[Decmusic]

OK, so here's the situation.

I suffer from type 1 diabetes, with the added complication that I don't feel the symptoms of low blood sugar - I feel slightly ill, like I'm getting a cold.

It's 4am here now, and I've yet to sleep. I tested my sugar levels two hours ago to see what the reason was, and it said 2.6. I drank half a bottle of lucozade, still couldn't sleep. Checked it again - 3.4. Same again, finished off the bottle. No sleep, tested again - 2.9. Was feeling a little dizzy, so went downstairs, ate all the carbohydrate-laden/sugary stuff I could find (3 bits of cake, 2 slices of bread and honey, some biscuits, and drank a whole bottle of lucozade. Enough to send sugars through the roof.

That was 15 mins ago. I tested just now - 2.8. I'm going to run out of lucozade soon. Has anyone ever heard of something like this happening? I've got no answers - half a bottle of lucozade normally adds 6-10 units of sugar into the blood. It's dropping very quickly or having no effect. Any help will be much appreciated.

Dan

PS If I don't respond I've either given up and gone to hospital or managed to sort it and fall asleep - I do need to be up in 3 hours!

PPS I dis nothing out of the ordinary with insulin. Slightly less levemir than normal and a normal dose of novorapid at dinner.

 

[Shanny]

Well Dan . . . my first thought is that you mixed up your insulins or some darn thing, but if you're absolutely certain that you did not slip up & give novorapid instead of levemir at bedtime, then for gosh sake call the damn ambulance! You're in no shape to drive yourself to the ER.

 

[Decmusic]

Well Dan . . . my first thought is that you mixed up your insulins or some darn thing, but if you're absolutely certain that you did not slip up & give novorapid instead of levemir at bedtime, then for gosh sake call the damn ambulance! You're in no shape to drive yourself to the ER.

It is possible, but I'm 99% sure I didn't. I remember changing the cartridges over. I've done that once before a few years back, and even that was sorted by lucozade - 15 mins after I noticed my BS level was around 14. I'll keep tabs on it, and if it plummets again I'll head over in a taxi. Last test came back as 5.4, but it really should be more like 15.4 with the amount of sugar I've taken.

Thanks for responding so quickly

 

[Shanny]

Good - I'm glad it's rising a little more now. If it goes into orbit, at least you'll live to tell about it. Going so low can kill you quick - like I need to tell YOU this.

Be sure to come back & update us when you get caught up, okay?

 

[breezeonby]

It is possible, but I'm 99% sure I didn't. I remember changing the cartridges over. I've done that once before a few years back, and even that was sorted by lucozade - 15 mins after I noticed my BS level was around 14. I'll keep tabs on it, and if it plummets again I'll head over in a taxi. Last test came back as 5.4, but it really should be more like 15.4 with the amount of sugar I've taken.

Thanks for responding so quickly

Welcome Decmusic! Don't scare us like that....we just met! I am glad that your blood sugar has come up. I am T2 on insulin and I can only remember once when my blood sugar was stubborn in coming back up. I went through several glucose tabs and maybe a small increase but not where I needed to be, so I got out the old reliable can of regular cola and that brought it up like a charm. I hope you don't get a terrible high with all of the carbs you ate, but it was better than going any lower. Join us later and let us know how you are doing.

 

[xdunlapx]

Wow that's scary! I hope you are doing better now. Please let us know. We are worried about you.

 

[Decmusic]

Thanks for your support. Now a new topic - hypo-immunity.

I initially thought about posting in the welcome bit, but it being 4am I kinda had to get to the point!

Thankyou all for your support. I was a little freaked out - I'd never had anything like that happen before. As it turned out it stayed quite low, so I didn't get to sleep, but hey, nothing I can do now! I'm going to keep a close eye on it today.

On a slightly different note, one thing I briefly touched on was my immunity to low blood-sugar symptoms. It appeared about a year ago, and until I worked out what it was I would frequently not wake up in the morning until someone shook me, or wake up and find myself playing the piano or in the shower with no idea how I got there. I managed to sleep through 6 hours of an alarm going off in one ear and almost constant phonecalls in the other. The docs i went to were nowhere with it, they sent me to sleep specialists before I worked out what it was (I tested the moment I realised it had happened and discovered I was at 1.8).

Now I know what it is, the only thing I've found that works is to aim my BS level for 9 every night. Above 10 and I frequently get insomnia, below 8 and I wont wake up properly. It's a glorified balancing act. The medical diognosis was that because I don't feel the symptoms I don't wake up to deal with it, thereby allowing my BS to drop dangerously low.

So my question is - do any of you have something similar, or know of someone, and how are you/they dealing with it? There's a medical name for it, which none of the doctors I went to knew.

I hope that makes sense! If you think I should make a new topic for this please say

dan

 

[breezeonby]

I initially thought about posting in the welcome bit, but it being 4am I kinda had to get to the point!

Thankyou all for your support. I was a little freaked out - I'd never had anything like that happen before. As it turned out it stayed quite low, so I didn't get to sleep, but hey, nothing I can do now! I'm going to keep a close eye on it today.

On a slightly different note, one thing I briefly touched on was my immunity to low blood-sugar symptoms. It appeared about a year ago, and until I worked out what it was I would frequently not wake up in the morning until someone shook me, or wake up and find myself playing the piano or in the shower with no idea how I got there. I managed to sleep through 6 hours of an alarm going off in one ear and almost constant phonecalls in the other. The docs i went to were nowhere with it, they sent me to sleep specialists before I worked out what it was (I tested the moment I realised it had happened and discovered I was at 1.8).

Now I know what it is, the only thing I've found that works is to aim my BS level for 9 every night. Above 10 and I frequently get insomnia, below 8 and I wont wake up properly. It's a glorified balancing act. The medical diognosis was that because I don't feel the symptoms I don't wake up to deal with it, thereby allowing my BS to drop dangerously low.

So my question is - do any of you have something similar, or know of someone, and how are you/they dealing with it? There's a medical name for it, which none of the doctors I went to knew.

I hope that makes sense! If you think I should make a new topic for this please say

dan

It sounds like hypo unawareness. This does happen and I have it to a point. My blood glucose needs to drop below 40 or 2.2 before I start feeling shaky or light headed and those are the only symptoms that I get. You are dropping down to a dangerous level and you need to be prepared to call for help when you get that low.

 

[Adjitater]

Yes it is Hypoglycimic Unawareness, or put in simle terms you have lost the ability to feel low blood sugars.

I too have this and have spent more time in the emergency room and been hospitalized more times than I can count. Hypounawareness is the leeding cause of the dreaded Dead In Bed Syndrome. Where you just dont wake up and you suffer, in most cases, cartiact arrest. The only thing that helped me at all was going on a pump and Continuous Glucose Monitoiring System. Good luck to you.

 

[wish]

Hi and welcome! How are you feeling now? Are there after-effects from going that low? Hope you're okay now.