Okay it is 4:42am… Since 6pm I have not been able to get above 70 mg/dL (3.8 mmo/l) I have tried everything (expect glucagon) including taking my pump off for 3 hours… I called my Endo and he said just to keep eating/drinking!!! YOU CAN ONLY EAT SO MUCH! So what should I do??? My dad and I talked about going to the ER today… we live about 2 hours from the ER my Endo is at… But I don’t know if i want to do that. I am just tired, full, and a little pissed off!
WHAT DO YOU THINK?!?!?
Dear Emily. I am type who knows what and my liver spews out prodigious amount of glucose so uncontrollable highs in the 200’s I know well. My dental hygenist told me of her friend ( a type 1) having a low situation nearly word for word with you description. When this happened she had to eat several plates of pasta no grease to make the dissolution fast or a half a loaf of bread no butter. To me this sounds unbelievable as my blood sugar would head to 500 without 30 units of insulin. But she said it was God’s truth. Maybe a glucagon kit in your case as an added protection is a good idea.
wow that’s insane, perhaps check and see if your meter is working properly, if you have cut back the insulin, eating and you’re still low maybe that visit to the ER would be worthwhile!
Emily. Sorry to hear about this. It happens to me once in a while but much less now that I am on a pump. It’s possible, if you are exercising, skipping meals, maybe your basal is just a tad too much, to empty your liver of glucose. once that happens, all the carbs you will eat will go to “recharge” your liver.
Suspending your pump was your best bet. I don’t know what you were eating but this is one time a good old regular coke will help do the trick. When this happens to me I use glucose tabs plus fruit. Mixed carbs (with protien or fats) will really mess you up because it will only slow down absorption. Alcohol could knock you on your a$$ too because it really slows down glucose absorption.
oh yea, your glucagon kit will not work, because that injection only causes your liver to dump. if there’s nothing to dump it won’t help at all.
Hope you are feeling better!.
Do what you think is best for you. If you think going to the ER will help then go. I am not on the pump anymore but, I do have at times at least once a month where my b/s stay low all day and yes, You wander how much more can you eat! Have you tried Honey, Juices and if it drops too low get that Glucagon shot out and use it. The only thing about it is that I heard it does make you feel a little sick.
You may want to have that pump checked out and see if it is releasing more insulin than it supose to, it may be defective?
I do hope you get to feeling better without going over board with the blood sugar trying to get it up.
A friend of mine had this problem and went to the ER. It turned out he had a stomach virus that wasn’t allowing his food to digest properly and so he had all this insulin in his system. They ended up giving his glucose through IV until his numbers stablized. He went home after that and just checked every couple of hours and was real careful about food and insulin for a while.
Wow, I had a difficult situation like this at the beggining of december. Everynight after dinner for about a week (I was low-ish through the day, but only bad after dinner) I would drop. FAST. I couldn’t get my BS over 50 for a full hour. Even after eating over 100g fast acting carbs!! (OJ, glucose tabs, you name it. Oh- and I had disconnected from my pump for over an hour!!) talk about scary! I had to use my glucagon shot 3 times that week. Mine happened after I had been sick and not eating much for a few days. The best explanation I can come up with for my situation (I still have no real understanding of why it happened) was that since I had not been eating much beforehand I didn’t have enough glycogen stored.?
What I ended up doing was lowering my basal rates and carb ratios and really testing alot. (one day 29 tests!!) Eventually after another week or so, my basals have creeped back up to what they were before. But my carb ratio after noon has stayed at the lower setting.
Which pump do you have? I know minimed has a 24hour helpline that you can call to make sure everything’s working properly. I had to call a few times during that week. They helped me run diagnostic tests to make sure it wasn’t the pump.
Have you had any changes to your routine lately? more exercise? been sick? eaten less? I know that any of those can raise your insulin sensitivity. Best of luck to you and be careful!!
This is so ironic. A few weeks ago I had a bad 24 hour stomach flu. I vomited twice and was done. The next day, my bloodsugars were low the whole day, regardless of what I ate. I had to disconnect my pump for a few hours, too. I actually joked that it was like I didn’t have diabetes anymore. I was ranging between 50-90 for a full day and 1/2. Now my bloodsugars are back to normal (well high is my normal). I always wondered why that happened. I felt like I puked the diabetes out of my system…weird. I am curious about the relationship between glycogen, the liver, the body and how we as diabetics respond. If anyone can explain it, I would really appreciate it. Thanks. Good luck Emily. I hope you’re doing OK.
When my sugars are uncontrollaby low I just suspend the insulin delivery on my pump for a couple hours. Apparently you’ve been doing that. Normally when this happens to me it’s after I’ve had a vaccination or are coming down with something. Try and ride this thing out. Drink Orange Juice!!!
Dear Joe. You are 100% right glucagon idea is useless when there is nothing to dump. This is the beauty of this web site that people can correct my lack of clear thinking.
UPDATE!
When I went to work I told one of the firefighter what was happening. We decided to do D50 which got me up to about 200 then did D10 over an hour. Worked like a charm. I have been check in around 120 the rest of the day. I have no idea what was going on. None of our paramedics or our nurse could figure it out. My meters were working properly (I have 3 and I used the one at the station too) So there is no telling. Another lovely day of Type 1 Diabetes
This happened to me 6 months ago. It was just like you all have said. I kept taking in glucose tabs, food, soda, nothing would bring it up. Had disconnected my pump and still going lower. This lasted over 4 hours and finally it stabilized at around 110. The next morning I woke up and was way high.
The e.r. can give you an amp of D50 to raise your sugar immediately but it is only a short response. They can also put you on a dextrose drip to help raise your sugar. That might be the way to go. Fair warning on the D50, you will feel one heck of a head rush from it. I have had to have it twice within an hour of each other when I have had trouble keeping my sugar up.
eat peanut butter. This will pass.
Orange Juice is key
any juice is good
Peanut butter is good but if your blood sugar is low you tend to be a little bit slower than normal. drink juice then eat something like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich then check your sugar 30 mins after if you have no improvement call someone to get you to the hospital. its always best to have someone closehand so you have someone to explain your illness. its best to keep your pump off during this , even though you’ll have active insulin in your blood. juice is the key. DO NOT DRINK NORMAL SODA: THIS WILL CAUSE IMMEDIATE SPIKES IN YOUR SUGAR ITLL GO TO 200+ THEN BACK DOWN TO WHERE YOU WERE IN MINUTES.
if no juice is on hand Sugar Water is good too.
when possible snack on something make sure to have something to drink with it sometimes its hard to swallow without drink
milk is better than oj.
My daugther is has Type 1 Diabetes, and when she is sick with a stomach bug, her blood sugars are often low. Then, when she begins to feel better her blood sugars jump all over the place. I have found – regardless of whether she is sick – that she needs to be well-hydrated for her blood sugars to be the most stable. Our Dr. told us that insulin absorption is irregular when a person is dehydrated, as is typically the case when sick with a stomach flu.
Really?
Milk has a very slow effect for me.
maybe its preference or the Novolog Insulin i use with my Pump.
Orange Juice has always worked hands down and i always come to when drinking Cranberry Juice or OJ. I love milk but it reacts slower to me, i cant tell you how many times ive measured serving size and miscalculated how much insulin to take and then the insulin takes effect immediately and then after i reach that low my blood sugar is raised up much later in the day. its crazy, even though Milk has much more nutrients that are good for the body.
When i say Orange Juice i mean the Florida Orange Juice or the much more natural pulp juice not so much the concentrated juices.
When I went to my endo yest I told him about how I spent 2 days low after being sick. I told him that other diabetics have experienced similar things. He just looked at me and took my pump and said, are you sure it was working right? Um yes doctor, if it was shut off for a few hours and my sugar did not budge…it’s not the darn pump. Aarrgh.
That doesn’t suprise me… When I called my doctor he asked me the same thing. Ihave a Endo becasue they tend to know more about Diabetes then any other type of doctor. But my doctor I had in Houston got me used to him ONLY TREATING DIABETICS… My current doctor does it all… D,Thyroid, PCOS, amongs other things. I am thinging about switching but I have to call around to find the right doctor… and I just haven’t had that kind of time.