[[0003]] Is that a cat climbing out of the window?

In answer to the question, there was not a cat climbing out the bathroom window, but my brain playing tricks on me whilst I had a hypo. But at the time, it really REALLY felt like I definitely saw a cat climbing out of the window, although now I think back, the window was shut... 

That being said, I actually had a hypo today, so it seems poignant to write about it now as my next blog post!

So, this blog post is going to be about hypos, what they are how they feel, how I fix them and I guess, for good measure, some funny hypo stories! The brain after all, is a wonderful thing alas, it can do some very crazy things when it does not have what it needs to function!

What is hypoglycaemia?

Hypoglycaemia (also known as LO according to my blood test metre, hypo or low blood sugar) for diabetics, is when blood glucose level falls below a certain point, typically 4.0mmol/L (check my previous post about measuring blood glucose). Low blood sugar levels can also be as bad as high blood sugar levels, which is why they must be dealt with quickly and promptly, to prevent more severe symptoms from occurring. 

Above is one of my blood test graphs again, where the dotted line indicates 4.0mmol/L so anything below that dotted line is a hypo. I'm showing this to show how often I can have hypos in my day to day life. If I have counted correctly, in that period of 22 days, I had 15 hypos! Nearly one a day, or not far off. Although you cannot see the times of the hypos, if I remember correctly, a lot of them happened around 2-4am in the morning due to a change in one of the doses of my insulin, but I am working on that to help stop so many of the night time hypos from happening.

How does hypoglycaemia happen?

Hypos occur due to an imbalance between insulin medication, food and physical activity, although in some cases, they could occur as a secondary cause to another illness or mental health. The main reasons a hypo could occur include:

• missing a meal or a snack
• not having enough carbohydrate with a meal in relation to amount of insulin
• taking too much insulin 
• physical activity in which you have no altered the amount of insulin you take/not taking extra sugar beforehand

Everyone needs the right amount of glucose in their blood to function. Have you ever wondered why you do not feel okay after a long period of time without eating and why you concentration starts to lack? This is because your brain NEEDS glucose to function and without it, the brain begins to suffer thus leading the body to exhibit some weird symptoms and become very tired and lethargic. 

A prime example of how a hypo has happened to myself, is when I started my current job. At the time of starting, I did not realise how physical the work would be, so I administered insulin as I would normally with my lunch, but after carrying a lot of heavy boxes and walking a lot in my job, I had a hypo a couple of hours later. This is because not only was the insulin working on the glucose I had taken at lunch but also because exercise uses said glucose, therefore sugar drop further, until the glucose is used up. This meant altering my medication at work in relation to the amount I was eating, to prevent further hypos from happening. 

What are the symptoms of a hypoglycaemia?

Symptoms can vary between people and depending on how low the blood sugars are. I have some very staple symptoms that alert me to the fact I am having a hypo before I blood test to check! I've been told I am very lucky I still have the vast majority of my warning signs, as bad control and the length of time dealing with diabetes can cause these warning signals to go. 

A brief list of my current and more common symptoms are listed below:

• Sweating
• Shaking
• Blurry vision/visual disturbances
• Tingly sensation in the lips
• Legs feeling like jelly
• Headaches
• Lack of concentration
• Tongue feeling the wrong shape for mouth
• Emotional
• Anger
• Hunger

I tend to feel a mixture of any of the above symptoms when I have a hypo, especially sweating, shaking, and tingly sensations which tend to feature in ALL of my hypos. I have had some more uncommon symptoms as well, more so when I was younger in comparison to now I am older, but sometimes these do still happen.

The three main examples that come to mind are night terrors/night sweats, major adrenaline rush and child-like behaviour.

Night Terrors/Night Sweats

These are things I suffered a lot with night time hypos when I was a kid and although they don't happen as often now, they do sometimes occur and can honestly ruin my whole entire day before its begun. 

There were two night terrors that would make me wake up sweating and being glued to my bed sheets. One involved all my family and friends being dropped one by one into a massive shredder the colour of JCB diggers, and ground up in front of my eyes, no matter how much I screamed for it to stop. The worst part of this, was not just that the terror was so vivid, but I would be trying to scream and nothing would come out and the fact it all felt so so so real. 

The second involves the scent of fire, as well as actual fires. I am genuinely scared of things being on fire that should not be, so a terror like this really freaks me out. The worst part of it again, is that it feels so so real, and in the dream, I can smell the fire, and then I think I have woken up but I haven't and I can STILL smell it. 

I hate the night terror hypos because with them happening so late at night/early hours of the morning, I then struggle to sleep due to fear of the next dream I might have, or the sugar I have had to take keeps me awake, and then I struggle to do anything the next day. I've had to take a day off work before because of night time hypos, they really are not fun at all.

Truly, the brain is an insane crazy kind of thing.

Adrenaline Rush

Like mothers being able to lift cars to save their children, the same can happen in type 1 diabetics! The best example I have of this is when I was 11 years old, in my final year of primary school, I had a massive hypo at home. My dad tried to pin me down to get me to do a blood test so we could see if I was having a hi or a lo, but I wouldn't let him. The hypo I was having gave me this obscene amount of strength which as a scrawny 11 year old, was impressive, as my dad could not hold me down or keep me still, and in the end I managed to get him off me, legged it down the garden and passed out. Needless to say, I ended up in hospital after that one, but I honestly do not remember a thing. 

Child-like Behaviour

This one occurs a little more than the previous two I mentioned, and I believe this is because due to lack of sugar in my blood, the brain is starting to shut down so jumps back to its more basic behaviours such as acting like a child.

This could mean anything, from sitting in a corner with a juice box and blanket playing kid games, to being told off like a kid for misbehaving, for example, trying to walk on walls even though my balance is WAY way off haha! When in this stage of a hypo, I speak very much like a child as well, for example, by shortening words and sentences, to in general sounding like a little kid.

If I am honest, I do prefer these hypos as for me, they are not as traumatic and a little bit more fun. It may also sound ridiculous but, for me, it is like I can let go of adult life for a few moments and just be stress and worry free, focus on fun things, silly shizzle like that.

But I guess you would really like some fun hypo stories...

This post is getting long... so I guess you want to know about the time I thought a cat was jumping out of the bathroom window?

It muse have been about 3am, I'd woken up having a hypo so thankfully, my bedroom was downstairs so I made my way to the kitchen. I found some sugar, I believe I ate some dry pasta (I was very hungry, don't ask), but then I saw something out the corner of my eye that made me need to go into the bathroom, without turning the light on (thinking back, if I'd turned the bathroom light on, I don't think this story would have happened haha!)

So I saw this black blur leave the kitchen and go in the bathroom, so I followed it (this was a visual disturbance symptom it turns out). I swore I saw it on the bathroom window sill, so I tried to go over and touch it, and as I got there, the blur jumped out the window. I was adamant it was my housemates black cat, and for some reason, I had to go and get her from outside, so I put my knee on the window sill to try and climb out of the window, which, is way too small for me to get through, then I realised it was shut. 

This was when I realised my hypo was way way more worse than I thought it was, so I did a blood test, and the results was 1.5mmol/L! I then had to go and eat a lot of sugar out the sugar bowl before I went to back to bed and tried to figure out a way to explain to my housemates in the morning, why there was a loud crash in the bathroom last night and why so many bottles were on the bathroom floor in the morning!!!

I have also given myself food poisoning in the past whilst cooking while having a hypo! I very badly under-cooked some sausages because again, I was really hungry and just really needed a sausage sandwich at that point in time, alas, I was so hungry, I couldn't wait for the food to cook, so... I gave myself food poisoning instead! I've also dropped plates trying to wash one to eat off whilst having a hypo as well. Heck, I have been so stubborn about finishing a room rearrangement, I used the adrenaline rush to help me move a massive wardrobe whilst having a hypo because I am stubborn and had to get the room finished.

As I've mentioned visual disturbances, another symptom I no longer have as much, is seeing shapes and colours and streamers when having a hypo. My mother would come in in the morning and wonder why my bedroom window was open. It was because in my early morning hypo state, I could see all these colourful letters and numbers dancing across my pillow as well as all these long thin like streamers and flecks of glitter, which I felt I could touch as they floated in the air... so I opened the window to let them all be free and float away. Haha weird stuff.

I guess now is a good time to mention that I've not always been the only type 1 diabetic in my family, but my Granddad also suffered with the condition as well. One of my favourite stories my Grandma told me about my Granddad having a hypo, was one day she couldn't find him but she could hear him talking, so followed the sound and he was outside talking to some flowers in full conversation... turns out he was having a hypo, but Grandma did tell me just how engrossed in the conversation with these flowers Granddad was, and she was very tickled by it!

As you can see, hypos are weird things indeed! But how do you fix them? Read on my friends...

How do you treat hypoglycaemia?

Did you see the cute little picture at the top? I designed those for a leaflet I made about diabetes, and that was the illustration for what I am about to write about here!

However, the first thing I will mention is: 

DO NOT GIVE A DIABETIC HAVING A HYPO INSULIN BECAUSE THIS WILL MAKE IT WORSE! 

Seriously, please bear this in mind whenever you see a diabetic needing help. The fact I used to work somewhere in which the first aid person thought you had to give insulin for a hypo was ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING, thus another reason why I want to help educate the world more about type 1 diabetes, because this action could lead to coma or worse, death!

Now for treating hypos properly! The best way to treat a hypo is with a glass of orange/apple juice (fast acting sugar) followed with a couple of biscuits (slow acting sugar). The fast acting gets into your blood stream quicker and the slow acting keeps you going until your next meal.

Its taken me a long time to figure out how to treat my own hypos and its only been in the last couple of years that I have found a system that actually works for me. Pictured on the right is my weapon of choice, a small can of sugary energy drink, which is cheap and very effective in getting me back on my feet again. As for my long acting sugar, I tend to have a couple of biscuits or some sweets or chocolate, whatever I have to hand really. I might ever have a couple of packets of crisps. 

I have had people ask about how I treat them, for example, why not use dextro sugar tablets. Honestly, those tablets were great when I was a kid for PE lessons, but I find they take too long to get in my system to make the hypo go away. I prefer having the faster acting drink which in the long run, is more expensive, but they just work better for me. Lucozade is good as well, but since they changed the amount of sugar in the bottles, I only opt for them if I cannot get the above pictured drink. I also quite like a flapjack as my ling acting sugar as well, as they make me feel fuller so I can survive longer till my next meal!

Well, that is it for hypos everyone!!! And boy was it a biggy! I hope you've enjoyed reading about the crazy world of suffering a hypo and next time, if you see a diabetic needing help, be sure to get them somewhere safe and give them some sugar!!!