As with most of you, I may be out with friends who have no clue about diabetes and what a low is. Suddendly, they see you taking a time out and downing orange juice or a tablet with the old deer in the headlight look. I was at a racquetball match recently and was trying to tell an opponent I was unable to start play because I was reading 70 on my CGM and would not play until I got up to around 100. He was puzzled and told me later he did not want to hear any excuses about diabetes and meters next time we play. LOL... I blew it off and tried to explain what a low is. I said you know when you have not eaten and get a shaking feeling? Try compounding that about 50 times and that is what your body feels like. I guess I just confused him more because he thought diabetes was an allergic reaction to sugar. Snickers. Later that evening, I have another friend I play who is also a T1 and we were talking about lows. I was asking him what do you experience? The one thing I found funny was both of us described the sensation of seeing like a flash bulb that just went off when you blink or close your eyes. We died laughing. Anyways, I was curious what you say to your friends about lows so they don't freak out and how you describe it so they understand? Clayton
why don't you give your racquetball pal a unit or two of fast acting and he can feel it for himself?!? joking aside, i tell my friends that i get shaky and sweaty and sometimes confused and tired and drunk-feeling, and that i can usually handle things myself. i also tell them not to give me anything by mouth and get me medical care right away if im unconscious(hasn't ever happened).
this page gives an explanation about what happens during a hypo and the symptoms it can cause: http://www.medicinenet.com/hypoglycemia/article.htm
my soon to be husband has no idea when I am low and how I feel. Explaining it to him has no clue. He doesn't get how I am tired after a low. I told him go about 12 hours with out eating or work all day with out food and then you will know how it feels. That what I say.
Ha! The flashbulb sensation, yes. That happens to me when I'm low and do something like climb some stairs. It's like the "Eyeball CPU" is stuck and not processing all of the image, there's somehow something in my field of vision but my brain is not accessing it. Very disconcerting. But now... I know it's a hypo symptom!
Thanks for the video links, Shawmmarie. That second one about the low and the whole scenario was very realistic. We’ve all been fooled into thinking we don’t need our supplies for a “short” excursion. It’s even worse when you need to communicate your predicament in a social setting when you have the social skills of a toddler!
I especially find it hard and embarrassing when I’m with people who don’t understand insulin caused hypos. Sometimes they just don’t get that I need to treat the low right now! “Can’t you make it to the restaurant? It’s just around the corner.” I can be less than socially agile even when I’m not low. Trying to deal with that ignorance and get what I need just adds to the stress. And that social awkwardness does not recede with the low. I feel embarrassed, angry, frustrated, irritated, and physically wiped-out all at the same time.
I do much better when I have my kit and I’m not socially engaged. I see other people as an added layer of complication. If I’m alone, I can almost always deal with it effectively and I don’t need to offer awkward explanations.
I also experience the flash-bulb effect when I’m low. I first remember it when waking at night with a low. When I see those spots, I eat a Dex4 first, then test. Just this last weekend, I experienced this visual effect and my CGM indicated in the high 70s. A fingerstick revealed low 60s. That’s a good illustration of the lag time of a CGM.
What’s helpful about this symptom is that I never experience it when I’m high or gluco-normal.
Maybe the best way to communicate what a low feels like is to describe it like a caffeine overdose: sweaty, racing heart, confusion and seriously impaired verbal skills.
yes, I see spots too, that's usually my first sign - visual disturbance, if in the 60's. I sometimes start to shake and sweat after my blood sugars start to come up and also the very 'tired, weak' feeling. i sometimes feel nauseous rather then hungry, unless i'm really, really low.
You just verbalized something I've thought for awhile, Terry. There is a new group about Living Alone with D and the assumption is that it is problematic. I posted a few times and felt I came off like a "goody two shoes" because I really am used to doing things on my own and don't have fears about it. But the truth for me as well is exactly what you said that often the presence of other people makes things harder not easier!
Nitrous oxide is a pretty fair facsimile of a hypo. Not so much the “drifty” hypos but the ones that hit you like a train. Sylvia Plath has a very brief account of “insulin therapy” in the “Nurse Ratched” place she was “treated” at in “The Bell Jar”
Not familiar with your Sylvia Plath reference. Was this regarding use of insulin in the past to treat mental illness? I remember reading about this on insulin package insert many years ago. Apparently they used insulin shock (hypos) to treat mental illness.
Exactly. It's not really enormous but a little vignette, followed by orange juice.
(snicker!) While you're joking, in all seriousness it might be a useful exercise, under safe, supervised conditions, to help a loved-one or friend closely involved with one's management to experience it and understand.
I'm not suggesting anyone try this at home.
Also, not even sure if it would work -- non-diabetics' livers and skeletal muscle would just dump a boatload of glucose into the bloodstream, right?
Maybe they'd have to take a metformin too...
I don't bother to explain lows to anyone usually, I just say I'm low and I start treating it. I have explained after what I feel like, how horrible it can be and that usually gets through to most people. I have gone over with my family on occasion that when I'm low it's a potentially life threatening situation- I have candy, juice and glucose drinks allover. Everyone knows where my glucagon pen is and so on. I think you should make it clear to your friend that when you're low and about to do sports and or dropping fast this is a dangerous scenario, so you need to treat any low right away.. explain diabetes to him and what exercise can do to your bg. If he is really a friend he will take the time to get it. My lows have such varying symptoms that it would be hard to explain all of them, but I usually say I feel I will pass out and people seem to get it.
Zoe, LifeAlert ("I've fallen down and I can't get up!") is routinely mocked and ridiculed by the general public, chiefly because most people don't need these things.
Diabetics living alone do. Have you considered something like this as an emergency measure, just in case?
When you choke down that Dexcom 4, doesn't the sensor wire poke your esophogus?
:-)
(couldn't resist)
"My brain isn't getting enough glucose, and if I don't get some sugar in me I can pass out, have a seizure, and/or die."
right on re the social awkwardness. I much prefer to deal with a hypo alone and in the comfort of my own home. no explanations, I can sit on my sofa half naked and trembling and chomping glucose tabs with my sweat soaked clothes in a heap on the floor. not a pretty picture.
;-/ ??!
A virtual puddle! But confident and effective...