Jennifer, have you ever been seen for the possibility of fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome? My daughter has severe fibromyalgia, so the terrible fatigue you feel sounds familiar to me. There are web sites you could google about this if you aren’t familiar with these conditions. My best to you; that kind of debilitating fatigue, no matter what the cause, is more than frustrating.
i had a friend get mad because i didnt show up at a party. i had to work that day. i had 3 sugar lows at work all very low in the 30s, so i went home to rest. they didnt talk to me for a couple of weeks. i tried to explain but they didnt get it. i was planing on going. sometimes i wish they could be D for a few days and see how they feel. i hope your wife reads these replys and becomes more understanding of lows/highs. thats one person who you shouldnt have to explain to about this.
so funny i have done some stupid things during a sugar low. I too act like a little kid sometimes. My boyfriend had to hold me down for me to drink anything. I was so sore from the fight the next day. I thought i was the only on with the arm thing. One time it was so bad i couldnt hold my glass of juice. I would have to take a drink and set it down or i would throw the glass.
Ellie,
My mom has fibromyalgia as well as several other autoimmune diseases so I’ve done a lot of research on that… I don’t have the chronic pain like she does, but I do have the classic symptoms of CFS. They have also linked CFS as an autoimmune disease, if I am not mistaken. I would love to get some more answers on the possibility of CFS for me, but I’m just not so sure which doctors are likely to believe in it and not think it is all in my head, you know? My mom had that problem with her fibro for years and years, and only last year found a doctor willing to listen and give her some answers. Also part of me is afraid that with the diabetes, they will attribute it to that. I myself think part of it is due to the diabetes, and partly due to CFS or something else.
Loni,
This is exactly why I love this forum! My best friend who I am living with right now doesn’t understand D. She is willing to try, but just doesn’t understand for example, why I need to buy separate food sometimes. Or why I am so tired with a low/high or otherwise.
I am really grateful to have found this forum, people who understand what I am going through. It’s just really nice. I moved away from the one person in my life with diabetes, though he had type 1 and not 2, so reminding myself to check this forum and participate is what I keep having to do.
I’m glad you’ve been able to figure out the difference for yourself. She definitely gets fibrofog, which is why I always go to her dr appts with her. Between us we usually get all the information said and remembered. Best to you dealing with both things. So far, aside from the fibro and its issues (hah) she’s very healthy, blood pressure that makes me green with envy!
More and more the medical community is accepting that these illnesses are REAL. I hope you can find a doc who understands.
I have collected these perceptions of being low in 20 years:
50-60: feeling of being alert and hungry.
40-50: feeling weak, hands shaking, increased heartbeat, some time after the adrenalin kicked in: the sensation of being not afraid of anything. Tendency to be selfish and snappy. At night very weird dreams that at some point will be repeated in a loop. This loop gets faster and wilder until I will finally wake up, mostly sweaty.
30-40: feeling of falling into myself, the outside appears as a very dangerous and threatening place, visual field narrows down, sometimes visual distortions. Four years ago I had a period of repeated lows at night. This customization to lows made it possible to oversleep the first singns of being low. The result is very odd: you wake up later, no sweat, but something is strange, then you measure and see the value, adrenalin kicks in and robbs you the last carbs that you have left in your blood stream, I try to keep myself calm while chewing the glucose drops, panic just wastes energy, you get really rational about that.
lower: numbness of mouth and face, feeling to disconnect from the body. At night unawareness of increased breathing rate until you suddenly wake up: the excessive oxygen intake can cause temporary numb feelings on your tongue that last for one day (I had only one experience like that and this was 4 years ago).
Overall the low can be a very frightening and exhausting experience. With the first severe lows I really thought that I had some sort of lethal illness. Now I know that brain cells are one of the few cells that do not need insulin to consume carbohydrates. The control hormone insulin is the magic trick of the healthy body to control that the brain cells always get carbohydrates first. If there is a low the insulin will be reduced which forces other cells to reduce their consumption. As a result the brain cells will not experience lows below 60 mg/dL in healthy people. The brain always needs the energy (4g of carbs per hour?) to maintain its functions. This at least helps me to understand why being low is such a big problem for the brain. If the amount of glucose falls below 4g per hour then higher functions with high enery needs like the visual system will likely start to fail. Low values have no negative long term effects for the brain (many studies came to this conclusion). The problem is the chaotic state of the brain while being low. This chaos can lead to a seizure that is very comparable to epileptic spasms. This state can be life threatening if it causes important functions of the brain to shut down. Therefore severe lows should be avoided. BUT quite frankly: Who does it on purpose? I think most of us try that anyway. Maybe the advise to prevent to be accustomed to low values is much better. Some diabetologists offer trainings to improve the identification of lows for diabetics who lost the warning signs when a low is coming.
My perception of being high:
beginning with 170: thirst, droughty mouth, different taste in my mouth, little visual distortions when I was high over night (according to my doctor this is a sign that I am not accustomed to high values).
When my suger goes high or to low i feel like i have got a headache and my vition goes a bit blury.
When I’m low, I have an all consuming, overwhelming, manic need to shove as much food into my face as possible. It’s a mad scramble to grab anything and everything that I can eat as fast as possible.
Intellectually, I know I don’t need all that food and it’s just going to make me spike high, but it’s almost a primal need to grab it all and shove it into my pie hole. It takes a LOT of determination and self control not to do it.
After a low, I’m exhausted. I’m weak and I feel feeble-minded. It’s like my brain is coated in sludge and I can’t think or reason or respond quickly. Lows also give me the sweats. Whee.
I seriously hate lows. Hate. Hate. Hate.
Highs make me so so nauseated and woozy. I feel like the world is spinning around me and I’m not able to focus my eyes on anything.
My co-workers say I get really quiet. I can stand in front of a candy vending machine when I’m low and just stare. I’m incapable of making decisions when all I really need is ANYTHING sweet at that moment.
I havent had a low as of yet…Im always high. When my BG gets high (180 and sometimes higher) I get flushed and dizzy and a headache…sometimes Im thirsty and yeah…I think I have been getting nasty too…not intentionally. I’m still feeling the why me of my diagnosis and some how it will just go away…sigh
Actually there is nothing better than a dog with a very high pitched bark who won’t stop for anything when that dog is alerting you to a possible blood sugar problem. One time I passed out on the floor while going to the frid to get juice because I felt low. Luckily my Doberman starting barking at me and pawing at mean until I woke up. Then I got my juice. Thank God for Max. She may have saved my life. Colleen
I’m new here and the wife of a diabetic. My husband has had type 2 diabetes for maybe 16 years. He has been so frustrated with doctors and medications and has taken himself off all meds for some time then goes back on the meds and off again. I am learning so much here as he tends to minimize symptoms and from what I’m reading here, I can tell I was right when his sugars were out of control.
Sadly, he recently had a blockage in his leg which resulted in dry gangrene and his losing a big toe. he also had a large area on the side of his foot cut down almost to the bone. He may lose another toe. He is currently on meds and being very good about his diet. Thank God! So thanks to everyone here in giving me some insights., Hugs
Good luck, Lorri. This is a fabulous place for support and knowledge. Glad to have you. Hopefully, your husband will listen to you as you learn. (I’m sure your husband knows he’s a lucky man to have you looking out for him.)
I just found your site. Thanks! You all explain how I feel. My D is prednizone induced due to MS and Lupus. They recently raised my prednizone so my BS is all over the place it will go from 380 on the high side to mid 30’s in the same day. I have no control over it. The dr says to just keep adjusting my insulin depending on the day and we will get it right, Several years ago I was turned down for a pump becasue of the casue of the D. It has been high the last few days and my eyes are so blurry and I feel so weak just want to sleep. Have to make it to a Dr appt this morning and so I took my lantus and humulog, ate a good breakfast and will check it just before I leave to take more humulog if I need to lower it some more. I am always hungry and thirsty. And with the added prednizone have gained about 40# in the last 6 months which makes me depressed and want to eat. Any siggestions on how to handle this roller coaster right now would be greatly appreciated. I have MS and lupus along with some pulminary breathing problems and all 5 doctors have a different idea of what we should be doing and everyone keeps changing all of my meds around whcih doesn’t help. Thanks for listening sorry if this is not what I should be writing here just let me know.
When my blood sugar is low, I am totally unable to concentrate. I used to work at an engineering laboratory, and once a week they would have mid morning seminars that would sometimes go overtime into the lunch hour. No big deal, right. But at the time I was on oral agents and had to eat at rigid times. So anyway, if a seminar went overtime and my blood sugar dropped below 70, I would be totally unable to understand a complicated, detailed discussion. I would tell my wife that when the speaker at a seminar started talking Greek, I knew I was in trouble. One day, as this was happening my boss turned to me and asked me a question. I tried to focus and give some sort of reasonable answer, but I am sure I sounded like an idiot. But I didn’t want to say I was having an insulin reaction and wind up fired.
When my blood sugar is higher than 200, I get really tired. I can go to sleep anywhere, anytime, no matter how well I slept the night before. Several times I have had to pull my car over and take a nap because I wasn’t safe driving. I know the sleep didn’t lower my blood sugar, but somehow the rest would allow me to get along for another hour until I could take some insulin or exercise to get the blood sugar down.
I’ve been recently diagnosed, so most of the times, it’s psychological for me. I feel depressed when my BG is too high. For example, I would eat 1/4 cup of blueberries with tuna and my BG goes up or I would eat 1/2 an apple and my BG goes through the roof. When my BG is too high, I feel tired and just want to sit or lie down and I feel really depressed again.
I also try not to look when I see my friends eating french fries or Starbucks mocha latte in front of me (they’re in the medical profession) and talk about their diabetic patients. I know they shouldn’t have to change their eating habits because of me, but I can’t help but feel depressed that I can never eat like them again. On a brighter note, I know that eating healthy & exercising will make me feel better in the long term.
Hi Kat. Thing about diabetes is, don’t let it control you, you control it. I have been a diabetic for what seems like and eternity. You don’t have to give up the things you like, just eat less of it (much less).
Take a diabetes education class, learn about your condition. You will be taught how to eat and how much you
can eat so you don’t have those highs. I know all of this is very over whelming but don’t let it get you down.
Soon enough you will be an expert on diabetes. It never hurts to just taste the things you like. I know I’m all over the place (sorry), but diabetes is a disease that will be an on going education. Don’t stop learning all you can.
The more you know about diabetes the stronger you will be (for lack of a better word). Good luck and stay with Tudiabetes, there are a lot of people here that are alway willing to help.
I have never gone low, but when I go high my mouth goes dry, and I feel more tired than usual. What I can’t figure out is what makes it go high, especially when I have not gone off my diet…