Stomach Virus and using the Glucgacon Emergency Kit

Yesterday evening around 5 pm MST, I was having digestion problems. My BG (Blood Glucose) was between 40-45. I tried eating 2 hamburgers (meat patties, whole wheat bread, mayo and romaine lettuce) for dinner. I was already feeling tired from the day before’s hike (sunburn, dehydrated and drained). I had already eaten a peanut butter sandwich, peanut butter crackers, an apple and banana with almond milk, but I couldn’t raise my BG. So I told myself, well it’s already time for me to have dinner. However, I was full after the first hamburger and I had to go to the men’s restroom, but I couldn’t make. I was constipated. My BG at this point kept dropping lower so I had me some cranberry juice that was apparently out of date. So after drinking the 38 gm of sugar cranberry juice my BG began to rise to 47, but I was still constipated. An hour after drinking cranberry juice, I finally was able to go to the restroom. The thing is I had diarrhea and I felt like throwing up. So I went to my bed and laid there monitoring my BG. I started to feel weak, slightly dizzy and hot from the sun burn I got from the hike the day before. As I was monitoring my BG I noticed it would go up a few numbers then back down to below 40. Then five minutes later, I felt everything coming up. So I ran to the restroom to vomit. After I was finished, I felt more weak so I went back to my bed and checked my BG and I was still below 30. For more than two hours I could not raise my BG so I decide to use the Glucagon Emergency Kit.

I have never had to use it, but felt like I had to being sick and not able to get my BG risen. I prepared the solution and injected myself with it freaking out with the gauge of the needle :hushed: Within 5minutes, my BG started to rise quick. I laid down, waiting for it to do its job, but within 30-45 minutes of the injection my BG got up to 167 and stopped. Then monitoring using my CGM, the arrow was steady, but every 5 minutes noticed it going down 2-4 numbers. I wasn’t sure if maybe my CGM wasn’t being accurate. So I checked my BG on my monitor and saw that it was at 154. As it lowered, I laid there sick and out of it. My diarrhea got worse. I began to have watery, clear stools like a water hose. So I was wondering…

What made my BG to act like this? Would it have been better to prepare another Glucagon Emergency Kit? What got me sick? Should I have forced water down even though I couldn’t keep it in?

I felt fine in the morning just tired and hot.

I think it would be hard to tell, but one thing I would suggest you look into is gastroparesis. You say you were constipated but you then had diarrhea. You may have felt totally full, but it may not have been constipation it may have been your stomach not emptying at all and everything being backed up. Which might also explain your wanting to throw up and the failure of anything you consumed to help your blood sugar rise.

I would always encourage you to correct your blood sugar before a meal. So when you ate at 5pm it would have been better to correct with some glucose until you got a normal blood sugar, then eat. And if you bolused for your meal you may have compounded the problem because you not only didn’t properly correct for your low, you may have taken an additional bolus and actually not gotten any food digested.

Sounds like it could be the day before but one may never know.

If you do have gastroparesis then smaller meals, liquid meals, avoiding fat and fiber are all things that are suggested. Some people find certain exercises help such as walking help. Bernstein has some special stomach exercises. Water itself once you have become blocked up would have likely just made you feel fuller.

Now this last thing is very important. Glucagon is your last resort. You get one shot. The glucagon causes ALL of the glycogen in your liver to be released immediately, perhaps 100 grams or more. This can save your life but it totally depletes the glycogen stores in your liver and a second glucagon shot won’t work. At all. If you are still going low after glucagon and cannot treat orally your only option is IV glucose. And you can only get that at the hospital. It is important to understand that after having administered a glucagon shot you are “fragile.”

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@Larryest2 as an alternative, a mini-dose of glucagon might have brought up the BG just as effectively. Parents of children with T1 are often taught to use the mini-dose during illness. The solution is mixed the same way, but injected subcutaneously using a regular syringe. For kids, the udual dose is 1u/yr of age, up to 15u. My daughter is 17 but a 15u dose works quite well. It brings up the BG without causing the typical nausea of a full dose, caused by the liver dumping all of its glucose stores at once. The remaining mixture can be refrigerated & used for up to 24hrs.

A recent study showed the method to be effective in adults as well, although the study involved the glucagon pen.