Living alone with D - Lucky to be alive!

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1

I’ve been losing sensitivity to low BG’s since spring, I now only notice them below 2.0 (36)!
and I’ve been really scared that I’ll collapse one day, and finally I did.

Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night, checked my bloodsugar and it was 1.1 (19.8)!!!
I walked to the fridge to get some juice, but as I got there the juice was out of the fridge, the floor was covered in liquid and one of the shelves were broken, I also noticed that I was bleeding from several places in my face.- I was sure I’d been burgled.

After getting something to drink and eat I went to check again, and discovered that 15 minutes prior I had a LO-reading. So I realized what had actually happened: I had gone out of the bed, had some juice and had a seizure - falling face first onto the fridge door!. Woken up from the juice and went to bed (my sheets are stained with the blood), then woke up again (and from this point I remember)

My face looks like I’ve had a bad beating - it actually looks worse than the pic - my entire face is swollen, blood keeps running internally from the bump on my forehead to the inner corners of my eyes and beneath them -giving me a purple discolouration, my tongue hurst - as i bit it, and feeling drowsy - luckily the banging headache from yesterday is mostly gone, so probably no concussion!

I guess I should be lucky that I'm alive: I live by myself, I am the only person living in the building, so nobody would have heard me kicking and screaming. (I have not had a seizure in 10 years!)

I tried to put my alarm on for bg check every 2 hours last night, but only woke up once! - and it was 2.6 (46.8)…
Am so scared this will happen again so am preferring my bg to be a little high at the moment… =(

Am hopefully moving in a flat with more people in a month: Even though I don’t know them yet, I hope this will give me some security. Meanwhile I have to get my numbers stable!!

2

I think you should see a doctor to make sure you don’t have any internal damage. I hope you’re feeling a little better. Are you eating any carbs before bedtime? Not sure if that would help you out. Good luck.

3

Thanks, I’ve had conversations with my dad, who’s a GP and sent him a pic, so unless I get very nauscious or in bad pain I should be ok - that would be a sign of blood poisoning!
I don’t normally eat before bedtime, but I don’t normally have seizures either, am thinking I might have double dosed or just been really sensitive, as I had to half all my dosages the following 24 hours.
Think I’m back to normal now, and hope everything will heal quickly, as I’m going on a holiday on saturday, and meeting up with old friends - don’t want them to see me like this!

4

God how scary… I have only lived completely alone twice in my life and I was always afraid of something like that happening.
I used to have terrible night hypos when I was first dating my partner, I can’t remember which long acting insulin I was using (there have been so many) but I swapped to levemir and it all but cracked them.
and since I have been on the pump all my hypo symptoms have come back.
I really hope that you are ok. Sounds like a good idea to move in with some flatmates though. Perhaps it’d be an idea to have someone call first thing in the morning to check you’re ok?
Hope things stabilise soon :o)

5

Hi Carrie and I am VERY HAPPY things turned out the way they did however, you got lucky and we cannot rely on this luck when you live alone. Some people have a theory that we lose our ability to sense a low sugar because our sugars have gone too low, too many times in a short period of time.

It is also believed that you can “reset” the mechanism by running slightly higher sugars than normal for a period of approximately two months. Since you live alone (which you may want to consider changing) whatever is going on MUST be discussed with an Endocrinologist to figure out a plan that will SAFELY get things back on track.

I speak from experience and view this as a VERY SERIOUS matter. I would highly recommend a system where people you trust (who are preferably close to where you live) call you at various times through the day or night for that matter, and snack before you sleep and of course check the sugars before bed time and watch whatever insulin you think may be responsible for that part of the curve where it is going too low.

Whatever is going on all of us love you and you are not alone, we definitely understand. Please keep us posted and let’s get to the root cause(s) and find the best solution for you. There is one and we will find it!!!

Love Always
The Anonymous Diabetic

6

Carrie - that sounds really scary. It’s only happened a few times since BG monitors came into the world - that I’ve gone as low as you. Not nice at all - and I just stuff, stuff, stuff myself - and of course pay for the results the next morning - but not with having hurt myself like you did. I think I would have slept thru’ the alarm as well - if I was as low as you. As others have said here - you should try to get this sorted out as it’s pretty serious and this time you were very lucky nothing more serious happened. Take care.

7

Thanks for all your input and support. I am seeing a diabetic team in the middle of august - first time in years! And hope to be able to sort this out. Am not really willing to let my bg be higher on average, as I have just managed to keep them in a ‘normal’ range for the past month or so, and don’t want to throw away the hard work!
Just have to be more careful I guess, check more often (although I do about 8 times a day), and try to incorporate 1 time during the night!
Will look into the possibility of getting a CGM for a period and maybe a pump - anything that might help!

It’s great to know I’m not alone!

8

Weird I thought my cat was the only one as everyone always talks about dogs, sorry to hijack the post x

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Hi Carrie, I can understand that you are scared. For a period in my life I had many lows too and this was very exhausting. My alarm clock was always ringing at 3 am. All my problems were caused by using protaphan and acctrapid insulin. Luckily I met the right doctor and now on levemir and novorapid my life has changed so much. I am still very sensitive to insulin so I will always eat long acting carbohydrates like two wasa crisp breads for the night - maybe chocolate too. How do you handle the night now?

10

Oh sister, I am so sorry. I have lived alone for abou 33 of the 35 years I’ve had db and had a couple of close calls - none where I was bruised and battered. Even though I keep glucose tabs in 4 different places in my bedroom, I always go to the kitchen to look for something. A couple of times I was not able to walk - only crawl, so I also keep some tabs in a tupperware on the kitchen floor.
I think each of the responses above had great wisdom… That’s what I love about TD - throw out a topic and you’ll get some good advice.

11

I am happy you are OK but then you worry about the “next time”. Please see ur Endo or MD, whoever you see and maybe you need a change in ur treatment plan. Best wishes and stay safe.

12

Now having read your blog, something you should also consider.

You did “survive” it and you have to be careful you don’t mentally-spiritually beat youself “worse” that you are physically already bruised. In a crowded room, a subway car, or the top of the empire state building (NYC) it will make no difference if you have 10 flatmates or 100 of them…

Unless they literally share your bed… most still won’t notice much, unless/until they get to know you and ASSUME the responsibility of watching your butt, and are with you when-if something actually happens! Until/unless they know you pretty well, how can they tell the difference between say giddy, silly, tipsy Carrie, and Carrie having a diabetic, medical problem?

Most won’t…

Regardless, others around may make you feel less afraid, but I would doubt it on some important levels. We all live with this fear… the whispers in the backs of our minds, those kinds of evil ghosts. You can’t give them too much power or they will harm us further… IMHO-IMHE.

Be with people, among them… live! Get some Sleep and cut back onthe insulin until you feel safer.

Btw, frozen peas/corn/succaash, some kind of packaged frozen vegetables will mold better to the facial bruising than just a simple cold pack…There are other things to use, designed for the kind of injury you’ve suffered, but for now… I’d start with the simple.

Ps Did you call your doctor? If you have a bruise on the skull you should probably get that checked, just to be safe.

Let us know… been there and done that many times myself.

Stuart

13

Hei! Høres ut som du er kandidat for Lantus eller Levemir, eller du har kanskje allerede kommet igang. Problemet med de gamle langtidsinsulinene er toppunktet, når du sover. Som ung blir dagene sjeldne like, aktivitet og mat etc. Et annet tips er å reduserer karbohydrater på dagen når du har skole, jobb etc, så kan du heller ta igjen på den fronten på ettermiddag og kveld når det også rent fysiologisk er lettere å få kontroll fordi det ikke er så mange andre hormoner som konkurrerer med insulilneffekten. Shirin