yes
I used NPH for 15 years, and had bad reactions, once or twice each year. I had no reactions on Lente, and only once on Lantus. None since I switched to the pump. Of course, there were plenty other factors at play here.
Twice in 30 years requiring 911 call + ER trip + glucagon.
Also some seizure type stuff where I was mostly conscious but my arms or legs were jerking around a lot and not really under conscious control.
Yes. Prickly skin on fire and all, terrible and wouldn't wish on anyone. Almost 15 years T1D and I think it has been a handful of times...
No.
Yes.
No seizures, just passed out. I had one week of vertigo about 10 years ago. Passed out twice that week after never having passed out before that or since then in 35 years of Type 1.
It’s a reminder to all of us that no matter how good our control is, sometimes you can’t control or even recognize all of the variables.
No, never.
No; so far so good! Hope it stays that way, but I know that there are no guarantees.
No, never. 46 years.
But always respect it could happen, and have been very caution with all insulin doses.
A doctor once told me to think of it as a loaded gun !
Yep. Probably about 5. Strangely enough it was when I was on an insulin pump and still pretty young. Retard doc. wouldn't listen about lowering my basal at night. Boy it's weird waking up in another room of the house not knowing how you got there and your own family members looking at you like you just fell off of mars, no memory of the event and having to throw up 10 min. later because of glucagon. The same medicine that keeps us alive has a very real potential of killing us to.
OMG, YES!!!!!! i've gone down into the 20s, passed out an was carted away by the parametics on more than one occation. but this mostly happened when i was newly Dx and now when i am going low i can tell from the symptoms (confusion, shakey trambling hands, sweaty...) i have no doubt that every D has had this at least once.
What Doris said. "Yes". The majority of mine happened between the ages of 3 and 15.
Thanks for the responses. The tally so far:
14 yes
12 no
not including the 2 who said semiconscious
Fingers crossed no never and been type 1 for ten yrs.
Thanks for the info Aeon. I have a glucagon kit; have had a few, in fact, but never used one. Do they not expire after a few months, even if you have never touched them nor opened the seal on them?
The times I passed out, I was at home alone and no way to tell anyone where they are. Food for thought for me and I should work on a plan on where to keep one; and who to train to use it.
I never had not one pass-out low on 25 years of NPH then NPH/regular dosing.All three of such "low lows" came when I was using synthetic insulins MDI then Lantus and Humalog when on injections; Novolog,then Apidra through the pump. Interesting. The one shot a day regime never did me in throughout my teen years anad early adulthood. I could always recognize the symptoms and would have peppermint hard candies or jelly beans with me to treat when out or about, or Oj at home to treat. Never got the hypo symptoms without waking up at night. Still like that.
God bless,
Brunetta
I am skeptical about the usefulness of glucagon kits. I remember throwing up a lot and needing an IV every time I was given glucagon as a kid and teenager. As compared to being fully unconscious or in convulsions, waking up and snapping out of it when someone squeezed glucose gel into my mouth. I would also be concerned that the shot would deplete your glycogen, making it more likely for you to experience another severe hypo soon after.
Like everything else in D, YDMV. I have never reacted badly to a glucagon shot and I think probably in my 37 years I have been given 4 or 5. A couple my husband did at home and eventually I became conscious and he gave me a juice box. I think squeezing anything into the mouth of a person who is unconscious or convulsing is ill advised as they could certainly aspirate.
This is a good point. My severe reaction to the glucagon may have been because I was a skinny kid, or because I was unconscious for a long time. And it sounds like you and others had no ill effect from the it.
I was told by an endo (20 years ago), the advantage of glucose gel is that if you are unable to swallow, it will still be absorbed into your blood stream through the inside of your cheek. I clearly remember being revived this way twice by paramedics.
When I was a kid, my mom tried to administer glucagon, but in a panic, pulled the back out of the syringe, spilling it on the floor. She had to call an ambulance instead. To be honest, my wife has never given anyone an injection. I'm not sure how she would handle it.
That said, I do things much differently now, and hope to never get that low again.
Yes, 2 times before going on the pump. In fact, the last time I ended up in the ER was what pushed me to the pump.
Yes, severe seizures twice in 41 years