The very first time i went low I had just started taking insulin and I think i miss calculated my bolus. I was at work freaking out. I didn’t know what to do. I was shaking and sweating and getting weaker by the minute. I called my husband to come get me and he brought some saltine crackers not knowing really what to bring me. I decided that wouldn’t quite cut it, so i dug into his truck console and pulled out a brand new tin of altoids. After throwing a handful in my mouth I REALLY realized what “curiously strong mints” means.
I learned my lesson and always carry at least a couple packets of sugar in my wallet or leave some juice in the work fridge.
Your question implies that something would have actually been effective in getting bg up
Topping the list of crazy things that would have never gotten bg up: A bag of unshelled peanuts poured in a bowl with milk poured on top. (Sorta like how you might eat breakfast cereal). Needless to say it didn’t work. I don’t actually remember trying that firsthand, I just woke up the next morning feeling like crud and found a bowl full of unshelled peanuts and milk on the table in the kitchen with some vague memory of being hypo the night before. I can sort of see how it might’ve happened, because the peanuts were on top of the fridge along with the breakfast cereal.
I do apologise! I am laughing at the picture of this! I have had such bad ones that I do not know what to do, and whether to eat something or not! I have found the kitchen in chaos after a hypo and then going back to sleep and on one occassion I had had several snickers bars, almost a whole packet of biscuits and came to half on and half off the sofa absolutely soaking wet and cold nearly five hours later! I only found out what I had had the next morning, but never unshelled peanuts and milk!
Wow…I had not remembered until you mentioned this that we had done the same for our daughter one time long ago…poor thing must have got her finger poked twenty times that day! One of the interesting parts of diabetes is always having to be flexible, learning to think quick on the run, and trusting it will work out. Of course, she probably got extra carbs that day which was likely a big treat in the pre-pump days.
I have used booze when my BG gets really llow, like 30-40, as I think that it represses the release of the hormones that cause post low spiking? Plus I am totally rock n’ roll…
I had just arrived in China, with a 15 (?) hour time difference and didn’t know how to adjust for it. So in the middle of the night I woke up and tested at 32, and the only thing I could think of was the can of Pringle’s potato chips in the corner (I always have glucose with me, but don’t always remember that). So I munched on potato chips (which I hate, especially Pringle’s), and in the morning, my roommate indignantly asked me “Did you HAVE to eat potato chips in the middle of the night?” Well, yeah!
I am a *POTATO CHIP ADDICT. While Pringles aren’t my favorite, they will do. I think the degree of pulverization that goes into a Pringle may make them work a bit faster than the other kind of potato chips but that’s a very unscientific survey…
@ TimmyMac, yep, I have done that, double dosed on one insulin and suffered the consequences. I have 2 pens and one type in each pen. Unfortunately, stupidly in my view, both pens are identical in colour! Force of habit but I shake both (one is clear and one is cloudy and sometimes I forget to look when I am distracted!
peanut butter, right out of the jar with a spoon, was a favorite while in college. I’ve also, sad to say, smoked a cigarette to get a small boost in BG before I could get to some carbs. That would bump me up 10 or 20 points. I’ve also done the old, half-drank soda/juice in the backseat of the car bit. Gross, but you can’t really taste anything while low anyways. Kind of a catch-22… when we can feel free (well, to 15g) to eat carby things, we can’t taste any of it!
Once, shortly after Dx, ate a whole box of cheez-its while having an overnight low at field hockey camp. I don’t think I brought any juice with me to treat. I’m surprised I didn’t pass out with all that running around.
