Sarah Howard
Sarah Howard (nee Tackett) has dedicated her career to supporting the T1D community ever since she was diagnosed with T1D while in college in May 2013. Since then, she has worked for various diabetes organizations, focusing on research, advocacy, and community-building efforts for people with T1D and their loved ones. Sarah is currently the Senior Marketing Manager at T1D Exchange.
Sarah and her husband live in NYC with their cat Gracie. In her spare time, she enjoys doing comedy, taking dance classes, visiting art museums, and exploring different neighborhoods in NYC.
No. 72 years T1D and have the exact opposite–acute awareness.
I am ready to eat lions, tigers, bears, crow bars, thumb tacks, table legs — anything! — to relieve the symptoms. Needless to say, I am very poor at the 15 carbs wait 15 minutes rule. Otherwise, I am quite disciplined. Sigh! 🙃
Same. How is that even possible? Lol
@Ahh Life I wish I had that keen alertness. I’m only 40 years into it.
I go through phases where I’m too low too often and get desensitized to it (about a month) followed by another month where I’m really sensitive to lows as I’ve brought my time in range back to (more) ideal
Always feel but I tolerate pretty low readings. Just because 😼 don’t run high a lot.
Same here. I don’t really feel low until I’m in the 50’s so I’m not sure if that means I’m “unaware” if I don’t feel anything until then?
After 72 years, yes, like Ahh Life, my eyesight changes and I see a sort of yellow shape when I’m around 55 or lower. It’s actually handy that it happens in case the Dexcom is not quite there yet.
Was 61 on Dexcom and 51 on Contour Next last night, but I just felt normal.
It used to be a problem before I started using a CGM
I have to be in my 40s and my vision going dark before I feel low. A lot of times I feel normal and CGM is the only way I know I’m going low.
In the last couple weeks, I’ve noticed feeling the lows sooner. I don’t know why, it will probably change back. That’s the way T1D seems to work, likes to keep you guessing.
I have occasional unawareness. Usually, when my blood glucose drops quickly.
Other times I feel light headedness, occasionally a “hole” in my vision. Usually, by the time I’m sweating profusely, it’s too late. I’m deep into it.
Yes I have complete unawareness. AND, I thank God everyday for my CGM.
I wear my Dexcom all the time so I very rarely go low. Only when exercising. Then I just get more tired than warranted, so I check if I’m low. Glucose tabs and some food do the trick. Lows aren’t my problem. My ‘icky’ stomach is my problem. Eat to live, 15 units of humalog for 24 hours, plus .3 basal all the time. Is that a lot?
Until I started using a cgm I was very aware of dropping blood sugar. Now it seems my body depends on the cgm to alert me. I really wish I could still recognize LBS without the cgm.
T1D for about 45 years, I seem to feel a low BG around 3(54).
I have been down to 1.8(34) recently before detecting any symptoms. I don’t think my stomach works properly after 45 years! Some days are normal and other days it seems only liquid carbohydrates are absorbed.
No, because my CGM alerts have replaced my symptoms, alerts are much more reliable than symptoms and less variable!
I used to have hypoglycemic unawareness but in ten years since CGM, my sugar never gets low enough to be a problem
This is one of the reasons I got a CGM. The other reason is that my symptoms didn’t always manifest the same way.
The only time I experienced hypoglycemia unawareness was when I was using humalog insulin
Yes, both hypo and hyperglycemia unawareness. If I’ve dropped to the low 40’s my vision becomes impaired and I’ll see light yellow amorphous blobs in my central vision. Fortunately that rarely happens now because of CGM alerts.
Important to note that hypo awareness is a threshold thing that changes depending on what your average BG is like. People who run very high–up around 200–can start feeling low at levels a lot of us with tight control would consider high in their own rate. 120-50 e.g. Before getting a CGM, back when I was on MDI, I’d feel trembly and my knees would start locking up in the 70s. Now that I have much tighter control (last A1C was 5.8) I don’t feel low above 60, and even below that if it’s a slow drop I’m now aware of it until I start getting that flash-bulb effect in the center of my vision. Speed of descent also seems to have a lot to do with it. The old insulins could make you crash very hard all of a sudden because of the very long effect curves and the practice of taking both types in one shot. So shaking OMG I’m gonna pass out lows were far more of a fact of life back then than they are for me now.
Hypo unaware and appreciative of my CGM. Rarely feel symptoms unless I’m dropping quickly. Recently had a middle of the night CGM alarm that I was 80 and dropping. Got up, stumbled and could tell I was already much lower than that. Required a mega carb binge to correct. CGM may lag, but it saved the day again this time.
Prior to going on a pump 14 years ago I had sever hypoglycemia unawareness. After a year on the pump (and much better control than on MDI) I began to detect even low 70’s.
I FEEL every second of being low..that’s why I try so hard not to get that way ever. I have very sever hyper-unawareness though. I can’t even tell if I’m 400+
I wear a CGM.
I am thankful CGM alarms.
I think my nervous system is losing its mojo. Lots of neuropathy, lots of not feeling highs or lows. So glad to have my Dexcom with the Tandem! I’m making an effort to rely more on this technology.
Since I’ve had T1D since 1960, I’ve lost the ability to feel hypoglycemia. I totally rely on my Dexcom to keep me in the range.
I’ve been hypo unaware since the early 90’s. It’s not fun. I wish I’d aware, even though it was scary and made me feel like crap. I was made to get Medtronics CMG in July 2007 because I had my first and only car accident due to being unaware of my hypo. I couldn’t stand all the alarms, false low & high’s, need to calibrate it, etc. and stopped using it. I was introduced to Dexcom a couple years later and started with the G4, far more accurate for me and still use Dexcom but it doesn’t catch my fast falling or rising numbers as well my DAD dose now.
I put “sometimes.” It depends generally on the speed of which I am dropping.
Sometimes I can keep on trucking down to the 40s, self treat and keep going on about my day. Other times I feel terrible, super lethargic and irritable and it stops me in my tracks.
I always feel it but that doesn’t happen until I hit about 42.
I am surprised sometimes by the Dexcom warning but in combination with Tandem CIQ I have about eliminated All Hypos even with a 5.4 A1c
Yes and I’m thankful for having my Dexcom.