Low blood sugars don’t normally scare me. Sure I’ve had times where I have felt unwell enough to be a little concerned but generally speaking I don’t have a great fear of them. I don’t feel the urge to eat everything in sight to treat a low. I stick to my juicy juice box or maybe a soda or glucose tabs if I have nothing else available and I’m usually good in a reasonable amount of time. It could be because I’ve (thankfully) never lost consciousness, I’m not sure. I’ve also never lived alone. I went from living with my parents and sister to living with my hubby.
Two weeks ago however, I had an incident that had me in tears from fear. I was working from home so was alone in our apartment. It was not quite 2 hours post breakfast that the reading on my Dexcom caused me some concern.
I checked with my meter and confirmed I was actually dropping that much with a 76 mg/dL. I grabbed a juice box and also decreased my basal by about 50%. The double arrows on the Dexcom went away but I was still dropping. About 35 minutes, this is what I saw.
I started to get nervous at this point. Less basal, juice and I was still dropping. And feeling completely fine. That is what scared me the most I think. I have not been feeling my lows at all lately and I was afraid that since I wasn’t feeling low that all of a sudden I was going to be low enough to not be able to help myself. So I suspended my insulin and had another juice box. Another 15 minutes later I was still dropping.
I don’t know if it was the fear or the actual low but I started not to feel well. And so I got even more panicked. I decided to get the glucagon out and gave myself a shot in the leg. I didn’t know if I was overreacting but at the moment, by myself, it seemed like the right thing to do. I also thought I was going to regret it with BG in the 300’s but guess what? About 2 hours later, finally, I peaked at 165.
I was never so scared. I was never so relieved. I was never so thankful to have the right tools to help me monitor this blood sugar. I can only imagine what could have happened in this situation when I was first diagnosed 30 years ago without even a glucose meter to test with. Most days diabetes isn’t that scary. But some days it can be very scary.
The Girl with the Portable Pancreas 
Hmmm wow, that has me thinking as well. I have never really had a particularly dangerous experience with lows, but I realize that thigns can change over time and if I start being unable to feel them as well, I will be in trouble. This encourages me to check more often than I do.
Oh my gosh, Stacey! How terrifying to go through this.
I am glad you are feeling better and happy that you have these wonderful tools to help you!
xoxo
Stacey-I’m glad everything is ok. I agree some days lows are scary!
I know I was scared to death & it wasn’t happening to me. 😦 I just felt helpless too. I’m so truly thankful all turned out okay & I pray you won’t have to go through that again anytime soon!
Stacey – glad everything turned out OK. Those kind of quick drops are scary, indeed. Glad you caught it and it worked out. I’ve had many of those over time, still do occasionally. They haven’t caught me off guard much, and only a couple times hit me so hard I couldn’t manage myself – luckily, Suzi was home and took care of things as needed. I’m thankful for that, but do worry about that more often as I ponder working from home. Good thing Dex is around, not to mention the constant-connections with Twitter!
Wow Stacey – glad everything turned out alright in the end. Did you ever figure out what caused you to drop like that? I’m thinking perhaps your pancreas it still squealching out the juice or ??? I just know, so far, touch wood, in my 45 years with D, only had a few bad hypos. I took care of them by myself – hubby was never around – or when I have had bad lows (e.g. 20 mg/dl) – he’s dead to the world – while I take care of my sweating self! Must be that fight in us that makes us take care of ourselves. It’s sink or swim!!!
As a parent of a four year old daughter who has t1D, this scares the hell out of me!! My daughter doesn’t feel her lows either and I am terrified that she’ll have a bad day at kindergarten when she starts in September and I won’t be by her side. This disease is do fricken hard!!!!!!!!! So glad you are smart enough to deal with your diabetes do well. Good action with the glucagon. Does the dexcom hurt?? I’ve been considering it for our daughter.
Thanks!