I know that an awful lot of people with diabetes are either too young to have the experience, or are smart enough to have an occasional adult beverage responsibly. Those who have gone the other way once or twice know the feeling. Headache, dehydration, weakness, slight dizziness, nausea, etc. It is called a hangover.
Yesterday afternoon I had a hypo with symptoms on the more severe end of the scale. Super sweating, weakness, panic, disorientation, profound hunger, etc. Even though I followed the usual check BG/16 grams of carb/wait 15 minutes, recheck BG and repeat as necessary, this episode dragged on for longer than usual. It took nearly an hour to get back to 90 mg/dl. I managed to sweat through a t-shirt, shirt, sweater and all the way through to my sport coat. Even the cash in my wallet got damp. After it was all over, I started rehydrating, took a shower, got into some comfy sweats, added a couple of aspirin for good measure and went to bed to read and recover. My family was out of town so I was all alone to mange it myself.
That is when it occurred to me that the whole experience was like a binge/hangover at warp speed. From start of symptoms until getting into bed took less than two hours. Has anybody else noticed this? I wonder if hydrating like mad DURING a hypo like this would make the recovery easier, or would it make it take longer to get my BG back to ‘normal?’ Could it also be that sometimes when I have a gosh-awful hypo that I over-shoot the carb intake and head up to 200 and beyond?
I’d love to hear your comments and ideas on this.
