You know Stuart, I totally agree with you. But at the same time, that is just human nature. I know that personally, if I start to feel a low, I will test. But if I feel that I am really low, I don’t even remember the darn meter. I reach for a tablet or two automaticaly and for me, I just act. But like I said, it’s just human nature, just like when something happens to someone, like falling down or bumping into something. Usually the first thing that others will ask is: “Are you alright?” DUH, does it look like that person is alright if they are on the grown or complaining about hitting themselves?
I’m with you - I’ll treat with fruit unless I don’t have any handy or my BG is so low or falling so fast that it isn’t safe. Below 45 or 50 I’ll usually go for sugar (I always carry lifesavers and glucose); but otherwise I’ll treat with fruit. I find dates and raisins to be the fastest; but if my BG is only a bit low (say 70) then I’ll grab a ripe banana, orange, or melon whatever I have. I’ve memorized the carb content of lots of different fruits so I can guess pretty well what the BG impact will be.
I wondered about dried apricots when I saw they have a very high glucose/fructose ratio and thought they might be good to treat low BG. But I was surprised that the online glycemic index is surprisingly low (31). I’m curious why you use apricots (I assume dried)? Have you found them to be fast acting?
(p.s. - No, I’ve never passed out. Certainly not after I started treating with carb)
"If we are low, we KNOW we are low… the idiotic act of searching for ones meter… searching for the strips, trying to get the blood out, etceteria, etceteria is DEADLY stupid waste of time."
Not necessarily. Sometimes I have symptoms of hypoglycemia when my blood sugar is dropping rapidly, even if I’m actually high. Treating before testing would be a big mistake in that scenario.
In other situations, I find that testing first gives me a good idea of how to treat the low. Once, I took a shot for a meal that wound up being delayed due to an emergency. I wolfed everything down as soon as I could, but about 15 minutes later, I felt the low coming on. If I decided to treat before testing, I would have taken a glucose tab or two because I knew that the carbs from my meal could kick in at any moment. Because I took 10 seconds to pull out my meter and test, I saw that two glucose tabs would not have adequately treated that low, and went for sugary soda instead.
I agree that in some cases it makes sense to treat first and test later. But as I hope I’ve illustrated above, it’s not the right thing for everyone all the time.
This is a great question- I have never passed out, although I am merely a year into my diagnosis so my experience is short compared to some. But I have had times when I checked my BS and it was in the low 40s and I felt absolutely fine. In hindsight, I was lucky I checked when I did so I could treat it, but if I just went with how I was feeling, I would never have known how low I was. The times that this has happened, I do the eat/test and my BG was still very very low- I have a feeling that I was falling very fast when I caught it. (And it is usually as it is climbing that I begin to feel terrible)
My doctor told me to try and NOT have lows in order to reestablish awareness- Which for him (as a non-diabetic) is probably easy in theory. I like to keep tight control (A1C was 6.1- which he actually would like to see increase because he thinks I am teetering too close to hypo all of the time- but I am also a super active person.) I like being at this level because it is where I feel the best. Too high or too low just doesn’t feel good
Has anyone ever felt like they were low- could bet a lot of money on it- only to test and find out you were actually high? This has happened to me in the past and when I did test. I was super surprised to find out I was actually high. If I had treated it as a low before I tested, it would have just made me even higher. I guess everyone is different, and there is no set art to how we feel/experience these things.
If disorientation, loosing consciousness is remotely likely
the extra 15-30 grams of carbs I am proposing will do nothing serious to increase a “high number” if that is causing such symptoms. And I’m not saying never test.
The order most seem taught is what I am railing against… Presume low and treat conservatively. Test all you want/need, just after, is my point. "BG skiing " (coming down the sugar hill) is a better game than collapse caused solely by bad protocol.That was my intended point.
Merely my opinion, I could surely be mistaken,
Stuart
I’ve had some wicked serious lows over the last few months but more or less while sleeping. Basically my mom saved my life. While I’m awake its generally not a problem as about 50 would be as low as I get and I just start shoveling down whatever is around at the moment. These night lows are getting scary.
