I fully agree
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Interesting how widely peopleās tolerance to low blood sugar variesā¦ some people go a$$ over teacup at 65 while others are fully functional in the 20s.
The lowest I remember was about 30 and I did have a cold sweat going on and felt generally lousy, but just ate some glucose tablets and continued with what I was doingā¦ nowhere near incapacitated whatsoever
Makes me wonder what traits in people affect that variability-- and I donāt mean unawareness, thatās a different animal than tolerance
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Sam:
Being naked on the floor with six fireman is one trait of being 18. At least that is what my wife claims.
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Sounds like you had a wild youthā¦
I donāt know my lowest because I passed out way back in the dark ages of 2008 when I was first diagnosed, pregnant, on industrial doses of mixed insulin, and knew nothingā¦ I was given huge amounts of sugar (orange juice and chocolate, apparently) and wasnāt high by the time I came to and was able to test.
Since then my lowest has been in the 30s (that was on novorapid / levermir). And I was able to self treat, and that was already a few years ago.
Now that Iām on tresiba and eating low carb, I havenāt had any lows lower than 70sā¦
I am eating ketogenic these days and donāt seem to feel lows. I got a 74 this morning (my own fault, but thatās another story) - which previously I would have felt shaky at and felt nothing. However, I donāt test blood sugars so frequently now - unless Iām doing or eating something out of the ordinary.
Jack16 discussed keto and not feeling low above.
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Nope, I was 46 but 18 at the time.
Would most people feel low at this level? A 74 is still within the normal range. I donāt feel low until Iām about 52, at which time I get very subtle symptoms. I canāt remember the last time Iāve had a shaky, sweaty lowā¦I donāt think Iāve ever really gotten those symptoms other than very mildly (I also donāt get āreboundsā and my body doesnāt seem to self-correct lows that are left untreated for hours, so I think my body just doesnāt release adrenaline in response to lows). Usually itās just a vague sense of weakness or sometimes starting to feel extremely hungry for no reason. If I drop significantly low, like into the low 40s, then I start to get symptoms like not being able to concentrate or my lips and tongue going numb.
Hi Jen,
Before I would get shaky in the 70s. I guess I had pretty good sensitivity - or thatās just me.
If I go really low fast, my first sign will be changes in vision (like starts contracting / going black - I super hate that feelingā¦)ā¦ the sweating and shaking only comes as the sugar starts rising.
oh gawd, at work. one time i fainted at work from low blood pressure and omg, please, just make me disappear! it was all the hulabaloo after coming too, get her some water, let her breatheā¦
While pregnant with my son back in 1983, I didnāt feel too good, so I went to check my blood sugar. It came back 12. I said, this canāt be so I washed my hands with soap and water then cleaned the finger with alcohol. This time it came back 18. I rechecked and it came back at 15. I was completely coherent, not stumbling, not sweating, nothing wrong but feeling more nauseous than normal- I had all day sickness. It took a while to get my sugar to rise because finding things I could keep down wasnāt easy.
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What kind of pump were you using?
Lowest when Iāve been fully conscious and mobile - 21. But in the preceding five minutes my legs stopped working and I collapsed, during which it must have fallen below 18. Thank you Lantusā¦
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Deltec cosmo, made by smith medical. The pump was barely out of warranty.
On Lantus, really? Wow. That was the thing I loved about it when I switched to Lantus-Novolog MDI after 20 years of R/NPH: I could go late or even skip a meal without the catastrophic lows the clear-cloudy regimen would whack you with if you were just a little bit late. Iām really surprised, but of course the YDMV rule always applies.
Yes - wrote about it here. There are quite a number of casesā¦
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Thatās fascinating. I was on it for 10 years, after 20 on R/NPH, and never ran into this, though since your experience was 12 years in I guess it can happen at any time. Scary! I keep some Lantus on hand for emergencies and have had pump failures that necessitated resorting to it. Maybe I should have that prescription changed to Levemirā¦
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as well as variability with lantus. If you hit a vein, you can get a big hit of insulin working, where as levemir doesnāt do this, if it hits the bloodstream. I donāt lnow how the new tresiba will compare
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Lowest Iāve been was 1.9 mmol/ml (34 mg/dl).
Scared the living **** out of me. I was still relatively functional, though my vision was a bit blurred.
Iāve often wondered what is the limit one can experience before a coma, or death, I assume that you would always go into a coma before death, but I base this off nothing other than my own intuition. Iāve always had pretty good hypoglycaemic awareness so lows have never really been a big concern for me, but I do wonder sometimes if I can be a bit too casual about themā¦
I donāt want to be a party-pooper, but you need to remember that home BG meters are not designed to be accurate at very low numbers, certainly anywhere below around 2.2 mmol/L (40 mg/dL). Anything below that should really be treated as an approximation only.
However, if you are registering something on a home meter that is below that level, itās fair to say you are likely to be very lowā¦
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