Hypo Awareness

Hi,

Never had the best control, but recently I have made a concerted effort to lower my hba1c, just had blood test so we will see!

Problem is in tighter control I have been going hypo alot, I mean 4 or 5 times a day

Yesterday and today I have a couple of 2.9s without any knowledge of them, no symptoms or anything, this worries me, I have never not had awareness!

If I loosening my grip on control will awareness come back?

How do others feel about this? Lower hba1c or awareness?

Phil

Hi Phil,
I have never had "great" Hypo awareness and find that if I am busy at work I often miss the signs until it's time for me to check my blood before I eat (I'm generally always at my lowest at lunch time).
My DSN advised that I was on too much BI (Lantus) and have reduced this and this helped.
She also advised me to run my BGs a bit higher (1 or 2 mmol higher than my targets) and this definitely brought back the warning signs.
However, now that I am pregnant I am having to run my BGs as low as possible and am starting to have Hypos as I strive to keep a tighter control for the baby. Having said that, my Hypos aren't as frequent as yours. Have you thought about checking your BI as it may be a little too much? A Carb free meal and a 3AM test would help check this out.

Good luck, I would keep in touch with your DSN and keep writing everything down in your diary (I know it can be very time consuming) but it's the only way to see trends and make the best/safest adjustments

Hope this helps in some way.

All the best,
Anele.

Thanks,

It might be my background, what I will probably do over the weekend is have carb free meals and keep testing.

What are good carb free meals, I was thinking salad, but tomatoes though I don't count them do have some.

Phil

Hi Phil,
I tend not have any carb free meals though if I were to I would have either some sort of salad with meat/ tuna/fish/cheese without any dressings that contain carbs. If it's breakfast or lunch then a fried/poached egg(s) with grilled bacon, sausages (although be careful as the cheaper sausages tend to contain carbs - steak ones should be ok), tomotoes, mushrooms.

Also, any meat or fish with steamed veg isa good option too.

Hope this helps
Cheers,
Anele.

Thanks

Might loose weight too as thats Atkins

Phil

The only thing to watch out is I've heard of people that often have carb free meals can develop ketones so just a wee minder
Cheers,
Anele.

Hi, as far as I am aware Ketones are caused by the abscence of insulin to transport blood sugar into cells resulting in 'fat' being used for energy. Therefore a carb free meal cannot result in ketones, it can result in a hypo if you BI is too high which is exactly what you are trying to establish. If you do have a carb free meal to test your BI its a good idea to test a bit more regularly just to ensure what IS happening to your BG.

Thanks Marke, I remember reading in the forums in the past of people saying they developed Ketones when having too many carb free meals, must have read it wrong, sorry

Thanks,
Anele.

Hi Phil,

With regards to Hypo Awareness, I myself started losing my awareness around 4 or 5 years ago and it gradually got worse and worse where it's now at the point where there is no warning, I could be sitting here at say 1.8 and feel like I could run a marathon! I think it's really quite rare for you to lose awareness completely and running your BG level a tad higher for a while can bring it back. It sounds as if your control is actually pretty good (as long as you can explain the hypo and why it probably happened!) so wouldn't go mucking about with changing ratio's etc, but speak to your consultant with regards to trying to get your awareness back, they will probably ask you to run your BG a bit higher for a few months.

Phil Maskell said:
Hi,

Never had the best control, but recently I have made a concerted effort to lower my hba1c, just had blood test so we will see!

Problem is in tighter control I have been going hypo alot, I mean 4 or 5 times a day

Yesterday and today I have a couple of 2.9s without any knowledge of them, no symptoms or anything, this worries me, I have never not had awareness!

If I loosening my grip on control will awareness come back?

How do others feel about this? Lower hba1c or awareness?

Phil