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In your own words, how would you describe the feeling of a severe low?
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The world becomes cold and distant. I’m in my body, but never feel more like a mind. The hormones flicker the alert to my brain, and my brain tries to tell me that I am dying. My body reacts, but my mind doesn’t. The sensation of missing a step, falling through an unexpected bit of air, swoops through my stomach and chest, but I am sitting still, lying down.
Yes. This covers it perfectly
I only get scared when i am with people who either don’t know that i have diabetes or don’t know how to treat it. if i am at home or out with friends/family i know that I’m in good hands.
I’ve read a lot about people being scared of low blood sugars. For me, I only get scared when treatment is either unavailable or not being offered due to lack of knowledge.
My head starts to feel disconnected from my body like a balloon in the beginning (70s-50s). When it becomes very low (below 40) and people are helping me, even though I am capable of (improper) speech and actions, I am no longer that aware of my sensations.
Scary! Shakey, sweaty and hot.
Beyond the generic way I feel (numb lips, sweats) find my mind wanders. I’ve had weird dreams, one time in arrogance questioned “Who determined low blood is below 70?” as I was sitting at 40. Thankfully my habit of drinking a sugared drink kicked in.
Yes I’ve had the weird dreams
No energy… A bit woozy… find the candy and OJ..
I have been Diabetic for over 45 years, and it seems it’s getting harder to bring my Blood Sugars up. Now I start to feel weak and dizzy, and feel like I can’t think. I hate the feeling.
Going on 62 years for me I take a mini Coca Cola saved me so many times fast 26 carbs.
Not grounded at all. Like I’m not ALL there. I can have the juice right next to me and my brain just sits & stares. At other times, I am fully coherent and can treat without any outside intervention.
Any diabetic will tell you something different depending on the severity however the main concern(s): quick onset of symptoms: lackadaisical, unrest, unease, sweat, confusion,discomfort, dizziness, fatigue, faint, tiredness, trembling, shaking, stressfulness. Quick acting carb, 15grams of carb. a donut!! eat something! Be safe.
I’ve experienced many times when I have felt nothing at all because I’ve been almost unconscious, though appearing there to others. My wife often had to bring me back from hypo! Now my CGM has almost totally prevented hypos getting bad
The feeling is crippling. I’m shaky, I can’t focus, heart beats fast,
Horrible panic and the inability to answer even a simple question. You feel like you’re losing your mind.
Inability to focus and concentrate – if very severe, difficulty in walking.
I get confused or angry. A lot of people have described me as drunk. How do I personally feel? It is like I have lost my mind and cannot remember anything. Sometimes I cannot remember the lows, like blocks of time are missing. I do not feel my lows coming so I get a very attached to my CGM.
It’s hard to find the baby in bathwater that deep.
But perhaps the best is Joseph Conrad’s simple four words: “The horror, the horror.”
Confused, irritable.
Low – a weird feeling like there is no blood in my arteries
Very low – vision starts to have blank areas
Dangerously low – nothing makes sense or works right anymore
It’s like my brain no longer works, no logic or reason. it’s a matter or survival. Fight or flight
I feel unsteady and sweaty.
Holes in my vision, inability to think coherent thoughts and a feeling of being in danger, anxiety, argumentative. My husband used to ask me a simple math question if he thought I was low, I was unable to answer. Hypos are much fewer with CGM use, thank God!
the math difficulty is something I share. I had been taking the GRE exam and eventually became aware that after quite some time, I was still on the 1irst question of the math portion. (Usually I am very good at math.) That’s when I realized that I had begun to go low. This was before the days of glucose monitors…..
Confusion, inability to decide/ act.
It feels like falling off a cliff – it comes on so fast. Numbers are fine, fine, fine and then suddenly, CGM is alerting at 70, then 60 and lower. Shaky, sweaty, weak.
Shaking, starving, not thinking straight, brain feels fuzzy. Luckily I’ve never experienced I low low enough for emergency intervention.
My symptoms are very similar to yours. Thank you.
I feel sorry to have affected people who saw me act like a brute, I feel distress inside me, how could such a thing have happened to me?
Having absolutely no idea where I am, how I got there, or where the time went. Sometimes I feel as if I’m even out of my body, that I’m in another place.
Exactly!
So hard to describe to anyone else because it’s a feeling only for low blood sugar. It hits different body parts differently. When it hits the head, it feels like a swirling in the brain sometimes hard to focus. The face, tingling in the mouth. In a bad situation, the body with difficult mobility and balance.
Blacking out. You have now entered the Twilight Zone. I am no longer aware of my surrounding. But, I am still trying to function. Wait, there’s a touch of reality. But, it’s gone. I am struggling to work my way back. But, it’s gone. I cannot focus, I am in a void. Was I eating breakfast? Was I cooking at the microwave? My mind is not working. I fall, but don’t know it. I get up again, but don’t know it. My wife is talking, but I don’t hear it. I don’t know what she is saying. I am sitting in a catatonic state.
Finally, I am aware that my wife is sticking the Gvoke pen in my belly. I feel the sting. Immediately, I am alert. “What happened?” I am back. But, have no memory of the past 20 minutes. My mind feels foggy. Slowly, I return to myself. I become self aware again. My breakfast dish is on the floor. There is a mess of food on the table and the floor. I have to clean it up. I feel guilt, try to act like all is normal.
Good description. I have also experienced these blackouts where I was functioning but people who know me recognize something is off.
As many have said here, it starts with nervousness and being a bit shaky. If not treated, it moves into muddled thinking and the inability to communicate coherently.
It feels as if all the energy in my body is slowly draining away …. numb lips, clumsy, pouring sweat and shallow breathing… but I tell myself it won’t be long till it will change. Hopefully. And just keep breathing.
Sweating, confusion, hunger.
Feeling confused, thoughts are so messed up. Thank goodness haven’t felt that was in a while.
It is absolutely terrifying! I can’t speak, think or see when my sugar is severely low.
It is as if the world is moving on with their life like normal and I’m in slow motion. Unable to move or interact with it. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a dream and can’t wake up or “snap out of it”
I have severe hypoglycemia unawareness. I don’t feel anything. Post-hypo, I feel confused, excessively tired, may have a headache, may be starving, always have temporary aphasia.
Extremely blurred vision, sweating head and upper body. Can only concentrate on getting food or drink until very foggy thinking begins to clear. Only talk in short direct conversation about what’s happening and what I need. Usually chilled and fatigued as blood sugar levels rise.
Like watching a movie of myself without realizing I am the main character and that I wrote the screenplay. There may be better ways to explain it, but it can be like an out of body experience.
I’ll add that the movie is like the first act of a horror movie, where there is a sense of anxiety and dread.
Dizzying. At times, dreamlike. An out of touch with realty feeling. Other times feeling like being in the middle of a panic attack. Frustrated.
I don’t know exactly how to describe it. I definitely become a bit sleepy so sometimes I nod off to sleep if I’m just watching tv. If I’m active though, sometimes Sometimes I get confused and sometimes I stumble and fall like a drunk person or I become combative which is when I black out. My recall is more pleasant but my family says I become really bad/nasty. I am usually super sensitive to lows so bad ones don’t happen often.
Oh and anxiety!! My anxiety goes through the roof.
After so many decades I can find myself functional and often euphoric and creatively thoughtful when I am as low as 35mgl. What follows is sudden realization coupled with deteriorating abilities and the sudden realization that I might have only a minute or so to start correcting this. Even with my cgm I can be taken by surprise but the alarm alerts that start at 70 most often keep me safe.
A severe low has consistently through the past 46 years caused head to toe perspiration, eye black out (eyes open but only seeing black), and unsteady hands. More recently, as in the past 5-10 years, I get numbness in my mouth (tongue and lips), and an overwhelming sense of nausea (making it next to impossible to get the chalky glucose tabs chewed and swallowed – juice is the preferred item).
It also takes much longer than the prescribed “15 minutes” to see any turn around of the BG levels. Often takes more carbs and more time to finally see the arrow starting to level off on the CGM.
I’ve had lots of severe lows (54 or below) that felt no different than mild lows and that I was able to treat myself. To me, the “severe lows” were the ones I couldn’t treat alone, and the only word is “disorienting.” After-the-fact they’re terrifying – realizing how lucky I am to have survived, that is. Lucky that my teacher knew what to do. Lucky my sister had an extra candy bar. Lucky my neighbor was driving by. Lucky my roommate was home. Lucky my low-blood-sugar-drunk brain saw the chocolate bar on my bookshelf and decided to eat it. Each of my severe lows was different, too. Once I went blind (but was still conscious), twice I blacked out, once I passed out, and once I had a grand mal seizure. One time I was fully conscious the whole time, and knew something was wrong, but couldn’t focus long enough to do anything about it. I left my apartment in my pj’s for some reason that made no sense (made it all the way to the first floor and back) and got locked out. I panicked and just rang the doorbell over and over until one of my roommates woke up and answered the door. Then I went back to my room and started watching cartoons as if nothing had happened. Eventually I noticed that chocolate bar I mentioned above, ate it, and then came to my senses long enough to realize what was happening and act on it. I told one my friends/neighbors about it later and she told me that if it happened again I should come find her. I thanked her but then explained that it’s hard to ask for help when you don’t believe something’s wrong. That’s the part people can’t seem to understand.
I use for extreme situations a mini can of Coca Cola it’s saved me so many times. Works for me just a suggestion. Best to you.
Feeling of weakness, shaky hands, darkened vision, lack of clarity of mind
When I drop into the 50s, I become frantic, shaky & sweaty. I have to stop everything and just hold still until I can get it stabilized. For about 30 minutes after I’ve returned to the 80s or 90s, I’m exhausted & lethargic. Often, fixing the low sends me into a high. What a rollercoaster it can be!!! It’s hard to judge how many glucose tabs or how much orange juice I will need. In a frantic mindset, I just want my blood sugar level higher!
Confusion and impending doom!
It feels as if I have been beaten up – all worn out and need time to recover.
I’ve never felt the nervousness that some are describing. My reactions fall into separate categories. Sometimes I start feeling weak and disoriented. The most common symptoms are feeling weak and sweaty and hard to do anything. My heart starts pounding. Sometimes I feel nothing unusual until my vision dims and I feel outside myself. More rarely, I go low for a long time and became uninhibited and flirty. Sometimes I am grouchy and defiant. I always end up sweaty. The worst reactions are when I’m asleep and dreaming and I sink below 40. Those feel like I’m caught in a never-ending nightmare and feel like I’m dropping and dropping—like when you have a misstep on a shallow step.
Scary that is, haven’t had such a Severe Reaction in quite some time but it brought a Recollection of a time when I was going in and out of ‘sleep’ in that reaction. Thank you for Sharing Mojoseje
After 26 years I have zero sensations that I am going low. Completely unaware.
It is an absolutely terrible feeling, like I am going to die and if not die, then pass out. I am shaky, sweaty, incredibly weak, confused and unable to function at any level. I had one a couple of evenings ago after many years without one and never want to experience another one.
Everything is in slow motion.
Yes!
Ravenously hungry, sweaty, confused, uncomfortable.
It is scary has a mother of a Type 1 my daughter gets very silly and all I can think is if I can’t get this under control she can slip away
Shaky and losing control. Of everything.
A severe low for me at this stage in my life consists of first my vision starts going. I do not get shakey after 60 yrs as a type1. I do not answer questions when someone asks me one as I zone out.
I have only woke up to 8 Mets around my bed once for a low and that was 2 yrs ago. I gave insulin via pump during the nite somehow. I went into convulsions at that time according to my husband. Debbie Nance
Type1. 60 yrs
Going on 62 years for me. I can’t fall asleep if I’m low. Gues that has saved me much grief. Best to you.
Metallic taste in the mouth, vision distortion, confusion, feel like laying down
Very scary and confusing
The best way I tell people how it feels to go low is when you get gas at the dentist! Floating feeling, in and out of it.
it is an overwhelming need to eat, coupled with loss sof control over aspect of my perception. i cannot see, i do not smell, or feel, my focus narrows until i only see blackness. its awful. i used to shae violently, i no longer do that.
Sweating, shaking and making poor decisions. If someone else is with me, I can’t stop talking.
Oh, and I’m famished and overeat carbs.
Bad hypo or severe hypo or I would just use the number to those around me who know a little. “ I’m at 47”
47 g carb ?
I get shaky, hot and sweaty. I feel weak like I can’t get up and walk, but I can. The most significant difference between a low and severe low is that my brain feels wrong. The last time it happened, I started eating glucose tablets. After a couple of minutes, I knew I needed to eat them but didn’t know why. Needless to say, I ate way too many, but better than the alternative!
Knowing that correcting the “Low” needs to happen right away !!
& usually Over Correct —-& then deal with
“Highs “
Jim Zellerhoff
A little over a year ago I had a moderate low, with the shaking, sweating, anxiety, etc., that did not respond to glucose tabs. I became very nauseous and had diarrhea, too, and couldn’t take in any more glucose by mouth. I was so lethargic and spacy and unable to move. I sort of felt like I didn’t care what happened to me anymore. Somehow I managed to ask my husband to give me a microdose of Gvoke (I could not have done it myself) and 30 minutes later I was back in the land of the living.
Like stepping off a cliff
I start by feeling “out of body”, sort of dizzy and need to sit down. Sometimes i get sweaty but not often. Mind fog. This is at about 60BG. I always do a finger stick at this point to make sure the reading is correct and compare the finger stick and pump readings. The I treat accordingly.
Before CGM, if asleep, a frightening dream may presage a low bg. E.g., I dream I’ve missed the last bus from downtown to home, windup walking on the empty dark freeway slowly becoming aware I’m being pursued by gigantic malevolent steam shovels and bulldozers. Pre CGM, if awake, I might not be aware of a slowly declining bg. If distracted or really involved in an event, I might not realize my excitement is due to rapid bg decline. Excess sweating & mounting anxiety used to accompany every really low bg especially when on beef NPH insulin. Switching to human analog insulin I noticed much less intense warning symptoms. Sometimes I’d notice an aura.
Shaky, clammy/sweaty, vision starts to go black from center of vision outward, difficulty thinking and speaking, tongue numbness, sometimes toes are numb/cold, but the scariest part is the sleepiness.
As not happened in a long time. But sweating, confusion, impaired thought process,shaking, lack of coordination. Not fun
Extremely scary
Depends how severe. At worst and having been revived, complete panic and worrying I had brain damage as mobility and speech were impaired.
If I’m active, starting in the low 60s, I feel like I’m melting from the inside, (legs and torso) very much a sense of weakness. I don’t notice this feeling if I’m sitting or sleeping. In all cases around mid 50s, I start noticing I’m hungry. From low 50s and lower, I warn those around me I will make bad decisions so stay near. I also switch to finger pricks instead of relying on a CGM. I feel very hungry and shaky. I also make sure that I’m sitting on the floor or laying down in case I pass out- don’t want to fall too far. In the 40s, I’ll start sweating – sometimes have the flash bulb effect (I say sometimes because I know it will happen so I close my eyes). I’ve only been in the 30s once, but I forgot how to chew, so had to spit out the glucose tablet and yelled to my husband-JUICE NOW! That was the scariest, not knowing how to chew. Since that day, I make it a habit to calculate the rate at which my blood sugar is dropping, estimating where I’ll be in 5, 10, 15 minutes, when my insulin on board will stop working, and when I’ll bottom out and at what BG. Real life math equations are so much fun.
Foggy brain, feeling like something is pressing you down.
When I’m having a low bg (in the 50s or less) I feel very desperate, weak and shaky, I’m sweating and have lights flashing visually.
Mental Parkinson’s Disease. In Parkinson’s, one can’t initiate motor programs. With a blood sugar low, if I am engaged in a line of thought or speaking I can continue, but it is difficult or impossible to decide on a new line — my brain just freezes up. For me, the first indication of a low besides a general feeling of unease and grumpiness is a loss of central vision. While the symptoms of an adrenaline rush from a low have long since disappeared, the brain and vision problems haven’t changed a bit over 20 years. Fortunately with a CGM I now very rarely get below 65. It is ironic that the only unpleasant symptoms of diabetes for me are lows caused by “over-treatment” — easy, since my insulin sensitivity seems to vary from day to day. In contrast, my blood sugar can be monstrously high and I have no obvious short-term symptoms. In fact, I actually feel better if I am running somewhat high.
Confused, agitated, sweating
It’s hard to describe. You feel very shaky, like you might pass out and you can’t always think straight. I totally hate the feeling and try to avoid it at all costs.
Disconnected from my brain and self!
Sweaty and falling asleep
Usually, I didn’t know when I was having a severe low. I was usually out of it, didn’t realize what was going on. Since being on a new pump, I haven’t had that trouble, which is truly wonderful.
Sweat, rapid thinking and movement, able to understand, and know what to do.
Sometimes my tongue goes numb/lips…I can’t think, I sweat and or I feel dizzy.
A severe low blood sugar drains my body. I begin to sweat, feel shaky, and lose focus. I can feel my brain shutting down. I know what is going on around me but I don’t have control of my body.
Rather mixed up. Not making sense hand’s don’t work well, get anxious and irritable. Then I completely crash. Always over correct then I’m truly wiped out.
The WORST feeling in the world. Nausea, shakiness, confusion and a overall feeling of panic. I do tend to over treat lows. I just keep eating glucose tablets or what ever I have until I feel better, then my BG is way over what it should be. I find he only way to fully recover is with a nap.
My most severe low came just sitting down after cooking dinner. I missed my usual symptoms of nervousness and sweating. Instead, I realized I could not pick up a fork in order to eat. Some sugar soda saved the day, but my husband had to get it for me.
Loss of control, first my central vision dims with amoeba like blobs of light obscuring my vision, followed by loss of mental clarity, inability to coordinate movement, muscle spasms in arms and legs, unable to process/respond to language, progresses to being unable to stand or sit upright and very cold.
Tired, grouchy, sometime delirious and very shaky.
I have not been able to detect the lows. My wife has helped me most of the time to detect the lows.
When I am extremely low I feel confusion and my face feels numb. My husband tells me I get really quiet. I have been doing this for 40 years, so I don’t feel the symptoms until I am in trouble. I am thankful for my DEXCOM CGM.
Disoriented and very slow to address or complete even basic routine tasks. I find that both physical and mental activities become almost impossible to carry out. Sometimes I feel very warn. Years ago I would perspire profusely, but that symptom is rare for events in the last 20 years.
Weak, shaking, dripping sweat, unable to think, extremely hard to focus. After recovery very sleepy.
I have to have a bg of 30 for these symptoms to manifest.
Unfortunately, I don’t experience symptoms because of hypoglycemic unawareness!!! My CGM is a miraculous gift along with my control-IQ pump helps me to stay close to acceptable range.
I really don’t too many symptoms now. Some sweating at times. When the hypoglycemic unawareness started I would be walking home and my legs would give out from under me. Or I wouldn’t make any sense when talking. I’m naturally pale, but in a reaction, there isn’t much difference between my and white sheets! I could describe more, but I think you’ve got the idea.
I learned relatives recently about the unawareness experienced by long termers. I didn’t know for a long time why it would get so bad for me before I realized it.
It’s a crushing weakness that leaves me feeling flattened and exhausted.
shaky, sweaty, flashing dots in vision, feels like I’m going to die
The only severe lows I have had in my 50 years of T1D happened in 1989 when I was changed from animal sourced NPH and Regular to humulin NPH and Regular. My hypoglycemia symptoms were very strong with animal sourced insulins but all symptoms disappeared on humulin. My initial symptoms were drowsiness and confusion, then unconsciousness because I wasn’t able to treat it. I had fewer severe lows when I got my first pump in 1996. It was a relief when analog insulin was available because I was then able to feel very subtle symptoms of lows before them progressing to dangerous levels. My lowest reading when on humulin taken in the emergency room was 17.
I wouldn’t. I haven’t felt a severe low in about the last 20 years. I normally ‘come round’ after being given a glucagon injection, either by my wife, paramedics, or after being admitted to hospital.
From what I recall, however, was becoming extremely sweaty, confused, and incredibly tired.
These days I only know that I’ve experienced a severe low …. which I class as a hypoglycaemic event where I lose consciousness … after I come round and can feel where I’ve been injected, and feeling nauseous.
I feel like I’m walking through quick sand, I’m shaky, can’t think clearly, and my tongue feels numb.
It feels like I’m losing touch? Weak, disoriented, and at times even anxious.
As to the question about the feeling around a severe low…
I am in a state of panic that I can’t escape from until I get to a more acceptable range.
Yep. Hey, we share T1D and a last name!
Brain numbing
Tingling around my lips and chin is my first warning. Then it starts to feel like my intellect and ability to move, is draining out of me like a dripping faucet…
1. Loss of control.
2. Social numbness.
3. Craving calories.
4. Isolation.
5. Emotional exhaustion.
Apathetic and fatigued. When the world starts closing in on me, I check my blood sugar.
If it wasn’t for my Dexcom G6, I wouldn’t recognize a severe low 30mg. Then my vision would have yellow big spot& I would be shakey. Thankfully I have Baqsimi, but then I would go to 350.
Freezing cold, shaking, scared, and confused.
Sweaty, shaky, flashing patterns in my vision and confusion. I have been told I get a bit ornery as well.
Severe low defined as 54 or below. Sometimes nothing, sometimes weak, light headed, fuzzy headed, spots, exhausted.
Since a severe low was not defined, I will say that I never have experienced a low that I needed glucagon. When I get in the 50’s, I feel spacey, have “lights” in my eyes making it difficult to see, get shaky, and sweat.
I would define it as a low where the assistance of another was required. It’s not your everyday low with classic symptoms, this includes blackouts, slipping out of reality and total confusion, while remaining conscious and often without the normal low symptoms. If someone with T1D doesn’t know what I am describing then they are fortunate to have never experienced a severe low.
confusion, upset, shaky, easy to become irritated, sometimes sweaty, clammy, super hungry (at times), nauseasted, nervous.
Great description.
Ive been T1D for 62 yrs and severe lows haven’t changed. You know your in trouble but your brain is confused and has a hard time figuring out what to do about it. Plain and simple.
It feels like my arms and legs are very heavy, and I want to close my eyes and lay down.
Sweaty, lightheaded, not clear headed.
Shaky; ravenously hungry; confused; sweaty; weepy
Sweating ,faster heartbeat, feeling of passing out
I get them and if day time I might feel a little shaky and hungry and once in a while it’s bad enough that I even sweat and can tell something is wrong and that is it. Most of the severe lows last 2 to 4 hours for me and the hardest part is trying not to over great because I don’t communicate well and those around me force me to drink or eat even past enough because it takes so long to bring it up. Scarier for them then me but their here eat over rides my ability to say no I have enough
Sweaty, shaky, can’t think straight, general sinking feeling.
Running on empty.
Confusion, lack of awareness
Awful, weak, can’t thing, just want lay down, an go to sleep.
Anxious, tunnel vision. My only thought and I only see my way to get what I need, whether that’s juice, food or glucagon.
Dizzingly and out of control are the first two words which come to minnd.
Normally starts with slower responses, slower thinking and family members usually recognize this by my speech. If I’m by myself and don’t do something about it soon there comes a point I call no return. For me that point is around 49-55 bs. Sometimes I start doing strange things like take off running if I’m outside. Very strange. Probably what some have described as panicking, knowing that you need to take care of it but basically being past the point of doing it yourself. After 25 years I’m much more cautious about getting to that point after experiencing some serious consequences in the past.
Complete lack of control.
Extreme anxiety
Lethargic. Trouble completing a thought. Jittery and numb to stimulus. Mentally displaced and detached.
Confused, generally sweaty, shaky, concerned that the remedies I am implementing won’t get me out of it!
Nothing short of terrifying. I often go into seizures, having no idea where I am, who anybody, or even if I’m alive or dead. I’ll feel like I’m falling or hurtling toward something. At home I feel like my house is tilting. Im leaving a lot out but these are some of the scariest things.
Terrible! Shaky, weak, confused, panicked. With severe overnight lows I’ve had bizarre dreams and have woken up paralyzed on one side of my body. I’ve feistily fought off helpers who wouldn’t just let me slip into a coma in peace. Afterwards, there’s the lingering hypo headache, rebound highs, and exhaustion. I’m typically a “glass half full even if I need to bolus for it” personality, but my lowest moments (BG-wise and emotionally) have been after such severe lows. Stark reminder that there’s a fine line between a life-preserving insulin dose and a life-threatening one.
Jneticdiabetic stated: “Stark reminder that there’s a fine line between a life-preserving insulin dose and a life-threatening one.” Oh so true! And unfortunately nobody quite understands that fine line unless one lives with T1D oneself.
Scary.
Shaky.
Worrisome.
Unsteady.
Like being on the verge/transition to another world.
Also affects my facial muscles; I make faces that I usually don’t, my jaw sets unnaturally.
A severe low is undesirably horrible. My mind goes first. Don’t know where I am. I can’t move. I want to close my eyes and leave the world, but after 40 yr TID I know in the background I must do something. I have passed out a few times in the past and my husband was around to try to give my orange juice. Glucagon pen was solution.
I feel normal when I’m in the low 20’s.
That’s scary! My doc is always telling me to worry more about the lows than the highs; I would try so hard to correct highs, I would plummet down into the 40s or lower. That may be an approach you should consider?
I have had that happen too. One time I felt slightly shaky so I tested my blood on a glucose meter (before I had a CGM) just to make sure if my sugar was low. Yep, in the 20’s.
One part panic, one part bone crushing exhaustion, and 2 parts impending doom…
It’s like experiencing a hallucinatory experience. There is always a feeling of being in an alternate reality, frequently accompanied by paranoia.
It feels like this for me too! Almost reassuring to hear other people have had a similar experience. It completely freaked me out the first time it happened and I had anxiety for the next few months about it
That bad ones have no warning. Bam the world starts to spin and then sheer panic “oh no I killed myself” thoughts. Panic guzzle soda and stare at the dexcom praying it reverses soon. Then the shakes and sweats and weakness comes.
Most of the time I just feel sluggish and if I go beyond that I usually end up on the floor flopping around like a fish. The latter I haven’t had happen in over 6 or 7 years.
Severe lows have given me many different types of feelings. I may just move extremely slowly. I have fallen to the ground and couldn’t even crawl without falling over. I can sometimes sweat like a pig. Sometimes I am talking super slowly and incoherently. Sometimes I am wobbly. Many times I just feel extremely uncomfortable. Sometimes I just can’t think. Luckily with a CGM, those super lows have not taken place and a mild low just causes an uncomfortable feeling. I have a problem with severe lows being defined as needing help from someone else. The times I fell to the floor and barely could crawl and it took me 20 minutes to crawl to my glucose tabs, I managed to help myself. But to me, that is a severe low.
You have described the dilemma of severe hypoglycemia very well. I have experienced everything you have so aptly described.
Several times in the past before CGM with CIQ severe lows happened with a sinking feeling that I am falling down a rabbit hole like Alice in Wonderland. Altered states of perception … out of body experience as I perceive my self awareness being disconnected from my physical body, but still maintained by a luminous silver chord, and I am floating in space like a helium balloon looking down at myself lying in bed, or on the couch, or at me desk, or trying to walk from my office to get some help … body jerking in near seizure movements … I would struggle hard to hang on because I wanted to get my consciousness back into my body and I keep missing the gateway or portal to get back inside my physical presence. When at at home waking from sleep or when in presence of other people I would incoherently try to call out for help and somehow manage to give myself a glucagon shot because sometimes other people don’t hear my call for help or don’t know what to do to be helpful. Sad but true. Once back inside my physical body, I am freezing and shivering with cold seats, experiencing jerking movements as my physical and energetic bodies make contact and blend with each other again. Then I am cold and clammy drenched with sweat. I take a hot shower for about 20 minutes to regulate my body temp and then crawl under warm bedding and sleep for the next 4 or 5 hours after leaving a VM for my job that I had a severe low and am recovering.
Very good description.
That is a great description of being attached by a cord.
I feel like I’m dying.
I’m so sorry! That’s awful!
With hypo unawareness, feeling the low is all in my head.
I wrote a poem about it for a class almost 10 years ago and then revised it in 2017… it is below:
Low Blood Sugar by Karen Mehren
I just want to get to…
The bread board? huh?
I am
not sure.
Brain fuzzy, ambiguous.
Thoughts vague, obscure, far away.
Like Dali’s clocks, time bends strangely.
Not dreaming.
But not inattentive.
Where am I?
Large space of nothingness.
Why can’t I get there?
Control excised.
Am I biking up the block
To a friend’s house?
I need to eat.
Am I driving home?
I need to eat.
Am I vacuuming the living room?
I need to eat.
Where did the cake go?
I yell and scream with
No realization of creating
A rather awkward situation.
Articulateness ejected.
I huddle beneath a veneer of inscrutable, erratic agitation,
Unremembered turbulence. Incoherent words.
Disjointed and struggling for normalcy.
In a moment of clarity
I wonder about the friendly barbarians
Working on me;
talking to me.
The visions like controlled explosions
Noticeably altering the color of the sky,
Closing the gap between life and darkness.
Slow fragments and slowed down,
Distinctness engulfed by unconsciousness.
Certainty removed.
Stuck for more than an hour.
I’m waiting on anything I can get.
Unpublished work All rights reserved © 2018 Karen Mehren
PS – the “friendly barbarians” refers to the EMTs in an ambulance.
Love the poem! Look for writing contests that come from Diabetes sources. I see them every so often, but can’t remember how you’d search for them. Maybe “Diabetes” and “Writing Contests”?
Thank you, Beth! 🙂
I will look for somewhere diabetes-related to submit it.
I forgot to describe my last severe low…
It was very early in the morning and I woke up because my Dexcom was screaming at me. It said I was something like 42… maybe 30s…
I couldn’t scream for my husband… I knew I needed to get up but I couldn’t move my limbs properly. I somehow got to the bathroom and my legs went out. I fell onto the floor and had a great deal of trouble getting up. I was breathing quite heavily aswell. My mind, strangely enough worked _enough_ (it usually doesn’t) to know that I needed my Baqsimi ASAP.
So, I found the strength to get up and grab the box of Baqsimi. Then I fell down again and the box went skittering across the floor.
I crawled to it and got it open but I have no idea how I got it in my nose, but I did.
Then, I don’t remember what happened next…
I was fuzzy in the head, it felt like I was dying and I couldn’t even yell loud enough to be heard by another human. (And I’m lucky to live with another human.)
Once my blood started to come up into the 60s or 70s, then I started to feel like I was low (although, again, I have no (or not many) physical symptoms to tell me)… my brain’s fuzziness and my body’s complete, total, utter exhaustion told me.
It’s not an experience I would wish on anyone… but I know my fellow T1Ders feel it, too… and, I’m sorry for us all!!
It just happened less than 6 hours ago I woke up feeling shaky when I have a severe low I can’t My vision I see a flash of light and I can’t focus
I’ve only experienced a severe low twice, both in the middle of the night- both times I feel like I am in a terrifying, altered reality- colors are sometimes different, I can feel every bead of sweat and it feels painful, everything looks and feels off and I don’t have the awareness that I’m low, so both times this has happened to me I screamed to try to escape this reality and someone thankfully has come to help me each time, convinced me to drink juice and then I slowly came back.
Oh my gosh, Beckie! I used to scream, too! I am so grateful that you said that… it helps me understand those experiences.
Pounding heart, confused, visual issues, sometimes to the point of nearly unable to see, mostly as if I was walking in from bright sunlight and couldn’t adjust my eyes. I get impatient as I’m falling into the low. As I’ve aged, I find myself getting more severe lows more frequently, as I’m not as quick to notice the low coming. Once the pump alerts me, I keep falling after taking carbs for quite a long time. It’s a panicked feeling and sometimes, though not frequently, descends to fear for my life.
I just remembered my worst low. By the time emergency vehicle arrived, my BS was 15. Yes, 15! This was long before days of pump and good ways to test BS. First, I had a seizure, according to my hubby. When I woke, I began jumping on the bed, swearing like a sailor (again, according to David). When ER came, I was telling them things like “I love you!” or “You look like a movie star!” and other things. Yes, I even flirted while near death. YEARS later (this year, as a matter of fact), I learned I’d had a cerebellar stroke, likely that day according to my research. These kinds of strokes are rare. THIS IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW: hypoglycemia can cause what is called glutamate excitotoxicity in the brain. This is a hallmark of some neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. I believe high glucose can also cause this, but I haven’t researched that topic.
Thank you for your posts, beth nelson!
Oh goodness, yes! 15 is crazy low!!
I also had a number of seizures at night until the one where my husband couldn’t wake me up. Finally got to an endocrinologist who changed my life!
But, the glutamate excitotoxicity is something I will look into!!!
(My Dad had Parkinson’s dementia and my Mom has Alzheimer’s… so, I have to be as proactive on these things as is humanly possible.)
Thank you for your posts!!!! 🙂
Oh! PS – I bit my husband during one of my seizures… he was not happy.
#theembarassingthingswedowhenlow
I guess my best response would be impending doom, like I may be helpless soon so I’d better take action. I then wait until the BG comes up, sometimes forever, with a tingling mouth sensation, to go resume what I was doing.
I feel very sleepy and I start shaking from head to toe. Plus I am very moody
Debilitating.
Awful. It is scary as I know where I’m heading. The most nervous is behind the wheel of a car. Have also had this on golf courses & tennis courts. I carry hard candy with me in the driver’s door/golf bag/tennis bag but have on occasion forgot to refill. Stopping at the nearest gas station and eating whatever they have is nerve racking. I’ve eaten the food while standing in line to pay on more than one occasion.
It has gone away with the alarms and monitoring devices on my phone and watch but prior to those technologies it was difficult to predict w/o bs checks every 1/2 hour.
Thank God those days are behind us. But, they could easily return.
Try telling these well said horror stories to a non diabetic. Most don’t get it. I identify with all your stories and I’ve lived through most myself.
Another super scary one was being given beta-blockers after a heart stent in 2008. Come to find out beta-blockers also block the experience of an insulin reaction. So, after falling once and on a 2nd occasion just checking my bs to find it was 29!$#%& I began to read the label of my beta-blocker. Clear as a bell deep into the 15+ page description “can cause blocking of hypoglycemic episodes”. I fired the cardiologist on the spot! Lesson learned, now I read everything about all drugs, supplements and food before I eat it.
This question begs the another question “What is the fastest foods to reverse a low blood sugar?” T1D Exchange should blast this information to all T1D’s. Also T1DS, don’t hide behind the statement “must consult with your CDE. I use hard candy, orange juice and M&M’s when at home. I sometimes refer to an app on my phone called My GI.
Before Dexcom it was in the middle of the night and my husband woke me up because he said I felt very clammy to him. I was sweating profusely. I could barely think to get out the words to him to go get my bottle of juice from the fridge. I asked him to get my meter so I could check my bs. And it was no surprise that the number 21 came up.
My thoughts are everywhere, non stopping, but making no sense. Confused. Unbalanced, if I try to walk. Cold and sweaty. Jerky movements and involuntary movements sometimes.
I get confused. My thoughts are racing. Making no sense. Unbalanced and uncontrollable movements. Sweaty and cold.
I feel hollow and have not ability to concentrate
I start getting a bit dizzy, hot, shaky, confused and very hungry and thirsty.
I classify a severe low as one where I become completely stupid – it affects my cognition first and then my peripherals – like shaking, and fast heart beat etc…
I’ve never had a very severe low — only been T1D for 7 months. But if I am dropping very fast, I usually get this weird tunnel vision where I feel like everything is converging and I feel unsteady. Then the shaking, clammy feeling starts. Usually takes 25-30 mins to feel normal again, even when my blood sugar returns to normal.
What’s interesting is that I’ve begun taking Adderall for ADHD, and my doctor and I are still trying to find the right dosage. Lately I’ve found that 20mg XR is just too much for me, and describing how uncomfortable and out of it I felt, my ex-cocaine user boyfriend said that’s exactly what coming down from speeding feels like. But what’s interesting is that it also feels exactly like a low blood sugar. I kept checking my CGM but my blood sugars were all fine, but I still felt shaky and spacey. So apparently a low blood sugar has the same feeling as coming down off of speed/drugs.
With severe lows, I feel hot and start sweating.
Otherwise, I do not know when I’m going low except from the signal that the CGM monitor provides.
Very frightening. At least now we have Baqsimi, or inhalable glucagon. I think that anyone can die from extreme low blood glucose.
I have an odd low-grade pressure/feeling behind my eyes. A slightly panicky feeling. My sense of touch and vision are ‘off’. Wood doors feel like fabric or non-wood. Things that should not be work are fact. Example, I can deliver insulin on my pump without touching it. I feel like I’m floating across the room. I can walk through walls or the floor moves as I walk across it. I often get obsessed with the pump menus and continually cycle through the menus and don’t eat. Usually, one item (like my husband’s arm will feel ‘real’ and as long as I continue to touch it, I can tell myself to eat. Once I eat and BG starts back up, I get shivers and feel extremely cold.
Unfortunately, I get very irritated and have an almost nervous feeling (maybe manic), which is fine, except that I have a wife and small kids who have to deal with me and tell me to figure my Sugar situation out. If I get too low, close to 40 I see spots and get a little woozy.
It feels like a stroke. I have never had a CVA but this inability to think and help yourself or form words is what I see patients experience. Its being trapped in your head that’s not thinking correctly and you mainstream your energy to do what you can to notify your spouse or kids that you are in trouble-yell/grunt help without saying the words until they hear you or you have no energy and its over. But I’ve had this for almost 50 years so….thank you malfunctioning Minimed for knowing this fact.
When I was first diagnosed with T1D my lows where textbook. Shaking, sweats, these where after I ate something to combat the low. Now I don’t feel anything so I usually pass out
Rapid heartbeat, nervousness, weakness
First, a severe low can feel differently depending on the cause. In my case, severe lows have only occurred when either I did something that caused it OR the circumstances of life did …or a combination of the two. Example, I had a seizure due to hypoglycemia that was caused by my inability to awaken (due to a 30 hour business trip back from Singapore) when my BG was starting to fall AND having eaten a yogurt and given 1 unit of insulin when I returned home at 2 am and was very hungry. I normally need at least 1 unit of insulin to eat a yogurt but not that night. I awakened in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and ended up having a seizure. I don’t even remember being low and feeling any symptoms before the seizure. Other severe lows over the last 45 years have included being hungry, being nauseous, feeling confused and disoriented. Fortunately, I’ve not had many relative to the number of HOURS I’ve lived as a T1D since diagnosis on 9-1-1977.
Sweating, shaky, weak, confused. But, signals are not as obvious, the older he gets, and on occasion there is almost no warning.