I hate when the hypo just comes out of nowhere and hits you hard! It a very rare occasion that I have a hypo around lunch time. But yesterday, totally unexpected and without hardly any warning a 2.6 mmol/l (46.8 mg/dl) knocked me for 6.
I had been working upstairs doing light household chores. I decided to take a break and make some lunch because my CGM alarmed telling me that my blood sugars were 4.3 mmol/l (77.4 mg/dl) and I felt a bit on the shaky side but not much.
I threw a lunch together and sat down to check, dose & eat. WHAT!!! 2.6!!!!!! Then I realised not only was I actually shaking but I was sweating profusely. I decided to hold off on my lunch, which was low carb and protein - not a good start to treating a hypo, and I quickly chewed 3 glucose tablets.
I stepped away from my lunch to allow the glucose to kick in without obstruction from protein. I can’t believe I was that rational!!! Then again, I couldn’t figure out what I should do with my insulin dose - I should obviously reduce it a little. But should I include the glucose tablets in my carb count.
Fifteen minutes later I was still shaky but I think my brain was pulling itself together again. I checked my blood sugars again and I was 3.9 mmol/l (70.2 mg/dl), the food was sitting there waiting for me. I decided to put it out of its misery.
I took my reduced insulin dose at this point. It seemed like the right thing to do to avoid the low blood sugar rebound. I knew that the sweating had stopped because I got the chills but the shakes were still there and didn’t quite go away for about 30 minutes.
I did have to top the carbs up twice over the next two hours to keep my blood sugars in the safe zone which was another unusual circumstance for me.
The lesson learned today is to not to try to sneak household chores in before lunch! And always use diabetes lessons to avoid household chores :-D