Embarrassing Situations

I was at work. A low crept up on me without my knowing what was going on. All of a sudden I couldn't type, couldn't think or hear, I was seeing stars and I knew that I would pass out but for some reason, I just kept trying to work.

I have heard about people having hypoglycemic episodes and not being able to treat themselves, but it never happened to me before this. It seemed like all I could concentrate on was that I wanted to finish what I was doing. I finally got it out of my mouth that I was diabetic and didn't feel well.

The lady I was working with didn't know what I was talking about. Somehow I made it into my co-worker's office. She helped me and finished working with the client. My co-worker was very understanding and kind but she did say that it looked like I was drunk when I came in her office. I can't imagine what the other lady thought or felt.

Now I am feeling bad about it. I don't quite know what to think.I had tested earlier, I was sitting right next to my bag of diabetic supplies and food and had glucose tabs in my desk.

I feel awful bad about this. I never had hypoglycemia in public before and not been able to deal with it effectively. I maybe feel embarrassed and vulnerable?

I know this must have happened to others as well. What was your experience and how did you deal with it? How did you feel afteward?

Oh Darlin', dont feel bad!!! I have had this happen many times. When you go low, each time is different. I cant think straight or talk, etc. You did what was right and all that you could do at that time. Dont you dare beat yourself up. Just learn from it, when you dont feel right, TEST no matter what. Glad you were and are okay. xo

Hi Lots- I have had it happen to me. When I used to work I would have episodes where I would keep working even though I felt weird. It didn't occur to me that I was having a low. You can't help it and don't know to eat something even though you have it close to you. Fortunately, for me my supervisor had a T-1 daughter and she was familiar with the signs of a hypo. Some times it doesn't occur to me to test when I am having a low even now at home.

It happens. I had this happen a few months ago and a colleague who knows I have diabetes walked with me back to my office while I got some juice. It was embarrassing and odd, because she seemed to recognize I was low before I even realized it. But I too sometimes go low and KNOW I'm going low, but don't do anything about it. I don't know why that happens, but it seems to be a common thing among T1s I've talked to. I'll get in denial and think, "Ok, I'll treat this in a few minutes." Even though I know I don't really have a few minutes.

Has happened to me more times than I care to admit. I've passed out cold and fell into a grocery store freezer - twice, gotten lost driving home from an appointment and driven a half hour out of my way before realizing it, during a pedicure, at parties, came to in bed with EMS and firemen standing at the bottom of my bed and actually some situations much worse. I've sat and argued with my husband that I was FINE only to have him force me to test... and sure enough - 28! Trust me, It's always embarrassing even when it's around family and friends. I think it's the not remembering what I said or did that makes me so uncomfortable and embarrassed. But I always try and explain to people afterwards and laugh it off and tell myself, now they know what to watch for and will be ready to help if it ever happens again. My pedicurist is always watching me closely now and asks if I'm OK if she senses I'm acting funny. It's weird how, even though she didn't know me very well, she could tell something was wrong but I couldn't.
Humor always seems to help me.

You actually fell into the grocery freezer twice?

I was at a family reunion and, after bolusing thinking "beer", got to the shindig and decided "I've been drinking a lot, I should lay off the sauce" and then ate but apparently failed to make up for the missing "beer" carbs and my family were turning into space aliens so I jumped over the couch (I don't recall which aliens were sitting on it but, fortunately, I missed them) and my cousin, who had been in the army, training to be a Special Forces medic of some sort, tackled me before I got to the long stairway. It was definitely embarrassing!

I never fell into the freezer but I bet there were lots of people wondering why I kept staring at the pizza in the frozen foods one day. Probably for a good 15 minutes or more. Had a low that came on so suddenly while driving once, was still on MDI's then, had bolused cause we ate out. Thank God I knew enough to pull over to treat that one. Was fine one minute and the next lower than the deepest ocean pit. That one was really scary. Have had husband chase me around house with bowl of sugar, real soda, oj, glucose tabs and any other sugar containing product many a time. Hit him a couple of times too. Chewed my mom-in-law out once. That was bad!
I think this eventually happens to all of us, sometimes more that we care to admit! Maybe it's time to educate at work, that is what I would do when working - make sure there was someone around that could do a finger stick on me since I would always say I am fine.

Hi, Lots. I hope you feel better. Lows are not fun.

I just had a conversation with a coworker who has developed a seizure thing (she is trying to find out what it is, but has been unsuccessful.) She is embarrassed and had an episode in our reception area last week.

I looked at her and reminded her that she had helped me overcome two very "dramatic: lows: I cried and cried, and, another time, I actaully threw up on her desk. (She took off the next day and I made sure no one charged her leave.) She is young, and she held up. She is very bright and very intuiative.

If I can come back to work after that.....

What does it matter what others think? Do they know you are D? Have you trained them on what to do if you are low? If you do not inform and train, you are completely alone when you most need help.

Sometimes lows are unexplainable and your reaction to them can vary. I keep an instruction for lows sheet on my whiteboard (someone gave me diet coke once for a low, because that is what I always drank. My lows sheet saya coke is fast, bit I did not delineate that it must not be sugar free! LOL)

Be cheerful. No one will think bad about you, unless you act ashamed. You did not choose this disease, so head high!

I was sitting with the family having just eaten plenty (I thought). But I had bolused for more. Everyone at the table including the 12 year old realized at the same time that I was going nowhere with my talk. Everyone at the same time was getting up to go to the frig for OJ. It was hilarious. And in my slow drawl, I said, well it took 10 years of my educating you.
I dealt with it as indication that I had better heed the carbs I'm eating, and not give myself too much insulin. I was having the continuing problem of having prednisone doses being reduced. Not only did I get more carbs for a unit, I was getting one unit decreasing my BG more. Double trouble.
Yes, it's embarrassing, especially for someone who's been majorly with the big D as long as I have, and the family has high expectations which I blasted to pieces!
But I also knew I had to get my average higher during this changing period and keep it there so that unawareness would not take hold, too.

Lots, you and I have shared a lot together and this area is no different. Read my blog I posted a couple days ago. The title is I Haven't Blogged in a While or something like that. The real reason I wrote it was because of a quote in the Diabetes Forecast magazine from a woman who said she and her co-workers came up with a great description of her diabetes; "You have diabetes and we all suffer from it". In that blog I detailed some things that have happened to me over the years. Wife, kids, grandkids, co-workers they have all had to see me in ways I wish they had never did. But each time they were there to help me.

Let it go and learn from it. Your co-workers will forget or at the very least they will be better equipped for the next time should there be one.

Remember. Lots...YOU CAN DO IT!

Sparky

I think because when theres a low coming people do open the fridge or freezer and stick their heads in it. To confused to figure out what is happening and they pass out. If I see someone standing in front of a freezer with the door open in a store, I always stop and talk to them to see if they could be a diabetic with a low coming on. Well experienced being the wife of a diabetic.

I am waiting for all the stories to come out on here from all the diabetic folks on tu. Every single diabetic will have lows at some time. A paramedic picking my husband up to take him to the hospital said to me "we see every single diabetic in our area eventually". Boy do I have stories to tell. Some funny some really sad, but thankfully to me and my children and my husbands co-workers, Brokenpole has come out of every single low safely. There were numerous of me trying to get him to pull over and let me drive because he was low. One time he would not pull over untill he got annoyed with me covering my head and saying the "Lord's Prayer" very loudly. I learned that it does not help when I get scared and yell at him to drink the orange juice, and figured a way to talk to him calmly over and over till he understood what was going on. He usually did eventually. Anyway, if he passed out I could just give him a glucagon shot, but I used to feel like I failed if he got to the point where I had to give him a shot. I have never once felt embarrassed by his behavior during a low blood sugar. I just explain to those around me matter a factly and leave it at that. In our house, every one usually woke up if he had a low during the night and helped me get him orange juice and a peanut butter sandwich, and /or called the paramedics. It go so my daughter Laura (electricxanrose) worked as a team. I also had to watch to see if he would choke trying to swallow the food and sometimes I felt it was safer just to give him the shot rather then risk him choking trying to eat. Many diabetics have lows that come on suddenly and you are too confused to think to test yourself. If he is sweating a whole lot, I just suggest he test his sugar,or do it for him, but sometimes it comes so fast you have no symptoms to know its happening. One time he just seemed different and he tested himself and it was 32! So brokenpole can still sometimes talk normally and seem ok with a severe low. I have read that over the yrs, some diabetics do get to the point where they have lows without any awareness. I am just greatfull that the folks he works with were always watching out for him and gave him glucagon shots sometimes. Main thing is having a low is part of having diabetes. Its something you never get used to, but they will happen no matter how "good" you are being. It is embarrassing for the diabetic, and brokenpole always seems to go through feeling very depressed the hrs after it happens. Its easy to tell you not to feel bad sweetheart, but you will anyway. You just accept it sort of and talk to other diabetics and exchange stories. Me and brokenpole have a lot of them to tell ya'll.

Scariest ever! I was on a business trip in a rural part of the state, driving home by myself after a long week. Got feeling odd, but knew exactly where I wanted to stop to eat and it was 50 miles north of where I was.

Of course, I focused on that location, drove nearly an hour and took the wrong exit. I was so confused, I ran over a curb and ended up, dazed (not hurt), in a parking lot. Still in a daze, mapped out a back road (oh, so smart!) way to the restaurant. Oh, it was a KFC--not the French Laundry--that I so focused in on. That was 12 years ago.

After that, I stop every 90 minutes and check my BG. I have juice boxes in all kinds of crevices in the car. More discipline, attention to detail. I still travel but have learned to restraints.

But, it still happens....

I work at a vets office. Yesterday I was walking an exceptionally large and misbehaved Bassett out and when I got in he was being extra dumb. I was in what we call the dog ward and I felt my bs going low. This dog REFUSED to go back in his kennel. I was trying so hard to get him put away and feeling weaker and weaker and because of the craziness in my brain I started throwing a tantrum. I was yelling out loud and a vet tech opened the door I guess to check on me. I threw the leash accross the room and proceeded to yell that ‘now I have to go check my blood sugar because this dog was such a ■■■■ dick!!’. In front of the entire staff. It was pretty embarrassing. My bg ended up being 38 which is one of the lowest I’ve had. Work and diabetes just don’t seem to mix.

It's not denial, it's the adrenaline rush, part of the body's natural response to a hypo. The adrenaline keeps pushing you to not stop, to keep moving - which can be a bad thing if you need to stop to treat the hypo!

I don't always get the adrenaline shakes like I did when I was hypo when I was a kid but I think the adrenaline is still there.

Oh man lots....I have been there! Once while driving, in a familiar area, but was so far gone, everything was foreign to me.

Alls u got to do is read some of my blogs about that happening. Passing out in a gro store, passing out at jury duty, etc. MANY MANY times. not listed in them. But all I have found is that "I'm sorry but I'm diabetic" has helped more times that 1.

Passing out on sury duty? Will that get you excused?? I have faked a low bs once to get seated earlier at a resturant.

No...I can't say I have ever faked a low. I feel as if I would be tempting fate. It frightens me in a way.