A Diabetic Low

Being low is the worst feeling in the world. I will be fine one second then I blink and feel horrible the next.

Symptoms of a diabetic low blood sugar include: sweating and shaking, blurry vision, poor coordination, dizziness or feeling lightheaded, difficulty concentrating, feeling anxious or irritable, hunger or nausea, and erratic changes in behavior.

I have felt all of these symptoms at one point and sometimes even all at once. If there is a bright side to any of this, though, it’s the food: any food I eat tastes so much better when I’m low. Other than that, it’s like my body is giving up on itself.

To recover from a low, I need to eat at least 15 carbs of something (preferably a fast-acting carb like juice). When I feel hungry and I’m low, sometimes I eat more than 15 carbs and don’t think about giving myself insulin to cover the extra carbs since I’m not in the right headspace and I have difficulty remembering. This lends itself to high blood sugar (which is a whole other story in itself).

The hardest part about being low is people don’t understand how I feel and they think I’m just having a juice because I can. This is difficult because if you could feel the way I feel during a low episode, you would quickly change your thoughts on why I am drinking juice or eating a cookie.

If anyone knows a diabetic and realizes that they may be acting differently out of nowhere please ask them to check their blood sugar. They could be dangerously low and not know it. You could be the difference between a fatal accident and saving someone’s life.