Do you have any unusual symptoms when you're low?
I'm just curious because there are things that happen to me when I'm low and I have no idea if they're normal or if I'm weird. But I haven't heard about other people having them. And I was thinking it might be nice to have a more comprehensive list of our symptoms than just the typical heart racing, sweaty, etc. Because I can't be the only one, right?
Here's the ones I can think of off the top of my head, but I am sure there are more --
-- I have to pee! I usually test my sugar if, all of the sudden, I really gotta go.
-- I wake up in the middle of the night and can't seem to shut my eyes again. I usually feel fine, but just can't close my eyes. Always turns out I'm low, though.
-- If it's dark and I'm lying in bed with eyes closed, I see something a lot like fireworks. This really scared me the first couple of times it happened (which were after 17 or 18 yrs of having diabetes). I would open my eyes and see nothing (it was dark, I don't mean I was blind), close them and see the fireworks, and it wouldn't go away. I asked my doctor about this and he said it was normal.
-- Sometimes my vision gets weird in a way that makes it almost impossible to read.
-- I have INSANE dreams, usually that the world is ending but there's something *really* hard that I have to do or else the world will have ended badly. Hard to explain this because it's completely insane. But the dreams are really terrifying because this thing I have to do is SO important but really hard and I'm failing or likely to fail. I have a very hard time getting out of these dreams and helping myself. Usually I wake up to my husband forcing some juice on me.
-- Sometimes I feel completely fine, no physical symptoms at all, but I cannot follow something my husband is trying to tell me. And if it's at all complex, like say directions with several turns, I cannot hold more than one step of it in my head at a time.
-- One time I watched an entire movie and could not follow it at all. It was British and the actors had pretty strong accents and I just stared at it in total confusion. At the end I realized I was low and I had no idea what I had watched. lol
-- There have been a couple of times that I have actually lost control of my limbs. Actually both of these incidents were within about a year of being dx'd, so quite a while back. But they were pretty bad. The first time I was at school -- college -- and I was sitting at a table doing some work and this low hit me out of nowhere and I knew there was a yogurt and a spoon in my bag, but I felt like I could not use my arms well enough to get it out and open it and eat it. One of my profs walked by and asked me what was wrong and all I could say was "yogurt in my bag". Another time I was home lying on my bed and literally couldn't get up and walk to the kitchen to get something. Thank god dh was there to help.
-- I have also had times when I just had crazy thoughts and didn't realize I was low. It felt like a near total break from reality. And when it's happened, I haven't thought to test my blood sugar or have something to eat because I'm just stuck in this weird thought process.
Ok, wow! That is a long list and makes me sound crazy. I guess that's just what happens when your brain is starving.
Here's the ones I can think of off the top of my head, but I am sure there are more --
-- I have to pee! I usually test my sugar if, all of the sudden, I really gotta go.
-- I wake up in the middle of the night and can't seem to shut my eyes again. I usually feel fine, but just can't close my eyes. Always turns out I'm low, though.
-- If it's dark and I'm lying in bed with eyes closed, I see something a lot like fireworks. This really scared me the first couple of times it happened (which were after 17 or 18 yrs of having diabetes). I would open my eyes and see nothing (it was dark, I don't mean I was blind), close them and see the fireworks, and it wouldn't go away. I asked my doctor about this and he said it was normal.
-- Sometimes my vision gets weird in a way that makes it almost impossible to read.
-- I have INSANE dreams, usually that the world is ending but there's something *really* hard that I have to do or else the world will have ended badly. Hard to explain this because it's completely insane. But the dreams are really terrifying because this thing I have to do is SO important but really hard and I'm failing or likely to fail. I have a very hard time getting out of these dreams and helping myself. Usually I wake up to my husband forcing some juice on me.
-- Sometimes I feel completely fine, no physical symptoms at all, but I cannot follow something my husband is trying to tell me. And if it's at all complex, like say directions with several turns, I cannot hold more than one step of it in my head at a time.
-- One time I watched an entire movie and could not follow it at all. It was British and the actors had pretty strong accents and I just stared at it in total confusion. At the end I realized I was low and I had no idea what I had watched. lol
-- There have been a couple of times that I have actually lost control of my limbs. Actually both of these incidents were within about a year of being dx'd, so quite a while back. But they were pretty bad. The first time I was at school -- college -- and I was sitting at a table doing some work and this low hit me out of nowhere and I knew there was a yogurt and a spoon in my bag, but I felt like I could not use my arms well enough to get it out and open it and eat it. One of my profs walked by and asked me what was wrong and all I could say was "yogurt in my bag". Another time I was home lying on my bed and literally couldn't get up and walk to the kitchen to get something. Thank god dh was there to help.
-- I have also had times when I just had crazy thoughts and didn't realize I was low. It felt like a near total break from reality. And when it's happened, I haven't thought to test my blood sugar or have something to eat because I'm just stuck in this weird thought process.
Ok, wow! That is a long list and makes me sound crazy. I guess that's just what happens when your brain is starving.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by morales.jevon on -
I have had a few of these.. And besides the heavy sweating and babbling I argue ?!?!?! yeah I start to fight with my husband.. I guess its because he is trying to get me to drink some juice or whatever but when Im low I just dont want help ?
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Permalink Reply by rubidoux on -
I always fight with my husband when I'm low! lol Maybe that is just another symptom. I do think it's common, though, to not want help.
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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Easter on -
What I've come to realize is we all seem to have quite a wide variety of things happen to us when we're low. I also have problems with my vision when I get really low. I'm aware of lows by the time I hit the 60s but if my vision gets weird, I know I'm in "danger land" and need to start munching! It's hard to describe, what my vision does, but also have a difficult time reading. It's not that things are fuzzy, it's hard to describe....Getting hungry is my first indicator of getting low. But I have your pretty typical signs and nothing too "out there". Although my eye doctor had never heard of problems with vision from a low, which I found pretty odd.....I don't have that problem with highs (which she acted as though was more typical). Anyway, we're ALL different, so I wouldn't fret about the symptoms. I'd just fret if you weren't aware when you were getting low : )
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Permalink Reply by rubidoux on
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I'm really surprised your eye doctor hadn't heard of vision symptoms from lows. Somehow I feel like that one makes sense. I find it hard to describe, too. But I think parts of my field of vision get kind of dark. But the dark parts kind of come and go and move around.
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Permalink Reply by Linda G on -
When I'm low I become paranoid, at times I sense that I'm being talked about when in fact I'm sure I'm not....as in a public place where no one knows me. That's a clue for me to grab something sweet, Another clue is that my senses are enhanced. Scents, sounds, colours are louder/sharper. Also....I stumble over my words when reading out loud, and can't wrap my head around simple questions/equations (I teach at the elementary level). Usually I can escape this dilemma by telling my students I'm rather busy at the moment...I'll get back to it later. In the meantime, I test and have a snack. The carb content pending on how low I am.
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Permalink Reply by rahrbunny on -
My hypoglycemic unawareness is pretty significant so I only get symptoms occasionally. I believe these both happen at the "I'm blacking out RIGHT NOW" point
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If I am reading something it will seem like I am reading it through water or looking through thick glass...some kind of distortion on the print.
Or...for an especially unpleasant reaction, I feel as though I cannot speak/incapable of speech or sounds with a STRONG urge to scream. -
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Permalink Reply by rubidoux on
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I have had both of those symptoms. The reading thing always makes me crazy! Once I really recognized what it was (after it had happened to me many times), it seemed not so bad, but I will often try to keep reading through it and not pick up on it, but start worrying there's something really wrong with me. My first reaction to it is always that I'm losing my vision to retinopathy (which I don't have any of) or something. The not being able to speak thing has only happened to me a few times, like maybe 3 or 4 and one of those times was in my first year after dx, so I guess it's not something that's gotten progressively worse. But it is pretty scary.
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Permalink Reply by rahrbunny on
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The urge to scream w black out issues has been happening since my diagnosis. The vision one is new w/i the last 2 years.
Occasionally I have lucid dreams w/ hypoglycemia where I have to consciously try to wake myself up so that I can treat the low. This is sometimes paired w/ sleepwalking while low....where I come back into awareness eating something sitting in front of the fridge.
My auto pilot is very functional. -
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Permalink Reply by SR on -
Sometimes when I'm low, my vision gets so screwy it feels more like a hallucination. It's like I can no longer comprehed 3-D images and my brain presses everything into one flat mess of shades and colors and little pieces of things that I recognize. It has given me a whole new perspective on Picasso paintings. It hurts my head whn it happens and make me want to close my eyes and hide, but I'm also thankful for it because its one of the few indicators I have that I'm in serious trouble. I also find myself very argumentative when low - God, why is that? Going low is hard enough, feeling like a total a-hole afterwards really sucks.
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Permalink Reply by Glow on -
When I'm too low I feel ridiculously irritable, and even Zombielike...can't even think of what to eat or drink until some gram of reason says, find an orange juice..once I broke a lamp (my own) by throwing it into the wall. Once I was normal I apologised to my "bitter half", but like SR says, it makes you feel like an A-hole afterwards..
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Permalink Reply by renka on
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i have a lots of the above symptoms and some more... one is that my tongue goes numb.
also, when im very very low i have actually had some very wierd dilusions. i can understand why some diabetic wander off and are found dead in a pond somewhere.... (sorry that was harsh) but it happened here last year.i also have the fireworks in the eyes thing...
ive had a siezure in the past
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