Hypoglycemia

Yesterday I had a hypoglycemic episode, its been a several months since my last experience and it never really gets any easier. I'm posting this hopefully to help explain my experience and what others can do to help.

I'm not sure if this is how others experience hypoglycemic shock, but it is how my body reacts.

Here is some background on Hypoglycemic Shock:

Hypoglycemic Shock and Hyperglycemia

If not enough food is ingested, then the blood sugar drops (hypoglycemia) and no glucose is available to enter the cells, even if there is enough insulin to permit glucose to enter the cells. The brain is very susceptible to low blood sugars, and coma has a very quick onset. Treatment is providing sugar. If the person is awake enough to swallow, a sugar solution by mouth is used, otherwise, intravenous fluids containing glucose are provided. If the lack of sugar was of short duration, the person will awaken almost immediately after treatment. If blood sugars remain low for prolonged periods of time, the brain's ability to recover is potentially lost.

So with all this the primary concern is going into a coma, which thankfully I haven't experienced since I was a child. I do however have a series of symptoms which seem to happen pre-coma, and some panic ensues on my end if I'm not prepared.

Generally I'll keep protein bars and glucose tablets everywhere. At my home, in my car, at my work, in my man-bag, and in my suitcase. Just so I can have a quick pick me up if I feel I need it. Here is the general progression.

• Hunger
• Lightheaded
• Loss of vision
• Headaches
• Sensitivity to light
• Nausea

This is as usually as far as things will go for me, once my vision starts to go I'm pretty much fucked as far as productivity and function for the the next 12 - 24 hours.

So what do I mean by loss of vision? Well I see stars and vision gets spotty. I've tried to Photoshop an image to loosely match what things looked like for me yesterday, excuse my shoop skills.

Before

After

At this point I need to get a glucose tablet and some complex sugar into my system. They are inexpensive but can go bad if they aren't stored in a cool dry place, so having it in the car for an extended time can go poorly.

The headaches can creep into migraine territory depending on when I'm able to start the recovery process, if things devolve to vomiting it can generally relieve the headache for a time, but at that point its probably time for a hospital visit for some sugar fluid solution and monitoring.

So what can you do to help?

Here is a simplified list to guide you!

• Calm the hell down

I'm most likely already in a panic by the time I let you know my vision is going out, and having more people worried that I'm going to die is not going to help me cope.

• Become familiar with some of the glucose tablet locations

I won't really be able to communicate or process much of anything very well, I will be very happy to eat a tablet if you put it in my face. Resorting to straight sugar or a high sugar snack or dumping sugar in my mouth may seem like a reasonable grab, and is highly recommended if I'm already comatose, but if I haven't passed out I would prefer less drastic measures.

• Grab a protein bar

The glucose tablet will help me to stabilize and calm down, the protein bar will help my body recover and become somewhat functional again.

• Get some ibuprofen or Excedrin migraine

I will have a headache, if I don't have one yet, it is coming don't you worry. I used the migraine medicine the first time yesterday, overall positive results.

• Help me to bed

I won't be able to do much other than lay in the dark and try to sleep it off. I'll be ready to eat when I wake up but I'll be pretty physically drained.

That is the basic rundown of the experience and what you can do, thanks for reading and I hope you never have to deal with it!