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Have you ever used glucagon? If so, when is the last time used it?
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Yes, over the 60 years with T1D I have used glucagon several times during the course of my life when needed to treat a severe low. Although it happens rarely these days, Baqsimi is a welcome antidote for severe hypoglycemia and I keep it on hand with me or nearby at all times … in my purse, at bedside, and a drawer at work … just in case. I can use it on myself and have instructed others who I spend time with how to use if I am incapacitated by a severe low.
What is Baqsimi? Never heard of it, I will gave to Google it. I have taught my roommate plenty of times on how to inject glucagon if needed. He just calls 911. One time when I said to my roommate why didn’t you give me the Glucagon he replied ” I thought I only inject that if you are high”. UUGH!
In the mid ’90s my mother was instructed to mix the vial and put it a small medicine cup for me to drink bc I was semi conscious.
I almost used it once but it was before CGM.
I had it open and was just about to draw it up
I had gotten some kind of virus (GI) and hd taken my insulin for dinner feeling fine but then couldn’t eat.
Finally I tried some chocolate milk which brought it up to 50 and i started feeling decent. thought i would pass out but i didn’t.
Other
Used and kept it as a child. As an adult, the product was expensive and would expire prior to use, so at some point I stopped filling the prescription. Juice boxes and glucose tabs along with more info through my pump/CGM seem to be the best for me.
I understand. I never had it available until I moved to a new State and had to get a new endocrinologist. His ordered it for me and I have filled it twice but never used it. I probably won’t renew it ever again because it is costly and I have never had to use it
I answered “other” as “Yes” or “No” didn’t seem quite right. Our son is 10.5, diagnosed at 18mos. We have used Glucagon many times during illnesses for mini rescue dosing, but have never used it for emergency treatment.
We had the Rx filled initially but never had to use it. As soon as Baqsimi became available, we asked for a Rx for that instead. We’ve never had to use that either but a couple of times, when my husband went seriously low, I kept it close just in case. Supposedly, I’ll just rip off the rapper, shove it up his nose, and press the plunger – A lot easier (and less intimidating to share with friends) than glucagon mixing and injecting.
My 16 year old daughter used it for the first time a couple weeks ago. BG in 40’s… and it was a day that she just couldn’t keep BG up. She was tired of all the juice so she took glucagon. Baqsimi was on hand. Worked, but still took about 30 minutes and only brought her up to 150 range. Had just learned You don’t have to be in an emergency to use glucagon. Thankful for options.
Have it but never needed to use it.
A year ago Christmas, I started going low and treated with glucose tabs. But I stayed low and also became very nauseous and lethargic so I asked my husband to inject a microdose of Gvoke. Worked great!
I had glucagon by my bedside for decades and never used it. Every few years I would get a new prescription for glucagon. My wife was uncomfortable with mixing the vials and giving me a shot.
Now we have the Gvoke Hypo Pen. It does not require mixing. In the past to months, I went through a period of extreme highs and low blood glucoses, I think from an infection. I also had two before meal lows, from not eating soon enough after taking insulin. In any case, my wife has used four Gvoke pens on me over a two month period. It works very quickly and does not give me high blood glucoses after use. I told my Endocrinologist that my wife has found a new toy 🙂
I’ve only ever used Baqsimi (nasal powdered glucagon) once when I had to do fasting lab work and my lab appointment wasn’t until 10 am. My BG was too low to last the three hours until my lab work was done.
Baqsimi for the win.
#BeWell
I never had to use my Baqsimi but I had it close by the first time I used Afrezza. I took Afrezza when my sugar reached 250. I very rarely ever get that high. My sugar plummeted down to forty and I wasn’t sure when the Afrezza would quit bringing my sugar down. In the meantime, I just kept eating glucose tabs in an order to halt the falling blood sugar. Physically I felt fine but I was getting nervous thinking that I may all of a sudden pass out without any physical warning sign that I might. Thankfully my sugar started rising. I have only used Afrezza one other time and started giving myself extra glucose pills as soon as my sugar got down to about 100. That way I brought my sugar down to a safe level without the need for Baqsimi.
I said no, because I’ve never used it myself. It may have been used on me by others a time or two in the past, before my wife died and I had to start living alone. Now I have a box of Baqsmi by my bed and a couple of nearby trusted persons who follow my Dexcom and can get in the house if I appear low according to it and don’t answer my phone. I don’t experience hypos I can’t handle myself during the day.
Told this story before to apologize for repeat but an injection came in handy when I needed surgery and miscalculated basal because of fasting. I find fasting very difficult as a diabetic. I needed to be 140 at surgery and I woke up in the 50s. I called my doctor at 5:30am to ask him what I should do. He said leave for hospital immediately. My husband was the one who suggested glucagon God love him. I was exactly 140 at surgery.
Could be slightly longer.
I have used the nasal glucagon as a rescue before. Works as advertised bringing my sugar level up into a non diabetic range and level. Not sure if I self administered it wrong but it was quite a jolt using it as it hit hard yanking me to my senses abruptly. Not sure if I’ll ever use it again but now I now what to expect.
Others have administered glucagon to me many years ago. I have used Baqsimi since it became available since it is much easier to use. I think I have needed it three times before getting the Omnipod 5 and Dexcom.
I used a glucagon injection on myself 10-15 years ago. I had a flu bug and couldn’t keep any food down. When I hit ~2(36) I injected myself and my blood glucose came up into the 6’s(100’s).
I have never used Glucagon on myself, but it has been administered to me several times within the last year … by my wife, by emergency ambulance operatives, and during hospital appointments when I’ve ‘clapped out’.
We’ve had prescriptions for Glucagon kept in our fridge for at least 25+ years now.
I have done multiple glucagon challenge tests in the context of a clinical trial. Never used it as a low BG rescue treatment.
I was on U-500 insulin and had terrible lows 18-30’s! Finally saw a new Endo and am on a better treatment regimen. Toujeo max and Afrezza. The lowest I’ve had was 55! Much better!
Living alone never had the ability. But when Mother lived here came to with the EMT and an IV in my arm, similar maybe? Came to on the floor, figure if I could crawl to the the refrigerator I could crawl to the coke strategically placed (under the bed, under the workbench, bottom shelf in the hall…). Now with a CGM not much a hazard.
I have never used it but it may have been used on me by Fire Dept EMTs a couple of times in distant past. How else to explain the fast recovery from passing out in a public space? But nowadays EMTS use a tube of Insta Glucose, a dextrose/dextrin/maltose oral syrup. Though it’s only 24 grams (96 calories) it seems very slow to act and raises bg way too high. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, I didn’t even know glucagon existed. Probably could not have afforded an ongoing supply.
I used glucose on my boys when they were younger, 20 some years ago. I have never used it on myself. Let’s keep it that way!! 🙂
Trick question (and a misworded one, missing the word “you.”) I have never administered it to myself or another. But it was used on me 15 or so years ago, and I hope the glucagon-free streak continues.
Thankfully, I have been hypo aware and never needed to use glucagon, in 66 years with T1D, even though at a doctor’s insistence, I have filled a prescription a few times.
Have it but never used it. There was one time it would have been useful but my wife just called 911.
Started using an insulin pump and stopped needing a glucagon shot. I think I had poor response to long-acting insulin.
Severely , Entirely negative experience using it! I would genuinely and earnestly prefer to have died rather than have that used again. The vomiting and nausea, the migraine, etc. etc. etc. I had never had before or since from any danger low. Glucagon was the cause.. The New inhaled stuff may be better, even so. No thanks…..
No, in 67 yrs. have never needed it. Before CGM use several sips from a can of reg. Coke would prevent severe lows. I stopped filling Rx for glucagon because it was expensive and expired rather quickly.
Just as at the end of all Shakespearean tragedies, the stage is covered in blood and littered with bodies, the diabetic stage is cluttered with used cartridges, mixing vials, baqsimi and other detritus in disarray.
Thank heavens the modern technologies compelling huge increases in time-in-range do result in much, much less of a littered landscape and of a less littered life in a myriad of ways.
I have had to use glucagon several times over the past 55 years, in my teens and early 20’s administered by others when having a seizure. It was always horrible afterwards vomiting, headaches for hours. A couple of years ago I self used Baqsimi when I was on a hike and was not responding to glucose tabs so used it- it worked quickly to raise by BG but was extremely painful immediately felt like shooting a fire cracker up my nose, extreme nasal pain and headache, for the rest of the day and night. I would never voluntarily use it again, now have a Gvoke but hopefully will never have to use.
In my personal experience with Baqsimi, the nasal stinging dissipates after a few minutes with no lingering aftereffects. The gem is that Baqsimi works so quickly and effectively w/o nausea or a headache afterwards.
All the times I used Baqsimi were pre surgeries and I had to fast for a full day and a bit. Even though I decreased my basal rate, I still ended up going super low. I have (so far?) given the glucagon to myself. The 27 years ago when paramedics were last at my house, they may have given me a glucagon, but I kinda don’t think they did.
I am lucky in that the Baqsimi did not make me nauseous… got headaches (I don’t believe they would be considered migraines), but otherwise it was quite the welcome life-saver!
Glucagon was given to me as a child at the hospital. I’ve never used it on myself.
I have never personally used it but believe it was given to me at a rehab facility I was in because the nurse refused to check my blood sugar when I asked her to. ( I was not in any shape to do so myself).
Only two uses in 21 years, but with the advent of GLP-1 injectable therapies for weight loss, most recently Ozempic and now Mounjaro, I have needed glucagon at least three times at the beginning of therapy because juice was not raising my sugar. This was because my stomach was full, and or with n/v, and glucagon became the only quick solution. Most recent refill btw is an auto-injector prefilled pen rather than the reconstitution kit. And 23 lbs lighter no longer with n/v on Mounjaro, no vomiting and glucagon needed in months.
In my first five years with T1D (late 1990s), I was on regular and NPH insulin injections and had frequent severe lows (usually overnight). My sweet mom revived me with glucagon injections ~4 times/year in those days when I didn’t wake up in the morning. The overnight lows resolved when I switched to an insulin pump. I required only 1-2 glucagon injections in my the 20 years since, over 7 years ago. The new and improved CGMs have helped.
No, #thankful.
I’ve never used glucagon during my 50 Years on insulin.
Almost 59 years and Never a Glucagon Shot. Paramedics have done D-50 though
I believe the EMTs used glucagon on me when my FIRST pump MALFUNCTIONED giving me at midnight 4.8 units/hr instead of .8 unit/hr!!! When I was admitted, my bg was 11 !!! It was a miracle I didn’t die! That was April 19th, 2001.
The answer is no, I personally haven’t used any glucagon.
It’s been over a year since I needed to use it, but I still keep some on hand just in case!
53 years with T1D – never used glucagon; never hospitalized beyond diagnosis. Most recent A1c registered as “non-diabetic.” Until my first pregnancy (age 34; 30+ years with T1D), I just considered myself lucky. Now I consider myself a hard worker (because I am). It’s amazing what some effort and change in mindset can produce.