Do you carry Glucagon with you on a daily basis?
- Yes
- No
0 voters
No, but I do keep it in my kit at home for emergencies. Nowadays I am good enough at sensing when my BG’s are low that I can just treat them myself but the danger for me has always been when I’m asleep. When I was a kid I carried it everywhere and I needed it frequently. I do still take it with me when I am traveling though since that is the most likely time for my BG’s to be erratic.
I keep soft drinks that contain sugar in the door of my car… I also carry a gel pack that contains 15 grams of fast acting carbs. The gel packs can also be carried in a pocket since they are small and flat. No glucagon.
I don’t carry glucagon with me wherever I go, since I don’t think there’s any chance someone else could use it to help me. I live alone and there’s no one with me regularly who might take on that role.
I do keep two glucagon kits at home for me to use if I need them. I’ve been able to restore my hypo awareness so my body gives me natural symptoms. I use a CGM and also have a hypo-alert dog. I think I’ve addressed severe hypo prevention well enough.
Now that I am consuming fewer than 30 grams of carbohydrates per day, my insulin usage has gone down. I often take less than 25 units per day. This means that I don’t run high insulin on board numbers and my risk of a severe hypo is very small.
I will carry glucagon with me when they come out with a pen that can dose small quantities – mini-glucs.
I carry Skittles which is all I normally need when my bg’s drop. When we hike, my wife has Glucagon with her for that “one in a million chance it’s needed”. When we travel by plane we have it on hand. I don’t carry batteries, sets, insulin, etc, when I’m in town. I MIGHT take a pen if I’m going out of town. I just don’t worry about all that paraphernalia that much. I know what is most necessary and what is optional.
No, not on a daily basis. But when I’m traveling overseas I carry one and I make sure my wife is carrying the other. Sort of an abundance of caution.
I attended an event for a glucagon product, and their research showed that less than 20% of people who based on the ADA and clinicians perspective should own a glucagon kit.
It was a fascinating conversation and other attendees shared why they do not own one; the main reason was price, followed by what @Terry4 said, in case of an emergency people won’t know how to use it.
The mini doses of glucagon look VERY promising; I’m looking forward to that.
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As a child, glucagon was always in the fridge, and was used periodically for wicked nighttime lows. This was 50+ years ago, long before home glucose blood tests, and decades prior to anyone thinking of CGM.
Nowadays, like @Terry4, I also live alone, and I’m on an ultra-low carb diet and can rely on CGM and alarms. I have Dex4 tabs everywhere - bedside, in the car, throughout my house.
I’m far safer now than at any time in the past.
Any Glucotab is, IMO, too expensive. Try Skittles–1 carb each and purchased in the large bags at Walmart, etc, are SO CHEAP.
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I don’t carry it daily for reasons others have stated… I wouldn’t be able to use it on myself if I was low, and I don’t have any spouse or significant other who might know how to use it. Like @Terry4, I do have two kits at home in case I ever wanted to mini-dose it. I always intend o try this when I have a prolonged low (I have some lows that can last for hours), but in the moment I always forget. I have trained a few friends and I do take it with me when travelling, even when travelling alone.
I’ve always had pretty bad hypo unawareness and, surprisingly, having a CGM has not changed that. I get early warning if the CGM is working and accurate, but otherwise I can test and not believe a result of 2.3 mmol/L because I feel fine. As a kid, before MDI and pumps and CGMs, this led to numerous severe lows, but my parents always ent for the squirting-glucose-get-in-cheek over the glucagon kit. At the time, the school refused to administer it as well.
When they come out with an autoinjector, I’ll carry that around on a daily basis. Ditto with the mini-dose pens when they become available.
I would eat skittles uncontrollably if they were on my nightstand Dave.
As far as car, we have extremes in temperature where I live, so for 6 months of the year the skittles would be -25C mini-hockey pucks, and much of the rest of year would melt in unbearable heat.
Thanks, but I’ll stick to the Dex4 (not really expensive here)
I’ve never had a glucagon kit, let alone carry one with me on a daily basis. I’m not very hypo aware, either. That may be at least partially due to being on three medications all known for masking symptoms. At this stage I typically don’t notice even a faint symptom that I might be low until I’m down in the low 40s mg/dl or into the 30s. A couple of times I’ve had lows of 31, and though I wouldn’t have been able to do complex mathematical computations at that level, at least I was competent enough to handle finding something with sugar to treat.
Part of the reason I think I feel so little concern about lows is that I don’t think my BG drops as quickly as some people experience it. If, for example, I find myself really high and inject enough insulin for a correction plus for the next meal, then wait before eating, I may find it takes over an hour or 90 minutes for my BG to drop 80-100 points. And I don’t worry much about going low in the night. I tend to wake up every couple of hours anyway and can check my BG easily now that I have a CGM. And I limit my eating and insulin dose before bed to amounts that are unlikely to give me troubles sooner than in two hours if I’ve missed my dose by a bit.
I don’t low-carb, either. In fact now that I’m desperately trying to gain weight from my low of 101 pounds, I sometimes eat as much as 180 grams carb a day.
No but i travel with it.
ah. I never eat them for “fun”. And they are the only flavor that I can stand: Wild Berry.
No, I don’t carry it with me. I went almost 25 years without it. My parents always had it because back than it was life saving a few times. Better safe than sorry was their motto. And that would save an emergency room trip.
But after I moved out, it really fell off my radar. I did have it when I was having my children and my husband knew how to use it, but after I felt it wasn’t necessary. I did finally get another one last year due to a clinical trial and it was suggested to have one. It will probably just sit there because with a CGM, it is probably not necessary.
I also use glucose tablets because I am not strong willed enough to not eat candy. So I use Glucolift tablets in great flavors, cherry, orange cream and wild berry.
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I have other items that I carry with me. My husband only uses glucagon when I’m not responding to him. I get extremely the few times we’ve used it, so that’s something I DON"T like nor want to use.
You get extremely WHAT? High? nauseous?
don’t carry soda in the car-I had a mini can in my glove compartment, which exploded during the summer-what a mess, and 18 months later, the compartment door still sticks! I do have Mike and Ikes in the car for emergencies, and always have carbs in my purse, but I do carry glucagon as well.
No. I carry glucose tablets with me at all times, have glucose tablets in the car and by my bed.
I once had to remove the solidified remnants of a can of Hawaiian Punch from behind the seat of my car. Being such a thin aluminum can, a hole had worn through it by rubbing against the sharp metal frame of the seat. Not knowing of the leak, it dried over the course of time and I discovered it long after it had dried. It isn’t easy removing 8 oz of solidified Hawaiian Punch, let me tell you. That was an object lesson I took to heart–no more using liquid carbs for emergency rations.
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