I Get Low, Low Blood Sugar That Is!

Recently I’ve had numerous non-diabetic people ask me, “what does low blood sugar feel like?”  “How do you know your sugar is low,” “How long does it last,” etc.  There may be others of you out there that are curious, so I’ll give you my two cents.

If you webmd hypoglycemia, which is the clinical term for low blood sugar they say that the symptoms are: shakiness, hunger, lightheadedness, and sweating.  Let me tell you, there is a lot more to it than these 4 symptoms. 

Front side of my medicalet

 Now, since I’ve been diagnosed I have been incredibly blessed to never have lost consciousness due to low blood sugar, though I’m sure I’ve been very close.  Passing out, coma and death by hypoglycemia are possible and that is why it is very important to stay on top of blood sugar readings and ALWAYS carry a glucagon (emergency kit), glucose tabs and snack.  It is equally important for those of us with diabetes (type 1 or 2) to wear a medicalert bracelet stating type of diabetes, name and medication.  I have always worn one and the few times I’ve had to take it off, I’ve panicked.  The idea of being somewhere and something happening and no one knowing why is scary!  

For me, the most common symptoms are shaking, cold sweats, very rapid heartbeat, heat that radiates so strongly from the inside of my body that I feel like I’m in a volcano and weakness.  When I say weakness, what I mean is that my limbs feel heavy, unsteady and as if I cannot control my muscles like I should be able to.  Typically the heat, cold sweats and strong shakes happen mostly at night.  They will wake me up from a solid sleep and I can usually guess that my sugar will be under 55mg/dl.  When the night time lows hit, I won’t say that I panic but I’m definitely more concerned.  The night time lows tend to be lower than day lows since it takes me longer to wake up and determine what’s going on. 

One of my worst episodes

An example of a bad night low was about 3 years ago.  My husband and I had traveled to visit a soldier from his unit that lives in PA.  Riding in the car and having my typical eating and exercising habits off had caused some turbulence in the blood sugar department as traveling normally does with me.  Before bed I set my meter up on the bed stand as I do every night, along with my cell phone which I use on a regular basis as a flashlight to check at night so I don’t disturb my husband’s sleep.  I was at a normal level when going to bed, but around 2am I woke in a confused, panicked state.  I was shaking so badly that I dropped my glucometer on the floor, I couldn’t find my cellphone on the bed stand in the dark, I didn’t remember where I was and by the time I finally got blood in the strip it registered as “LOW,” oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, serious panic mode.  I tried one more time, “35,” now I am shaking, confused, freaking out, sweating like a pig but cold at the same time and I couldn’t remember my husband’s name!  I stumbled around in the dark bedroom until I kicked the bag I’d packed with food.  I quickly began stuffing my face with muffins that I had made for our trip, almost choking before the noise woke my husband.  I must have looked like death because he even looked scared.  I was purely in survival mode.  

Now I’m crying, I’m scared, I still don’t know his name, I cannot even remember the name of my hometown…I think it starts with an A.  Oh who cares, I need another 37,000 muffins.  This shaking won’t stop, dear Lord I’m hot, I’m cold, I need to change my clothes because I’m soaked, God please don’t let me pass out, I keep dropping muffin everywhere, turn off this stupid insulin pump, my fingers won’t work, how do I turn this thing off?  I’m so confused.  I cannot move from my muffin eating spot on the floor, my legs don’t work, I can’t feel my arms, how are they getting the food to my mouth?  I don’t know, I don’t care.  Where’s the milk?  Do we have milk?  Oh God please make this stop.  These are the thoughts going through my brain meanwhile you’d never know it because my body is in a complete daze.

After about 30-35 minutes with this episode the shaking was gone, the sweating had stopped and now just the cold remains and I am so incredibly tired.  My body usually needs time to recover from these.  It literally wipes out all the energy I have.

Besides this episode, I’ve had dozens of others.  After 8 years of being together, my husband is pretty good at noticing the symptoms like aggravation before I do.  I have a tendency to get pretty feisty when I’m low.  My hubby will say, “You need to go check, you’re grouchy and I bet you’re low.”  Usually he’s right.  He’s also pretty good at noticing any glassy look to my eyes or if I am looking a little dazed and making me test.  Low blood sugar sometimes will sneak up on me and I won’t realize it is happening until I hit 50mg/dl.  That is a little frightening.  There have been times that he and my mom have had to feed me mashed up bananas or stick a juice box in my mouth, typically I could do these things myself even with a low but I tend to get emotional with my bad lows and I’ll be crying, inconsolably crying at that.

Do you guys see why cops may not realize the difference between a drunk and a diabetic?  We’re emotional, we may slur speech, can’t control our limbs like normal, we’re confused, we’re a mess.  So to all my cop friends out there take note to check for diabetes in folks!

Now I’ve covered what it feels like/symptoms, and obviously how I know is by how I feel and then testing.  How long do most episodes last?  Eh, depends on the reading but 15-20 minutes and I’m typically back to normal unless it was a significant drop (below 55mg/dl).  

What I always carry. Juice, tabs & glucagon.

If you need to help someone having a hypoglycemic episode and they are still conscious, a juice box works well, glucose tabs, bananas, most diabetics are taught anything with 15 grams of carbohydrates.  For me every 1 gram of carbohydrate will raise my blood sugar roughly 5mg/dl.  Therefore, if my sugar is 60mg/dl and I eat one glucose tab at 4 grams of carbohydrate my blood sugar should rise to 80mg/dl.  The hard thing is to keep from over doing it when correcting for a low.  They are scary and the symptoms typically last longer than the actual low itself.  As a diabetic when we over correct with food for a low blood sugar we rebound and will end up with a very high blood sugar…it’s a vicious cycle!

I suppose since I’ve covered low's, I’ll cover high’s in the near future.  Hyperglycemia is another lovely beast that accompanies this disease and reminds me that numbers rule my life.  

The long and short of this post, if you find me drinking a juicy juice box, help a girl out ;-)

~D