Diabetic Recipes
Michelle Kowalski
There really just is no way to describe the way an extreme low feels. It was surreal, like I was outside of myself; like I was watching myself through a camera mounted on my head--that carnival ride-like feeling you get when you watch a video of someone, say, walking through the woods from their point of view; like part of me was asleep while the conscious part of me fought like mad to make things right.
I saw the 29 and while I almost immediately pulled the strip out of the meter, for just a second I thought the number was the code for the strips. I, obviously, wasn't thinking clearly.
"29," I said to The Mr.
"Drink my soda," he said referring to his non-diet soda.
I complied, but I felt drunk, heavy. I dug in my purse for glucose tabs; I swore I had a worn package in there, but I couldn't find them. I changed my focus to finding the pack of Smarties I swore was in there while intermittently drinking The Mr.'s regular soda. I kept wondering why I wasn't instantly feeling better.
I never said it, but I know if I had just stopped moving, stopped trying to fight, I could have very easily passed out. The lake was getting brighter and I was feeling pretty dizzy. I kept digging for sugar, kept drinking soda. Finding those Smarties was like I had just reached the summit of Everest.
The Mr. was so calm in these moments, asking me questions like "Do you think you could walk around the car to the passenger side?" I thought he was being curious, wondering how it felt to be low, but now I realize he was trying to figure out how he was going to get me out of the driver's seat so he could drive me to the ER. I'm shocked now at the things I said and did, and equally humbled by The Mr.'s presence of mind.
The amount of sugar in my body finally started to come up, and I felt like I could relax. Actually, I just wanted to go to sleep and had to fight not to do so. I laid my head on The Mr.'s shoulder; the warmth of his body kept me awake while I allowed my eyes to rest. He kept talking to me, perhaps from nerves; for the life of me I can't remember any of it now.
I was able to drive us both back to work, but my body was clearly not ready to walk. I contemplated taking the elevator up the one flight of stairs to my office, but didn't. I felt, frankly, hung over. At least with a hangover it would have been a fun ride on the way.
Michelle,
I understand exactly how you felt. I am T1 and live alone (my wife passed away a year ago) except for my little Beagle dog, Jinx. I was sleeping fitfully the other night and woke up to find Jinx laying on top of me pawing at my chest and licking me under the chin and whining. I couldn't figure out what was going on and almost threw her off me (she's heavy). But then I remembered she is my alert companion. She alerts me when my BS gets too low or when my heart goes out of sync. I praised her for what she did and moved her off of me and tried to sit up. No power. Tried to roll over, still no power. Got real scared, cause I am alone and getting old. I keep a monitor near my bed so I checked my BS and found I was 43. I keep a bottle of glucose tabs beside the bed and it took 5 of those orange flavored tablets before I was able to sit up.
Yeah, I know what you felt like and I didn't like it either. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for Jinx.
WThayer
Those are most definitely panicky moments and feeling drunk doesn't help any! i've started keeping an entire bottle of glucotabs in my bag because sometimes i have lows for an entire day and feel like all i do is eat them... gives me such a headache too. I know exactly how you feel.
Those lows can be a real pain in the butt to say the least. I have had Type I for 26 years and wear an insulin pump. I used to have extreme lows all the time; in the middle of the night, during the day, multiple times a day. Name a time of day and a situation, and I have probably had an insulin reaction to coincide with it. I have recently begun a new and very different diet lifestyle that has drastically reduced my lows and highs. This diet is called "Clean Eating". I eat NO processed starches (potato chips, etc). I eat 5 small meals per day; one meal approximately every 3 hours. I only eat starches (all carbs other than fruit) twice per day, usually at breakfast,and dinner. I only eat fruit twice per day and NEVER eat any carb without eating a protein source with it. Amazingly enough, I have lost 18 pounds in the 3 months that I have eaten this way (and I haven't changed my exercise routine, altough I DO exercise daily), and my blood sugars have leveled off. I rarely have a reading below 57 or above 200. My A1C is 6.5 and I feel SOOOO much better. I don't know if this diet will work for everyone, but I consider sacrificing the yummy ice cream, chips, and french fries well worth it. Nothing beats having those blood sugars under control!
DB
Hi DB
Thanks so much for the comments. Your Clean Eating diet sounds just like what my doctor told me to do. I am type 2 and am 7 weeks into my diagnosis. In the begining he wanted me to see a nutritionist even though he has a lot of extra education in diabetes and nutrition. I have seen two. Neither of them was very helpful. I am in kidney failure and in heart and liver trouble. I am not quite ready for dialysis yet and hope to put it off as long as possible or never to get there. The nephroogist says to be extremely careful about how much potassium I take in, My stomach emptys really slowly and I really don't have any appetite, but I eat as much as I can. I didn't think to eat 5 samll meals a day. Normally I don't have a lot of trouble with low blood sugars, but today was one of those days. I crashed very badly twice. I went back to the doctor and talked to him after seeing the last nutritionist. He told me to skip the high potassium foods and to never put any of those empty carbs (ice cream, chips, french fries) into my stomach. He said that every day that I have is important and to not look so far into the future. Try to get through this day, one at a time and to be proud of what I do every day. Sometimes it is hard to handle just one day at a time, but it is harder if you look too far ahead. I am grateful to be able to read what others have gone through and see that others understand where I am. I felt pretty foolish today being in the grocery store and crashing so badly that I couldn't get my things up on the counter, but the check-out lady was a diabetic too She was very helpful and kind. It seems we all have a lot of company Thanks to all of you for the caring and sharing.