If you have someone close like a spouse who totally "gets it" with all things D, and that person can help but not "hover," then that is better than being alone. Fear and distress in the face of a low by this support person can make things much worse. Being a graceful "type 3" is hard! And very special to those in such a relationship.
I tried LifeAlert 20 years ago. After my neighbor responded to two false alarms, driving home in the middle of the workday to check on me, only to find out there was no cause for alarm. I shut the service down. It may work out better for someone older, more fragile, with mobility difficulties.
Besides that, when my cognitive ability is unimpaired, I don't need the service. When my cognitive ability is impaired, I can't trigger the service! It was not practical for me.
It's kind of like keeping a glucagon kit on hand. If I had my wits about me, I could treat the low and not need the glucagon. If I don't have my wits about me, I could never mix a and give a glucagon shot.
My bad. I signed up for that group and never showed up.
I find that lows, early on in the process can sometimes be somewhat seductive. I experience a little cognitive lift, increased alertness and energy. I feel wide awake and mentally with it. It is this perceived mental acuity that lulls me (distracts me) deep into a low before I realize that I am low! Anyone else observe this?
It's a strange idea that I've never written about before but thought about often. I do think that there is a sweet spot for BGs and the brain is happy when it's there.
I just read your post to my husband. He is the perfect "type 3". He has total "empathy". He said that he knows that it doesn't have anything to do with when I ate or what I did. I can eat perfectly and still be "in trouble". When I say that I need to test because I 'feel low', he follows me. He makes sure I test and I don't get distracted. He encourages the test and kids me if I stall. He waits and asks, 'what's your number'? If it is kinda low, he will ask if I want fruit, has me sit down and gives me choices. If it is very low (30's - low 50's), he brings me juice...opens it (sometimes even that it clumsy for me), waits till I drink it and after I retest (if I also have a bolus coming) maybe I also need something else. He won't leave my side until my number has popped, and still asks if I am ok and tells me he is available by phone if I need anything. A perfect "type 3".
dex4 (presumably dextrose 4g tablet) in your posting above.
Got dexcom on the mind -- I had just re-ordered sensors when I read your post. :-)
Ha...Shawnmarie. That second vid where he says "That was dumb". I have said that plenty of times. Those were awesome links Thanks for posting that.
That, uh, gets right to the point now, doesn't it? :-)
Well, i know this might sound not so appropriate, but sometimes i just say its like being drunk. At first, you feel a bit dizzy, and i usually start talking a LOT and being funny. i don't see very clearly anymore, and the lower your bg gets or the more alcohol you drink, this intensifies, until there is a point where you collapse...
just another point of view... ;)
nothing inappropriate imo, those are often my symptoms too... I like Scott's explanation- short, accurate and to the point. I have many other symptoms such as confusion, weeping at times, fear, crabbiness... my focus when I'm dropping is I'm in danger and have to treat it quick because I've gotten to the point where it can be dangerous. The problem for me with treating it earlier is can spike a lot if I do that, I never really know what will happen.
yes, I get that too, that is how they sneak up on me maybe?
A few times when people have asked I have described a severe low by saying that it feels like a dream and/or being really drunk. Things around you don't seem right, nothing really makes much sense, you know something is wrong but not what, accomplishing things takes enormous effort, and so on.
For me, more mild lows just make me feel weak and I have to concentrate more to think, literally as if my body isn't getting enough glucose. I don't get shaky or sweaty or anything for most lows.
I generally just tell people I "feel low" and need to test, without going into details. All my friends and family know that I can deal with most lows on my own. My family and a few friends know how to use glucagon, but I'm not sure anyone would actually be able to use that in an emergency without extensive practice. Most of the time I just tell people that if I'm too out of it to understand what is happening and/or if I'm unable to eat or drink (and definitely if I'm unconscious) they need to call 911.
Short, succinct, and to the point. The only problem is once my brain doesn't get enough glucose, I can't grasp or convery those concepts about passing out and having seizures. Luckily with the dexcom and pump my most recent lows have come on very slowly and are easily corrected with some dex4 - which hasn't gotten caught in my throat yet although does taste horribly like watermelon flavored chalk.
I agree that the clarity of Scott A's description is useful and, in many cases, the suggestion of passing out will get "straight" people to swing into action to get some Mountain Dew or other treatments. At the same time, I think that the throes of hypoglycemia, it's a bit hairier than just "being drunk" ("Harvey" notwithstanding...), and like to explain to people about the hallucinations (orange people with plaid hair, space aliens, sound distortion, I hear a lot of echoes, like huge reverb...) that often figure into things. Passing out is one thing but bats in the belfry are another....
At some level, if someone isn't understanding that I need a little time because of a medical condition, the problem isn't that I need to give them a better explanation of what a hypo is. And when I'm having one I don't have time to sit down and talk to someone. My son in on the autism spectrum. He's not severely affected, but explaining to him that "I need a few minutes because I'm low" while he's having a meltdown can be pretty rough.
Some lows do have a drug-induced patina.
Many years ago I bicycled hard, up and down hills, for eight hours and then went home to eat dinner. This was when I used a meal insulin that took longer for onset. I took my dinner insulin and sat down in an easy chair to watch some TV before I ate. I fell asleep and the next thing I'm aware of is being on the floor and thrashing around. I had ripped my pump off of me as well as my medic alert medal and neck chain.
I got up and looked at my front room and furniture. It looked like there was a fake cardboard TV in the TV cabinet, like what might be used at a furniture sales floor. All the books and tapes on the shelves looked like fakes. I thought some outer-space creature had come down and taken over my apartment. It had a real science fiction edge to it.
This went on for several minutes and not once did I ever consider checking my BG. My science fiction discovery was so fascinating that I had to share it with somebody. This was before I had a cell phone and I didn't program in speed dial. So, with my glucose starved brain, I walked over to the phone and proceeded to accurately punch in a 10 digit long distance phone number to talk with my sister. When she answered, she asked me right away if I've checked my BG. She wasn't buying the outer-space stuff. Finger-stick - 30 something!
As the glucose hit my brain my TV morphed from a furniture store fake to the real deal!
Interesting. I don't usually get visual effects from a low (but that may be in part because my vision is so bad to begin with). But last night I had a nightmare that jolted me awake (literally, I jerked and woke up). I immediately went to my window and closed it since the nightmare had been about trying to fend off birds that had flown through my bedroom window to attack me. When I looked outside at the city lights it looked like there was static out there. Like I was looking through a bad TV signal with lots of snow. I thought it was weird, so went and tested and was 3.2 (58). I did not feel low at ALL and would otherwise never have thought to test. It wasn't horribly low (though it was 2:00 AM and no telling how long I may have been low), but I still wonder if it caused the nightmare and the weird static effect (which was gone by the time I treated the low and went back to bed).
wow..., I have been 28 and felt like I was perfectly fine.. no visions or distortions etc. I notice my hearing starts to get weird when I'm low as well as my vision.
OMG Terry that story rang a bell with me. I had a low like that once I don't remember the specifics but when I looked at pieces of furniture they were in the wrong place and angled completely wrong. And rooms in my house didn't look anything like they are supposed to. Strange what the glucose starved brain can come up with.
I haven't observed a linear correlation between the BG and trippy symptoms, which may be complicated, from a research perspective, by my not having had them, either those sort of lows or any accompanying wild events.
I used to have a BD UltraSmart meter that read quite low, coming up with a few single digits, more teens and twenties, etc. I don't think the UltraMini reads the same way or maybe I'm doing better these days? This is when I was taking R/NPH which was considerably more exciting, as the unpredictibly peaky NPH could lead to a high, so I'd correct, and then perhaps (no way to tell...) the NPH would hit as the correction was hitting and lead to very exciting times. But not always. Some times it would "just" be shaky/ sweaty/ cranky without seeing or hearing anything unusual. Sort of "luck of the draw" or something?
I know you were joking but boy that would be awesome to see how he felt.