Hypoglycemia is one of the major risks of tight control programs.
Here are some hints on dealing with it.
-
Frequent blood sugar testing
- Eat (or cut your dose of insulin) before exercise
- Eat before driving (or check your sugar level)
- Test every hour when driving
- Let it run high in unusual circumstances
- Inform your friends and family and coworkers to feed your face if you are flaky
- Test one hour before, immediately before, and after exercise
- Drink fruit juice or Gatorade if thirsty during prolonged exercise
- Be aware of the possibility of delayed reactions: Eat extra protein before bedtime
if you did heavy exercise after noontime
- File a flight plan before solo exercise
- Don't use Regular or rapid-acting insulins (Humalog,
Novolog, or
Apidra)
at bedtime (unless you tell someone else who will be there at 3am to help if you crash)
- Don't "chase" high blood sugars with extra insulin. For example, if your blood sugar
bounces high after treating an insulin
reaction with sugar, and you give short-acting insulin because the number is now high, you're sure to crash into a low sugar problem again!
- Wear
MedicAlert
ID (call 1-800-ID-ALERT for more information)
- Leave your clunky old ID in the car (not in the bedroom dresser drawer!)
- Be sure that your family knows how to give
glucagon
shots (and make sure they know where it's stored!)
- Treat low numbers even if no symptoms
- Stash sugar:
- in your pockets
- every car you're likely to be in
- purse
- suitcase
- briefcase
- with your meter
- diaper bag
- bedside
- garage
- basement
- upstairs
- attic
- bathroom
- next to your exercise machine
- girlfriend's or wife's purses
- boyfriend's or hubby's pockets
- your desk or locker at work
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