The stubborn low.
For whatever reason (insulin on board, delayed digestion, etc.) you treat a low that just keeps going lower.
You know how you feel when you’re low, and you treat it, then wait a bit.
But waitasecond – I still feel low… you test, and you’re LOWER than before you treated!!!! You have a minor “Oh Shit” moment, and slam some more glucose down the old pie hole.
A few more minutes go by, and you’re STILL dealing with the symptoms. You check again. And you are still dropping. This is when you have a major, full blown “HOLY SHIT I’M GONNA PASS OUT” moment. Then you just panic, and overtreat like never before. You worry that you can’t get ahead of the steadily dropping BG. You worry that you’ll need help to pull out of it. You are confused about why you are still dropping after all that you’ve eaten. You are trying to figure out what the heck you did to cause it.
A little while passes, and you are starting to feel a bit better. You’ve made a conservative attempt to add up all the carbs you shoveled down – conservative because you’ve just been scared half to death by the experience. You inevitably are skyrocketing up to 300 or 400 as all the carbs you ate are finally starting to hit the bloodstream. And the fatigue sets in.
If you are lucky, you are able to figure out what happened – some type of strange timing issue, or a massive miscalculation of some sort. Sometimes though, it’s a “WTF?!”(What The Fuck?!) thing. You can’t for the life of you understand why this happened.
If I’ve learned one thing over the past 26 years of diabetes, it is that diabetes does not always follow the “rules”.
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Scott K. Johnson
Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in April of 1980, I recognize the incredible mental struggle of living with diabetes.
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The worst Low that never stopped was when I was pg. Didn’t get over 40 for over 5 hours. Nothing I did helped. I ate so much, I got sick (now there’s some TMI). I ended up on the bathroom floor screaming for my husband to help me. My husband, who can sleep through ANYTHING.
He spent the next day placing those “chubby” soda cans (the little ones) all over the house in weird spots incase I got stuck again.
What rules?
I wasn’t aware there were rules. I, on the other hand had one of those WTF? highs today. Site was fine, I just flew up to 400. Yup, 400.
You know, the rules those medical professionals claim should work for us. Do this and this will happen, or do that and that will happen. We’ve got all the “formulas” so we should be able to make it work!
As fellow OC’er Kathleen Weaver says – “They don’t really know”!
I’m still amazed at how true this is.
Scott, I know what you mean here. This type is one of the most evil lows in existence.
(BTW, I think almost everyone in the DOC already knows the term WTF and probably agrees with its application to this situation.)
Totally agree! I especially hate ‘em when they happen at bedtime. Can’t settle my mind to go to sleep even after over-treating, so I end up awake and testing every hour. Rebound in the A.M. is always crazy.
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