Like being…on acid…
I get those flashing lights too. Strobe lights, like being in a disco! Only pounding, pounding. Very strange.
Yes, I imagine like being on acid, something I've always been curious about and have always been too chicken to try. My imagination's plenty vivid as it is. And now, my disease is creating this sensation for me! Only hopefully, with the help of glucose tabs, I can bounce right back, instead of being locked in a bad trip (which was always my fear).
Sorry: Cyber Klutz here. I'm still getting used to these boards. I accidentally deleted a comment and replaced it in the wrong place.
Does anyone ever feel real panic? Besides the lights, the sweating, the crankiness & impatience (it always feels like people are moving and talking so fast, it's irritating), I have also felt serious panic, aka "I'm going down." I feel like I'm literally about to disappear into a black hole in the floor. Is this the sensation you get right before fainting? It's pretty scary.
Went to a novo nordisk training day a few months ago and they had a hypo simulator. Well I had to have a go to test the accuracy. It was like on one of those virtual reality visors. They had actually got the visual side close (blurry, unsteady, bright light)but when the guy asked for feedback I suggested they crank it up a notch and use it in a sauna, whilst standing on a vibro plate (like from the gym) licking an unpeeled kiwi fruit (for that fuzzy tongue feeling) after ingesting cannibis (for that eat everything feel!). He did not know quite how to respond :)
omg, love it ! and I'm quite sure he didn't have a clue how to respond. But at the same time I am truly impressed that Novo is working on something like that. I think it would be very useful for endos, CDE's and Type 3 parents/caregivers to actually get even a slightly inaccurate sense of a hypo.
That sounds great! I've never enjoyed that level of timely, appropriate, and nuanced support. Count your blessings.
My husband never saw me have a really low blood sugar until after we were married (30 years ago). I was acting strangely to him and not being very cooperative. My blood sugar was in the 40's. He had no clue how to handle it so he called my mom who gave him instructions and kept me on the phone with her until I was better. God love that man cause I have really given him a run for the money with my lows in the past. One of the reasons I started on the pump. It's not a perfect solution but it gives him more peace of mind when I am alone. Both he and my son can tell now when mama's doing "the chicken" (that's our name for hypoglycemic episodes).
my 9 year old daughter always says her "legs are tired" when she feels a low. She wont describe it any other way but that.
For me, personally, my low symptoms/feelings go in stages. How I describe this to friends is really light hearted in hopes of relating to them in some experience they have had that is NOT low blood sugar.
First: I feel like I've had a glass of wine. I feel pretty happy, chatty, giggling, and its hard to really focus on something serious. No life threatening symptoms yet, but if I start getting overly chatty, they should keep an eye out for me. Usually this occurs between 74-64 BG ish.
Second: This is where the giggles stop. Concentrating just becomes impossible. I will ask "What?" to everything you say. I will stutter, start shaking a bit, and my personal oddball symptom is that my nose will get cold. This is my "completely confused, starting to get scary" stage. At this point, they usually know that if I haven't by now, this is when to politely ask me to take my BG. This occurs anywhere between 63-50.
Third: This is the physical symptoms stage. I cold sweat, shake profusely, I'm disoriented, my walking is severely affected, and the confusion is at it's maximum. I can understand what you say, but responding is so hard that it usually doesn't happen. This occurs anywhere from 45-below.
Granted, I'm becoming more and more hypo insensitive. 55 BG is when I start to show symptoms like my cold nose or chatty-ness which is starting to scare me. But this is how I explain this to people who don't really understand what low BG is. I tell them it is a set of stages that starts out as "kind of silly" even though its serious, and eventually turns into a sight that is really terrifying; because the diabetic can become unconscious or unable to move to get that juice box they need.
T1 30+ years;
Flash bulb thing happens to me, the chatty giggly silly stuff happens, the confusion about what all is happening around me- because I'm focusing all my remaining energy on getting to some food/juic. I also do the "low gamble": in my head is.."hmm, I know I'm lowish because I've been sitting at my desk working on finishing ONE little task and I keep getting lost (like re-reading a line of text three times, and still not understanding it) but I'm SO close to being done, so I'll keep going because I'm SURE I have at least 10 more minutes before I REALLY have to treat this low...besides I'm going to eat lunch in 30 minutes- sheesk, just keep going, it'll all be ok" and then I'm sweating and can't walk very well. Awesome.
Another is what my brother (also T1 30+ years) and I call the "grocery store reaction"; imagine you are standing in front of the peanut butter section- you see there are five shelves of solid peanut butter, all different colors, all different types, brands, etc.. You site the one brand that you like, and you locate the crunchy (creamy is gross), and in a split second it is all gone and comes right back and you are now looking at a different area of peanut butter. I explain it as a half second blackout. As if you've just blinked. But you didn't blink, and you were just looking at the peanut butter jar you wanted, and you were reaching for it, and WHAM blink, and now your eyes are focused on something else.
Seems to only happen when I'm low and reaching for an item on a shelf in a store. Same with being in a 7-11 and opening the cooler door and reaching for the 100% apple juice that it just took three minutes to locate among the choices, and then WHAM the blackout and you can't see and then you can see and you are no longer reaching for the right thing. Couple this with the flashbulb thing and its really fun.
Sometimes it almost feels like your body/ head twitches as the blackout happens and so to make it stop, you just close your eyes and stand there until you hear someone and you say, "Excuse me, I'm diabetic and need some help because I can't see; could you hand me a bottle of apple juice? Thanks so much!"
Last weird that I've never found anyone else experiencing;
When I'm super SUPER low (24-27) I'll start convulsing, but not blackout. I'm conscious for the entire convulsing part of the severe low. I can hear, I can see, I can feel someone touching me, and sometimes I can talk a little. The HYSTERICAL part of this little trip is that my sense of equilibrium is absolutely shot. I KNOW I'm LAYING in my bed. I KNOW I'm having a severe reaction and am having convulsions. I KNOW I'm only about two feet from the floor. I KNOW that I won't hurt myself if I roll off the side of the bed onto the plush carpeting. And yet, it feels as if I'm standing on the deck of a "deadliest catch" boat in the middle of gale-force winds and huge waves- and I'm in a total panic that I'm going to pitch off the side of said boat...bed. Normally I can just keep telling myself to relax and the convulsions stop after about 5-10 minutes. Then drenched and dripping sweat I can get up and get to the kitchen for juice. Sometimes my 5.5 year old still sleeps in my big bed, and she's woken up before while this is happening and gotten me the emergency icing and put it in my mouth. Sometimes she sleeps through it. Sometimes I can reach up and hang onto the top edge of the headboard to stop the top part of me from jerking around too badly. Blargh. It sucks.
POINT is that no one (RNs, LPNs, PAs, Gen Practitioners, Endos, ER docs, Paramedics, firemen) has ever heard of anyone else experiencing this while remaining conscious. Anyhow, my brother has never experienced it, and it only started with me while I was pregnant 6 years ago. But it is still happening. If it is during daylight/ working hours I can feel it coming and call for help. The last one (June 2013) did not stop within 10 minutes tho- so my boss called the paramedics. They couldn't get it to stop all the way, so they shot me with glucagon and transported me to the ER. By the time we got to the ambulance I did black out- but that was 20 minutes from the start of the whole thing. Of course that time it took almost 4 hours OF NO PUMP and over 100 grams of fast carbs to get me up to 140bg. This happened right after Kiaser Permanente switched everyone from Novolog to Humalog, and I don't do well on Humalog.
That is a whole other post though.
OK, sorry this is long.
Also, I can function as low as 26bg. I know I'm low, but I can walk, I can talk, I can get juice, etc.. but if I go past 26, the convulsions are on their way.
I agree with other posts- telling non diabetic adults that it is similar to going on a drinking bender. Starts out nice and fun and giggly, ends with waking up on the bathroom floor/ half of your clothes missing/ puke somewhere on you/ soaked in sweat/ unable to get up/ and with no memory of how it all got to that point.
:)
Be well!!
Yes to the Low Gamble! I do this at the computer all the time. Yes also to the Grocery Store Reaction. The GSR (we really should make a list of Diabetic Lingo and give these phrases acronyms) happened to me while I was trying to pick out a yogurt. Imagine all those brightly colored small containers appearing and disappearing along with the strobe light flashing. Delightful.
"Delightful"! LOL that made me laugh. I see you are in the Littleton area! I'm in Englewood/ Littleton also. HI FELLOW DENVERITE!!
And holy cow, I did a HUGE post. dang.
Agree- need to make up our own lingo/ acronyms list!
:)
http://www.tudiabetes.org/notes/Commonly_Used_Acronyms
here is a lingo/acronyms list that was posted on TuD. In the beginning I didn't understand a single one of these terms but I agree the GSR is one that should be added. And while your post was huge, it so accurately described something that has happened to me more than a few times but I found it hard to actually put in to words what it feels like, so thanks for your post.
Some of the diet assistants and nurses I have met have actually taken insulin to experience a low first hand. For relatives I am not sure if this is a good idea. Not from the perspective of safety but emotionally. We are used to lows but normal people will find the experience very exhaustive and horrible. After that they might be very fearful to hear that we have a low. As a result they might be overly protective or want us to prevent all sorts of lows. But since some lows are part of the deal with good control I do not think this is a desirable situation.
Well thanks Clare! I just got to typing away and didn't check it over before I posted it...and yeah, HUGE. I'll check out the lingo list link you posted. I think that in our daily lives we rarely get a chance to explain to someone really what a high or a low feels like; there is just SO much going on for everyone that taking the time to sit down and discuss is hard. Especially if you are trying to explain it when you are neither high nor low!
Well, stay out of the grocery store when low- or at the very least hang out in the candy isle. (kidding- too much fat in the chocolate, so hang out in the cold juice section)
Be well!
:)
Hope it's okay if I add to this discussion that it doesn't just have to be a low BG that can make me feel weird, confused unable to focus, etc. I try to stay in the range of 100 to 150, 125 being my goal. But when my BG goes over 200 (I rarely go much over 200), and I use a CGM, so I am good about correcting right away), so then when I get back to 125 (ish) I feel wiped out and exhausted, and like my brain isn't working right, for hours, even a whole day.
I've been actually really lucky with friends. They've all accepted my condition and most of them are more than willing to learn about my conditions so that they understand my feelings and needs at 100% I've never really had to explain anything to my friends, if I was feeling low I'd step off to the side and luckily they would stop anything they were doing to help me.
But... If I had to explain to a stranger about a low blood sugar I'd probably start off by saying that Low blood sugars absolutely SUCK!!! Having a low blood sugar to me is actually the worst part of being a diabetic. You get shaky, you start sweating, you lose all of your color and after that not only do you feel yucky you stand around not able to comprehend what's going on around you. Lows normally make diabetics get really frustrated and seem like a total witch at times, we don't do it intentionally it's just our bodies way of dealing with this low blood sugar. Day time blood sugars are totally different than night time blood sugars. Night time blood sugars you wake up so disoriented that your not sure if you can make it to the kitchen to even get what you need to make your blood sugar better! And funny thing is after you've gotten your blood sugar back up all the sweating and burning up that you just endured will now turn into cold chills that will take you hours to recover from. And after falling back asleep chances are you won't remember much about what happened the night before with your low blood sugar but you will be able to tell the moment that you step in front of a mirror that you had a low blood sugar & rough night by the way your hair is standing straight up on the top of your head. Low blood sugars really do suck, and they are definitely NOT fun and not to be taken lightly...