November 9

Here is my bottle of glucose tablets!

And that’s pretty much all they are… little chewable chalky sugar tablets. They don’t taste as bad as they sound. I like them. I keep the big bottle in my purse with me everywhere I go. I use these to bring my blood sugar back up quickly when I end up going low. 

There are so many different glucose products on the market! Glucose tabs come in sooo many flavors but I like grape and fruit punch the most. Any large grocery store or pharmacy has these. There is also little gel tubes that I like to use, but they’re more for emergencies. There are also drinks, but I’ve never tried them. 

When my blood sugar goes low, I will eat glucose tablets (fast acting carbs to bring my blood sugar up), and then some juice or milk depending on how low I am. I like milk because I don’t have to eat anything else to keep my blood sugars up since milk has protein in it. If I have juice and I’m still low enough, I’ll eat a granola bar or something with peanut butter on it so I can get the protein to stabilize my blood sugars. 

Having a low blood sugar isn’t a good thing. It’s not just snack time. It can be dangerous if I go too low. I can easily pass out, go into a coma and die if I don’t bring my blood sugars back up. I have been down to 35 without passing out. How low someone can go is different for everyone and it’s not something you want to find out either! The day I went down that low, I had a hard time staying awake. Finally Dad got me up to do a blood sugar test since I don’t normally sleep like that on the couch. That was one of the very few times I got scared. I’ve never had a blood sugar emergency where we had to call for an ambulance or go to the Emergency room! I hope I never have one either. 

A “low” for me personally is below 75 mg/dl. A normal blood sugar is between 80 and 150 for me.

So, I did want to give you all the symptoms of a low blood sugar. This is good to look out for if you’re out somewhere and someone is acting like this. You can check if they’re diabetic and possible save their life if they’ve gone too low to know what’s going on. 

Symptoms of a low blood sugar (in general) are:

Sweating

Shakiness

Weakness

Nervousness

Hunger

Nausea

Dizziness

Headache

Fast heartbeat

Confusion

Irritability

Slurred Speech

Muscle twitching or weakness

Personality Changes (I turn into a ball of irrational tears and anger)

If there is a severe low blood sugar, there can be seizures, coma, stroke and eventually death if not corrected. For these emergencies, there is a glucose shot called a glucagon kit. I’ll do a post on that later on.

Someone with a very low blood sugar can act drunk! If you know a diabetic and they’re acting drunk, make sure they’re just drunk… not low.