Do you remember when you started to loose your sensitivity to low blood sugars?
Recently I've noticed I'm feeling my lows less and less. Wondering what you all felt, noticed, experienced when you started to loose your sensitivity to lows.
Alisha
Looking back I am definitely less sensitive to my lows than I was before. When I was first diagnosed I started getting the shakes at 65! The more I went low, the more I have gotten used to it. I’ve been in the forties so much by now that I don’t feel too bad in that range compared to how I used to. A year ago when I was in the forties I would sweat, shake and have terrible headaches. Now when I’m low I just feel this general unpleasant feeling like all the energy is being sucked out of my body. I have to be in tune with my body to notice I am feeling off, unless I’m in the thirties when the feeling I get is almost unbearable, so I know most of the time I am low. I did actually take a college biology exam once and did pretty well on it. Afterwards I checked my blood sugars and I was at 34! I know it’s pretty bad that I’ve gotten so used to my lows. There’s only been a few times though where I didn’t catch my hypoglycemia fast enough and I ended up in the twenties. Those times were pretty darn scary!
I’ve not lost this as yet, but high’s those I don’t feel
I don’t remember ever having much hypo awareness. Hypos come on very quickly, the first sign I get is in my vision, I will get dark anomalies in my vision. Soon after that I break out in a sweat and start the shakes, if this happens I’ve waited too long. I take 3 glucose tabs as soon as I notice the visual anomalies, then I test. If I’m still conscious I test again in 30 minutes to see it BG is rising. This doesn’t happen very often, during the last year it only happened maybe 4 times and I only blacked out once.
Hi! I’ve had T1 since I was 3…nearly 30 years! I have a 2 year old daughter and twin 5 month old sons! So, my control over the last 3 years has been better than ever in my life. Right now, I am SO grateful for my cgms because I rarely feel lows. Taking care of 3 very young children all day, this really freaks me out and even with the cgms, I find myself testing 10-15 times per day. A few times while my cgms was “warming up” and not callibrated yet, I’ve had no clue that I was in the 30s or 40s. Auughhh. And with all that said, my control since my twins were born has been okay but not amazing, so I do not believe that having lots of lows is to blame for my hypo unawareness. I’m thinking it’s just related to having D for 30 years. Definitely frustrating and scary. I never appreciated the symptoms of lows until they were gone!
I started losing my regular low symptoms about 5 years ago although I did gain a couple new symptoms for the occasional low.
Reasons for unawareness that I’ve read, so far:
- Uncontrolled and/or consistant lows
- Intensive control of Diabetes
- Many years with Diabetes
- Use of Human Insulin
I don’t feel my regular symptoms for the occasional high anymore either. Perhaps it’s just because I’ve had Diabetes for so long also.
My sugars have been in a Good range between 75-80 percent of the time, for a fair amount of years.
Congrats on the birth of your Daughter and your twin Boys Pamela. :) Good job on keeping your testing up.Thanks so much, Terrie! 
How many years ago were you diagnosed?
Good to know it can be related to how many years one has had it. I keep reading that one can get rid of hypo unawareness by raising blood sugar levels but as I said, mine are not super duper low and quite frankly, with 3 young children, I don’t want to have higher than suggested blood sugar levels…I need to be around for many, many years for my kiddos!
I’ve had Diabetes for 48.5 years. I was also dxd. at age 3 and my Son and Daughter are doing Good(touch wood) in their 20’s.
Yes, I’ve heard about doing the higher sugars for a length of time also to maybe get the old symptoms back. I definitely have a problem with that since it was drilled into my brain when I was little, that high blood sugars are BAD and exactly what they cause. I just test often and usually know what will happen, if I do something out of the norm so I usually can prepare for it.
I did have some unfavourable times when I was raising our Kids and their million Friends though. But I love them Dearly and those times I remember mostly with fondness and now I can tease the Kids about things they did back then(and them me). Alot of laughs! 
Thankfully our Kids live not far from us.
I’m sure that you will do Fine my Dear for you and your Family. Love them and enjoy them everyday. They grow up way too fast.
If you have lots of lows or you have tight control, your body aclimatises to this threshold. You dont want to put yourself in a dangerous situation but if you run your sugars high for 1-2 weeks, your signs should come back. When I say high I mean about 7-9mmols
I had been thinking about this recently…and I don’t ever remember having a strong physical reaction to lows even when I was more newly diagnosed (back in elementary school)…as I got older and take care of myself more…I would rely on more mental warnings (getting upset over stupid things…like not being able to get a pen cap back on the pen or something) or nowadays I test when I find myself reading something at work over and over and not being able to understand…
If you are worried about detecting lows you might want to start noting if you have non physical type of signs and use that as a guide to test yourself …because sometimes it’s something else (stress/being tired)
Lost my awareness just a few years in. All of a sudden one day, driving home went unconcious and woke up in my rolled car. I’ve had problems ever since (34 yrs). I’ve heard you can re acclimate by raising or at least not allowing extreme lows for awhile but I’ve never been able to notice any differences. It’s not that I can’t completely notice but more that the experiences change and are more subtle. I’m looking into a CGM, hopefully it will help.
Pretty much how it happened to me too. The wreck I mean. I will fall so fast now that I can’t get below 100 w/o it falling so fast I have none of the feeling as to what’s happening. That happened to me 10 years ago and now it’s just check it constantly! SOOOOOO THANKFUL FOR THE METER!!! (it will be 37 years for me in August)
I heard that with if one has had D for many years, one can begin to develop autonomic neuropathy which may affect your sensitivity to the lows. i know that it is true for me. Therefore, I have to be careful. I have polyneuropathies (in multiple places), but I have been diabetic for over 40 years. i would check with your dr.
Take care!
It seems like after years of having even the occasional highs and lows, the T1 body gets used to it, sort of. Nothing wrong with you! I remember it happening during my last year of college and the first “real world” year. I would be commuting and suddenly have vision issues, test at low 50’s and 40s mg/dl. I used to feel when I was dropping under 85! So I began to lose sensitivity at 15 years of T1.
I can’t imagine how anxiety provoking it must be to be a parent of a Type 1 diabetic. I am so thankful my children are healthy (knock on wood). My heart goes out to you!
After 27 years I feel none of the classic symtoms but get a numbness in my mouth, or vision problems or my very favorite is I get anxious of which I have to recongize that I’m anxious, then test to make sure that’s the problem. It wasnt just over one day it gradually came over the years. Not knowing has made me test more and more keeping me more on top of the diabetes though.
I’m gonna turn 25 in august. Over the past year and a half or so I’ve started to notice that I’m unaware of my lows. Last night I woke up and didn’t think I would make it down the stairs to get something to eat because I was so low. I didn’t bother to check but I’m sure it would have been scary…
I’m T1 42 years now, and just this morning, my son caught me at a reading of 32!!! I felt ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I’m positive that the longer you have diabetes the harder it is to recognize. I suffer with so many lows–I’m totally disgusted because I DO pay attention and try so very much to regulate my bs’s. It just seems so impossible. But, I just keep on trying. Good luck to everyone regulating those blood sugar readings!!!
I feel lows, still at 43 years type one, but not the significant shakes and sweats unless I am in the low 30's. I definitely get the emotional side effects of hypos :I get talkative, loopy, silly(delusions of grandeur) in the 60's, high 50's; teary and sad in low 50's to 40's( watching sick people on "House": makes me cry; Really feel the 30"s with the aforementioned physical symptoms.
I find that since I am on the pump and (occasionally) the CGM, I can linger in ther 60's for an hour or so if their is no active IOB and I am not very active, Like on the internet. I am afraid I may have had a silly rant on two on the D.O.C. that was probably hypo-induced .and I did not treat. ( warning, to my Tufriends,LOL)
Friends and family sometimes recognize my mood and behavor changes before I do. I once had a boyfriend who would just bring me a cup of OJ or candy, saying only "Drink/Eat", because he could sense that I was low.. My brother and sister can tell and remind me to treat, when they see me rant on and on; or say things totally out of character....
The blood sugar challenge remains a challenge.. but we keep on truckin'!!!
God Bless,
Brunetta
I have found over the past 28 years that my symptoms have changed. Went from feeling "shaky" and dizzy as a child to feeling tired or hungry. I never get the shakes any more. I also try to prevent lows by testing much more often. Sometimes I can feel them other times its like you you slip into a low and I end up at 2.5mmol and never felt it. Most of the time I can though - thank goodness.