I really do not know to whom else to share my story, so I think maybe you could give me some advice how to get over hypoglycemic stress. I am diabetic for 13 years now, and I have been taking pretty good care of my dieabees. My hba1c never got higher than 8.0. But two days ago i experienced worse of my disease. I woke up during night measured my blood glucose and it was 52, I did not feel particularly shaky or anything just regular hypoglycemia symptoms. I went got my sugar syrup anyways, and started drinking but felt that I was getting worse every second. Than as I kept drinking and went to look for my phone to call for help I could not see anything and second later I was laying on the floor, I apparently hit my face and that is what woke me up. I got up and as I was starting to call at least a neighbor, I felt everything was fine again, I measures my blood glucose and it was already 190. As I looked at my watch when I woke up it was 5:30 and as I looked again when I measured it second time it was 5:45, so this all developed within 15 minutes span.
Now I am first time during all the years I've had diabetes, terribly scared for my life. I am even scared to do an insulin injection or sleep at night, all I can think of is how close I was to being dead. I mean I've red a lot of staff about hypoglycemic come that it does not develop that fast, or if you are in coma, you just don't wake up without someone else assistance. But I am glad it only lasted for few seconds and I could manage to get up on my feet and keep drinking that syrup.
Has anyone ever experienced anything like this, and how do you deal with it? I am so scared and confused, i think I'll never be able to let my blood glucose get anything below 120. Do you have any suggestions? or have you ever experienced something like this? Any suggestion would be a help at this point.
I try to have things to do so that even when I get hit by a low (e.g. last evening...long story...), the things to do are motivation not to ignore the low but to keep going and do what needs to be done. Re the rebound to 190, there's all sorts of explanations but I would wonder how many g of carbs are in sugar syrup and maybe cut back on that a little bit.
I know, yes I try to keep on doing my things, but still it's very scary experience for me, that never happened during all 13 years. sugar syrup contains 6tbs of sugar, that might be the reason for 190 as well, but at that point I was just trying not to get unconscious and put myself out of hypoglycemia.
Hi Sofie-A. I am totally new to this site and your post really struck home for me. I have been experiencing low FBG for the past 6 weeks or so (after having gotten very serious about reducing carbs in my diet). I hope you are OK after your recent event and have found a way to manage your overnight BG. My FBG has averaged about 63 for the last six weeks (ranging from 52 - 75). I know that this is lower than desired and have never felt that bad from it, but I had no idea it could be as dangerous as you describe. Because of your post, I'm going to try and get my FBG up to a safer range. I take 2x 1000mg metformin daily (1 in the am, another before bed) and 35-40 units levemir before bed. I suspect that is too much insulin for me overnight. I wonder if I should split my dose between night and morning injections. I have a Dr appt in about a week and will definitely explore this with him.
Not getting unconscious is a good idea! LOL. I had to look up how much food is in sugar as I hardly ever eat it, maybe toss a teaspoon into sauce or something occasionally but like a Tbsp/ gallon or whatever. The syrup would be 24G of carbs, not bad. I have found that even with lower lows, I'd put 52 into that category depending on what else was going on (insulin "on board" activity, etc.) that I'd treat with 8-12G of carbs and wait the 15, or even better, 20 minutes to see if that took care of it.
I would move my average up if it were 63 too. I suspect maybe the basal insulin could come down a shade. I have a pump and sometimes a small change, like +/- .025/ hour, will make a perceptible difference in my BG so the changes don't always have to be large, just a small "nudge" to get it where you want it!
I do this sometimes too, I'll seem low all the time and then turn it down. It seems like .8U/ hr is a shade too much and .775U isn't quite enough. I'd be intrigued to try to program it to do like hour or 1/2 hour at each of those rates to split the difference but have been too lazy to do all the programming.
Sofie, you are terrified because you don't feel you have control. Before this happened, you operated under the assumption that you were in control of your condition, and that nothing was going to come out of nowhere and get you beyond your control.
I want to tell you, firmly, that you are still in control. Nothing has changed. What this episode tells you is that you need to improve your techniques and methods for how you control your condition. Yet, don't forget that you control this situation, not the other way around.
A few things to gain more confidence; I'm assuming you are on MDI:
Only go to sleep when you are in fasting metabolism (no food at all for 3 hours)
Only go to sleep when you have no IOB; for a person on MDI with humalog or other fast-acting, this is 3-4 hours after your last injection. While there is still some action after 4 hours, its pretty small.
Learn your I:C ratio, and carb count. This makes a HUGE difference in preventing overmedication with insulin.
Related to carb counting, dump the sugar syrup and use something that's measured. A lot of us like skittles because they're about 1g per piece of candy, so it's easy to measure. I got a bunch of those little tiny zip-lock bags (the kind drug-dealers use to dispense crack -- [eeps!]) and have loaded them with 15 skittles each. I have handfuls of those little packages all over the place -- in my nightstand, office desk, car glovebox, briefcase, and on and on. I can always find a few.
When correcting a low follow the 15/15 rule: Take 15g of sugar, wait 15 minutes, test BG again. If still under 70, repeat. This will help control the crazy rebound from the low.
Best of all, if you can get a CGM, DO!
You've been doing this successfully for 13 years, nothing has suddenly gone wrong. Don't worry, and don't be afraid. Take control of the situation, rather than let it control you. The latter is what paralyzes you with fear.
Finally, while your adjusting your processes to adapt to this episode, set a moderate BG goal for the evening and night, like 120-130. Plan to go to bet @ 120 and wake up there too for awhile while you try some new things people here suggest. Then, when you've got a reliable process, tweak it down over the next couple of weeks to get back down under 100.
You'll be fine... and we're all here, pulling for you.
i might suggest too, that you got a liver dump after that low, because the rise happened so fast. i use glucose tabs, try to keep them by your bed. what happened to cause the low, do you know? did you bolus before bed time, change your basal? Have you been waking up high in the AM, maybe you're dropping low and then going high in the am and just caught the low. do you use a CGM? what caused you to wake up, were you sweating, shaking, having a nightmare, etc...? I think the best way for us to feel safe and get control is to 'try' and understand why this happened. Did something change in your management? Stay strong, I realize it's scary..geez, I'd feel scared too...but please try to look for some answers, if there are any?
It's a very scary thing, Sophie. Many diabetics will experience this; you are not alone. There are a number of good suggestions above in replies so I won't get into adding on top of them. I will share one scary experience, though. In a little over 28 years, I've experienced a total of 4 episodes (that I know of) where I slipped into severe hypoglycemic shock and passed out. The first time was about 20 years ago when I was going to college. It was around midnight (I worked at a restaurant, and we had closed at 11:30 and folks were finishing cleaning up), and someone came up to me and told me that I looked very pale and asked if I felt ok. I wasn't sure how to respond. They didn't know I had diabetes, and they told me to leave early. In reality, I had been sweeping the same area of the floor for about 20 min and thinking that I was making good progress. My brain sometimes goes before the physical symptoms kick in. When that happens (this was before I was using the CGM), I needed someone to tell me that I'm having a problem. As it turns out, I forgot my locker combination in the dressing room (didn't know why, I had opened it so very many times before). The rest of the staff came and went; I didn't say anything, as I couldn't figure out what was happening. The next thing I knew (about 4 hours later), I opened my eyes sprawled out on the floor. My work clothes were ripped to shreds, lockers were dented, and other damage to the room done. It became very clear to me that I had suffered convulsions as I looked at my bruised hands. I immediately remembered my locker combo, changed, and went to a 24-hour gas station next door to buy a 1-pound bag of M&Ms. I proceeded to consume the entire bag, not caring about suffering the side effects of a high blood sugar (I was scared outta my mind). This led to a session with supervisors the next day, and making sure that everyone who was working with me knew about my diabetes and what to do. It can be scary when you are by yourself all alone. Everyone had left for the night, and I was still in the locker room. My doc said that I'm lucky to have woken up from it (should have been in a coma). My glucagon stores in my liver ended up saving me.
Stay strong, Sophie. I'm relatively new to this site, but have found it to be wonderful so far. We are all here to listen, share our experiences, and coach each other with helpful tips. :)
Yup, you have to be ALIVE to have these fears... you are alive correct? The 120 is not the issue, nor is 90, nor 70... they're only a problem when we actually crash... you could be one point away, but until you actually do, its not a serious problem.
Readings ARE NOT accurate venous lab draw readings. They are capillary readings, which means they are not real time, "core" blood glucose... They are hints only.
Now, let's bring you back from the edge ok?
How many times have you had THAT kind of a low? Every day, twice a day, five times a day? Lets count them up... one time in thirteen years right? Something on that scale lets see, once in 4,745 days? Let's pretend you did four readings per day (on average) would mean once in 18,980 readings... Not bad odds at all.
Maybe cut back a couple units until you feel safe enough, to trust you can boost your coverage back again. Eat a little more before bed, and keep an eye on the morning readings. If you're spiking really high, maybe, maybe you are bouncing somewhere at night. Could be dinner coverage coming to bite you too, but likely you'd catch them?
Easy to figure it out... cut back minimally, whichever insulin(s) are the likely suspect (eg for the middle of the night) and watch.
You survived... try not to feed the "Ghosts of Lows Past". Thats not living, thats RE-living past events. Try not to give kindling to bad emotions, thats not going in the right direction...keep you or anybody else healthy-sane
