I quit using glucose tabs a long time ago…just couldn’t take the taste anymore. I usually have juice at home and use sport gels when out. But between me and my daughter (who also has type 1) we have had a few occasions where we were caught without enough glucose tabs or juice and have had to resort to whatever we could get our hands on. One time we were caught in a traffic jam for four hours and had already used our sugar stores during our pumpkin hunting that day. We were getting pretty nervous after about two hours, having already cut back on the basal, when my daughter continued to go lower and lower. I was just about to begin wandering through the line of cars to see if anyone had any juice boxes…when a couple of kids came wandering down the roadside offering apples and cookies for sale!
So, have you ever had to resort to something out of the ordinary in the heat of the battle?
One time we were having a band practice session and I’d worked all day and played golf beforehand and was having a hell of a time tuning my guitar and realized I needed something and the drummer was like “We don’t have a lot but help yourself” so I went up and MrsDrummer walked into her kitchen to find me squirting their chocolate sauce down my hatch…
Now that’s what I’m talking about! I can remember when first diagnosed and riding on a diabetes charity ride…needing fast carbs and getting to every rest stop and finding low-carb foods for type 2’s and having to scarf down whatever they had…in bulk! I was still on shots then and had a hard time figuring out how much to cut back before riding.
Straight up maple syrup, because we were moving and that’s all we had left after having cleaned out the fridge. Then I realized it was sugar free, and wouldn’t help at all! So I had to grab the regular syrup and drink that too. Ew. Sometimes diabetes definitely gets interesting! It makes for good stories, though!
Hoooooo yeeeesss! I have been known to go into my local supermarket (ASDA, American equivalent WALMART) and go into a hypo and pick something - ANYTHING up and start to eat it before I get to the checkout. Most of the regular shop staff are used to me by now and let me carry on, I recover and then go and pay with the packets already opened. Perhaps the weirdest things I come out with are a box of sugar lumps - and weird sweets which I would not normally like when I am that bad!
I was at the diabetes clinic a few months ago and I went hypo during the consultation - it seemed (to me) that the doctor was sitting outside the window of the room. I had this little bottle of Lucozade which is like a glucose shot bottle. I necked that down and it did not work! Oddly I started shaking violently and my heart rate was weird, yet I did not seem to get any better! I do not usually have the tremors any more. I was pouring sweat and felt really awful. The doctor went off to find another doctor because it would not go up, in fact it was going down. And the doctors both came back and looked at the Lucozade bottle to discover that it was LO SUGAR and actually a high caffeine shot!
I wrote to the company and they said sorry that I did not like their product but offered me nothing by way of recompense and said that they would look into changing the label (they have not!). Silly thing is, Lucozade is known as a glucose drink so I bought it on the assumption that it would be a good think to have on my person. I had no idea that there were other things that Lucozade makes, but the label was exactly the same as their glucose bottles.
That reminds me of the low-carb food craze of a few years back…we were trying to figure out how something that looked like a candy bar could have only 3 or 4 carbs! It turns out they really should be called slow carbs, not low carbs…based on how blood sugar responded. Yes, diabetics are probably the most avid label readers.
Hi Team Low-Tech. "Diabetics are probably the most avid label readers – rivaled only by those of us who have both Diabetes and Celiac Disease. I too often find that walking around a big store, I go low about checkout time… I’ve stood at a candy counter, going lower and lower, trying to figure out something w/out too much fat to work quickly… and found York Patties or Kellogg’s Marshmallow bars help; not perfect, but work fairly soon. Usually feel like a fool, muttering something about having diabetes, gotta eat right now.
I too was caught during a move, You know all the food is packed or gone and you’re doing the whole “eating out for every meal” thing. Well it was late, and we were waiting for the truck to come back so we could load the last few boxes, nobody had their keys, or cars with them (they were at the new house) and I began to crash. The only thing we on hand was a bunch of sugar free sports drink that someone had brought (thinking of me of course) and a package of uncooked top ramen which we fished out of the trash.
I had about half of the top ramen down when the truck came back and the driver had an unfinished Mt. Dew!
Can’t stand Top Ramen anymore cooked or otherwise!
I almost always use lifesavers or juice nowadays. I have squirted the Chocolate syrup in my mouth before for a “treatment”. It worked pretty well, but a little difficult to count the carbs.
I remember having a few dreams in college about correcting hypos. I lived with a few guys and food was hard to keep in the place. If you went looking for food you may only find stale bread, condiments and beer available. I remember a dream a few times where I was in desperate need of carbs and ran to the fridge to get anything. The only thing in the fridge was tons of beer. So in my dream I downed 2 beers as fast as I could to correct my hypo. Talk about a treatment!
Must admit to a fondness for York peppermint patties…developed well before diabetes entered the picture. Have definitely hit those at a long checkout counter and feeling low.
I’m still only 90 days out from diagnosis, so I’m still fairly vigilant in my preparation and haven’t run in to this situation yet. This thread has certainly given me a few ideas for when I do, though!
To be honest I do not bother about carbs when I am hypo! I do not get warnings or symptoms until I am about 2.2 mmols which is way too low anyway! I just get stuck in and deal with the consequences later! I am also numerically dyslexic so it would be pointless trying! I will eat until I feel better.
Depending on the alcohol and the situation. I would not use beer as a hypo treatment but if it is a non-light beer I can expect it to raise my blood glucose 95% of the time. So if it was the only thing I had? I’d be a chuggin.
I have not done it as it just does not seem smart, but I do not think it would be the worst for me. I bolus for every carb in a drink as they all effect my BG rather fast. The only lowering effect I see from alcohol is that it really stops my DP before it gets started.
