I was picking my Mom up from the airport the other night and totally scared myself. I tested before leaving and was in 86. I usually test before driving, but I'd been 86 20-25 min before leaving, so I didn't bother. I got to the airport 10 min later and testing while pulling in ... I was 33 and on the road in the rain at night. So, I must have dropped from around 86 to 33 (w/ the margin of error for my meter of course) in about 30-35 min. I don't remember any sudden drops like this when I was in the CGM, but it was a while ago. Does anyone else drop this fast? How soon do you retest if you're concerned about your number? For example, I never test 15 minutes after being low like all the books say b/c I assume I came up after eating!
Riley dropped 10ish in 5 min. I am paranoid about lows still. My first low I was not to sure about in treating I thought I read if its at a meal time just eat she was at 63 and I gave her her lunch and tested 5 min later and she was at 53 so I made her stop eating and gave her juice. Waited 15 and it did bring her back up into the 80's so she got to finish her lunch.
I haven't seen my son go from normal to hypo that fast, (mostly because I probably wouldn't have a reason to check again so son) but he can drop 100 pts within an hour after a correction. (so from 250 to 150). Since you are a mom of a young child and anything like me, you were probably running (literally) around your house doing last minute tidying up before company arrives. :) So that is a good bit of exercise, followed by a short drive, but in the rain, which probably had your brain (glucose sucker!) doing a little more driving thinking than normal. So maybe those are reasons you dropped out of normal range?
It depends on the hypo number if or when we retest my son. If he is just a little hypo like 70 (he's 4 so his cut-off is 80) then I just treat and don't retest.
If he's below that I usually try to retest in 20 min. If I retest at 15, he isn't always responded (even usuing high GI foods) but just 5 min later, you can see he is back on the mend. So I just wait a little longer and then reduce our chances of over treating the low.
1.Throughout the fall, my running was going very well, my numbers maybe dropped a little while I ran, but not much. On December 9th, that all changed. 12/9 was the first day I ran with the temperature below freezing (32 F) in about 7 months.
My sugar on that day dropped from 140 to 59 in 1 mile of running. 7 1/2 minutes.
My all time record for BS drop has come from this situation. On December 22, 2009, the temperature was 7 with wind chill well below zero. Me and my pride had to try to run. Didn't work so well, first mile, 7 1/2 minutes I dropped from 285 -----> 105. I got a ride home that day.
The silly thing is, I have found, if I just wait, sit there, and don't eat anything, but don't run, my sugar will spike right up again. I can run another mile, repeat situation. I don't like this.
This situation has not improved, so I have taken to riding my road bike on a stand in my basement everyday, where my blood sugars are more stable.
2. I once went for a bike ride, starting sugar 415. I bolused some correction for it and went. 5 miles, 15 minutes later -----> 215. (I was back home).
[quote user="Run D-Link"]
1.Throughout the fall, my running was going very well, my numbers maybe dropped a little while I ran, but not much. On December 9th, that all changed. 12/9 was the first day I ran with the temperature below freezing (32 F) in about 7 months.
My sugar on that day dropped from 140 to 59 in 1 mile of running. 7 1/2 minutes.
My all time record for BS drop has come from this situation. On December 22, 2009, the temperature was 7 with wind chill well below zero. Me and my pride had to try to run. Didn't work so well, first mile, 7 1/2 minutes I dropped from 285 -----> 105. I got a ride home that day.
The silly thing is, I have found, if I just wait, sit there, and don't eat anything, but don't run, my sugar will spike right up again. I can run another mile, repeat situation. I don't like this.
This situation has not improved, so I have taken to riding my road bike on a stand in my basement everyday, where my blood sugars are more stable.
2. I once went for a bike ride, starting sugar 415. I bolused some correction for it and went. 5 miles, 15 minutes later -----> 215. (I was back home).
[/quote]
I usually run when I'm high if I feel it is not an site clog, I'll bolus twice the correction amount and jump on the treadmill. Example: I was 380 the other day (felt horrible but no ketones) so I gave double the corrective amount and ran for about a half hour...in that time I dropped to 110. I attribute the exercise making me more sensitive to the insulin for dropping me so quickly.
that's happened to me before too, sarah. over the summer i was in physical therapy. i checked before i went and it was 100-something. about 10 minutes into the work out i had to stop because i felt so dizzy all of a sudden. i was in the 50s! i'm not quite sure what had triggered such a sudden drop because i hadn't taken any insulin in a few hours. what's even crazier is that the PT place is in the same parking lot as my work, so it's a 2 minute walk. it was literally only about 15-20 minutes i dropped that fast.
diabetes never ceases to surprise :o)
There are so many factors that can cause you BG to drop rapidly. One which many forget about is background insulin. If you make a few adjustment in a row, the BG can drop greater than the bg drop ratio you may have planned on.
Also, if you are on an insulin for your basal that rises and falls, the timing of the drop can be dramatic.
The other factor is what you eat. Both the food and the combinations of food.
You might take a look at the basal and BGs during that time of day.
Another possibility is that there was something on your finger that made the meter read 86 when it was actually lower.
I have had situations where I have gone from 130 to 40 in 10 minutes or less. It's a pain and figuring out what to eat to catch was also a challenge.
My son has gone from 180 to 49 in 30 minutes. No food or insulin for two plus hours - he just played really hard at soccer practise.