[mg_2204]

Hello!

I've had two fast and sudden BG drops today. Highly unusual! I know the cause but what I'm more worried about is... what happens next? I'm afraid to go too high now.

Went to the gym this morning, didn't eat much because it upsets my stomach too much before training. Big mistake : 2 coffees. I should win the stupid award really! I was 10.4 mmol (187 mg/dL) before training, all thanks to those coffees.

It suddenly hit. I felt it drop and quick. Hey! 5.1 mmol (91 mg/dL) is not that low but wow! I had to sit on the floor. That bad. Now for me to sit on the floor with people all around and staring at me? I had to feel really bad let me tell you.

Happened again after lunch... but home thank goodness! 4.7 mmol/L (84 mg/dL) that time. I've never EVER been that low after having something to eat.

Now I don't know what's next. I am afraid that correcting and correcting (having a bit of juice) that I'll end up way too high and stay there. EEeeeKK!! Stupid, isn't it?

Any feedback or advice on... I don't know! I tell myself if I go too high I can always walk it off.

Does it happen to you that when having sudden drops or going low... you end up worrying sick about going too high??!? I feel I am not making sense. Much.

[xMenace]

I only rebound if I hit about 3.5 or less. I assume you are not on insulin.

BTW those are great values.

[GrammyByer]

Dear Marie,

A few bits of info that i have found successful for myself. i have hypoglucemia unawareness quite severely - I often do not feel a low until it is 35 or less. Not sure what that correlates to in your method of measuring. But it is very low.

So. First: When exercizing, especially at the gym, I take my pump off a half hour before I begin and then attach it back when I am finished. That way I am getting no basal insulin at all during the workout. I have found this to work well for me.

Second: When i drop very low, I make sure not to over treat the low with too many carbs. If I am above 50, I take 15 fast acting carbs (like 4 ounces of juice or 3 twizzlers, each being 5 carbs). I wait 30 minutes and test again. If my number has increased, I leave well enough alone. Even if I have not returned to a more normal reading. I have found that if I treat again at that point, I will sky rocket up later. If my number is less than 50, I treat with 25 carbs, wait the 30 minutes and test again.

This method works well for me - hopefully you will find it helpful

[Penny]

This is what happened to me yesterday. I was down to 32 (or46 in other hand), treated and seemed to be getting back to normal, though I stayed low. Then I was 197 before I went to bed. Must have been Ok though, I woke to 110. I just didn't bolus when I had a high carb (for me) supper, because I was still low in the 70's.

[BriOnH]

How often do you exercise?

This happens to me when I haven't exercised for a while (historically the last few weeks of December) and start to exercise again.

[mg_2204]

Thank you everyone for your feedback! I really appreciate it.

Just want to say that the speed of the sudden drop is amazing... and scary. The only way I can explain it is being in an elevator on the 10th floor and suddenly coming down to the 1st floor... in 2 seconds flat.

Indeed those numbers are good. Thinking about it I now realize it's the sudden drop that scared me. What I'll do the next time is test and see what happens. I'll tell myself the sudden drop was scary but I'm ok, the numbers are ok. My guess is that I won't drop under 4 mmol/L. I'll test and test, that's the best way to go about it.

Didn't rocket up later on that day. Stayed within my normal range which is under 7 mmol/L (126 mg/dL).

Not on insulin. On long acting Metformin, 1000 mg a day. It doesn't happen that often but I find sudden and fast drops are pretty much my profile. Pancreas still working a bit I guess?

I train every other day. I've just finished a 3 week session with a personal trainer. Sometimes I go every day, depends if the kids want to go to the gym. I don't do much when I'm with them... I often have to settle arguments between them. Erm.

I love my coffee but it causes too much problems for me...

[mg_2204]

Another drop today! No gym today. Just a normal day, done stuff at home, went to work, errands, etc. Ran like a headless chicken all day but that's pretty normal for me.

The drop itself wasn't that big -- I was 7.1 mmol/L (127 mg/dL) perhaps 20 minutes before it happened and dropped down to 5.5 (99 mg/dL)... but it sure took me by surprise. And boy! Was it fast.

I figured 5.5 is really good so I didn't correct it. Once I was over the sudden drop (a few minutes) I was fine. Yay! Stayed under 6 mmol/L (108 mg/dL) most of the day.

The key here is to test I think.

Fasting sugars this morning : a whopping 10.4 mmol/L (187 mg/dL). Go figure

So here I am, getting over the fear of dropping very fast... and also the fear of going too high afterwards. Been a diabetic for many years now and still learning stuff! Ah well

[Shawny]

Yeah, those sudden drops are very scary. The problem I had, was back in the early days of my diabetes life (read 14-16 yrs old ) if I had a sudden drop, it didn't end there, it usually carried on to a severe hypo.

Now that I actually have got my BSL to stay extremely level, and when I put in a correction dose, say it drops from 10mmol/l to about 6, my mom nearly has a heart attack and then with her panic, I correct, and then back up to 10, doesn't help much. This happens especially through the night when I take a correction before going to bed in the hopes of bringing my morning reading down so the rest of the day works out better, then moves quite a lot between 6 and 8, making pretty funny swings, but I attribute this to the amount of times my mom wakes me up during the night.
Ahh well, she is only doing her best.

So for now, sudden drops do freak me out, but mostly they can be explained, so I am stuck with trying to get my average down during the day, which is proving difficult with a higher morning reading. Lucky my efforts are paying off, I had to learn everything again, but my morning readings have dropped from an average of 14 - 16, to 10 - 12. Now if I could just get over the sudden drop and over correction problems, maybe I can have a reading of 6 - 9 in the mornings.

[BriOnH]

Maybe you should talk to your doctor about decreasing your Metformin?

[VinceF]

Marie, I use the same hypo treatment Grammybyer uses but I use glucose tablets. They are a measured dose and are the fastest acting carbs you can get. They come in most fruit flavors. I buy them in a bottle of 100, each a 4gm dose of glucose. I use the rule of 15...eat 15 gms wait 15 minutes and test repeat until above 70 (I don't know the equivilent in mmol/L) Not raising too high is one of the goals.

[mg_2204]

GrammyBear and Vince : good idea! I've done that yesterday and with great success. It's one thing to go low (or drop fast in my case) but I don't want to end up being high either....!!! Thank you!

BriOnH - Having my review in July. I have recorded all my BG readings for my doc to see.

This morning DP took a hike because fasting sugars were 5.4 mmol/L (97 mg/dL). DP should take a hike more often...

Thanks again everyone!

[Dan Gato]

Mg, your lows of 91, aren't lows for me. I like those numbers.
lows for me had been 40's 50's.

I know what scares you is the fast low, good idea to talk to your doc about it & take your charts. good luck.

Met in general, doesn't cause lows. Glipizide does.

I'm drinking coffee right now, I put creamer, sweet & low & I make it instant instead of dripping. I don't spike.