your team at what your target BG is if you are not sure.
Or perhaps ask hem at what level you should do something about a downward arrow. As others have said if my BG is higher and I have a downward arrow I will react very differently than if my SG is a lower level.

There are other factors too that I will use when making a decision whether to react, such as how long ago I ate, and therefore have some insulin still working.

It sounds like you and your team are happy to use fixed doses. As you noted this requires meals that are of a similar amount of carbs. Whilst you are not wanting to carb count could you note meals that make you go low, and others that make you go high afterwards, then adjust the
Option size. Photos of meal so you can see the size of the portions that need to be adjusted.

You mention that your team have asked you to keep your levels in the green range all the time. I am 17 years in and have very few days where I get 100% of the day in target. To expect you to get 100% all the time is unrealistic. I certainly tried very hard to do that at the start and drove myself potty.

This will get easier and it is good that your team are working with you to help you manage this in your way. It will get easier.
 
4.3 with a vertical downward arrow is when I get a little concerned but even then for me it is just a question of eating a couple of jelly babies and chewing them thoroughly to stop the drop and bring me back up to about 5-6mmols. 3.3 with a vertical downward arrow is when I start to get a bit mentally twitchy!
As @JJay says, it comes with experience and confidence in managing it and knowing what works well for your body. Unfortunately you can't get that experience without having some wobbly moments.

In fact, 8.3 with a sloping downward arrow would make me quite happy rather than scared, because that level is above where I want my levels to end up and my insulin is bringing it down which is what I want my insulin to do in that situation. It isn't coming down really fast (vertical downward arrow) and my Libre also usually reads slightly lower than my actual BG, so I still have a long way to go before I get to 5 or 6, which is where I like to be and my insulin is bringing me down towards that.

If you are currently anxious about hypos and you agree a target of perhaps 8, then you could eat 1 jelly baby in this situation to stop the drop or if your levels fall below 8 and level you out in the 8s or 9s. Once you develop confidence that a single jelly baby will do that at that level, then you can maybe set your target at 7 and use a single jelly baby again if you drop below 7 and when you are confident that that works, then maybe set your target at 6 or 6.5 etc. and if you see a vertical downward arrow then consider 2 jelly babies or whatever until you have built up confidence that your chosen hypo treatment works.
 
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