Shorty Got Low Low Low

Day 2 of Diabetes Blog Week! There are now over 100 blogs participating! Karen, you totally rock for putting this together.

So for day 2 we are asked to write about how we treat a low:

Day 2 – Making the low go. Tell us about your favorite way to treat a low. Juice? Glucose tabs? Secret candy stash? What’s your favorite thing to indulge in when you are low? What do you find brings your blood sugar up fast without spiking it too high?

The first thing you should know about me and lows is that I absolutely despise being low. I spent most of my adolescence doing everything in my power not to go low even running higher on purpose. So not healthy, I know. I would treat anything under 80mg/dL even if my dexcom showed that I was hanging steady.  Just. Don't. Go. Low. That was my mantra for a long time. All the years that I lived alone freaked me out about lows overnight. Plus, when I was diagnosed the doctor scared my parents so much about lows that my mom has admitted to me that she liked to run me a little higher so I would go low. All this has since changed. Well, not the fact that I despise lows. I still do. A lot.

I've always treated lows with OJ. I remember getting so sick of OJ as a kid so my parents mixed the OJ with soda water to make a "fun" orange soda for me as a special treat when I was low.  They also used to give me smarties but eww gross no! I would eat the big BD glucose tabs when I had to but preferred candy (mentos) more than anything.

Since college I always have juice in the house. If there is no juice I'll have some soda (sprite is so much better than coke or pepsi those are just too sweet.). The problem with drinking sprite is that I always went high afterwards.

Now that I'm working really hard to tighten my control those dreaded and despised lows are much more common and frequent. I'm learning how to treat them better so that I don't rebound and end up high. Steve prides himself in no longer handing me a huge glass of juice when I'm low like he used to. Now he measures it out and calmly and lovingly reminds me to wait and see if my numbers come back up.

As a child I would get low in the middle of the night and just attack the fridge eating everything in sight. Whatever to make feeling low go away.  Do not come between a low me and my food! I might just eat you too! Luckily I'm learning how to keep the low hunger in check. My absolute all-time favorite is a banana with peanut butter. Nowadays I drink my little bit of juice or eat my tropical fruit or butterscotch glucose tabs and wait at least 15 minutes to test again.


I've tried explaining how a low feels like for me to Steve. He gets the hunger and shakeyness but in many ways bad lows feels like falling and not knowing if you are ever going to land. Maybe that is just me.