Does your brain go...ppphhhhttttt! when you go low? ....mine does

I recently had a drumming session I went to and had a very low glucose level as I arrived(my CGMS only says low at below 40, so I was somewhere near there)
Not that I am a great drummer(newbie of a few months) but I couldn’t find a beat for 15 minutes or so. A roll of starburst(yep, that much) and 15 or 20 minutes,and I finally got to where I could keep up.

They say that Higher learning or knowledge goes first(stops working well) when you go low…drumming must qualify …

Anyone else have interesting stories or episodes of just not being able to get it…
math, intelligent conversation, or the like… when people ask you the same question 3 or 4 times and you just can’t get to the right answer?

Keep going…Peace, Bob

Yeah, the only downside is when others start asking you if you are low …it’s usually a pretty good indicator of a brain raspberry …pppphhhhhhhtttttttt…

I tell ya…the hardest has got to be going low while teaching a class or helping a student with a math problem, and the problem (gr. 5!!!) doesn’t make sense…and you’re thinking this is crazy…I can do this …and the more you try…the more anxious you get…and you don’t want the kids seeing you struggle through a simple grade 5 math question…so you make up an excuse! I don’t tell them I’m low, because I don’t want them to think that I’m incapacitated…but I suppose that would be better than having them think I just not very bright!..then they go home & tell mom & dad about poor Mrs Miller. As for other lows…I remember going low WHILE at the wheel…and none of the streets that I always drive on made any sense…luckily I pulled over and tested!..take care, linda.

I’ve heard the analogy that just as a car needs gasoline to operate, our brains run on glucose. When the car depletes it’s petro supply, it won’t run. Obviously, when our glucose levels are too low, we don’t function either! Remember the brain on drugs TV commercial with the egg in the frying pan? We should put one together: “This is your brain with glucose; This is your brain without glucose” (insert: picture of me, pale and vacant, staring right through my wife as though she isn’t there at all). :slight_smile:

Fortunately I can still detect the vast majority of my lows before it gets to the point of not being able to function. If there are people around and I get low, one of the first signs I pick up on is when things just stop “clicking” during a conversation. For the most part I don’t get any of the sweating/shaky symptoms anymore, but there are a few cues that most of the time keep me from getting to “the point of no return”: sometimes I see light flashes, other times I notice the increase in heart rate, there are some other times where I swear it’s almost like a 6th sense kicks in telling me to check my blood sugar. But, I’d have to say the most prominent sign is when my thoughts/speech stop “connecting”, just like a car that sputters right before it runs out of gas. Mass confusion!!

Ugh, I’m usually really good when I go low and I take care of it quickly, but being home around my family just makes me spaz out. I’m a pretty laidback, unemotional type person, but lows just make me a wreck, I can’t rationalize at all. I was at my little sister’s dance recital today and during intermission before one of her dances, I realized I was feeling low so I tested and I was 46. I got up to go buy a candy bar but got dizzy and had to sit back down so I called my mom to grab me something. They freaked out and refused to get me anything because the dance was starting and I just lost it and sat there crying, like I was a little kid or something. They were pissed. Yes, I should have had something in my purse, but my little sister actually ate my Skittles that morning. It’s not like I went “Hey, it’d be really fun to go low right now just to make everyone’s lives inconvinient!”

The fact that they refused to get you anything is inexcusable!!! Possibly criminal in most places, for real. I’m so sorry, that was terrible and you could have been in trouble.

Yeah, the mental fuzziness is an early sign that my blood sugar is crashing and I better get something quickly before I get to the shakes and sweats!

i don’t know how old you are, Peyton, but maybe your mom is passing all the responsibility to you??? Which isn’t a safe idea, regardless of your age…I mean, if you were hanging from a cliff, ( figuratively, you were) would she say, “Sorry, you should have thought to bring a rope!” and totally ignore your cries? Diabetes is a family thing…we’re all in it together, because it affects everyone. Both my husband and I have D., and if he has a low, I would’t say, “You can’t have my candies, you should have brought your own”…what is that??? If we’re going out as a whole family, with our children, and a low creeps up, we deal with it right then and there…the other activity will HAVE TO WAIT. If your mom had missed a bit of your sister’s recital because she had to get a bar or whatever for you, so what? Your mom should bring some emergency supplies in her purse…for those “just in case” occasions…AND your little sister must be made to understand that they are a kind of medecine. What would be a good teaching tool, would be for your l. sister to bring her own little stash of candies for you (and one for her too!)…it’ll give a sense of responsibilty. What is she…3…4? It’s what you do when you have children…besides, your little sister IS taking all of this in, and if she sees your diabetes as being unimportant and a BIG inconvenience on everyone, well that’s how she will accept it. She will feel that she comes first, no matter what…after all, no one asks to get diabetes, right?..Take care…linda in canada!

I’m 20 and live with just one roommate two states away most of the time. I always have something with me and this was just a fluke for the most part (and why I went low is a mystery as well, no reason I can think of). My roommate is cool about helping me out when I need it (very rarely) and we’re great friends. My sister is 17 and could really care less whether our parents see the dance or not, she’ll make everyone watch the video 20 million times anyways. I told her what happened afterwards and she was mad that they didn’t get me something. The problem was, the line was super long because it was intermission, and because I was low, I was having a really hard time trying to explain to my dad that he should go to the front of the line and explain that it was an emergency and he just needed a candy bar really quick. Who’s going to get angry over that, and more impotantly, who cares?

This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten into it with my family over a low. Live and learn I guess. I just won’t bother them about it when something important is going on anymore. It’s just not worth the hassle.I didn’t miss much of the recital, they have a matinee and evening show (with different dances) and she was in both and we went and got lunch together in between. I bounce back pretty quickly from lows. Anyways, totally didn’t mean to steal the thread! I still want to hear everyone’s replies to the topic…

I was an inside sales person before and was setting in at a computer had a customer on the phone and unable to read the info on the CRT. the lines ran every way but right. Ya you are on to something. ppphhhhtttt!!! describes it very well. Have other funny stories can tell.

Sorry, Peyton, if I was getting carried away… as Debb says…we all care about you. And as for “stealing the thread”…what stealing…that’s why we’re all here, to support one another…and the thread, by the way, is part of a huge weave, in which we all insert “our thread” …luv, linda :slight_smile:

yes my brain farts all the time. i blogged last week whilst hypo.

http://tudiabetes.com/profiles/blog/show?id=583967%3ABlogPost%3A165030

Hi All.
Well this has to do with my brain going phhhhhhhhhhht. It happens to me all the time. My youngest daughter takes one of her days off to go shopping with me and help me get the heavier items and just spends the day with me each week,. Anyway, we both have a heartburn problem and a nausea problem that comes up frequently as well as lows. She carries meds in he purse for me all the time and I carry meds for her as well. One of us is surely going to have what the other needs at any given time. That is as it should be. Peyton I think you should ask your sister to carry one of those litle glucose shots for you or candy or anything to help in case of need. My own sister is not diabetic, but her husband is and she carries the candy for him. And she shares it with me if I need it And don’t worry, this isn’t messing with a thread, it is indeed part of the pattern. We all have times of need. And Andy i would love to hear your funny stories.

Lol, no one was putting me on the spot at all or making me uncomfortable. I don’t mind one bit. I just felt bad for taking over the thread :wink:
I really do love hearing everyone’s replies. I’m the only one in my entire family, on either side as far back as anyone can remember to have T1 and I personally only knew 1 person my age with it before I was diagnosed, so no one around me “gets it” so to say. It’s nice to talk things out with people who do. I love it here!
My sister probably wouldn’t mind carrying things for me (her purses are big enough!) but we’re really not together all that often. I work, ride horses and go out with my own friends. She works, dances and has her own group of friends.
I really just need some bigger purses, lol. I can’t fit much in mine but it’s a really adorable Coach that I got for Christmas and it will be a while before I can get anything as nice, it just seems like a shame not to carry. it. Shallow, I know, I need to get over it : )

I always love trying to give a presentation when I am crashing and burning…it really makes you appear smart to your audience…Herrooolll mine nam es bobbbpp

lol…that’s pretty much the size of it :smiley:

Wow, debb…scary that! Maybe your D. is taking on a new pattern!

Today was one of those days for me, You know the pppppphhhhhhhhhttttttttt. kind of day. My youngest daughter was with me and we had been shopping and I had gotten tired of looking at shoes,. We went into the parking lot and I couldn’t find my car and then I couldn’t find the way out of the parking lot. After my second trip around inside the lot my daughter told me to pull over. I snapped at her,What??? She said again to just pull over. I did and she got out my glucometer and asked me if I was able to check my blood sugar myself. She did it for me and gave me a small soda to drink that I carry in my cool pack. And she kept on giving me M&M’s. After awhile I finally realized what had happened. .I hadn’t realized I was so low, but she started teasing me after I was talking and thinking again. She said when i couldn’t find my way out of a parking lot she knew i was in trouble. We have laughed about it since then and now she always asks me if I need directions when we start to leave the parking lot. I love laughing about the silly things I do and having people around me that can help me laugh about it too. She told the rest of the family that if I am no longer interested in shoes, can’t find my car or my way out of the parking lot to just feed me candy.

Hello Bob:

Probably a decade ago… I was working at a large community health club, and was the senior martial arts teacher in a class. Normally 3, sometimes more of us, but not that weekend. Just little ole me… and 35-40 kids… different ages, different ranks. Not the normal number, extra kids doing make up classes, etc.

Class was over and literally the only thing left to do was for me to ask the senior student to end the class, using a very, very tiny japanese phrase… maybe three syllables, maybe?

I could not get the words out… we kneeled for a very, very, very long time… in total silence. It was absolutely perfect (sic. from the stereotypical standpoint of how martial arts are thought of by many (most?)) but baaaaaaad… from any other perspective

Stuart (badly haunted by the incident even tonight, years later)

Thats crazy to not give what a diabetic needs. Its so crimminal. I would probbally through a fit and demand for sugar. I don’t care how rude I would be, but I would get my sugar.

I remember trying to explain a bonus program to an employee at work. I kept going over it and getting stuck at one number where I just couldn’t make the next easy connection. …no really, I promise this is a great program…just look at the math…no seriously…no really…