Oh yes I remember that very clearly. I come from a long line of Type 1’s, some who had already had vision loss at the time of my diagnosis. I was terrified when my eyes started to blur, thinking I was going blind right there and then. When I finally mentioned it to the doc, he explained that it was just a result of my bg coming down from a great high and not related to retinopathy.
ok so this is something ive never really understood…what do you mean by “it took another 2 weeks for my retinas dry out and return to normal?” i dont get it…
when i was in 7th grade in my science class, i started feeling really weird. i had done a bg check about 5 minutes before and i was around 330 so i took insulin. i checked again and i was around 130. my teacher asked if i needed to go to the nurse (guess i didnt look too good) so he sent a girl named Kinzey with me. half way there i started to black out. i barely made it to the nurses office where i drank lots of juice and ate teddy grams. my mom came and got me after that.
Been there done that - after 55 years of varying degrees of low- I had a seizure this Xmas and my husband and the police had to hold me down for him to give me my shot. This has only ever happened once and I woke up to see all these strange men in my bedroom. The CGM has helped me big time. It doesn;t catch all the lows and highs, but just being able to see the trend it is travelling in has saved me a lot. Always check your BG before driving…I sat at Newark airport one time telling people I was diabetic and needed help - no one, no one, no staff, no passengers going through the security offered to help. I felt horribly alone and I got myself to a cafe place and got some cake. I had glucose tablets in my purse but didn;t think to use them…?? how silly are we when our brain fails to function during a low !!
Sheila
My worst experience was being on a hospital ward after been taken down off ICU, no insulin was given to me for hours on end. i went into what I can only describe as a DKA, with high temp and a lot of pain. Scariest part was when I heard the doc saying, she’s gone. I couldn’t tell them that I wasn’t gone.
Jo,
I am so glad you survived! xx
Ooch, As we know Robs, ya can’t kill a bad thing. Christina has been missing you.
If you are a bad thing…we need more of your kind!
Rock on Robs ; )
I have two.
One was waking up in the hospital, with no idea where I was or what had happened and tubes coming out of me. The last thing I could remember was having the flu and going to the doctor’s office. Turned out, I’d been in a diabetic coma in the hospital for 4 days. I was little, so I pretty much just rolled with it, but I still remember the terror of wondering, “Where am I?” (I was going to type an obscenity there, but I doubt I used those much at that age.)
The second was when I was about 16 or so. I was home alone, and no one was expected home for about 10 hours. My blood sugars got really, really low. I’d been that low before, I think, but I’d always had my family with me. Anyway, this time, I had a bottle of juice, but it was across the room from me. And, no matter how hard I tried, I could not control my body to get to the juice. I just kept slipping, and no amount of effort got me to the juice. I was certain I was going to die – I told myself if I just tried a little harder, I could get the juice, and it would be okay. Eventually, I passed out, my body produced some sugar for itself, and I came to. Since then, I’ve had hundreds of episodes with equally bad lows, but that was my first time alone, and it was scary.
when I had two low blood sugar seizures in the same week 3 years ago. that was scary.
but the real thing that made my heart skip a beat was about 6 months ago or so. I was on my lunch break at work and I went around the shopping center to Subway to grab a salad. There was a bit of a line, and I noticed the lady in front of me had on the same insulin pump I wear. She was older then me, in her mid 50’s or a bit later I would say, and has probably had diabetes many longer years. The line wrapped around and I was soon on her other side. I glanced up at her left side (the side I was now on) and saw that she had a glass eye there. Seeing her pump just only a minute before I put two and two together in my head and my heart sank. I very much wanted to tell this lady I had the same pump as her, but my voice wouldn’t work. I was so scared. Scared for this total stranger whom I never met, nor I will probably never cross paths with again, and scared for my own future.
I don’t know why seeing her shook me up so much. Every day I think about it, about her. I have worked in hospitals, and I am in nursing school, so seeing diabetic people with complications isn’t something new to me. I get lectured all the time from them if they find out I am diabetic too. Seeing them, yes, I know what can happen, but nothing I have seen has made me shiver like that, and made me NOT want to end up like that. Maybe because it was outside of a hospital setting where medical devices arn’t in the “normal” site.
But even my dad’s cousin has had a few strokes and had to have a kidney transplant a few years ago from T1 but even seeing her and hearing stories, it makes me sad and aware yes, but something about this lady in Subway hit me.
Brooke, I aM type one diabetic, fit, fabulous and foxy. And I have had diabetes for 41 years: NO COMPLICATIONS!!! I carb count, moderately exercise, test 5-8 times a day, and eat healthy ( limited fried foods, stay away from most commecially prepared breads, chicken and fish rather than beef and pork, lots of veggies and legumes, diary products and dairy desserts sweetened w/Spenda).I pay attention to, but do not obsess about my blood sugars. I do not have any diabetes induced nerve, eye, heart, nor kidney problems;;all lab and lipid panel tests are good to optimum, and I anticipate living a long time. I even believe that a cure for Type One will come IN MY LIFETIME.: and I AM 54 YEARS OLD :THANKS TO GOD!!
My most terrifying LOW occurred when I was at home alone, in bed with a low., at about 7;00 a.m.I thought my roomate, my cousin, a plumber, was downstairs in his basement level bedroom. I was so weak I could not get up to find the glucose tabs… I realized I was VERYlLow when I noticed that the sheets were wet from urine and sweat, I got up and immediately fell down. I screamed his name, begging him to come help me, but he had left earlier that morning. My heart was beating fast and my vision was double… I was SO WEAK… I wanted to lay on the floor and sleep, THANKS TO GOD that bit of rationality left in my glucose-deprived brain said :“Do Something NOW…or YOU Will die!!“
I crawlEd to the night stand and pulled the phone down by the cord… I dialed 911 and mumbled " I am diabetic, I am low.PLEASE HELP ME!!!” i I crumpled to the floorm crying in fear, it seemed like in less than a minute ( who knows how long, I was sleepy and groggy) there was a knock and a voice at the front door " 911Paramedics!! Are you in there?” I literally crawled to the front door and opened it. They tested my blood sugar ( I was still conscious at 26) gave me a glucagon injection and hooked me up to an IV drip. My neighbor , who had seen and heard the ambulance , came over. After my blood glucose had shot up to normal, in about 35minutes, I was able to talk and make rational decisions. I decided not to go to the hospital, when asked by the emergency squad members, and my nwonderful neighbor hung around for about an hour, helped me change the sheets and get my room in order I did not go to work that day, obviously, but I do not recall feeling that bad after that low blood glucose crash, t of courseI spiked in to the 300’s, but was able to correct with small, sequential correction injections, through the next few hours. ( I wasn’t pumping then, was on Regular and NPH.)
I just remember the emotional terror of knowing that I was ALL ALONe and had to get help some how. I did not then, do not now have hypo-unawareness and the above event has been very rare in my diabetes life.:5 times in 41 years where I needed Out side assistance for a low. All of them were scary, but this was the scariest…
I live alone now and keep the juice box on that night stand and 911 is on speed dial on all my phones. I Have not had any severe low blood sugar episodes,such as this one , in over seven years.
God Bless
Brunetta
My scariest moment was when I was having a low BS and had nothing to counter act it with me. I always have sugar tablets with me now.
When I lost my vision for a couple of hours. When I was working late in my office and pass out and woke up two hours later on the office floor drooling. Funny now, not so back then.
It’s a long one, but it’s my scare.
I was studying abroad in Germany one summer of college and took a weekend trip to the Czech Republic with a few classmates. It was an 8 hour train ride. When we got to the youth hostel in Prague, it was a Saturday afternoon, time to change my insulin reservoir in my pump, and I found I had not packed a bottle of Humalog.
That day, I spent hundreds of dollars on taxis, visited several hospitals, a doctor’s office, and several pharmacies. No one would help me because the pharmacies didn’t sell anything but R pen cartridges and I had no valid Rx for R. One doctor nearly broke my pump reservoir door off trying to determine what my pump was, called me an alcoholic, and physically threw me out of his office. It was raining, I was crying, I was on crutches from a foot injury, etc. I had to choose between getting on a train alone and heading back to Germany to my insulin, hoping I would not lose consciousness somewhere in the Czech countryside, or staying and hoping that, miraculously, I’d find what I needed.
The worst part? The desperation. When I felt like I had exhausted every resource, I actually called my parents to say goodbye. Then the eeriest calm came over me and I just sort of accepted I’d die there. A friend convinced me to at least return to the hostel where there were people who spoke English.
If it wasn’t for the man who owned the hostel, I might have died. By that evening, with my sugar in the 400s and rising, he had called a medical center to have an on-call doc meet me across town. The doc spoke English, gave me a full exam so I could get a prescription, and called a pharmacy to stay open until I could get there to pick up the pen cartridges of R.
The best part? I laid awake all night, R in my pump, realizing that if I could survive that at 21, there was no scare too big to tackle. I can’t say I did it alone, but I’d done it lonely, depending on strangers and my own attempts to keep a clear head.
Stopping by a Lenscrafters for STRONGER driving glasses to discover my retinas were hemorrhaging! Not sure who was more terrified…me or the junior optomitrist who did the exam. Yeah, on second thought…I win! 
The eye doc came back in the room with the yellow pages, randomly picked a retinal surgeon and said you need to go NOW. Fortunately, she picked a GREAT doc who relly took great care of me. Before I left his office he said to me…“the house isn’t on fire, but there’s definitely smoke”. Yes, one of the big D’s subtle warmings to straighten up! .
i have three. the first was watching my father die. he had been a type one for years and years. he always said “i am going to beat the odds, if i take care of myself and stay in my meal plan (this was the late 90’s) i will live longer than the expected 64 years” when he died he was 64. it was a long list of complication issues and hospital errors, he eventually died of a massive heart attack. at the time i was type one and i had already seen my son dxed at 3 years old…
second one was waking up in the hospital strapped to a back board with a full neck brace and everything. i was told that i was in a bad car wreck. i did not even remember getting into a car, and i was about 60 miles for the last place i remember being. fortunately i found that the back brace and neck thing was a precaution that b grade ambulances always use. there was a police officer there waiting to arrest me as a drunk driver. i had a diabetes alert necklace on. i guess that b grade ambulances do not check for that. i came to just from my liver dumping glucose while i was in the hospital, no one there even considered that i was a diabetic.
third. i was in a parking lot on a long road trip about to take my insulin. it was just before sun up so i didn’t have much light. as i lifted the syringe up to the middle of the windsheild to see what i was doing, i realized i was nose to nose with a police car. both officers got out with guns drawn, it took a little explaining, but i really thought that i was going to go to jail. they were very unreasonable. i had two of my sons asleep in the back seat, i had to produce proof of parentship. i guess that one was not so scary as it was just plain unreasonable… made me mad
My wife and I were in the process of moving from CT to NC, and I was up north clearing out the last of our things while my wife was working in NC. One morning after breakfast I decided to lie down when I felt a low coming on. My BG was 24, and all I had was 6 glucose tabs - and no food in the house. I took them and rechecked my BG and it was down to 20. I was able to call 911 (the 1st time I’d done that in 14 years with Type I). My previous record low was a 40, and by the time the meat wagon arrived I was sweating so bad it soaked the money in my wallet. I recovered, but there was just one problem - I’m unemployed and have no health insurance. All my health care comes from the Department of Veterans Affairs - such as it is. I’ve spent the last 2 months trying to get the VA to cover all the bills that have been pouring in. Being hospitalized with no income or health insurance is a frightening nightmare that I’ve not yet really recovered from.
My first loss of consciousness hit me hard. The cold, painful pounding of my heart as I went down and then waking up with EMTs beside me and hooked up to an IV. But more than that, the fear factor hit me when I was first diagnosed. I kept imagining myself without my limbs and blind. I knew zip about the disease actually.
Mine was coming round from a horrendus hypo and realizing i’d slept with sum1 in the hypo sum1 i hated and really wouldnt have wanted to even if i wasnt hypo. I have never felt so vulnerable or scared in my life 