Wednesday, June 20, 2007

How low can you go?

As I sit here and type, I am experiencing one of the strangest lows I've had in some time.

My tongue is completely numb, and the feeling (or lack thereof) has spread to the roof of my mouth and into the back of my throat.

My brain feels slightly foggy, but somehow I am able to type here legibly (with several strokes of the <--Backspace key and the help of spell check).

My shoulders feel light, like they are floating. Strangely, my head doesn't feel light. Just thick and foggy.

My hands are shaky. I haven't had shaky hands during a low in a long, long time. Months, at least. More likely in over a year. I'm not sure how I'm even typing right now. I had a hard enough time checking and confirming my blood sugar (2.1/38 by the way).

I am "working" from home today. Checking work e-mail while I complete some final clean-up at the house. Had to take a break just now when the low came over me. I've scrubbed the kitchen floor and mowed the lawn. That would explain the sudden dive in my blood sugar.

I had to scrounge my kitchen for something to eat. Stupid me, I ran out of juice and sugar packets in my purse last night, and forgot to replenish my supply. Most items from my kitchen cupboards and refrigerator have already been packed and moved over to the new house. Somehow, I managed to find a box of Fruit-By-The-Foot stashed in the back corner of a cupboard. BF bought it a few months ago in order to have some fun snacks to offer my nephew while he's here visiting.

They each have 17g of carb. I ate two.

I'm feeling much better now.

10 comments:

Carey said...

Man, that sounds like a horrible feeling. Thank goodness for Fruit by the Foot.

bethany said...

awww def. not fun. lows stink. and that's pretty sweet that we have the same birthday :-D

Scott S said...

It stinks when we experience lows like that ... I had a low once where I was cognizant enough to know I had to treat it, yet I had a temporary speech impediment for an hour or more afterwards. I also ended up sitting because I wasn't really stable on my feet ... I considered that low much worse than those where I was not aware of what was going on because I actually KNEW what was going on, but it took a while to correct!

Shannon said...

What a vivid description of what a low is like.

It gives a non-PWD a better understanding of what it's like.

Thank goodness for fruit by the foot!!

Caro said...

Yuck. I feel for you.

When I get symptoms of a low, that numb mouth feeling is a common one - which is probably some kind of divine retribution, given that I'm a dentist! And it makes whatever I use to treat the low feel like chalk in my mouth.

Hope you're feeling better now.

Minnesota Nice said...

I think that hypos will always be one of the great mysteries of DB for me.
I don't often get that numb tongue, but when I do it takes forever to go away.
I don't know if we have Fruit-By-The-Foot here in the U.S., but I've found that anything "gummy", such as that, or gumdrops, licorice or taffy really brings me up quick ----except-----I can't keep a lot of it around because I'll snack on it and then it's gone.

Bernard said...

Wow that sounds horrible. Glad you found something to fix it.

That's one of the worst things about diabetes. When you get a low and can't find anything to bring it up. And sometimes your brain isn't working enough that you even know what to look for, so alternates fixes for lows can't really be recognized.

Bad Decision Maker said...

I sometimes get the numb and tingly tongue too, but it's usually more in my lips. It's weird.

Scott K. Johnson said...

Was it hard to eat with your mouth all numb? I sure hope you didn't bite your tongue off or anything!

Anonymous said...

Great work.