Over treating lows

[Jenn80Mc]

I have this bad habit of over treating my lows. It seems like it takes me SO long to feel better, and I tend to eat or treat until I feel better.

I have a really hard time being patient when treating a low because of how awful I feel. It drives me nuts! I hate seeing those high numbers after treating a low.

Sorry, this was really just a venting post.

[blue_eyed_devil]

fair enough!!! i don't like them either... i don't think anyone does!!! i tend to over eat when i'm low, but i bolus to cover the food i take once my bgs rise...

vent away. i think diabetes sucks as it is (yeah i know that's negative) let alone the horrible side effects... lows really are horrid, the loss of control over the body and mind... horrible :(

[ant hill]

fair enough!!! i don't like them either... i don't think anyone does!!! i tend to over eat when i'm low, but i bolus to cover the food i take once my bgs rise...

vent away. i think diabetes sucks as it is (yeah i know that's negative) let alone the horrible side effects... lows really are horrid, the loss of control over the body and mind... horrible :(

yeah i have a low before i go and eat and i still bolus anyway but i'll also eat emediatly!! let me at the food!!! :D

[Cyborg]

The hunger caused by going low is caused by the release of epinephrine. Even after your bg returns to normal this increased hunger can last another 1/2 hour. Personally, I try to only treat lows with glucose and stick with a schedule to eat food. I know 1 glucose tab will raise my bg about 12 points. Assuming there is no active insulin remaining in my system, it is easy to determine how many tabs I need to avoid the roller coaster effect. Since I'm on a pump, it is easy for me to look up the active insulin remaining and I can compensate for that while low also.

[jeggeman31]

If I am having a bad low, then I eat anything that is not bolted down. And it seems that I can't stop. Some times I know that what I am doing, should not be done but I eat away.

[lgvincent]

I sometimes have that trouble. I try to take small amounts of sugar until I feel better. What I try to do is drink 4 ounces of a soft-drink and give it a few minutes before taking more but sometimes I'll have a bad insulin reaction and I just try to get lots of sugar as fast as possible. That will often lead to higher than normal sugars later. I wonder if my blood sugar is dropping at a fast rate making the insulin reaction feel worse than it actually is, causing me to take more sugar than I actually need.

[cheryl]

Try 8 peanut mm's yummy, I don't have bad affects on 8 of them this is what I had to do to start getting my head around not overtreating, now since I have done that I can just do what I am supposed to do and not see the crazy high's lol.........it's so much practice and mind control......

Hey I know how ya feel though...

cheryl

[KritterMom]

I'm bad about overtreating lows too. What feels right to me is to eat until I feel better. Thats what feels natural. However, it isn't right, because by the time I have eaten until I feel better, by blood sugar is usually 300, lol. What I've been trying to do is drink some OJ, and then test again in 15 minutes, and then go from there. It's hard to wait that 15 minutes when you feel terrible. Rather frustrating.:eek:

[belyro]

I've been good at this lately.....but yesterday I'd been having hypos all day and was SICK of them! So when I hit 2.4 (43) yesterday evening....I'd had enough...and I ate. Needless to say, within about 2 hours I was 17.0 (306). I felt miserable. Nothing like hitting both extremes to make one feel like a sack of ****.

So, uh, yeah.....you're not the only one. ;)

[Tattoo azz]

I know how you feel, cause i tend to eat too much as well.
When i had my really bad hypo in Italy and swallowed my tongue i went up to 18.9 (340) after they took me to hospital.
Being diabetic sucks!!!:mad:

[TenderVittleS]

I've been good at this lately.....but yesterday I'd been having hypos all day and was SICK of them! So when I hit 2.4 (43) yesterday evening....I'd had enough...and I ate. Needless to say, within about 2 hours I was 17.0 (306). I felt miserable. Nothing like hitting both extremes to make one feel like a sack of ****.

So, uh, yeah.....you're not the only one. ;)

Yep that pretty much destroys my day too, also the headaches seem to take forever to go away.

[Jenn80Mc]

I so hear what you are saying! Reaching the two extremes in a few hours, is terrible.

The other day I was 2.9, then a few hours later I was 14.3. It's just not fair.

I tried my best the other day to be patient while treating my low, but after while I just gave up, and gave in.

[issysmommy]

Being diabetic sucks!!!:mad:

Isn't that the truth...glad to see that we don't always have to be "Polyanna" about it...some I have seen think it is the best thing that ever happened to them...

I think I wouldn't mind so much if I had, let's say, a multiple choice option (pick A, B, C, or D):

A. you have to count and account for all the carb intake you will have...and by the way, there will be a bit of inaccuracy even after you read a manual or book about the number of carbs something has.

B. you have to count and account for all the exercise you do, and the duration, and the intensity, and the temp basal, and the food eaten before or after, and whether you are a woman and you are in your menstrual cycle, and whether you had exercised the day before...and don't bother exercising and then getting low and then eating more calories which will seem to defeat the purpose of exercising in the first place.

C. you have to take 15 carbs if you wake up in the middle of the night (because BTW you have decided to work out and be responsible and eat well), but stop at 15 even if you feel like a fish out of water.

D. you have to worry about the future complications and potential problems.

But I definitely would have never chosen E--all of the above!!!

Just venting...please don't try to "fix" me and give me advice...lol...

[EasyType2]

Yet another "over treater" of lows waves his paw. I live alone, and go into panic mode when my hands and knees begin trembling. I eat until my tummy is stuffed; then my BG hits 300 + -- just like it says on the tin.

I really try ... but am rarely successful, especially when I wake up hypo. That's the scary times.

[Gary_W]

Until 3 months back, I'd have raised my hand as guilty and had been for 10 years. I spent the last two years bouncing off the endstops and yes it does indeed make you feel awful. A typical reaction to a bad hypo would have been up to a litre of orange juice and lots of food to go with. No wonder I used to be ill...

I now use glucose tablets for hypos. They don't taste so good, so I find I don't overdo it. They work quicker than anything else I ever used to take. And I have the confidence to know that:

1. If I take 4 of them, I have taken 12g of the fastest acting carb going. On 90% of occasions, it is just enough to get me on an even keel.

2. Even if I still feel bad after 15 mins, I certainly won't have passed out, so eating isn't needed. At that point I know that another couple of tablets will do the trick.

3. I know that I absolutely will not have a rebound high.

4. I always have them handy, so I won't be tempted to drink an entire 500ml bottle of Lucozade which is the first thing I see in the shop because my hypo makes the bottle look attractive in its orange kind of way.

It is no.3 on there that keeps me disciplined. I am now so confident of the power of 10-15g of carbs for a hypo that if I have one at home (and I fancy a biscuit) then I'll treat with a cup of espresso with 1 teaspoon of sugar and a digestive biscuit. Takes a little longer than the glucose tabs but tastes a lot nicer. I find I sometimes enjoy a mild hypo as a good excuse to have a sweet espresso...

Man alive this disease makes you weird :D

Gary

[cheryl]

I've been good at this lately.....but yesterday I'd been having hypos all day and was SICK of them! So when I hit 2.4 (43) yesterday evening....I'd had enough...and I ate. Needless to say, within about 2 hours I was 17.0 (306). I felt miserable. Nothing like hitting both extremes to make one feel like a sack of ****.

So, uh, yeah.....you're not the only one. ;)

Omg, I remember about a couple of months ago, I had these lows all freakin day, pissing me off, then the last time i hit 44, I had two just two more cookies and I freakin went past 200 ughhhhhhh,

Hypo's used to drive me batty

[Belinda]

Yep I am extremly guilty of that over treating syndrome. I much rather overtreat and deal with the high later and correct then to go so low and pass out....(living alone...who knows what would happen). My endo and I got in that discussion one day about the lows and treatment with glucose tabs...well it went in one ear....and almost out the other about how they do not work well for me. Example....in office (endo's) had a low and guess what...my BS went up only 2 points after 15 mins....they wanted me to take more and I of course said no I have juice in the car......lesson learned.

[KCP]

I am yet another who is guilty of hypo overeatus... I used to eat anything and everything til I was high and then Id just sit high all day due to not having any knowledge of Bolusing! (i was on a mix)
Nowadays, i am going hypo alot more but I treat with two teaspoons of glucose powder in some cordial and a sandwich.. This works well for me, but only at home..
When im out or at work, its either juice, chocolate or a sweet tea for me!

[jen_slc]

I totally hear what you're saying... up until recently I had been a very bad overtreater with my hypos. I just couldn't help myself, and those bad feelings just don't go away fast enough, so I'd eat and eat until I didn't feel like I was going to pass out, and that often took 30 minutes or more. I was having so much trouble with it, and being so frustrated with the guaranteed high later on, that I posted about it too.... how do you stop overtreating? My problem was with overtreating hypos during the night - a 40 at 2am feels sooooo much worse than a 40 at 2pm, and I didn't have a problem with overtreating my daytime hypos. I was given plenty of suggestions, but what I took away from that thread was 1) be careful what kind of carbs you choose to treat with and 2) measure it!

I tended to go for chocolate when I was low in the middle of the night. And that contains a lot of fat, which probably contributed to a slow but significant rise in BG the rest of the night, just in time for my morning test. So I quit going for the chocolate.

It really took work on my part - stay away from the chocolate, only drink half a cup, etc, etc. I had to keep reminding myself that even though I felt like **** with a BG of 33, I didn't need 4 cookies loaded with frosting to bring me back to a safe level before going to bed.

I have found a sugary cereal that works well for me, because I loathe glucose tablets. It's French Toast Crunch - sugary enough to bring me back up fairly quickly, but not so much to overshoot my target, and little fat that could bump my levels up later. I try to be diligent and just go for 1/2 C (16g), and when I do, I wake up at a perfect BG. When I'm extra good, I keep a baggie of a 1/2 C measurement on my bedside table; if I can stay in bed and out of the kitchen, I have a better chance of not rebounding.

And on the odd occasion where I do go nuts, I will shoot up a unit or two to compensate for what I overtreated... I'm always wary of doing that while treating a low, but I just got so sick of the rebounding highs that this works out ok because I don't do it often anymore.

[Cyborg]

Until 3 months back, I'd have raised my hand as guilty and had been for 10 years. I spent the last two years bouncing off the endstops and yes it does indeed make you feel awful. A typical reaction to a bad hypo would have been up to a litre of orange juice and lots of food to go with. No wonder I used to be ill...

I now use glucose tablets for hypos. They don't taste so good, so I find I don't overdo it. They work quicker than anything else I ever used to take. And I have the confidence to know that:

1. If I take 4 of them, I have taken 12g of the fastest acting carb going. On 90% of occasions, it is just enough to get me on an even keel.

2. Even if I still feel bad after 15 mins, I certainly won't have passed out, so eating isn't needed. At that point I know that another couple of tablets will do the trick.

3. I know that I absolutely will not have a rebound high.

4. I always have them handy, so I won't be tempted to drink an entire 500ml bottle of Lucozade which is the first thing I see in the shop because my hypo makes the bottle look attractive in its orange kind of way.

It is no.3 on there that keeps me disciplined. I am now so confident of the power of 10-15g of carbs for a hypo that if I have one at home (and I fancy a biscuit) then I'll treat with a cup of espresso with 1 teaspoon of sugar and a digestive biscuit. Takes a little longer than the glucose tabs but tastes a lot nicer. I find I sometimes enjoy a mild hypo as a good excuse to have a sweet espresso...

Man alive this disease makes you weird :D

Gary

I completely agree, although I think the orange glucose tabs taste good. The way some people treat lows, you'd think they look forward to them...

[FrankDr]

Yep, nothing worse than trying to count all the dead bodies (candy wrappers) to try and figure how much to bolus for the late-night raiding session . .

What I have found helps is to first treat the low with the correct amount of carbs and than grab a zero-carb snack (such as sugar-free Jello Gelatin (15cal 0 carb) and drink a lot of water. The main thing it does is that it keeps you busy and prevents you from grabbing something you shouldn't be having. After a few minutes, it's easier to go back to bed and all the snacks in the pantry can stop fearing for their lives. . .

[HelenM]

I am now so confident of the power of 10-15g of carbs for a hypo that if I have one at home (and I fancy a biscuit) then I'll treat with a cup of espresso with 1 teaspoon of sugar and a digestive biscuit. Takes a little longer than the glucose tabs but tastes a lot nicer. I find I sometimes enjoy a mild hypo as a good excuse to have a sweet espresso...
Yes, I agree, only its unsweetened coffee and a choc chip cookie. I have to admit that I'll do gardening or housework and know that I'll be able to sit down and 'be normal' with a coffee and a biscuit mid morning . The difference to pre- diabetic me is that it can only be one biscuit.
I also use glucose tabs or smarties when its important that BS rises quickly such as whilst out running or out in a public place.

[sofaraway]

I am too guilty of eating until I feel better. i will try to use glucose tablets now to treat a low. i was a bit put off because last time i had a hypo and i only had glucose tablets on me, i used them, but because it had been so long they had gone chewy. they worked fine but tasted awful.

[Jenn80Mc]

I try to use glucose tabs, but they make me gag. I hate them. I used to not mind them when I was younger, but now, not so much.