hypoglycemia

…And then I was 36 mg/dl!

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I shoulda known some drama was coming. After all, my fluctuating blood sugars have been on my mind these days on the road, as evidenced by the post below. 

So here it was yesterday another beautiful morning in Sydney and I took my first plunge in the pool: 30 laps – mind you they’re mini laps given the size of the pool. Yet apparently I experienced a delayed low, or a stacking problem taking two many mini injections back to back. At one point when I thought I was dropping, I grabbed a piece of a fruit scone only to discover, no, I was going up! So, I dosed another unit of apidra which two hours later had me breathing shallowly and testing to discover my blood sugar was 36!

The husband jumped into sound panic mode. I said, “Go downstairs and bring me a glass of juice. I’ll be O.K.” (or so I hoped). Moments later the juice arrived, the husband was playing watchful nurse and according to the ‘The Rule of 15 ‘(15 grams of fast-acting carb and test in 15 minutes for a low) 15 minutes after downing the juice I was a splendid 82, and 15 minutes later a stable 119. And so today it’s ferrying into the city, meeting friends for lunch, testing, calculating, and so it goes, and goes and goes…………

Glucose Rapid Spray – quick glucose to delay a low

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UnknownHelps delay or defray a low blood sugar incident

Glucose Rapid Spray was one of my finds at the American Association of Diabetes Educators’ (AADE) Conference a few weeks ago as I ambled through the Exhibition Hall. I think it’s a most innovative product that offers three distinct advantages–it provides what it says “rapid glucose delivery” with quick absorption through the surface of your inner cheeks. It offers great portability as its tiny size fits in the palm of your hand, and, it can delay and possibly deflect a low. My only word of caution, however, since we all react to things diabetes differently, is if you give it a try, since it’s uncertain just how many sprays will lift your blood sugar how far, test your blood sugar response over an hour after using, to see how your body reacts. The directions call for 5-10 sprays but you may require more, or less. Also, it’s not marketed as an emergency remedy but a way to keep your blood sugar from dropping like a stone before you can treat it.

My unexpected test of Glucose Rapid Spray occurred the other day when I took my usual one hour walk around my local park and returned at 11 AM with a blood sugar of 50. Great, I said, now I can try out Glucose Rapid Spray! The label directs you to spray 5 to 10 sprays into your mouth directed to your cheek and repeat as desired. So I sprayed 5 sprays into each cheek. While I have the orange flavored version, it also comes in raspberry, the taste is strong, and almost simultaneously sweet and slightly bitter.

I checked my blood sugar fifteen minutes later and it had lifted me to 60. Not bad I thought, but wanting to see what would happen over a bit more time I tested my blood sugar again in another fifteen minutes, now 30 minutes from my initial blood sugar of 50. I was 53. I had risen to 60 and then dropped to 53. Obviously I needed more than 10 sprays to lift me higher. As the directions instruct, I could have sprayed several more mists, but I opted since I was already home to chomp on some glucose tabs.

The takeaway: this may indeed be a valuable product to have with you when you’re on the go to delay a major low, but I’d suggest testing it to determine how many sprays you require to lift your blood sugar sufficiently before you can get your hands on some fast-acting carb or your next meal.

10:03 A.M – 56 mg/dl

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Checking in on Amy’s blog this afternoon, reading her story, In Which I Contemplate the Details, I feel the type 1 bond wrap snuggly around me and spur my fingers to be part of the, “Try as hard as you might, sometimes you have no idea where you’re going to land!” club.

Yesterday I awoke with a blood sugar of 63. No scare there, I felt perfectly fine and I am of the group who like numbers on the lower side of 100 rather than the higher side. I took my usual 3.5 units of Humalog for my steel-cut, slow-cooked oatmeal I make every morning with its dollop of plain, low-fat yogurt, tablespoon of peanut butter, hit of cinnamon, sprinkling of flax seed and wheat germ. 

An hour later I was trembling behind my computer. My brain thought, hmmm… low blood sugar? But it was so out of the ordinary following my everyday routine that I ignored my brain’s suggestion, and invited this one, it’ll pass. But ten minutes later it hadn’t and I couldn’t ignore it so I gave in, got up, and tested. 56! Dang, 56 an hour after breakfast! How is this possible. Isn’t this when all those lovingly prepared oats are rushing into my cells raising my blood sugar? 

My husband asked what I thought happened. He suggested maybe it’s the few pounds I’ve lost. Maybe I’m more insulin-sensitive. Nice try, honey, but those pounds have slowly and gradually sloughed off over the last year, nothing’s different today than it’s been in months. Maybe, he suggested, you mixed up your insulins. Of course, I really had no way of knowing, except that if I had I would now be in a very deep coma and not participating in this conversation. I was completely flummoxed, and then I knew. 

I had met a friend for dinner the night before, and while I ate what I typically eat, and enjoyed the same amount of the grape I typically do, I did do something different. I power-walked home. A solid 40 minutes. And there, in that desire to be even healthier, I created a sustained drop in my blood sugar that carried over to the next morning, and most of the day.

So, as another voting member of the blood-sugar-blues-gang, sometimes you just don’t know why you’re 56 one morning and 186 the next. Sometimes trying to do all the right things, you mess it up even more. But something I know that will always be true is while I didn’t ask to be in this diabetes club, I’m awful glad for all the fine company.