Its day 5 of National Diabetes Awareness Month! Today I want to describe what it feels like to have a low blood sugar (hypoglycemia, in medical terms). Usually I start to feel my symptoms when my blood sugar hits about 70 (my ideal range is approx. 80-120). The symptoms become more severe as I drop lower, so I try to catch a low blood sugar earlier rather than later. The first sign of hypoglycemia for me is feeling shaky, weak, and a bit lightheaded. Its very subtle and probably very similar to how someone without T1D feels if they havent had any food for a while. Its not a comfortable feeling, but usually I can continue doing what Im doing (unless Im driving or exercising) if I immediately eat a small amount of sugar and maybe decrease my basal insulin for 20-30 minutes. If I continue dropping to 60 and below, my symptoms get worse. The lightheaded feeling is much more pronounced, and I feel weak enough that doing simple things with my hands/arms is exhausting. Sometimes I also feel dizzy, but not dizzy enough to make walking difficult (although the weakness makes walking very tiring, and I avoid expending that energy if I can, in case it sends my blood sugar lower). Focusing on simple tasks or conversations becomes a struggle, and sometimes my face becomes very vacant. At this point, Im likely also experiencing major munchies. My body is deprived of sugar, so my brain very intelligently urges me to eat literally everything in sight. Nothing is safe. Everything will be consumed. Its not pretty. (Sidenote: when I get my hands on every food item in the kitchen, it definitely helps bring my blood sugar up. But it usually means Ill soon be dealing with a very high blood sugar instead, since I wasnt focused enough to take insulin for everything I ate. Woops!) If at this point I havent already fixed the problem and am on my way up, dropping lower brings even more symptoms, and these ones can be scary. At around 40 and below, I start to get very confused. Sometimes I say completely nonsensical things (this normally happens when Ive also been asleep and convinced Im still in dreamland), or I have trouble understanding what people are asking me. Occasionally Ill break into a cold sweat and it literally looks like I just took a shower. At this point Im incredibly weak and probably require a bit of assistance fetching something sugary if it isnt already in my hands. Dropping any lower becomes a mess of all of the above symptoms. Ive never been prone to seizures (knock on wood), but many people experience them during severe hypoglycemia. Also, the progression of symptoms Ive described above isnt exact and consistent; there have been times when Ive felt no symptoms whatsoever and my blood sugar has been 46 or so. You can imagine how scary that is. And things get scarier when hypoglycemia happens during the night when Im sleeping. Sometimes my symptoms wake me up. But sometimes they dont. And if Im alone, waking up confused and weak and exhausted means Im not in great shape to be fixing the problem with lots of sugar, even though I clearly know thats what I have to do. Thats why Im so glad I have my continuous glucose monitor (CGM). It (loudly) alerts me when my blood sugar is headed below my target range and I can avoid feeling anything listed above. Before I had the CGM, going to sleep was scary, because I didnt know how or if I would wake up. Treating a low blood sugar is mostly a matter of eating about 15 grams of carbohydrates and waiting a few minutes until the blood sugar comes up (and then remaining vigilant afterwards to make sure there isnt more insulin in the system to cause another episode of hypoglycemia). Certain carbs like glucose tabs or fruit juice or candies that arent chocolate work very quickly to raise the blood sugar, while other carbs that are complex and might additionally contain protein and/or fat will work too slowly to alleviate the symptoms promptly. Good thing there are lots of options to choose from, so I never get bored! I always have sugar in my purse/pocket/car, just in case I need it. Thats low blood sugar, aka hypoglycemia, in a nutshell! Toss any questions you may have in my general direction and I will do my best to answer! If theres anything in particular youd like me to write about this month, I have 25 days left and Ill probably run out of topics before j run out of days. So send me suggestions if you have any! Thanks! BRIEF REMINDER: November 14th is the day we wear blue to show support for everyone touched by diabetes! Remember to do your laundry accordingly! :)
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:45:12 +0000
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