Last night's low scare

Thankfully, scary, crazy things don't happen to me very often.  Last night was a poignant reminder to both me and my hubby that the daily fight for my life with diabetes is real.

Even though many people in this world have to bear the temporary burden of living with diabetes, not many non-diabetics truly appreciate or understand what their diabetic companions have to deal with on a daily basis...just to stay alive.  That's usually the case with things in general - unless something hits you on a personal level, you don't have any sort of idea what it's like for someone else.  Experience makes you wiser.

Last night, at 11:43pm, I was getting my number and preparing to go to sleep for the night.  My glucometer read 182, while Dex read 167.  Because Dex is notoriously likely to be off from my actual number, I opted to trust my glucometer and treated my blood sugar with the usual 2 unit correction via IM.  The insulin usually starts working within 5-10 minutes, and stays in my system for no more than 2 hours.  I set my alarm to wake me at 2am so I could see how well it had worked and then took my Levemir shot of 8 units.  It bled ever so slightly, which is rare, but it didn't really bother me.  As I readied myself for sleep (I think I read a quick chapter in my book?), I started to feel a shaking sensation. 

I checked Dex, and he showed a steeper than expected BG line trending down at a fast rate.  At 12:13am, I checked my number again.  Glucometer said 129, Dex said 128 with arrows pointing down.  I did a quick calculation and scarfed down 4 glucotabs.  I started shaking more.  I told my hubby what was going on. 

Why was it going down so fast?  It had only been half an hour and I was 53 points lower.  My shot was supposed to take me down to 83, so I was half way to my target after only 30 minutes.  That was too fast.  

12:19am, glucometer said I was 110.  Dex said 116.  Still dropping.  I had another glucotab.
12:25am, glucometer said I was 95.  Dex said 104.  Still dropping.  I panicked and told my hubby I was scared.  It was still dropping and I wanted to call 911 to have them here in case I passed out.  I explained the situation to the dispatcher and they sent someone over right away.  I was shaking while I waited and gulped down some raspberries.  My number went to 87 at 12:35am.

I think an ambulance and a fire truck arrived, but they sent the fire truck back and had 2 of the 5-6 paramedics who came stay.  They checked my number with their meter and it read 88.  They took my blood pressure and pulse too - both normal.  I explained that if I stabilized I wouldn't need to hop a ride to the ER.  I just needed to wait out the insulin activity time frame. 

Hubby brought in some sweetened almond milk (which had been bought accidentally instead of my usual unsweetened kind) since I didn't have the juice or peanut butter they said I should use.  (I told them I don't drink sugary stuff because I'm sensitive to it, and that I use glucotabs for lows.) 

Dex started showing my number leveling out and the dropping trend ceased.
Finally, at 12:54, my reading came back at 120.  Dex was pointing with arrows up.
I thanked them for being there and finally started calming down. 
 

Now I'm dealing with the rebound high that's been lingering all day.  I didn't sleep well last night after they left but managed to get through work without too much difficulty, then had a nice 2 hour nap upon getting home.  I may have overreacted in this situation, and I truly don't know for sure why my correction acted this way when usually it's a lot more gradual.  But I'm grateful that things didn't get worse, and that I was able to stabilize myself with out any emergency room visits.