Severe Hypos

[tyrice]

How long does it normally take you all to get your strength back(walking, talking, reagaining balance) after a severe hypo?


This saturday morning I woke up. Barely able to breathe and could not move. My sense of time wasn't there and all I had were my thoughts, a blurry vision of my ceiling and panic. Trying to regulate my breathing was a task in itself. Having to calm myself was even harder. I was home alone. My kids were at my moms an I was stuck in a mental limbo. Not really knowing if I was still awake or if I was dreaming the whole thing. As I felt my breathe hit my teeth, I could feel and hear my heart beat as if I were wearing a stethascope. Fear had started to overcome me. Visions of being mentally handicapped and not having my kids anymore rushed through my head without prejudice. Noticing my breathing started to slow down, not in speed, but just in breaths in general. I finally managed to convince myself I was hypo and could possibly get out of this situation. After numerous attempts I was finally able to lift a shoulder. Still couldn't talk. Not even a simple mumble. After a few more tries I was able to get a single arm in the air. I still could not control it, but it was progress. Apparently my glucose was rising. Slowly but surely. A few minutes go by and I find myself on the floor with flailing arms. I made an attempt to find my Nextel phone(my mom has nextel also). But to no success was it with in eye sight, nor did I have the patience. Crawling on all fours I made it to my front door, but couldn't balance myself long enough to open it. I have a patio door right next to it with blinds. I reached over to grab the strings used to open the blinds, and used that to hold me up. With that in hand I was able to open my door. My neighbor's apartment is about 4 or 5 feet to the right of mine. Still unable to balance myself I managed to crawl to their front door, leaving a small bllod trail behind from my knees. After a couple of bangs on the door someone finally answered. I'm sure it had to be a bit awkward seeing your neighbor on the ground in his boxers in front of your door, but hey, what was I gonna do? I was able to get out "Call 911". It took a couple tries in between breaths, but I noticed my speech was coming back. I was also able to get out my moms phone number so they could call her as well. I managed to flop back into my own apartment doorway until the paramedics arrived. My speech was started to come back and I was coherent. I couldn't stand up and had no control of my bodily muscles. When they tested my blood it was 77! They then gave me a bottle dextrose I think it was. Tested me again about 10 minutes later and I was up to 94. I was just then able to stand. Still off balance though. By this time my mom had already shown up and spoke with them. The paramedics waited till I was able to stabalize myself and then left. However, I do have to say this has been the scariest moment of my life. I didn't go to bed till 4am sunday morning because I was afraid of what may happen. I tested aroudn midnight saturday/sunday and my blood was around 200. When I didn't take anything to correct it, wanting to see how sunday morning would end up. I tested sunday and was 122.

So back to my question...How long does it normaly take your strength to come back after a hypo?

[xMenace]

Been thru that or worse 5 times.

I usually take a half an hour or so to pull fully out. They hauled me in once cause i was too slow. I needed a foot xray anyway as i kicked the bedpost pretty ****ed hard while convulsing.

4 of the times I was coming out as they entered the house.

[duck]

Can I ask you a question first? Do you take N (aka "NPH")? If not, what kind of insulin do you take, and how long before all this happened was your last shot?

[tyrice]

I'm on Novolog and Lantus. I took my Lantus around 11pm. I've only been on this setup for about 2 months now.

[belyro]

I guess I'm lucky. I get tired and shaky and weak, but have never lost consciousness or coherence or anything, even at 50 or lower. It can take me hours to truly feel better, though. It often leaves me really tired with a headache. It's about 1/2 an hour usually, though, before I feel OK walking around again. I can if I have to, but I just have no energy to do it (i.e. walk around) for a while.

[Emm]

I'm with Bethany - also never had any serious lows, but still takes me hours to feel like I'm back to normal. Sometimes there are lasting affects, can still feel odd when I wake up the next morning!

[TenderVittleS]

Wow sorry to hear what you went through. A BS reading of 77 shouldn't cause those symptoms though, It must have been alot lower than that. But to answer it usually takes anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes in my case. I would have other tests done though seriously because 77 should not have done that to you, maybe a 20 or 30 reading.

[duck]

I'm on Novolog and Lantus. I took my Lantus around 11pm. I've only been on this setup for about 2 months now.

Hmmmm...Lantus at 11PM, and you "woke" up like this. Let me think about this, Lantus is "peakless" in theory, and if it gives you a hypo, you should be able to "blast" out of it with 15 - 20 grams of carb, since it is not meant to overcome ingested carbs...interesting.

[Funnygrl]

So your glucose got up to 77 with no carbs? I think I would have crowlled to the fridge, not my neighbors house. I keep glucose tabs and candy in my room.

[xMenace]

Tyrice and Belyro, how old are you? At some age you should lose some of your major hypo symptoms. I no longer get shaky.

[duck]

Tyrice and Belyro, how old are you? At some age you should lose some of your major hypo symptoms. I no longer get shaky.

The symptoms may come back...A lot of us have noticed our symptoms seem to "cycle" or change.

[Funnygrl]

I lost my symptoms for awhile. And now they are back some, but not as much as they were. It's more a matter of how often you are going low and for how long if you will lose your symptoms.

Are you sure your symptoms were hypoglycemia? 77 is barely low, much less severe, and it would take a lot for your body to get up that high from a severe low, especially without sugar consumed.

[tyrice]

I've never had any other sicknesses(not counting colds)..Especially anything tied to paralisys. s my glucose rose, my condition bettered..I can't think of anything else to tie to that. Flopping into my kitchen wth uncertainty wasn't really on my mind at the time. Especially since I had no muscle control. My only concern was getting help at the time.

So your glucose got up to 77 with no carbs? I think I would have crowlled to the fridge, not my neighbors house. I keep glucose tabs and candy in my room.

That was after the paramedics had arrived. I couldn't test my own blood if I wanted to. I was barely able to make outside.

[belyro]

Tyrice and Belyro, how old are you? At some age you should lose some of your major hypo symptoms. I no longer get shaky.

I'm 28. T1 since I ws 3.

[tyrice]

I'm 30..T1 since I was 12.

[CycloneKitty]

Im 36. T1 since 11 ... and still get the shakes - always have ... at least it helps to say ... hey Kitty go treat yourself cause your low.

[Gangrel]

I've never been that bad either, and I've been as low as 2.1 or something like that. I may have even been in the 1s, but I can't remember.

The only time i've ever been almost out of it was a hotel room in Amsterdam where I got out of bed, stood up, and it took me a few mintues to realize where i was...... tho I chalk that up to being in a strange place more then anything.

[poodlebone]

I've had the same thing happen to me a bunch of times. The first time it happened was terrifying. I woke up freezing and unable to control my body/movements. I remember screaming, both from fear and from the cold. I've been told that many people get cold when they've dropped very low and then their BG begins to rise again. I had boxes of juice on the table by my bed and when I was able to think about them, I found that I couldn't get them since my arms would fly in all directions if I attempted to move them. I was able to finally grab hold of one and gnawed a hole in one corner but most of the juice went everywhere except my mouth. I'm not sure how long I lay in bed but I finally tried to get up, and fell on the floor (seriously banging my arm up on the way down). Laying on a wood floor was even worse than being in bed. I also landed in front of the door, which open into the room, so I couldn't get out. After what seemed like an eternity I was able to wiggle around and pry the door open, and I crawled into the living room. A blanket had come off the bed with me when I fell and I was able to get that over me a bit on the living room floor. Eventually I found that I could control my arms, and I crawled to the couch for awhile. When I finally got up and went to the kitchen, my BG was in the 50's, so I can only imagine just how low it had gone.

You're lucky that you were able to make it to your neighbors. I was screaming at the top of my lungs (just screams, not any real words) and if I had been getting murdered, my neighbors would just ignore it.

All of my seizures like that happened while I was taking NPH. I lost my hypo awareness maybe 6-7 years ago. Before, I would have woken up before my BG ever got that low.

[Cyborg]

I usually recover from even severe lows within a couple hours. Hopefully you will keep some glucose tabs next to your bed in the future. You may also want to check your evening basals.

[spring]

I had that happen three times in the past.

The first time was rather frightening. I didn't seizure and I could walk okay but my brain was quite messed up. I was only able to formulate (a rather articulate phrase all considered) "I can't think properly". I tried to test my finger but couldn't work out how. It was difficult to coordinate and my brain couldn't put steps together. I woke my parents (I think I was about 15 at the time) and declared my inability to think. When my mother tested me, I was 4.9mmol/l. A perfectly fine number! I nibbled on breakfast but still couldn't think right or read or speak more than odd words. It took about 45 minutes for me to get past babbling and into mostly coherent sentences... at which point I started puking.

When we finally got to the hospital maybe an hour and a half to two hours after I woke in that state, the Dr. there smiled and said that I must have dropped in the night, but judging from my morning number and puking state, my liver had saved me and brought me up. (Converting stored glycogen into glucose - go liver) That was likely the case for you as well - hence why you weren't horrifically low when they tested you. For the rest of the day I had a bad headache and was a bit queasy but three hours after I was fully functioning brain-wise.

The second time it happened I immediately recognized what it was. I was more mute that time and couldn't get a straw into a juice box but I had a ziplock bag of life savers next to my bed that I managed to pry open and devour. Woke the parents up again but didn't go to the hospital as my bloodsugar was fine and eventually I was back to normal (though again, puking and with a headache from the liver's glucagon kick) The third time was much the same.

It is scary and for several years I let myself run higher than is proper before bed/would have excessively large evening snacks for fear of it happening.