Tuesday 11 January 2011

Hypo hamsters

I mentioned in my last post that I've been experiencing more hypos due to having my cannula in my thigh. The problem is almost sorted (working on 50% temp basals and finding out when I need to reduce it even more).

The first night after the cannula change I had one of the worst hypos I've ever had. I went down to 2.4 which really isn't all that low. I mean, it's very low - but I've been lower. This hypo though gave me some of the strongest symptoms I've ever had.

These included
  • waking up unable to breathe properly
  • standing up to go to the toilet, and falling into my wall
  • almost falling off the toilet (amusing imagery but scary at the time)
  • shaking like a leaf in a hurricane
  • total confusion; writing on a friend's facebook wall asking if I could use ice cream as a hypo treatment (and getting international replies!)
  • insane desire to just shut my eyes and go to sleep to get rid of all these feelings - as a child, the one mantra my mum had when I was hypo was 'do NOT go to sleep'
  • and the weirdest one: my right eyesight went totally...weird. It was just like looking through a kaleidoscope - as if my eyesight had been chopped up into squares and those squares had moved around so the picture was totally wrong. This lasted for a good 30 mins or so and was really quite frightening to be honest; it scared me thinking about what a low blood glucose can do to the body
After about an hour, I was in good numbers and went back to sleep. I woke up slightly out of range - 10.1 if I remember correctly! - but seriously, with the way I'm known to rebound, I'm happy with a 10.1 after a 2.4.

I called my mum later - we're very close and she's the first person I ring after a bad hypo. I told her about the hypo and she said two things to me - one a bit eerie, and the other just ridiculous.

"I was thinking about you hypoing overnight last night. And for some reason, I took my mobile phone to bed with me, just in case you called me."

- how did she know I had nearly called her when I first tested at 2.4 and was unsure I could treat this myself? She amazes me. I told her she's a bit like a hypo dog...to which she replied the funniest thing I've heard in a while.

Mum: "well, because you can't have a dog [I rent my room!] you should have...a hypo hamster!"
Me: "and what would the hamster do when I go low?!"
Mum: "it would run faster around its wheel!"

I was in tears laughing at this comment. I can just picture a poor little hamster running around the wheel every time I went low! Honestly!

3 comments:

Scully said...

major shite to the evil low. I have a hard time "staying awake" too. When my BG drops when I'm sleeping it takes forever to wake me up. I know.

And the hypo hamster?! that's hilarious! your mom rocks

Big Swifty said...

Yes, I think we need a hypo hamster too. Frank had a 2.1 today (the lowest reading we've ever had), he was still able to function OK but a bit floppy. He was able to say to J that he was wobbly, but he wouldn't have said anything if he'd been at school. Ho hum.
And you've won the prize draw, so pop over to Big Swifty's blog!

FeltFinland said...

A hypo hamster - priceless!