In the early 1980’s I was teaching a class in basic Statistics at a community college. All students in the nursing program at the college were required to take the Statistics course. I was the only teacher there with a degree in Statistics so I taught most of the Statistics classes at that time. I taught many nurses through the years. In the summer of 198? I had about 25 students in a Statistics class, and 10 of them were nurses. It was an evening class. I left my office and started my walk to reach my class, and I had very blurred vision I was very dizzy. It seemed to hit me so suddenly. I reached for my container of sugar in my pocket. It was not there. I recognized one of my students in the hall, and asked him to go to the classroom and tell my students I would be late. I fumbled in my pocket for change to use in the candy machine. No change. I had no one dollar bills to use in the machine. I should have gone to my class and asked for help, but I was not thinking clearly. I went outside to my car. The parking lot was rather dark, and my vision was so bad that I had great difficulty finding my car. I finally found the car and unlocked the door. I knew I had a roll of quarters I used for tolls. I grabbed the roll and headed back to the candy machine. It was not in the same building as my class. My hands were shaking, and I dropped several coins. My vision was so bad that I had to feel for the coin slot. I managed to get several coins in the slot. I could not read the letters and numbers so I just pushed buttons, and pulled knobs, until something dropped. I felt something, but did not know what it was. I wanted candy, but I had a big cookie with some sticky stuff between layers. I gobbled it down, and headed to the other building to meet my class. I was about 15 minutes late. I explained what had happened. The nurses were all over me for not asking them to help. A couple of them were perhaps in their late 30’s, and had been nurses in a local hospital for several years. They were at my desk takiing my pulse, and asking me questions. The class started late, but I have always bounced back from these hypos very well. The class was about 2 1/2 hours long but it was ok that evening.
Two days later I had a terrible hypo during the night, and my wife could not get me to eat anything. I was convulsing and she called an ambulance. They were there promptly and gave me a much needed glucagon injection. I was hospitalized for two days. One of the nurses from my class waited on me there. Another nurse from my class kept dropping in even though she was on duty in another part of the hospital. That was a weekend, and I was back in class Monday evening. Everyone knew what had happened by the time I got to class. Those nurses took good care of me both in class and at the hospital. That was the only time in my many years of teaching that I had such help, or need of help, from my students.
I want to mention that this incident took place several years before I had my first meter for testing blood sugar. I did use Test-Tape for testing urine during those years. That was something I did at home, but on campus I relied primarily on my feelings. On the evening mentioned my hypo occurred very fast, and caught me totally unprepared. My diabetes did not really interfere very much with my job as a college teacher, but that evening with an awful hypo, teaching so long while recovering, and then spending two days in a hospital later that week is something I will never forget. That was the only time during my 71 years of Type 1 that I was hospitalized with a hypo.
Now I can test my blood sugar and use a CGM to keep this kind of hypo from ever happening again. That hypo and hospital stay was more that 30 years ago. Those nurses were so cool!!
Richard, I just want to thank you for your stories and say two things:
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your stories remind me that, as bad as sometimes I feel about this disease, others have had it much harder than I ever will;
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and no matter how bad it feels or gets, it’s going to be OK.
Thank you for sharing with us here. It means an enormous amount to me.
Thank you for posting this. What your post did for me: it reminded me that hypos can be serious. My daughter gets very aggravated at my unconcern over them. I feel shaky, sweaty and don’t test right away. When I do, my BG is very low, 38. I have gone lower, but it honestly hasn’t occurred to me that it could get worse, either that or I am in a state of “denial”. I will admit I have been driving and felt “funny” but waited until I got home to test and it was in the 30’s again. On the flip side, I was driving and it must have been in the 800’s because a few hours later I was in a coma in ER with a BG of 1036, then was diagnosed, a complete shock to me. I was always healthy and very active. Four years after diagnosis and I guess I still don’t accept all the ramifications of this damn disease.
Yesterday was my four year “diaversary”, and we forgot to “celebrate”. Maybe I should have baked a cake, oh wait, I can’t bolus for that, there isn’t enough insulin in the world to cover that for me.
Thank you again for sharing your story.
I think its nice to be connected, personally, with the medical community. I always figure that the odds are higher that someone will know me personally and know that I am diabetic. It makes me feel safe. Those sound like amazing times before BG machines! You are amazing!
I love your stories @Richard157, you are an inspiration
My history with diabetes doesn’t go back as far as yours does, @Richard157. In 1984 I started with NPH and Regular insulin and used a fingerstick system that involved comparing colors against chart on the container. It wasn’t very precise, took longer, and involved timing how long the blood stayed on the test pads before wiping. In other words, it required more of an interruption to your day so the nuisance of it often persuaded me to delay or put it off.
I often went by “how I felt,” not a dependable system. When I went low, which happened as often as a few times per day, I resisted asking for help. The reason was a combination of embarrassment, a fierce independence, and the lack of words that lows take from you when you need them most. I was very good a dealing with lows since I had lots of practice. Some hypos, however, really put me in risky situations, especially driving. I was lucky to have survived those times. things are so much better now.
I am an introspective type person and was not a natural in navigating social situations even when I wasn’t low. I’ve gained more facility with social settings as I aged but it’s definitely not my strong suit. I remember one time when I was in an emergency room bed due to unexplained chest pains. They had my hooked up with wires and tubes and I sensed my blood sugar was dropping.
I felt trapped and I knew I had glucose tabs out of reach in my daypack. I thought the nurse would come around for other reasons and I could enlist her help then. I must have waited 15-20 minutes and she didn’t come around. I could have simply shouted out but my sugar-deprived brain wasn’t working right. I did finally get up, disconnect some of my wires, and get to my glucose tablets. The doctor walked in as I was eating glucose tabs. He had some words with the nurse about this. Turns out my chest pains were not sinister and they let me go. I left in a hypo fog of anger. Hypos have many more dimensions than most people realize.
I think reaching out for help is a much better way to deal with these situations. It reminds me you really can depend on the kindness of strangers. You’ve been better at that than I have. Thanks for your story!
Follow up question for Richard -
I was chatting with my pharmacist a while back. Her nephew is type 1, so she was inquiring about my pump. I told her that a pump wasn’t always the best solution for me, but that it was currently making things much better.
My pharmacist had advised her nephew to remain on ‘low tech,’ old fashioned, diabetes management techniques, like manual injections and manual fingersticks. She felt that, while he was a younger, fresher diabetic, it was important for him to focus on ‘getting to know his body,’ and how it operated, independent from medical devices.
I have heard the same perspective from my friend with narcolepsy in regards to her daughter, whom she suspects might have inherited the condition. Instead of bringing her daughter straight in to the doc for diagnosis and meds, she says that it might be beneficial for her daughter understand the fundamental state of having narcolepsy, independent from how it operates with medication.
Do you think there were any advantageous to living in a time before blood sugar machines and all the rest? For instance, do you think that you honed any special diabetes superpowers like being able to ‘feel your body’ and differentiate between highs and lows without a machine?
@mohe0001, that is a good question, and difficult to answer. I did not know anything about the potential complications with diabetes until I was 30 year old. That was 26 years after my diagnosis. No previous doctors had mentioned side effects. My parents and I had the impression that everything would be good, as long as I avoided sugar. So there was really no stress involved except for the occasional seizures I had some nights while sleeping. I had frequent lows if I played hard, and I could feel them very well, but I do not know what my BG’s were on those occasions. I later realized that I was having very high BG most of the time back then. I could see that on my first glucometer in the mid 1980’s. I was so adjusted to the highs that it felt normal, highs were not noticed. One urine test that I had each morning was the only clue I had.
I agree with newly diagnosed individuals getting to know their bodies and using injections for a good amount of time before using a pump and/or a CGM. Many parents in parents support groups are saying the doctors are giving that advice, however, I did read a post today about a newly diagnosed three year old boy whose BG was so impossible to manage, with terrible highs and lows. He was placed on a CGM the second week after diagnosis. A pump is being mailed to them now. The CGM has been very helpful.