Fitting when hypo

Darling, please go to the DAFNE course. You will be amazed how much you will learn about everything!!! The course is a must for every person with diabetes type 1. I just regret now having it earlier. It is brilliant!!!

Thank you very much simon that makes alot of sense. I am still waiting to go on the DAFNE course, I received a letter on 04th may advising I have been added to the waiting list and I am still waiting. In the meantime I keep reading the Q&A's here to try and learn.

I have had Type 1 for 35 years. About 15 years ago I had bitten the inside of my mouth during sleep. When telling both my G.P and Diabetic Consultant this, they said it happened during a night-time hypo.
My husband insisted it was completely different symptoms I was having. On this information they eventually did a MRI scan on my brain. The result was night time epilepsy, which has bneen completely ( so far ) controlled by a daily tablet.
It has not affected driving as it is diagnosed as " night time epilepsy " Interesting, as I had not previously heard of peaople having fits when hypo.

Hi,
I am a 28 year old woman who has been diagnosed since 1995 (I was 12).

While in my mid teens I had a brace fiitted to my teeth. About a year later, I started having fits, especially at night time. I used to wake up with a bad headache, achey ribs, a ripped up mouth and blood everywhere. My parents and the dentist thought I was rubbing my tongue against my brace in my sleep, causing it to rip into my tongue and cheeks.
The dentist removed the brace and we thought that was the end of it.

A couple of weeks later, my mum heard me banging my head against the wall during the night and realised I was having a fit.
I went to hospital, and was told it was due to my bloods dropping too low while I was asleep. They fiddled with my insulins and told me to eat before I went to sleep.
This seemed to fix it....at least for a while.

I have been having fits and bad reactions to hypos now for over 10 years and what I have learnt is the following things can increase the risk of a hypo/fit. This list isn't exhaustive, it is just the current things I have noticed over the years. A change in hormones (menstrual cycle etc), starting new medicines, weight gain and weight loss, unplanned activity and stress all affect my diabetes and can cause me to have a fit.

I can have a fit without realising I am hypo and they happen during the day and the night. MY GP, DSN and consultant do not know how to treat my fits and hypos successfully and always tell me to "record my bloods constantly, log everything including what I eat and where I inject and they will review it in a month". This is never helpful because that doesn't give me any suggestions of ways to deal with the fits now, sigh and at the reviews just tell me...they don't know why I keep having them.
I am currently in a stage of having 2-3 fits and 3-4 bad hypos each week and am waiting to see my DSN and GP as I can not work out what the causes are. I am hoping to have a new thing to add to my list soon

If you seem to be having them regularly, I would suggest that you always have some hypo food by your bed that you do not have to chew (orange juice, coke, lucozade, hypogel) and always carry something like this with you. I have a little tuck-shop in my desk at work of orange juice, lucozade and biscuits (to keep my BM up once I am out of hypo). My work colleagues and all of my family know how to recognise and deal with my hypos and fits and I would suggest explaining the best ways to deal with your hypos/fits to people who are around you. Everyone is different and has different reactions to hypos.

Hypos/fits can be very scary for others around you, especially if they do not know how to help you but being prepared and treating them like bad hypos (which they basically are) is the best way forward.

I hope this information is of use to anyone out there who is struggling with hypo/fits.
Take care Maradie xx

Puts in perspective some of the moans we have about being Diabetics. I would imagine having fits all the time is really not a pleasant experience. I would have thought in an ideal world they would have given you a Continuous Blood Glucose Monitor so you could maybe work out the 'tipping' point that causes you to fit. Generally most of us do not fit when hypo but some I guess are particularly unlucky and their bodies are more sensitive to low blood sugar and the effects it has. I guess you also get the double-whammy of a fit causing you to expend a lot of energy meaning you need more carbs to get your BG back up and to keep it up.
Thanks for sharing your experiences anyway, if nothing else it shows people that they are not alone in suffering a problem like fits and hypos