How low do you go?

[Cyborg]

How low does your blood glucose go before you notice you are starting to go hypoglycemic?

[seacomp]

How low does your blood glucose go before you notice you are starting to go hypoglycemic?
Depends. I'll always notice in the 50s, but now and again I wll think I'm low but be actually above 120 - just hungry, I guess.

[psilocybin]

lowest ive been is 1.8 mmol
yesterday i was 2.2 mmol

i notice them about 2.1 - 2.0 mmol when ive already been low that day

[Tiggy26]

about 2 months ago I wouldnt feel any different until I hit the 1.8mmol mark....
My sugars have been pretty high ever since so I tend to feel low if the drop below 7mmol now!!!
So bad..............

[psilocybin]

about 2 months ago I wouldnt feel any different until I hit the 1.8mmol mark....
My sugars have been pretty high ever since so I tend to feel low if the drop below 7mmol now!!!
So bad..............

not feeling anything till 1.8 is extremely dangerous

[valc3]

I really notice when I'm in the 50's. I've also notice that I "function" better in the 40's then the 60's. :hmmmm2:

[Doetsch]

Don't Start Feeling Numb Until The 50's.

[lelggren]

I tend to start feeling it the most at the 50's. It is not very often that I notice before I get to that point. But, I'm working on being more sensitive to my own body, and so maybe I can start learning to feel it sooner than that. It is just that when I get low, I just drop......It isn't usually a gradual thing.

[DeusXM]

Whilst I don't 'feel' hypo (ie. starving, shaky, sweaty) until below 3.5, I seem to be able to predict when I am going to have a hypo based on how I feel a good 20 mins or so before it happens.

Oddly enough, I've got to the stage where I can predict my BG to 1mmol/l accuracy just by how I feel. Although sometimes I can be a bit off when it goes over 10.

[amccrazgrl]

I voted <60 but it really depends.

Like last night I knew I was low by I got out of work at 6:10 worked out from 6:30- 7pm then got home by 7:30 b/c the drivethru took forever. I was irritated and had to change my insufion set and refill my insulin to my pump. I was on 1.0 left. When I checked I was 53.

It all depends on how fast you drop b/c I can feel low at 70 but it's usually 65or below.
The symptoms I usually get are just not feeling right. I can also have hot/cold sweats and shaky hands (not often anymore) and the increased heart rate.

[Tatermom]

Taylor has scared me to death by dropping too low for the meter to read <20 and she did not feel a thing, or at least she didn't recognize what she was feeling. Usually, she "feels low" when she gets to 60-70 though.

[Eri's mom]

With Eri it depends...usually lower than 70, BUT, she used to wander around lower than 40 w/o a difference...one time she was 22mg/dL and walking/talking like everything was totally normal....yet, if she had a seizure, she would usually be at 67...the endo's found that odd...b/c almost EVERY time she had a seizure, she'd start at 67 the first month or so...(she had seizures regularly for quite a while in the beginning, after the first 3 months of being dx'd).

[Cyborg]

I also usually feel or predict a hypo around 65-70 before it happens, just in time to intervene. The strange thing as that since my bg has been more tightly controls, less spikes and lows, I get the same type feeling when my bg goes above around 140. :hmmmm2:

[lgvincent]

It varies for me.

[Cinnabon]

My vision blurrs and darkens at 60... but I have been at 20 and it has hit me like a truck.

[christie]

mine too will vary but i do have hypo unawareness. sometimes i'll feel low at 70 and sometimes i will feel ok and check and i'm 40 or lower.

[Finn]

Depends......if I am watching a movie (or something that requires no real effort) then I won't notice until I get up and move around. However, when I am sleeping, my blood sugar will always wake me up- I have dreams that wake me up. The lowest I have ever been was 23 but on a regular day I start to feel funny around 60.

[am1977]

Depends for me too :dito:. Sometimes I'll feel it and sometimes I won't. I could be walking around at 48 somedays and feel nothing :thumpdown and other days feel shaky and lightheaded from being 48...I can never tell :dontknow:

[Cyborg]

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I imagine, with hypo-unawareness, you must do extra bg checking, especially before driving, etc. Hopefully they will have a decent CGMS out soon that is not a behemoth like the Guardian. These guys go up for FDA approval in 6 weeks: http://www.dexcom.com/sts.php.

Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and they will actually pass and get to market in a reasonable amount of time. If we can just keep our laws in place so the Healthcare industry will have to treat us that need these devices. People with hypo-unawareness are ideal candidates for these.

[stella117]

I can't answer that. For me it's a matter of the speed and time of drop. For example, I test after a late afternoon yoga class and I'm 63 and I feel fine. I wake up at 2 am feeling a bit flushed and I test and I'm 73. But I was 160 when I went to bed vs. 110 before yoga class so it's the amount and speed of the drop I feel more than the lowness (OK I know that's not a word) of my glucose.

[robinseggs]

It's scary but my daughter (age 3) will have no symptoms at all (at least to me). She can be running around happy/playing and my 6th sense will tell me to check her. I have caught her as low as 40 and she acted fine. But one thing i have definatley noticed is that the older she gets, the more she reacts to the numbers. For example when she was 1 yrs old, a bg of 50 would not have phased her....was even 29 once and didn't act differently. But now at age 3 we can always tell if she is below 60.

[Cyborg]

I actually went down to 55 today and did not have a clue. First time this has happened. I always feel lows approaching around 70. At least I got to eat a cookie! :)

[Erin]

I put < 50 but really, it varies. Sometimes I can feel like I'm going to be low at 100 (obviously I don't treat it then, I wait until I actually go low) and then other times all the sudden I'm 30 and don't know how I got that low. I think it changes based on how fast I dropped and also why i went low (exercise and insulin lows *feel* a little different)

[jimmy]

Yeah 3.0 and under I'm in trouble, out comes the jelly beans.:tee:

[notme]

Usually I am from 45-48 before I notice. It used to be much higher before I started on the pump.

[Cyborg]

And I thought the pump was supposed to help with hypo-unawareness. :confused:

[notme]

I think what happens with the pump cyborg, or at least me, is that you tend to get tighter control on the pump. In my case my numbers before the pump were from the 150's to 250's and feeling low when in the 60's to 70's. On the pump I average in the 80's to 140's so my lows are now felt in the 40's to 50's. I have been told to let my numbers go up a bit for about a week if I want my lows to be felt in the 60's. Am I making sense?? I am low. hahahaha.

[Cyborg]

That does make sense. The lower I average, the smaller the difference between my averages and a low, so less noticable than on MDI where my averages were higher.

But why does the Pumping Insulin book say that hypo-unawareness is one of the things the pump can help with? Guess it's time to continue reading. :)

[Erin]

I think it's because, as Nancy said, you have the option of just running a bit higher for a week or so, to make you able to feel the lows again. MDI does not usually offer that kind of flexibility.

[Pitzi]

Sometimes if I drop below 2.5, i start feeling funny. Othertimes I feel ok at 1.8

[jen_slc]

It varies for me also. Nighttime hypos give me the worst/most intense symptoms whenever I'm <70 - in those situations 65 and 35 feel the same. During the day though I usually start to feel it coming on <80. It all depends on the size of the bg drop too...the bigger the drop, the more I feel it, so many times I will feel low at 120 only because I've just come down from 250+.

[stella117]

Whilst I don't 'feel' hypo (ie. starving, shaky, sweaty) until below 3.5, I seem to be able to predict when I am going to have a hypo based on how I feel a good 20 mins or so before it happens.

Oddly enough, I've got to the stage where I can predict my BG to 1mmol/l accuracy just by how I feel. Although sometimes I can be a bit off when it goes over 10.
I would love to be able to gauge my BG like that. For me, testing is like playing roulette--what number is going to come up now?!!!

How long did it take to develop that sensitivity?

[stella117]

I think it's because, as Nancy said, you have the option of just running a bit higher for a week or so, to make you able to feel the lows again. MDI does not usually offer that kind of flexibility.
Sure it does--just under bolus for a couple of meals and you'll run higher.

[gettingby]

I am part of the majority here. I can feel the symptoms at <60 or I can be at 36 (like I was at work one day) and still be carrying on a conversation like nothing is wrong. When I start to feel hypo unawareness, I will just loosen control for a few days and then it comes back.
Yeah, I'm strange. My old CDE said that I have been the complete opposite of every rule he learned in school. LOL.

[Erin]

Sure it does--just under bolus for a couple of meals and you'll run higher.

I meant run safely and consistently just a *little* bit higher. If i under-bolus for a couple of meals I'll run higher between that meal and the next, but it'll be a roller coaster. *dunno* it was just a theory.

[Cyborg]

Probably safer to just check every couple hours. :listen:

[Erin]

Probably safer to just check every couple hours. :listen:

You mean and stay hypo-unaware? I don't think staying hypo-unaware is ever advisable. There are too many bad things that can happen if you can't tell when you are low without testing. But yeah, checking every couple of hours is good for you... that way you fix the highs and the lows quickly.

[rudi]

I can be very low, in the 30's before it dawns on me that I'm dropping. I can also feel very low but test out over 100 or more. It's weird. I had a bad low this evening, took a little to much Humulog. I will stay mellowed out for the rest of the night.

[Cyborg]

Apparently, hypo-unawareness is caused by excessive number of lows. If you have a low and then another within 24 hours you can be less aware of the 2nd one due to a lack of hormones present in the body from the first low.

Erin is correct, the way to get back some of this hypo-awareness is to stop the lows. If this means raising your bg levels to the point where so you can avoid low conditions for awhile, it will help.

Me personally, I think I did have a low the night before since I woke up sweaty in the morning. So me not being aware of my 55 bg the next day, based on the above information taken from the Pumping Insulin book, makes sense.