Hypo recognition.

Clare,
Thanks from me too for clarifying the issue. Its good to have input from HCP's as well as us 'diabetics'. Hopefully all our users appreciate that HCP's are all very busy people and its a great help when we get their input.

Vic,

I find that there are two factors that influence when I get hypo symptoms. The first, and the one that everybody (including HCPs) talks about, is the absolute level and this has been dealt with above. The other factor, which I have seen very little discussion on, is the rate of change of the BG level. For me if the BG level is falling rapidly I will get symptoms well above 4.0 mmol/l, and I have certainly had them at 8 as you mention. Then I find, in an hour or so, I will be below 3.5 and well and truely hypo. I wonder whether you are seeing something similar? The solution that has worked for me is to treat the symptoms and I have found that I am within targets during the next few hours despite taking extra CHO at 8 mmol/l.

Good luck
Peter

Hi, thanks everyone for joining in this discussion, it's very productive of us! The speed at which the blood glucose drops does affect the resulting symptoms or lack of them as Peter says. This seems to be an individual thing though.
Something that occurred to me for Vic's question is to ask whether there could have been anything on the fingers when testing first, ie the 8 wasn't a true 8 as you were actually hypo then, but the test was contaminated in some way? Any sugary or chemical substance on the skin might affect a result, and I've known some people get an unexpected result, then wash their hands and test again....and get a result closer to what was expected! If you want to try this out, peel an orange and test your blood without washing your hands - it's surprising how something as simple as washing your hands is so important. What do you think?

Further to Cmac's suggestion of contamination: on the DAFNE course I was on, we were told that Carex anti-bacterial handwash can affect blood-glucose tests. Pre DAFNE I used to use Carex, but never noticed anything abnormal. I now use handwashes that are not anti-bacterial - just in case.

Interesting points, thanks everyone. For the past week or so I have experienced a lot higher results, until today when I have had two hypos, but both have resulted in good warnings.
Peter, good to hear that others have had a similar experience and Cmac, you could well be right about the contamination.
Thanks again.
Vic.

To develop this thread a little, may I offer my experiences this morning. Breakfast reading of 11.9 @ 09:10, which is way higher than normal, first thing. By 11:00 I had hypo symptoms, listless, irritable, tested and was 13.4. The tiredness continued through the morning and at lunch, I got a 4.9 reading - green result - but now some 40 minutes after lunch, I still feel low.
Perhaps it's just a bad day but very confusing. Anyone care to offer an explanation please?
Thanks, Vic.

my explination would be before I developed diabetes I had days like that and it obviously was nothing to do with hypos since I wasn't a diabetic. Some days you just feel cr*p, it doesn't have to be your Diabetes its just life ;-) I think we can fall into the trap of over analysing everything and expecting there to be any answer for everything. Sadly life's not like that, sometimes there is just no explination. Somedays my BG can go high for no apparent reason, it just happens, somethings has kicked off in my body and has caused my BG's to rise with no apparent reason. The next day things are back to normal. The only thing I do is shrug my shoulders and accept it happens.
I guess thats part of the problem with Hypo warnings, sometimes they are not warnings at all they are something else. All we can do is test, test and test again since thats the only way we can be sure.

An interesting discussion and as I'm trying to regain my hypo awareness having suffered some seizures in the past month - very relevant too.

I agree with Peter - hypo symptoms come about from a rapid fall in BG which can of course happen even if your BGs are in the teens - if you experience a rapid drop, you will feel hypo. Interesting what someone said about symptoms/experience changing the longer you have the condition - as a relative newbie (6 yrs) I'm certainly going through a different phase in my diabetes now - perhaps the honeymood period really is over now!