Phantom hypos

[Tim]

@don172 says:

This is a new one on me. The psychosomatic hypo. After having 4 night-time hypos in the past 5 nights, despite my best efforts, I headed to bed last night having consumed two thick slices of toast and jam to keep me topped up during the night. Woke at 3am with tell-tale tummy-rumbling and my imagination put 2 and 2 together and made 5. Had to wake my long-suffering wife yet again and tell her I was having yet another hypo. However, when I’d made my way down to the kitchen to test my blood and cram glucose into my mouth, I discovered a perfectly stable 7.7. A small glass of juice to see me through the rest of the night and I headed back upstairs to apologise. No 24-hour florists available here, unfortunately….. anybody else’s mind played tricks on them like this?

[Tim]

Yep – I’ve sometimes felt this too. I’ve had a cluster of hypos and I’ll be out doing something where I might expect to go low (gentle exercise or something similar) and I’ll feel myself going low. I then check my BG and everything is fine.

Very curious – I wonder if it’s our diabetic-spider-senses that warn us when we might be going low or high that are misreporting?

[Annette A]

I occasionally have hypo signs with a normal blood sugar. but if I dont react to the signs, within half an hour, I go truly hypo. It doesnt always happen, but I do sometimes get pre-hypo signs, I think. (but they feel like true hypos, so I have to test to see whether to act immediately with glucose, or just ensure I eat something (biscuit etc very soon.)
But I also, just last week, had a case where I was sure I was hypo. Did a test, read 4.4. Thought – not hypo, maybe going hypo, about to eat meal anyway. Then (cos was meal time, and had to do bolus, so needed meter reading there and then) had to test again within about 2 minutes. Reading – 3.7. Same meter. Different finger (same hand). WTF?

[Tim]

@Annette – I think your last point about meter accuracy can be forked off into a new topic of its own. So here it is:
http://www.shootuporputup.co.uk/groups/shoot-up//forum/topic/meter-accuracy/

[Anonymous]

I definitely have these, sometimes incurred by the learned association between hypos and glucose tablets after feeling a little low but having to get home before having access to proper food. (I’m glad I have found pocket sized carbs as well as glucose now! Hooray for mini-flapjacks!)

[Cecile]

My first hypo-harbinger is usually yawning – something one does regardless of glycaemic status, so if my jaw starts dropping, I’ll scurry off to check if it’s ghost or gum-drop time

[Tim]

In a similar way I won’t feel hypoglycaemic at all, I’ll then randomly test, discover I’m 3.5 and *then* start feeling hypo. Maybe testing just make me more aware of the symptoms I already had?

[lizz]

I get this, and it usually, as above, means I am dropping and WILL be hypo. Interesting isn’t it!

[Tim]

@lizz – it is!

[Author]

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