Diabetes: Low Blood Sugar Experiences

01/19/2024

Don’t forget, larger Insulin boluses keep working / stay longer in your system!

1-5 units works for about 4 hours.
5-20 units works for more like 5-10 hours!

So if you inject a large bolus, know that it will still be actively working for a longer time.

In other words, be careful stacking boluses after a large bolus!

12/31/2023

Great article on ways to better mimic healthy insulin action in diabetes. Faster acting insulins may, counterintuitively, lead to fewer lows!

Optimal coverage of prandial insulin requirements remains an elusive goal. The invention of rapid-acting insulin analogs (RAIAs) was a big step forward in reducing postprandial glycemic excursions in patients with diabetes in comparison with using regular ...

12/16/2021

Aah, colorful evidence of a barely remembered low sugar sleep!
Email your experiences /insights to [email protected] and i’ll add them to the page!

03/23/2017

Sometimes those nighttime lows get me. My current bedside table. Post yours if you dare :)

01/10/2017

Sometimes even the best of us go low, yes it's true (especially it seems while shopping for me ;). We all tend to go a little crazy with our eating and over correct. Here are a couple stories about the most we have eaten to get back to normal!

Story 1:
Back in the day:
Ive eaten a candy bar and its wrapper both
Had pieces of the plastic whatever that junk "food" was wrapped in. Still remember the taste of that junk food... nasty stuff..
Tried dried out, burnt three day old hot dogs that had been rotating in the case the entire time.
Poured about a pound of sugar into a half used gallon of milk.
Theres definitely a list.... if I think hard enough

Story 2:
A HUGE, and I do mean HUGE mixing bowl with a full box of Frosted mini wheats, and 1/2 cup of sugar, with Chocolate milk....It worked!! Of course I was chasing the high afterward for like 3 days.....ROFLMBO!!!

Story 3:
Oh let's see, banana sandwich with peanut butter, glass of milk and oreo's, of course if full pack, all oreo's must go, and dipping yes, a mess, oh yes yes

12/24/2016

Happy Holidays!

If only we could tap into the this lady's wonderful mind!

"Sometimes when my blood glucose is low I'm convinced that I've come up with a solution to all the worlds problems. Then my bg comes up and I can't remember the solution anymore!

I've gone low during a meeting and told everyone present how wonderful they are and how much I love them. Um, no, I do not usually do that!"

12/19/2016

Short and sweet summary of my late night low response...

"I relate to this. I struggle just to get to kitchen. Test with 30 to 50 usually. Then start to read or think about things or wanting to write. Then it dawns on me I'm in the kitchen. Eat eat eat. I will have to admit. I will take that low and eat the things I normally don't. Cereal and oreo's. Glass of milk. But the feeling of the low is overwelming. So I will eat till it's gone. So then dealing with the high the next day. But my mind drifts from the main concern when low."

12/14/2016

Yes! It is the long-term, ingrained responses and associations to and with LOWs that play with your mind! Read on for this T1's experience.

"As it goes lower, it is harder for me to concentrate. I get more and more impatient. I don't want anyone talking to me while I'm trying to say, finish cooking dinner and measuring portions so I can actually GET FOOD INTO ME NOW. GO AWAY!

I think what's more disturbing than the short-term, immediate effects of lows, though, are the longer term, ingrained responses we develop due to having to dealing with lows. One of my symptoms of lows, for example, is that my vision will dim or go spotty. I was in the living room alone, and reading. Suddenly it became more difficult. The room was dim. I thought "Oh, I'm starting to go low!" I looked at my CGM - no, it said 81. Huh. Well, don't just trust that, so I did a fingerstick. 88. What in the world? Now I was very confused! Clearly I was having symptoms of a low, but I wasn't low!

One of the 4 lightbulbs in the ceiling fan above me had gone out. But mentally, I'm so conditioned to "this is a symptom of a low" that the first response to realizing the room is dim is to check my bloodsugar. Twice. "

12/13/2016

Does existence, exist without sugar, or does it dissolve like a sugar cube in tea...

"During a low, I chase thoughts unsuccessfully. I know a specific thought or idea was just in my mind but it disintegrated to a blank placeholder in my head and I want it back but can't get it. I also have great difficulty with speech, not being able to put together full sentences. This is a either funny or embarrassing because I am a teacher by trade."

08/30/2016

After reading this i will take a moment to be thankful for loved ones that keep us company at night:

"My best indicator is my husband. At night he is always the first to wake up if I start to sweat. He can also always tell when I am awake--usually before me! The other day he begged me to test and I kept saying that no, I was sure I wasn't going low. I was 28!! I am gradually learning to believe him. He claims there is something different in my eyes and in my voice. Lately I am getting more and more unaware of my lows. "

08/29/2016

Yep, totally get it:

"ok, so this is really bad, i know. i have had a number of hypo mishaps in my day. so one morning while driving to a job, i was distracted by work related calls. i inadvertently forgot to drink the gatorade that i drank every morning, like clockwork. the next thing i know, i wake up in my car, crashed on the outer edge of a strawberry field. i came to, out of a sort of low blood sugar blackout, and realized what had happened. i looked quickly to my passenger seat, where a girlfriend at the time had left me a paper bag full of fresh picked oranges from her tree. i instantly pulled an orange from the bag, and began biting into it as it it were an apple, eating skin and all, juice dripping down my face. several minutes later an ambulance and officer showed up! i was still slightly low, but i told them that i had been rifling through a stack of cds, and lost control. i told them i was a diabetic at some point thereafter. the ambulance workers checked my sugar and it was surprisingly... 83. no proof of low sugar, no harm, no problem, according to the officer.. and i was on my way after a w***h out. hehe. "

So does anyone else have any narrow escape stories like that?