So there’s a lot of discussion online about “hypo hangovers” online (TuDiabetes and other places). Basically, it’s a feeling similar to a hangover after a (usually pretty bad, and many times in the middle of the night) low blood sugar. (It’s how I knew what my one and only hangover was )
Either my Google skills failed me, or there really isn’t any discussion online about treating hypo hangovers. Unfortunately, I have a mild one now – I woke up at about 4am with my phone (Android, xDrip) blaring about a 50 reading
So what can be done to make a hypo hangover go away? I’ll see if my morning coffee will help, but is there anything else?
Time. I’ve thought about those sleeping lows. In addition to robbing you a deep sleep, they also metabolically wear you out. The antidote, I’ve found, is good, steady, in-range blood glucose, plenty of water and maybe an afternoon nap. And these all take time! They’re not compatible with working or going to school.
OMG - I’ve never heard of this before but I think I’ve been experiencing them!!! I know I go low in the night because of my Dexcom trial. However, I don’t go low enough that I’ve ever had to get up and treat myself (is that weird? My liver must take over??). I do quite routinely wake up around 2:00 a.m. in a soaking sweat, pounding headache & flu like feeling. I either vomit or, successfully talk myself out of it. I eventually fall back to sleep but wake up with the lingering pounding headache and the flu like symptoms. This happens at the very least 3 nights a week. Sometimes, I’ll have an episode during the day. I struggle to come out of these. I’ve never even thought to test myself during these times (duh!). I’m going to now and see if its blood sugar related. They seriously affect my quality of life!
Sorry, @Mike_Alexander. I didn’t mean to discourage you! Since I’m retired and enjoy more time luxury, I try to consider that some people do not have this same advantage. During my work-life I went to work many days when I had BG hangovers and just had to soldier on. With really bad overnight lows, I would take a sick day off. Sometimes you just need to stop the world and rest for a bit.
My understanding is that the hangover comes from your body counterregulating. A low that your body detects as life threatening generates a huge surge of hormones, glucagon to get your liver to dump glucose as well as cortisol, adrenaline, etc. It is the counterregulation that leaves you feeling hungover or sick for a day or two. But to have that happen at 50 mg/dl is strange. Unless you have been consistently high your body would not normally kick in a strong counterregulation response until your body had a lower blood sugar than that. But I don’t know, everyone is different. Maybe you had a 50 mg/dl with double down arrows.
Yes, I’ve discussed these episodes numerous times with my doctor. Unfortunately, she kept insisting it was heartburn related. I was so frustrated. She finally concluded that I was suffering from cluster headaches (the episodes present ALL the symptoms of a cluster headache) and I was good with that. Then they went away for about 9 months. They’re back now and so I’m trying to deal with them and looking for a solution (I have little faith in healthcare professionals right now (although, sometimes I think its because I expect them to be miracle workers) and was thinking that maybe, once again, I was diagnosed incorrectly)).
My pump should be here in the next 5 weeks (with CGM) and then I’ll be better able to see if they correlate with my blood sugar in any way. Seems like I’m always conducting a series of tests. Haha!
And @Becca8122
As I’m sure you already know
Chronic headaches can be caused by numerous triggers
From lack of protein, female hormonal fluctuations, to dehydration, and much more serious stuff like bad reactions to medications or very serious complications.
Chart your triggers. Cluster migraine was one of my daughter’s diagnoses, along with cyclical migraines. Several misspent years treating these with medications which made her much, much worse. Charting helped us pin things down for her.
In the end, She does not have the D, though – I am not aware of how these relate to D.
)
…I have 4 hours of class this afternoon, followed immediately by 3 hours of lab 
