Lows are the pits
Yowza. I woke up at 2:30 this morning and my BS was 50. I think I ate everything but the kitchen sink. I had been having really bad dreams for awhile and finally woke myself up when I realized what it was. It wiped me out for the entire day.
There are a lot of things about diabetes that are tough, but for me, dealing with lows tops the list. I think it just might be the worst feeling in the world. I try not to go crazy and overeat when I have them, but I have what you might call a Dr. Jekyll/Ms. Hyde response....or maybe it's more like a werewolf! I am definitely not a reasonable person when I am low.
I have tried setting a timer after I treat the low with the idea that I can re-check after 20 minutes. If I make it through those 20 minutes, I am less likely to over-treat. Sometimes this works. Last night though, not so much.
Anyone else have thoughts on how lows make you feel out of control and how you deal with that?
There are a lot of things about diabetes that are tough, but for me, dealing with lows tops the list. I think it just might be the worst feeling in the world. I try not to go crazy and overeat when I have them, but I have what you might call a Dr. Jekyll/Ms. Hyde response....or maybe it's more like a werewolf! I am definitely not a reasonable person when I am low.
I have tried setting a timer after I treat the low with the idea that I can re-check after 20 minutes. If I make it through those 20 minutes, I am less likely to over-treat. Sometimes this works. Last night though, not so much.
Anyone else have thoughts on how lows make you feel out of control and how you deal with that?
Tags: control, hypoglycemia, low, overtreat
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Robyn on -
UUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH Hate lows!!!! I cant walk well, talk, or much less think straight sometimes. I feel like I am going to have a heart attack! I get scared and tend to overtreat as well. Lately I have been really good....juice or regular pepsi and wait it out. I find it difficult to chew sometimes, so I just need pure sugar. I think I hate the shaking the most and the fast heart rate.
When I recover, I feel a headache usually and get very cold.Sometimes it will wipe me out for the day.
Other times, I will try to have something really good to eat and drink....kind of a excuse to cheat too. LOL
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Permalink Reply by Xanthasun on -
I hate them too! Especially the waiting part... Nightime lows are the worst because you just want to go back to bed but you have to wait and a lot of times the adrenaline rush makes it really hard for me to fall asleep right away :(
I've seen others mention this elsewhere, but using glucose tabs can help with not overtreating a low by thinking of it as responding to a low with "medication" rather than food... and tabs/gels rather than food/candy I personally think works better for this (it doesn't hurt either that the taste is just tolerable that you don't really want to eat more than necessary). The closer you get to glucose (and the less breakdown that has to occur) the better because it starts working sooner and helps to dull the symptoms of low like wanting to eat non stop.
Hope you're feeling better :)
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Permalink Reply by Joe_h on
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happened to me last night too. was settling into bed and could feel the 'low' went downstairs and I was at 44. I grabbed some mini-tootsie rolls and ate them and should have stopped there but there must be a internal defense mechanism that makes my body want to keep eating (or maybe it's just me freaking out) but I ate a couple more pieces of halloween candy and a little ice cream. happily my fasting sugar this AM was 126 but wouldn't have been surprised if it was much higher. I try to not go overboard when i'm low but it does seem like i'm fighting an instinct to keep eating till the low passes - just my limited experiemce - YMMV
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Permalink Reply by Don Kelly on -
I HATE LOWS !!! I feel like a panic sets in and I have to eat and I have to eat NOW ! I've learned in the past that I will eat everything in the house if I'm not careful but what I've done is to put some Schwans 50-50 bars aside in the freezer for me. I eat two of these and my bg's pop right back up. If it happens during the day I'm whooped and tired and feel all beaten up the rest of the day. If it is the middle of the night I useally am kinda tired the next morning. If it takes a while to get my low back up I'm pretty much useless the rest of the day. I really do hate lows !
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Permalink Reply by Shannon on -
I had the worst low of my diabetes life last Friday night. I wrote a blog about it because it was sooo terrible.
I think lows are one of the hardest parts of being a T1 diabetic. I'm so afraid of them that I always under bolused (because I'd rather be high than low). I've since changed my thinking (mostly in preparation for pregnancy), but it's hard.
Hang in there! It helps me to know I'm not alone.
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Permalink Reply by Mike on -
Hi Elizabeth,
I use to be a terrible over-treater overeater. I'd grad anything and everything in the middle of a low, especially those late night ones. And the next day I'd have terrible highs. I broke the cycle when (1) I re-educated myself in the process of switching from MDI to a pump, and (2) exclusively used glucose tabs to treat bad lows.
Anything below a 50 gets treated with the tabs. They have a consistent amount of carbs, so I can pop in 2,4,6,8 or however many, and once the brain fuzz clears, I can count the missing tabs in my 10-tab vial to figure out how many carbs I've eaten. I rarely need more than 4 tabs. Anything above a 50 mg/dl and I just eat a regular snack and figure it into my daily nutrition plan. By making the refridgerator and pantry off limits during my lows, I really minimized overtreating my lows.
And if I've had a good case of the full-body sweats, I make sure to change into another pair of dry pj's. Nothing worse than trying to get back to sleep soaking wet and chilled.
Cheers, Mike
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Permalink Reply by Robin M on -
It's got to be an "instinct thing". I go into hyporage as well and eat until the feeling goes away, even though my brain is telling me that the 10 cookies were more than enough. It's just uncontrollable sometimes.
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Permalink Reply by Bruce on -
I'm readingl the replies, wow it's not funny, but I have never talked to another diabetic before and everything you guy's are saying, I have lived it. My fingers go numb when I get a low and I also over do it. It starts a yo yo effect. I have had some low at work and I couldn't remember how to use the computer... that I use every day. Those are the low that I hate. It feels good to know that there are others out there. Have a good day.
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Permalink Reply by Janelle Kilbane on -
I had a low last night and for once didn't overeat... problem is I woke up this morning with a 246!!!
It was 50 when I check it so I had two of those little candy corn pumpkins (about 5 carbs each) and 5 ritz crackers (10 carbs) I made myself wait 30 minutes before I checked it again and it was at 69 so I ate 6 more crackers (about 12 carbs) and went back to sleep... then this morning was shocked at the high... Sometimes I wonder what in the world is going on while I sleep. No idea what happened.
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Permalink Reply by ANTONIA RETMAN on -
Well for me, and I've had serious pass out lows, I feel stupid. Goofy. Starving. I'm pretty good about just drinking 6 oz. of juice or 3 of those glucose tabs. 15-20 minutes later and I'm good to go. I REALLY hate highs. Those take forever to correct
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