Hypo side affects?

Type 1 and LADA
#1

On monday i had my two lower wisdom teeth out, which has caused a fair amount of problems with food. This morning at 6am i was getting frustrated because my right side would not seem to communicate with my brain, and i could not sit up at all. Luckily my mum was there to do a blood sugar and it was 2.3mmol/L and she helped get some sugar in me (although i was sick during this time). However it took a long time for me to be able to sit up and have my brain communicate with my arm, my parents thought i must have been lying on it, but it didnt feel the same as when i have been lying on my arm for a long time, plus it took much longer for me to be able to start movement in my hand and arm without me doing it with my other hand.

Could this situation with my right side especially my arm be anything to do with having a low? Like from the lack of glucose in my brain at that time or before then as my blood sugar could have gone lower as i was asleep before that?

#2

I guess it could be because of the low…I often get a numb mouth while my BG is low…tingling like novacaine is wearing off… I have also had irregular arm thrashing when low too…after you get to the trashing around stage, its usually a seizure…and it does take time to come around after a seizure. You really do feel that your brain is not communicating properly…but it should definitely come back to normal pretty quickly after the BG has started to come back to normal. Yes your blood sugar could have been quite low before the incident. Your body can “pull” emergency sugar from your liver when you are low, but its only a small amount, and cannot last for long…so you still need to treat the low.
Sheila
Type 1 55 years

#3

I don’t know about this being a side effect of a low, but my first reaction to reading your symptoms was to think of a stroke. Not all strokes are the massive kind that we tend to associate them with. It is possible to have mini strokes resulting in a temporary disconnect between your brain and right side of your body.

Either way, I’d ask a doctor about this.

#4

I thought the same as Pavlos. Especially with your wisdom teeth being pulled… Things like that and chiropractic care can cause mini strokes. Plague falls off the side of an artery and lodges in a bad spot. A friend of mine stroked after going to the chiropractor, she was only 22. She regained use of the affected side of her body but it took years not hours.

Hard to say what may have caused this, in all likelyhood it was the hypo. But as you said it is something to be watchful of.

#5

Hi Zo Zo, glad to hear you are O.K. and although we do not (which is most of the time) have ALL the facts, you should be aware that very similar things have happened to me, and it would appear that there is much more data to indicate that this was caused by a low sugar. Lets examine the key variables in real time.

-You didn’t feel well
-The meter indicated low
-Because we do not know the accuracy of the meter, you may have been even lower than it indicated
-Recovery began immediately with as the blood sugar was rising
-Recovery appears permanent.

Once again we are talking about a fuel delivery, and management system. In an automobile, when it is running out of fuel, the results are very predictable when the process repeats. The same is true for humans, except to a lesser degree. What we do understand is that although the basic (autonomic) systems (heart lungs etc) will function as long as they have fuel, there is a strange division regarding other body parts and some will receive fuel and work to some degree, while others may not. We know this happens and we don’t know why.

I have experienced times when my brain and thought process was working one hundred percent and my legs would not support me. I have also experienced the reverse, where I could literally walk into a wall, and have no idea of what was happening.

I would suggest a little more effort to avoid lows (run slightly higher sugars than normal) for a while because the more often you experience lows in a short period, the greater chance you have of suffering from hypoglycemic unawareness. This condition means that your body loses your ability to react physically and mentally when your sugar drops to low. Mother Natures warning signs are diminishing, and this can be VERY dangerous.

When you run slightly higher for a short time (don’t quote me but I think it can range from four to six weeks depending on the person) these systems will “reset” themselves, and your level of awareness will return. The bottom line is to do the best you can and don’t beat yourself up for ANY reason. We are after progress, not perfection. I would not concern myself with anything other than my sugar control. I hope this helps.

Love Always
The Anonymous Diabetic.

PS WHENEVER SUGARS GET A LITTLE WHACKY make sure that you are near people and they check on you more often. Diabetes is silent, sneaky and severe however by being a little more clever and proactive, you can beat this devil and don’t EVER lose sight of that!!! I know bad punn.

#6

Pavlos, you’re right, it does SOUND like a stroke, but it’s more likely a hypo-induce seizure. I had that happen as a child, where the right side of my body went limp. They did a CAT scan and EKG and it showed nothing. Years later at diabetic summer camp, we were discussing freaky lows and things that had happened, and I shared my story only to find out it was a type of seizure.
The connection with your wisdom teeth, and my well wishes on that, I went through the same 2 years ago, is probably that you’re just not eating like you normally do, and the body doesn’t treat a liquidy diet the way it handles solids. You might need to make your smoothies and yogurts a smidge more sugary to balance it out. Be sure to include some fats and proteins to stabilize your bg’s.