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Scott's Diabetes

Helping you see your strength

How fast is fast?

January 15, 2006 By Scott K. Johnson 13 Comments

roller-coaster-365770_640Have you ever felt a little low, only to check your blood sugar and it is Ok?

I have always thought that this was due to a rapid drop in blood sugar levels. But that started me thinking – exactly how fast is fast? In other words, at what rate must BG levels drop in order to start feeling this way?

Is this feeling really due to a rapid drop in BG’s? Or could it be something else, perhaps some intricate balance between blood sugar levels and insulin levels? The body is an amazing “machine” and the mechanisms that manage a non-diabetics blood sugars is astounding. Maybe there’s more to it than just the dropping BG.

What do you do when you feel this way?

I’m at 142 about 2.5 hours post meal. That’s good. But I feel “funny”, like I’m low. But the symptoms are so very slight. 8 minutes later I do another test. 137. Is it really going down, or could that difference just be the variance you will find in any two tests. If it is really going down, how far will it go?

Well, this all depends on how much of that last bolus is still working to lower the blood sugar. I have my insulin duration set to what many people will think is too long. I’ve got it set to 5:30. Yes, that’s right. 5 hours and 30 minutes. I don’t want to go too off-topic on this post, so maybe I’ll address that subject at another time in another post.

3 hours post meal and I’m at 127. Still the tail of a little less than 3 units on board. However I know that it’s mostly the “tail” of that insulin, which has much less of an impact on my blood sugar.

Still feeling a little off, but I notice that it’s subsiding a bit. Or maybe I’m just getting used to it? Time will tell.

A point I want to stress is that I am in a situation where I can keep a very close eye on things. If the scenario were a bit different I may choose to just pop a couple of glucose tabs and be 100% sure that I won’t go low.

4 hours post meal and I’m at 91. It would be good if the BG descent stops here.

4.5 hours post meal and I’m at 74 with 1.07 units of residual lunch bolus (almost all “tail” though).

At this point I’m ending the experiment and having 4 glucose tabs. I’m not comfortable being in the 70’s, and I also need to walk up to the service station to pick up my beat up old truck, so I need a little boost for that walk.

But why did I start feeling off with a blood sugar of 142? That is the point. There must be more to the equation than just hitting a key number that kicks off the symptoms of low blood sugar, however slight those symptoms might be.

To summarize my BG’s all in one easy to read place:

1:48 – 142 – started feeling slight symptoms of low BG.
1:56 – 137
2:30 – 127
3:30 – 91
4:00 – 74 – end of test – ate glucose tabs.

Is the drop I experienced this afternoon fast enough to be considered “rapid”, and could it be that “rapid” change that made my experience the symptoms? But I’ve had one other experience that might indicate it’s not the rapid changes? Was it a fluke? Who knows. That experience is an interesting one, and you can read about it here.

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Scott K. Johnson

About Scott

Patient voice, speaker, writer, advocate. Living life with diabetes and telling my story. Patient Success Manager, USA for mySugr (All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the position of my employer).

Diagnosed in April of 1980, I recognize the incredible mental struggle of living with diabetes. Read more...

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