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Guess what happened to me today...

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lauraw1983

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
...in Sainsbury's in the changing room this afternoon, I start sweating and shaking and feeling odd.

Whip out the BG meter. 3.1.

Ugh.

Lowest I have seen it ever, and as I have been in the 8/9/10's recently a fair bit it was quite a drop! Sent my 5 year old son to get my OH who was luckily with me, he ran for jelly babies, I ate 4 and sat down for a bit (still in changing room!), managed to get myself sorted, went to the cafe and sat down - tested after 15 mins, 6.6.

Felt a bit scary though, and I was so hungry! Ate a scone and a cup of tea. Didn't inject fast acting for it as I am unsure what to do really after a hypo (haven't really been told!!😱) and when I tested for at dinner time (about 3 hours later?) it was 15.3! Ooops.

Took 10u with my dinner as had 50g rice with it, and there was some sweet potato and butternut squash in it too. Will check it at 8.30 and see where it's at, then again at 9.30....
 
Oh and also, I don't even really like jelly babies! Lol! What other sweets should I have, can I have fruit pastilles? I realise I need to have them on me at all times now!! How do you know how many to have....?
 
Gosh, how frightening for you. Lucky you had help at hand (and the jelly babies saved the day, even if you don't realy like them). I'm afraid I nearly always go over the top when correcting from a hypo - still haven't learnt moderation ! 😱

Hope all is well with you tonight.
 
Oh and also, I don't even really like jelly babies! Lol! What other sweets should I have, can I have fruit pastilles? I realise I need to have them on me at all times now!! How do you know how many to have....?

Jelly babies are about 5g carbs each. I'm not sure about fruit pastilles but I know some people use them for hypos. Any small sweets that are easy to eat and are very sugary should be OK. If they only have the 100g value on the packet, you could weigh a few and find out how many are needed for 15g carbs, which is the 'standard' treatment for a hypo. Some people carry dextrose tablets or glucotabs, but the dextrose tablets do go hard and are like eating chalk after a while. I would have probably had 3 jelly babies for a 3.1, but probably wouldn't have had the scone as well.

You definitely need something to hand at all times, and make sure it is easily accessible, not in a packet that is hard to open as this can be incredibly difficult when your brain is getting confused!

Another supermarket hypo! There's definitely something about those places! 😱 Glad to hear you had help at hand!
 
You were lucky your lad and other half were there. Must be scary all the same . Hope all is well now.

I hear so often now that we are not told enough about our D, either 1 or 2, but of cause more essential for you 1's.
 
Jelly babies are about 5g carbs each. I'm not sure about fruit pastilles but I know some people use them for hypos. Any small sweets that are easy to eat and are very sugary should be OK. If they only have the 100g value on the packet, you could weigh a few and find out how many are needed for 15g carbs, which is the 'standard' treatment for a hypo. Some people carry dextrose tablets or glucotabs, but the dextrose tablets do go hard and are like eating chalk after a while. I would have probably had 3 jelly babies for a 3.1, but probably wouldn't have had the scone as well.

You definitely need something to hand at all times, and make sure it is easily accessible, not in a packet that is hard to open as this can be incredibly difficult when your brain is getting confused!

Another supermarket hypo! There's definitely something about those places! 😱 Glad to hear you had help at hand!


I feel like I have no idea what I am doing! I was so hungry after sitting for a while, I just felt like I needed to eat something as I still had to do the (food) shopping and get home! In theory, should I have injected humalog for that scone then...?! I presume so, but I just didn't know today and it scared me a bit.

On the plus side I did get 3 new pairs of jeans/leggings because all my other jeans are getting far too big! :D

I'll do that with the fruit pastilles, thank you! I did enjoy the jelly babies today, lol, but I think just because I needed anything at that point in time!!

Friday the 13th after all eh......🙄
 
I feel like I have no idea what I am doing! I was so hungry after sitting for a while, I just felt like I needed to eat something as I still had to do the (food) shopping and get home! In theory, should I have injected humalog for that scone then...?! I presume so, but I just didn't know today and it scared me a bit.

On the plus side I did get 3 new pairs of jeans/leggings because all my other jeans are getting far too big! :D

I'll do that with the fruit pastilles, thank you! I did enjoy the jelly babies today, lol, but I think just because I needed anything at that point in time!!

Friday the 13th after all eh......🙄

The problem is that when you have a hypo your brain thinks you are starving, so all these signals get sent out to eat anything and everything, particularly if it is sweet and will quickly provide the fuel it needs - glucose. This is why a lot of people end up overtreating a hypo, It's not your fault, but you need to learn to resist once you have had sufficient to stabilise your levels. Only when you are sure you are stable (usually if you are above 4 after 15 mins) should you then make a more rational decision about whether to eat more, and whether it needs injecting for. It's not easy!
 
Agree with all of the above. Over treatment of hypos meant for years I was bouncing between hypo and hyper.

Fruit Pastilles are my saviour of choice 3g per normal circular pastille.
 
Big agree from me too ! :D

NEVER go anywhere without some hypo treatment. Even if you're nipping to the loo at home, you can still be caught out if no one's within ear shot.

As said. treat it with 10-15g of fast acting at the time. Then sit still (no fidgeting). Then test and carry on as normal if you're back up above 4 or 5. If you're doing something that's energetic (such as shopping), by all means eat something to keep you going for a bit but keep testing so you know what a scone will do in that situation in future. Then maybe you can eat one before you shop and you know it'll be fine.

So black mark for having no hypo treatment with you and try to resist the eat everything urges unless your meter says you need something extra.🙂

Rob
 
Big agree from me too ! :D

NEVER go anywhere without some hypo treatment. Even if you're nipping to the loo at home, you can still be caught out if no one's within ear shot.

As said. treat it with 10-15g of fast acting at the time. Then sit still (no fidgeting). Then test and carry on as normal if you're back up above 4 or 5. If you're doing something that's energetic (such as shopping), by all means eat something to keep you going for a bit but keep testing so you know what a scone will do in that situation in future. Then maybe you can eat one before you shop and you know it'll be fine.

So black mark for having no hypo treatment with you and try to resist the eat everything urges unless your meter says you need something extra.🙂

Rob


I know, having been running so high and not being able to get things even in target range I didn't expect it, but realise it was foolish to go to the supermarket with no hypo stuff!! I have had jelly babies next to my bed since starting insulin.

Damn honeymoon period!!! What a stupid name for it. 🙄
 
i cant have anything sweet within reach or i eat it. had a few hypos myself and there not nice when you sweating like mad and you feeling dizzy etc. when i was first diagnosed i used to have a small can of full fat coke in the glove box of my car only problem is it got warm after a wile so ended up throwing it out. dextrose tablets have always worked for me, 2 tablets and your fine then i seek out somthing to eat like a sarnie or similar to have slow sugar realsed
 
Either Lucozade or fruit pastilles are my weapon of fast-acting choice, but Lucozade is much quicker than anything you need to chew - you start to ansorb through the inside of your cheeks so if you roll it round your mouth it's even better. I keep thinking OMG, what's this doing to me teeth LOL But you don't die that quick from dental caries, I believe? LOL

If it's of any help, Weight Watchers do various biscuits, individually wrapped in two's, approx 15g carbs for the two, but the actual values of the various ones are on the packets. As they are individually wrapped they are relatively easy to stash in bag or pocket.

Normal biscuits are sometimes as low as 8g each - read lots of packets! (Lemon Puff biscuits are - a real carb bargain I call that, as I love em!)
 
Aww sympathy is coming from me as I had a similar experience yesterday - reckon it's the cold weather. I was wandering round TK Maxx with my sister and we'd done a good tour of the shop, chatting away, laughing up the stairs, down the stairs when I felt strangely drawn to the boxes of sweets at the front of the shop. Said to my sister "I'd better check my sugar in a bit" the words were'nt out of my mouth when I thought Argh! I need help! I checked and it was 2.9. My sister who is a very bossy cow took over! We were stood by some furniture for sale and she said "sit down now" I refused in a typical hypo stroppy way. She ordered me to sit down so I did clutching my jelly babies and shoving them in my mouth as fast as I could. The security guy had his eye on us ( I suppose all potential shop lifters sit and eat jelly babies for a while first) and eventually a young shop assistant came over and said "are you ok?" I said "no" so he said "can you stand up, you can't sit there" Lol - my sister gave him a talk about diabetes and he went and fetched a chair.

The laugh was he then said "you can't sit on the furniture that's for sale cos someone did once before and it broke!" he added "it was ?300 too" Lol - don't buy furniture from there then folks!!
 
see if you had been in my shop and i was on duty i would have at least known what was going on lol not just standing there waching. (i am a security officer btw)
 
LOL at Flutterby - who is about 7 stone wringing wet - hardly the breaking furniture type!!!!
 
Typical sisters ! Pleased you r ok & we can have a smile about events.! Have said in another tread there are some nice security guards out there !! 😉
 
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