Wednesday 6 May 2009

Hypo Food Fest

I've been laughing at unusual stories of people having a hypo (low blood sugar) thinking that nothing like it would ever happen to me. I'm way too methodical when I treat a hypo. Always got my 15g carbs with me. Get it out, eat it, test in 10 mins by which time the shaking has eased a little and can get a test strip out without shaking them all out of the canister. Get on with what I was doing. That's how it works, right? Not necessarily... I had a whopper this afternoon. I must have over bolused for something I almost never have for breakfast. Some 6 hours later, it hits me without any warning.

I was able to get a test in before the shaking got too bad. Ah not good... need food. Thought I was going to faint but made it to the kitchen even though my legs threatened to buckle. No idea why I headed for the kitchen, my hypo carbs were sitting right next to me.

Once in the kitchen, I'm sure I ate all of this week's and next's carb ration! I honestly have no idea what I ate. I can only assume what I might have had by what's left on my benchtop - at the very least, I had some hummus, a glass of apple juice, a piece of chicken (really bright with no carbs), some chocolate, several homemade shortbreads, some pita bread with babaganouj, a mandarin, and then still feeling faint, I must have come back to where I was sitting and had 10g of glucose tablets. That's the least of what I know I had. Heaven only knows what I really had.

During my hypo-feast, my husband came into the room, and I was apparently arguing with him about what our address was because he thought he needed to call emergency. Where he's from, they give addresses backwards (suburb, street, then number) and I was adamant that you can't do that here.

I do remember shouting, "You can't... the form, the form!!!" Meaning that they have a form on screen that they fill out when you give the address the normal way, but I was totally unable to explain. Poor guy, he gets totally freaked when I hypo, because sometimes I don't make sense. He keeps asking if he needs to call emergency, but I keep telling him only to call if I am unresponsive and not treating the hypo.

I've had a few hypos in 30 years, but never one as crazy as this one!