Severe Lows....Been there done that.... 40+ times in the five weeks prior to starting on the pump! A few in the 30's, many in the 40's.
The lowest was sort of interesting, a 33. I had no symptoms what so ever, at first. Around 3:00AM one morning, our dog came into the bedroom and body slammed the bed very aggressively. I thought he had to go out. Nope, when I got up he went and laid back down on his bed.
So, I went to the bathroom and felt just a little shaky...really minor...so I checked, just for the heck of it. Surprise!
Treated it and everything was fine.
The next one is a very difficult to share publicly, mostly because of the embarrassment, but it may help others...
The worst 'hypo' I ever had was not technically a hypo, but I had a very extreme reaction to a sudden drop from around 180 to 70ish in a couple minutes. (On MDI and off-schedule combined with hypoglycemia unawareness, a little stress, and a history of severe hypos, are a very bad combination.)
I started to get upset over some inconsequential thing the wife and grand kids did. That should have been my first clue, but we all know how that works sometimes. Wife even said she told me to check my BG and to eat something, but that just invoked more outrage!
It evolved into me screaming at my wife and even threatening physical violence (I'm told)! We had just left the park and I don't have any memory of it or the drive home except for the screaming. I remember pulling into the driveway, then an overwhelming fear of impending death as I drunkenly staggered toward the house. Profusely sweating. I distinctly remember my vision failing at this point. I don't remember how I got in the house, the keys were still in the car.
I managed to get to inside fumbling my way to my desk, it was an overpowering urge to get to my Carb stash, even though I had my glucose tabs on me. Then, inexplicably, I HAD to check my blood sugar, before treating the low! But I could not see the numbers - looked at it later and it was like 73! Felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest! Stripped out of my clothes, (I was naked when I 'came to'). This was when the full on panic mode hit!
I gobbled gummy bears! Wife said I was completely out of it. Having, apparently, auditory hallucinations, etc. She was trying to calm me and the grand kids and explain that their Grandfather was not going crazy! So she did not have time to call 911 or get the glucagon ready before I came out of it few minutes later.
Thankfully that was the first and last such extreme reaction.
I ate something like 90 grams of carbs and the BG only went up to 110!
I came out of it (sort of) rather quickly and was coherent and fairly normal within minutes. I ended up eating around 120 grams of Carbs over the next couple hours just to keep the BG above 100. Really did not feel right until the following day. Worst day of my life.
Wife and I had a very long conversation later. After much groveling and apologizing dozens of times, we worked out a protocol if something like that were to happen again. Then having to explain to a four year old (the oldest) and show him how to call 911 and Grandma if Gramps gets CRAZY again!
Establishing something in a gluco-normal brain that might be recognizable to an impaired brain is not easy. Hopefully we'll catch it early enough next time.
This was the event that convinced her that the pump and CGM were really good idea, despite the cost. No definitive medical reason was established other than, Stuff Happens!
After the event I documented everything my wife and I could remember, in excruciating detail...Looking for an explanation; Documenting it so we could better work together in the future; And yes, as a very painful reminder of the embarrassment, shame and extreme danger I placed everyone in that day.
Since I started on the pump and CGM (June 18th), I've had a grand total of three hypos.
