Sugar levels after a hypo

[Jelly Babies Save Lives]

Hi, I am watching what I eat and had a 4.7 at 3.45am this morning.
My question is if I am eating jelly babies when I am low how does this affect my Hba1c results? I've cut down on my sugar intake only to be eating sugar in the early hours.
I tested at 8am and I was 8.0.
Does that make sense?!

 

[Inka]

Treating a hypo is far, far more important than your HbA1C! Anyway, if you treat it appropriately, you’ll just go up to normal sugars anyway.

4.7 isn’t a hypo by the way. Were you worried you’d drop further?

 

[Jelly Babies Save Lives]

Treating a hypo is far, far more important than your HbA1C!

I'm just confused as it feels like I'm cutting out sugar only to have little jelly baby feeding sessions!
Yes, I was feeling shaky and concerned I would drop even lower.

* I am 4.8 now and feel a bit shaky and heady.

 

[Inka]

I'm just confused as it feels like I'm cutting out sugar only to have little jelly baby feeding sessions!
Yes, I was feeling shaky and concerned I would drop even lower.

* I am 4.8 now and feel a bit shaky and heady.

Apologies for not remembering all your details, but if you’ve been high for a while pre-diagnosis you can get false hypos and feel funny at normal sugars. Or sometimes your blood sugar is dropping fast and you can get hypo signals at a higher level. That’s a very particular feeling, which you pick up gradually.

Maybe have a tiny amount of something and some sips of water and check again in a few minutes.

 

[Inka]

Dextro glucose tablets might work better for you as then you’ll see them more as the treatment they are rather than ‘guzzling sweets’. They’re also easier to resist over-indulging in.

 

[Jelly Babies Save Lives]

Dextro glucose tablets might work better for you as then you’ll see them more as the treatment they are rather than ‘guzzling sweets’. They’re also easier to resist over-indulging in.

Okay thank you for that. I limit myself to five jelly babies as that is what I was told. At 4am in the morning I really wasn't Interested in eating them at all!
What do you class as low?

 

[Lily123]

A hypo is defined as a blood sugar below 4.0mmol/l

 

[Jelly Babies Save Lives]

I think waking up at 3.45am and thinking I would go lower before morning perhaps also plays a part mentally. I'm not sure I would have gone back to sleep, it obviously woke me up.

 

[Inka]

Okay thank you for that. I limit myself to five jelly babies as that is what I was told. At 4am in the morning I really wasn't Interested in eating them at all!
What do you class as low?

I was told below 3.5 but to treat anything below 4. Actually, I sometimes treat anything below 5, depending on my circumstances and what I’m about to do. I don’t over-treat - just a tiny top-up to keep above 5. If I’m going to drive, I aim to be in the 6s.

 

[Jelly Babies Save Lives]

Okay so basically when I feel a bit strange going under 5 I need to ride it out and not treat it until it's below 4. (Depending on situation of course). I'm guessing my body will get used to going down to 4.
I'm 5.8 this morning... so I won't panic!

 

[rebrascora]

I think learning to grade your response to the situation is important with low BG levels.

Firstly I would say that 5 jelly babies is a bit of overkill to treat a proper hypo let alone a 4.8. The general advice would be 15g carbs which is usually just 3 JBs or 4-5 glucose tablets and test again in 15 mins, then perhaps 5-10g slow acting carbs if you need it once you are above a BG of 4. Personally I never need longer acting carbs and very rarely need 3JBs
In your situation this morning of waking up on 4.7 at 3.45am, I would have eaten only 1 JB and gone straight back to sleep but that is because I know my body and how it responds pretty well. Sometimes even when my levels are below 4 it just takes 1 or 2 JBs to bring me up enough. I work on the basis that 1 JB will raise my levels by about 1mmol. So when I wake up in the night with a low reading I decide whether I need 1,2 o 3 JBs, munch it/them and straight back off to sleep.

Can I ask what your BG was when you went to bed and did you eat early enough for your bolus insulin to be "spent" by then as that will indicate if your basal dose may be too high?
If this is happening regularly, your insulin dose may need reducing. At this time of year, many of us find that we need to reduce our basal dose(s) and then increase them again in the autumn. I've dropped 5 units from my basal insulin since last week to keep my levels right. If you are not comfortable adjusting your doses yourself then speak to your nurse, if you are having a regular issue with hypos or needing to head them off with JBs.... this is how insulin gets a bad name for causing weight gain, when actually it is just that the dose is too high. Getting your basal dose right is a fine art in my opinion and it should be regularly reassessed and adjusted as necessary. Many people and some clinicians don't realise just how much basal needs can change and think that once you have your basal dose set, that it is almost for life, but that certainly isn't the case for most people.

Another thing to bear in mind is that BG levels naturally fall low during the early hours of the morning in non-diabetic people who can frequently drop below 4 at that time and they don't even know it and their liver pumps out some glucose towards dawn to bring them up to start the day, so being low at that time of night isn't in itself a problem but obviously as insulin users, the concern is that we might drop too low (below 3.5) due to the insulin in our system and that our liver might not be able to bring us back up, so try not to panic about these levels during the night but just give them a gentle nudge back up a bit with a small carb snack. As you realise, you don't want to be permanently up at 8 or above, so just assess each situation and work out how many carbs you need to treat it.... 1 JB is about 5g carbs. Hope that helps.

 

[Inka]

Okay so basically when I feel a bit strange going under 5 I need to ride it out and not treat it until it's below 4. (Depending on situation of course). I'm guessing my body will get used to going down to 4.
I'm 5.8 this morning... so I won't panic!

Or you could have a minuscule amount just to push you up to 5 if you’re more comfortable there. If I was 4.2, say, I’d probably have a small amount of glucose even though I wasn’t technically hypo. This gives a safety cushion. By ‘small amount’ I mean 1/2 or 1 or 2 Dextro depending on which way my blood sugar is going. You’ll learn by experience - a gentle nudge.