Ah ****, hypo unawareness......

[MinimedPumper07]

The last few weeks I have hardly even felt my lows. All i feel is a very slight sensation of not being able to think clearly. Today I was just sitting here on my computer i felt fine and just checked my bg and it was at 50. god ****** this isnt what i need right now. how do you deal with this?

[Funnygrl]

Sometimes hypo unawareness can be transitory. Having only had diabetes a year and a half, your risk for it is pretty low.

What meter are you using? I had a ton of false lows with the Paradigm Link.

[MinimedPumper07]

ya thats the one but i test twice to make sure and its around the same...

[MinimedPumper07]

so would even feeling ur brain shut down count as being aware?

[Funnygrl]

so would even feeling ur brain shut down count as being aware?
Yes.

I would lose the BD meter. Seriously, I've tested 34 on that then retested 105 or so on another meter.

[xMenace]

so would even feeling ur brain shut down count as being aware?


Absolutely. You must become aware of the smallest details.

[LowkonXC]

Have used 4 current meters at the same time for 2 weeks and found they all differed as much as 100 pts. For peace of mind, choose 1 and stick with it (Drs orders)

[lgvincent]

I know how you feel. While standing in line for a concert tonight, I decided to check my blood sugar and got a Lo. Having nothing on me, I went back to the car (without my meter, of course), drank some Coca-Cola, was certain I had too much and came back after a few minutes to check it and got a 50. Well, darn. Don't want to go back to the car again, so I just waited until the gate opened and got a soft drink inside. Guess I was lucky I didn't have a seizure or pass out tonight. Either one would have hurt, especially with all that concrete around.

[ant hill]

Originally Posted by MinimedPumper07
so would even feeling ur brain shut down count as being aware?

Absolutely. You must become aware of the smallest details.

Yes, Like myself as I find dosing off for no reason can be a low for me.
A couple of days ago I had a real low as I did not test to find out and woke up thinking it's the morning where as the morning is in fact the evening. So confused I was I even had my usual breakfast then the penny dropped and I was so stupid. :confused:

[octoberlily]

Been suffering with hypo unawareness for last 18 months, even more so since jan 07. No signs whatsoever only know with constant testing lowest been 1.3 without any knowledge.

Have been diabetic 35 years with no serious problems until this, about to start pumping so hoping this will help, tho pump nurse said it's 89% chance of my awareness coming back, so that's good odds.

Julie

[Olidus]

I was always told that the more hypos/lows you have the more un-aware of them you become.
Like anything your body adjusts.
Thankfully I still know what it feels like and hope to keep it this way for as long as possible.
Shakes, Weak, Light Headded, sometime sweats.

[Luvpugs]

Yes, Like myself as I find dosing off for no reason can be a low for me.
A couple of days ago I had a real low as I did not test to find out and woke up thinking it's the morning where as the morning is in fact the evening. So confused I was I even had my usual breakfast then the penny dropped and I was so stupid. :confused:
I have done that before. I actually woke up and thought it was time to get ready for work (when actually I was just low and didn't realize it at first). I got a shower and started to get dressed and realized it was 1:00a.m. Boy I felt so stupid.

[Cyborg]

I know how you feel. While standing in line for a concert tonight, I decided to check my blood sugar and got a Lo. Having nothing on me, I went back to the car (without my meter, of course), drank some Coca-Cola, was certain I had too much and came back after a few minutes to check it and got a 50. Well, darn. Don't want to go back to the car again, so I just waited until the gate opened and got a soft drink inside. Guess I was lucky I didn't have a seizure or pass out tonight. Either one would have hurt, especially with all that concrete around.

Yikes! Glad things worked out ok. I find the UltraSmart case is large enough to hold a roll of glucose tabs...

[JediSkipdogg]

Either your meter could be junk, as it seems that quite a few BD Link meters are nothing but junk (not all) in which case even multiple readings will be way off or....

It could be that your levels go up and down so often that your body doesn't know what a low is anymore. This is generally what causes hypo unawareness. The other cause is sitting at higher numbers so long. Then when you run 100 you feel low but you do nothing since a 100 is normal and then over time this causes your body to ignore a 50 as a low. It's all in the control.

[cheryl]

I've noticed for me my lows' kind of feel like high's, my mouth will get dry, I feel tired and crabby, and I am like ughhhhhh I better test, and I cover my meter so afraid to see this high, but omg....I see a 50 or a 60, that happens to me....sometimes....sometimes I can't tell the difference, I can feel a fast drop hypo....but a slow onset hypo, will feel like a high to me somewhat.....it just depends....but I feel something with all of them, I think only few times I was surprised to see a 60 when I felt totally fine.....but ummmm since Oct.....I haven't had any of those spells....I just run myself a tad higher for a week whenever I get those spells, usually works for me.....cause living in the 80-90's and becoming hypounaware for my crazy is life is more of a risk to me...then being 100-120, or even up to 140 i don't mind either, For now I have to think of driving, working and being all bymyself with kids.....anytime I think I am becoming even the slightest unaware, I make myself 160-180 for a week....I don't care, for me it is too dangerous to play with that.......

Cheryl

[VinceF]

I had hypo unawareness, My Dr told me it can be reversed. John Walsh wrote about reversing hypo unawareness in pumping insulin. Here's my understanding. When you go low you release a hormone that races your heart or makes you feel how you feel. Going low prepeatedly over a couple of days depletes this hormone. reversing unawareness means giving your body a chance to build up the hormone. That does not mean loose control but run a little higher and not go low. I worked for me. I still get it from tiime to time but nothing like it was before.

[BlueSky]

The cause of hypo-unawareness depends, to some extent, on the duration of the diabetes. With relative newcomers to the condition (less than 10years), hypo-unawareness is most likely caused by numerous low blood sugars. And keeping blood glucose up for a while fixes the problem. But if T1 diabetes duration is 20+years, there can be other factors involved.

A deterioration of the counter-regulatory system over time can cause hypo-unawareness. It can also be caused by autonomic neuropathy. Either way, stress hormones don't get produced when blood sugar drops. And persistently raising blood glucose levels is not going to fix it. This is certainly the case with me, after being T1 for 30 years. My blood glucose can drop into the 20s before I become aware of it. This is a major reason for avoiding carbs. It cuts the tops off the BG peaks and the bottoms off the BG valleys.

[JasonJayhawk]

I like how BlueSky wrote it.

I find that when I'm getting low, I lose interest in the activity I'm doing, no matter what it is (starting around 70 mg/dl when I'm still dropping). I also realized (after it was pointed out to me) that I yawn more frequently when I'm going low.