Do you remember your first hypo?

[Emm]

My first hypo is clear as a bell in my memory - well as clear as it can be considering it was years ago and late at night :D

It was my first day on insulin - the day I discovered that even the low dose my DE nurse always started people on was a little too much for me. (Not any more!)

I was just drifting off to sleep when I felt my heart beat speed up. I felt weird but was trying so hard not to worry about lows that I didn't check for a while, I thought I was being paranoid! When I did check I was either 3.4 or 3.6, I had a munch on chocolate (not the best hypo food!) and followed up with a marmite sandwich that a friend made for me - my DE nurse had instructed me to do that, but I've learnt a lot since then! That sandwich is still to date the BEST sammie I've tasted, EVER!

These days I just grab a lolly or whatever and go on with my day, back then a hypo was big news and kinda scary!

Do you remember yours? Is it one of those memorable moments in life?

[notme]

Nope. I was in the hospital, but I don't remember it.

[xMenace]

Ya I do:middle of the night, shaking, sweating. That glass of frozen OJ in our old Amana fridge with the big freezer on the bottom never tasted so good.

[grace girl]

Definately! It was early morning, I was sleeping, and I remember being sort of semi-conscious and thinking that I was dying...and how easy it would be to just slip over to the other side. I remember that it seemed to take all of the energy I could muster to bring myself awake.
I had no idea what was wrong with me, I'd only been on insulin for about a week. My husband suggested I check my b/s after I told him how I felt. 43. The same thing happened two more times before they decided I was taking too much lantus.

[EasyType2]

I recall it vaguely, but at the time, I had no idea what it was. Thought I had an upset tummy.

[Penny]

Over 40 years ago....I was in the hospital, waiting to have a C-section. I thought I was losing the baby and the nurse told me I was just "going hypo", said my Bs was under 40. Don't remember much after that, though.

[Harold]

Yeah, but it was a dream. Does that count?

[blue eyes]

Yep, it was during the night.

Woke up really sweaty (like I had just got out of the shower), weak, had trouble getting myself up and out of the bed.

Eventually rolled myself out of the bed, crawled (yeah I crawled, don't laugh-didn't have the strength to stand) to the kitchen had a couple of teaspoons of honey, glass of lemonade and a salada/dry biscuit.

Was 1.7 or 1.8 (30 / 32), can't remember now and woke up at 11.X - would have been worse off if I did that and wasn't honeymooning.

[sofaraway]

I can remember a few hypos from when i was on gliclazide. my first on insulin was about a week after i started it. i was moving house and just cleaning the empty flat. I had been running around and been quite active, i suddenly felt like my legs were made of jelly, i can't remember exactly what i tested 3.something. i drank 500mls lucozade, i then sat on the floor for about 30 minutes to recover.

[Lynne59]

I don't remember my first but I remember all the rest. Either it wakes me up or I have it a daytime. I get a bright (like the sun) spot in the middle of my eyes and I feel like I am going to pass out. I have a lot of trouble seeing my meter when this happens. Does this happen to anyone else?
Lynne59

[ant hill]

I get a bright (like the sun) spot in the middle of my eyes and I feel like I am going to pass out.
Yes Lynne, I did and that bright light is the same reaction that i get when low!! :( So who needs a meter but then i have had a low when i was 13 and that was in 1974 and a meter is a luxury that i did not have. :( Now it's a necessity and test nearly every 2 hours or so. My mom & dad were in a panic and i was weak and angry!!! :eek:

[kel4han]

Dont laugh, but my "hypo" was a 103..... I guess a 103 after a 13% A1c diagnosis really is a hypo to your brain at the time! Had the profuse sweating, and everything. Cant remember the real 1st hypo though, wasnt quite as scary as feeling low when you are normal and not knowing what the heck to do. :confused:

[amyjo29]

I am a type 2 and usually go into the t2 forums but I was curious about what a type 1.5 is. I know type1 is when you don't produce insulin but what is 1.5?:confused:

[Emm]

1.5 is a form of type 1 that generally comes on at a later age. It's a little slower than T1 - where T1s fairly quickly lose their ability to produce insulin, 1.5s can take a year, sometimes longer. They look like T2s to start with (tho often aren't overweight - however some T2s aren't either so it's hard to tell!).

They don't respond to diet changes or medications for long, even though it may look like they do in that first year or so when they're honeymooning and their pancreas is working here & there.

1.5 is more technically called LADA - Latent Auto-immune Diabetes in Adults. They will always need insulin, just like T1s.

[KCP]

TO be honest, my first hypo was when it was discovered I had nessidioblastosis. My pancreas produced too much insulin for three months before the figured it out. I went very low in a school assembly and I fell off my chair. I also remember 'dreams' from this period of being really hungry and my mum feeding me a banana and having the taste in my mouth for AGES

[xxheartstrings]

I don't remember my first low but I do remember my LOWEST low ever. I was sitting in a car for 4+ hours, and my uncle took me through a drive thru for a late lunch/early dinner. Got my food, tested my BS and almost died from surprise when it was 27! I felt completely normal too, it was very odd. That was the only time I have ever been so low and never felt it.

Very scary to think how low it got.

[ant hill]

tested my BS and almost died from surprise when it was 27! I felt completely normal too, it was very odd. That was the only time I have ever been so low and never felt it.

Very scary to think how low it got.
Gee that's scary!!! So don't even think of bolusing, Just eat!!!
Now that pavlova MMMmmm...... :eek:

[Chris Graham]

Mine was like kel4han's...I was probably 70 or 80 after being in the high 200's - low 300's for at least 3 months. I was so emotional. I called my endo and begged for valium...I thought I was just having a hard time adjusting to the news that I have type 1. Surprisingly, they didn't have me test my bg. Once I understood what was going on, I was able to cope much better with my new dx.

[BriOnH]

Dont laugh, but my "hypo" was a 103..... I guess a 103 after a 13% A1c diagnosis really is a hypo to your brain at the time! Had the profuse sweating, and everything. Cant remember the real 1st hypo though, wasnt quite as scary as feeling low when you are normal and not knowing what the heck to do. :confused:

Mine was like kel4han's...I was probably 70 or 80 after being in the high 200's - low 300's for at least 3 months. I was so emotional. I called my endo and begged for valium...I thought I was just having a hard time adjusting to the news that I have type 1. Surprisingly, they didn't have me test my bg. Once I understood what was going on, I was able to cope much better with my new dx.

I can totally relate with those. The anxiety that comes with that, for me, is crazy.

My first reaction:
well I was about 3 years old. Personal/Home Glucose meters didn't exist at that time, and other then starting to become a dinosaur with tales of "I had to sharpen my needle on a wetstone", I really, really could have used one because I am not sure it really even was a reaction.

I woke up and couldn't move my body. I was in complete paralysis. I thrusted my voice box and my mom heard me. She carried me downstairs onto the couch in our living room (our house was in Reno at the time) and gave my juice + sugar mix + almond rocas. I eventually could move my limbs again and my muscles functioned.

To be honest though I am not sure it was an insulin reaction. I think it was just sleep paralysis (there is a specific term for it in pediatrics, I forget what it is). I think my first real reaction was when I was about seven or so and my mom was out doing arrons and my dad didn't feed me breakfast, and I didn't want it anyhow. I lost it. He threw me in the stationwagon and took me to the emergency clinic down the street and I woke up there. I couldn't remember a thing, but he told me I was trying to climb out the station wagon window the whole time.

What a therapeutic thread em, Thanks :D.

[Funnygrl]

TO be honest, my first hypo was when it was discovered I had nessidioblastosis. My pancreas produced too much insulin for three months before the figured it out. I went very low in a school assembly and I fell off my chair. I also remember 'dreams' from this period of being really hungry and my mum feeding me a banana and having the taste in my mouth for AGES
Do you have type 1 as a result of a pancreaectomy?

I also had hypoglycemia before I had diabetes. I was about 10 when it was discovered and also had horrible "night terrors." I would dream my parents were trying to kill me. Before dinner I would sit on the floor and scream till my parents fed me, or watch TV and not be able to tell my parents what was on TV. My parents took me to counseling. It didn't help. I would stand in the lunch line at school too, and be shaking so badly I couldn't pick up my lunch tray. My first time I passed out was during chorus though, not an assembly. It was right before lunch, I was getting my period, and the teacher yelled at me for eating glucose tabs, so I put them away (I used to be very complacent during lows).

[mg_2204]

Was pleagued with hypoglycemia when a teenager and as a young adult. I remember fainting (mostly as a teen) but didn't know they were hypos until much MUCH later on.

First hypo provoked by meds was in 95. I have no idea why the doc put me on Diamicron. I gather he didn't have a clue either! :cool: I'd eat like a horse but... would have hypos nonetheless. At the time my mother was in palliative care for lung cancer. I'd visit every day. And every day I'd have a :banghead: hypo right in front of the nurses' desk. The joy!

[Peggy]

My first and worst hypo was before I was on insulin. I'd been asleep a couple of hours and woke up sweating and burning up. Thought it was a hot flash but was also shaking terribly. My husband who has been diabetic for over 25 years told me it was probably a low and he got me something to drink. I don't think I could have made it to the kitchen! It was in response to Glucovance which my dr had recently added to my metformin. I switched to an endo who put me on insulin instead and I have few lows anymore and recognize the early warning symptoms and can treat it before it gets bad. One of you mentioned a bright light when you're going low. My husband knows he's low because everything turns green as if he were wearing green tinted sunglasses. Interesting how different people experience the same thing so differently!

[sweetstick80]

My first hypo was years ago, I remember the episode but not the exact date. I had just been put on pills with very little diabetes information. Couldn`t get of the sofa for an hour. Felt like **** for the rest of the day. Meter was only at 60 or so.
Let me add, there`s nothing like an insulin hypo! I`ve had a couple around 50, then I over correct (with anything I can get in my mouth) and yo-yo for a day.
Blame? I just have to look in the mirror. Missed snack, failure to check bg, forgot meter and survival pack. Yup, all my own fault.
As the title line says, I`m a happy hypo. Almost as if I`m drunk. I laugh and joke around all the way through the recovery. I also sweat like a race horse. I drip from my finger tips, elbows, ears just about everywhere. My lovely wife, while trying to get some food in me can`t stop laughing. God love her, she helps enable the now famous over corrections with juice, fruit roll-ups anything she can find, and since I`m goofy as a pet coon, I just keep eating. :T Jack