Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron Doyle on December 18, 2010 at 4:43am

After 50+ years of it, here is my plan.  I carry Wuther's candy.  5 carbs each with the 15 carbs/15 minutes that works fine for me.

 

When I am really low, like below 45 or so I mess up and over eat (its like the fight or flight thing for survival I guess), then I end up in the 300-400 range.  No biggie that is just part of life, we can never be perfect.  I just try to level out as often as possible.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by kristy on December 19, 2010 at 7:41pm

After 30 years with diabetes I still "freak" out when I feel low, usually in the early morning hours and it wakes me up, sweating and shaking and not understanding what is going on...I have practically od'd on bowls of cereal, eating 2 or 3 bowls in 10 minutes trying to feel better.  I always over eat and end up paying the price with a horrible headache and high bs..we can't help how we feel or being scared and you're right it does feel like a panic attack. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by CTotes on December 20, 2010 at 10:34pm

That's always been a tough one for me.  When you're mind is swooning from lack of glucose it seems like your body physically craves the sugar.  And when your glucose levels comes up, but the symptoms haven't abated, its really difficult to stop eating.  It feels good to eat sweets, even better when you know its giving your body what it needs.

I usually pre-measure out candy and have it on hand for the type of low that it is.  Sounds more intense than it is: I use my test strip canisters as carrying cases for Nerds candy.  Nerds are pretty potent and I measured it out so that one test-strip canister is a 14 gram of carb serving. So when my sugar is 50-60 I'll go for one canister.  Below 50 I will go for two.  If it is above 60 I will usually try to correct with something gentle.  Skittles do well, because they are about 1 gram of carb per skittle and those things get hard to chew after awhile.  But it is always hard to stop eating the sweets once you start.  The pain is when your liver kicks in and the glucagon.

 

By the way, nice username.  I've been reminiscing with a lot of Danzig lately.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth on December 21, 2010 at 9:39am

Interesting thread -- my little guy is only 3 1/2 but yesterday he got home and was saying "juice Mommy, juice" and was so insistent and panicked-sounding that I tested him AFTER handing him the juicebox... he was at 49. He sucked the juice down fast and asked for another, and I gave it to him. Then gave him his full dinner in the hopes of maybe slowing down the absorption and the potential high. He got insulin for the dinner once I was sure the juice had taken effect and while he did go up to about 249 later in the evening, by the time I did my midnight check he was back down into reasonable territory. I've never heard that panic accompanies lows before, but it sounds like that's not unusual. I'll keep that in mind.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on December 21, 2010 at 6:48pm

Another thing I've found recently is Cran-energy, cranberry juice w/ a bunch of gatoradey/ Red Bull sort of vitamins and caffeine, which it claims to be the gentler kind distilled (sic?) from Green Tea?  It is very tasty and has 9G of carbs/ 8 oz instead of like 28 or 32 or various other amounts (I have tried most of the different cran/ blueberry/ pomegranate drinks, usually looking for potassium as I loathe bananas...).  It seems to have a very pleasant vibe to it and takes me out of lows very nicely and has worked really well before exercising, not a huge hit of caffeine or carbs but enough to get the job done for lows.  I wouldn't give it to a kid but it might be a good alternative?  I still think that 10G of carbs and 20 minutes can kill a lot of hypos w/o the post hypo spikes so that may be of use to experiment with? 

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next ›
• Page