How low can you go

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1

A low means you can just eat what you like, with no apparent consequence. I love Twix bars. There ya go. The easy answer, but this isn’t so easy. This was harder than I thought. It should have been easy for me to answer. A low is a perfect opportunity to have something absolutely sinful, that one might otherwise feel guilty about eating.


It's Diabetes Blog Week, and today's topic is Making the Low Go. I think it is cool that D bloggers and semi bloggers are weighing in on subjects that touch all of us, in one way or another, every day this week. If you want to read more, many of the blogs are listed here (although if you look around, you'll find more, I'm sure of that): http://bittersweet-karen.blogspot.com/p/test-page_28.html


But I'm not going to really address the moderate lows here. For me, that would be in the 3 mmol (54 mg) range. I'm pretty good at deciding to have something sane – a couple of glucose tabs and a cereal bar. But that’s no fun. So I’m going to talk about what I do for those low lows.


For those who’ve had lows, you don’t need me to describe what a low is like. But for those who’ve never experienced one - when the meter reads a 2.1 (38) or even a 1.8 (32), I`ll try. I get a rather charming set of symptoms, characterized by sweats, confusion and a crazy hunger. Well, it’s not exactly hunger, but a panicky need to eat. Not quite the same thing, but close enough, I suppose. And everyone is different. And each low might present a variation of these symptoms.


But consider this:


Scenario 1 – Drop me in the middle of a candy store. I can look around me and haven’t a clue about why I’m there. Standing there long enough, and if I’m lucky enough, I might even figure out that I should have something – but what? Twix? Mars? The package of lifesavers? Well, that would just make too much sense now, wouldn’t it.


Scenario 2 – I’m standing in front of my kitchen cupboard – the Snack Cupboard, time has passed. I may not have an exact memory of walking into the kitchen. But I become aware of a distinct flavour of Oreos in my mouth, and a tell tale empty cookie bag laying in front of me. Do I love Oreos? Well, normally not THAT much. There’s also a litter of other remnants of my “snack” – some Crispers (bbq flavour), some chocolate covered cranberries. I have no real memory of eating all of this though - some hazy flashbacks perhaps, something like a dream. But looking around, I know I’m the resident Cookie Monster.


But it’s not over. In both these scenarios, we get to ride the ups and downs of the BG Express roller coaster. Not only do I get the post-low highs running me up to 20 (360), I get chills, and I wonder where the truck went that ran me over.


So as much as I’d say I’d love that Twix bar or Oreos to treat my lows, I’m apparently not responsible enough to do what is sane, and stop when I should stop. I think if I were to run with the amusement park analogy, I’d rather live in the House of Mirrors, reflecting on my life, than ride the BG Express, thank you very much.

2

Very good. That’s exactly what I do…eat…eat…eat…and end up going far too high. Where are those people who religiously just have 15 gms of carbs and sit it out ??? The feeling of low is sooo horrible. I seem to get every simple symptom…sweating, shakes, confusion, numb legs, tingling on the lips and in the mouth…chatter absolute rubbish…stare at things and can;t concentrate or put two words together…yes and cold afterward…fezzing cold - have to get under the covers and take a nap !!!
Hate the BG express and always feel extremely guilty !!
Sheila

3

My wife doesn’t understand why I don’t eat “something sensible” when I have one of those low, lows. I will eat everything, and anything with some sugar in it. She will find me sitting in front of the fridge pouring chocolate syrup in my mouth and scooping peanut-butter with my fingers. The kitchen always looks like a tornado hit it. I know better but I don’t like to ride it out, I need my BG back up quick.

4

I’ve gotten down to a 1.5 once last July. I had just put the pedestal onto my flat-screen TV and set it up when I knew I had to test and see where I was. Not fun to see myself that low. On the flip side, my ex has run her meter into the low 30s once so I have seen both extremes but not endured each but when I was first diagnosed I could test in the 20s regularly.

5

Another thought - I was told by a doctor once that candy has a lot of fat in it and it takes time for the sugar to get absorbed so that is why glucose works really quickly.
Sheila

6

Sheila, I just hauled out my package of lifesavers, and the nutrition label declares there’s not an ounce of fat in it. Admittedly, fat can delay absorption of carbs which can dump into the system later, delaying the desired BG rise. I think that it might be a blanket statement that doesn’t necessarily apply and that perhaps all candy is not created equal.

I admit that my best option would be to deal with things calmly, taking glucose and testing as prescribed, but seems that my ability to reason while low is… well… non-existent. My non-thinking brain says, just as CM would say, “Me want Coookkieeess”

7

Seth, I totally understand what you’re saying. My husband always wanted to reason with me, by presenting the most sane options. He would ask me, why didn’t I tell him when I was going low, and ask him for help, tell him what I needed (like assuming I knew haha).

That is until one day he had a low while we were out walking the dogs (he’s a T2). At the time he said nothing at all to me. To be fair, he didn’t know what a low felt like before, but he no idea what was going on. I had a pocket full of glucose, but did he ask me? He knows I carry such things. When we got home, and I still had no idea of what was going on with him, he did the Snack Cupboard thing, and finished some cookies himself. Since then, I know he truly understands, and he admits that even before, he thought he understood, but now he actually does understand.

They say experience is the best teacher - not that I’d wish it on anybody!!

8

Sorry, I meant chocolate… candies…yes Life Savers are OK, like glucose tabs…its quickly absorbed but chocolate covered anything takes longer to absorb.
S

9

50’s are the worst for me- I remember standing in my parent’s bedroom, telling them I was having a stroke and no I didn’t need to test my blood sugar. However, three minutes later I was eating up the house. When I’m that low, I don’t feel the hunger or feel shaky until I come back up, then I eat everything. I go for the juice or tabs first, and then I have the biggest craving for salty things, especially goldfish. I hate being home alone during a low, because someone will come home and find me with an empty bag of goldfish :slight_smile: