unawareness of hypos

[litto-miss-loz]

Hey all,

just wondered how a diabetic person gets unawareness of hypos.

does it happen to every diabetic eventually or does it depend how good your control is??

I am still aware of my hypos but just curious to know lol

 

[diagonall]

Too many lows cause hypo unawareness and running your blood sugars far to close to the line as well.
There are reports/research saying that the synthetic/analogue insulin's cause the problem too.
I'm still hypo aware after 44 years on insulin.I use animal insulin though and have always done so.

Sue

 

[Einstein]

Agreed with Sue, the same goes for people who are running too high, they become symptomatic of hypos at 5 or 6 because they aren't used to being 'so low'.

Gradual reduction and then keeping steady is the way forward. In addition you need to listen to your body, many of us have one or two common symptoms, some all, but then there are various symptoms which may be a quirk of us. As my levels run low I foolishly as a reaction speed up! Speech, movement the lot. Until I STOP!

I am on NovaRapid and can still determine the effect of a pending hypo, it's really a case of spotting the symptoms as soon as they appear, stopping what you're doing and attending to your levels - hopefully you will soon realise that ignoring them and pushing on through doesn't work, never does with a hypo and its always quicker to stop, get some glucose in your system and get a sandwich down your neck, take a few minutes, check your levels, adjust insulin etc and then carry on.

If you don't stop when the symptoms are first recognised you will fatigue yourself further, it may take longer to sort yourself out and potentially waste the rest of the day as you'll be wiped out from the hypo. Not to mention potentially scaring the livign daylight out of those around you.

Just my experiences, others I am sure will tell you different experiences.

 

[Copepod]

I've been using basal bolus synthetic insulins for 13 years - and still always know when I'm getting low, so I can eat first (typically whatever I was going to eat for next meal, if it's ready eg sandwich, otherwise banana / biscuit / muesli bar), test later before resuming whatever I was doing beforehand. I consider that acting now to maintain warning symptoms is vital to my well-being - although I know some people lose warning symtoms whatever they do.
I also feel that acting responsibly helps other people to view people with diabetes as normal and responsible, so I get a bit annoyed if people who need insulin don't act when they feel themselves going hypoglycaemic, as their actions will affect the perceptions of other people to me.

 

[sofaraway]

I went through a period when i caught myself hypo quite often and hadn't realised I was low. What I believe was happening that I had been running very tight control and so my threshold of when I started to feel hypo symptoms had been lowered. So I wasn't feeling them into the 2's. What I did was to keep my levels above 5 at all times and tried to run slightly higher and avoid all hypo's. A couple of weeks later I got my warnings back once I dropped below 4. It wasn't true unawareness but was something I needed to act on to keep myself safe.

people with hypo unawareness are not allowed to drive

 

[janine19]

So far I always feel them. However, they are different now to when I was first diagnosed. Initially at 4 I was shaking, slurring and very frightened. Now I dont get that and feel shaky and 'funny' with wobbly legs at 3 but just feel abit funny when im round 4. My nurse has told me its due to me havin quite good control at min so symptoms are not as severe as when my sugars were high. She has told me though if I stop feeling them they will run my sugars a bit higher so I can recognise them again. Hopefully wont have to do this.

 

[litto-miss-loz]

thanks guys 🙂