[[0014]] Being prepared for an unexpected emergency on the train

I honestly did not know what to call this post, like, technically I helped to save a life but that felt a bit too extreme for a title as it wasn't all me, so hopefully this will do and hopefully sum up this post nicely!

Me and the other half were travelling for our long awaited get away to London last Wednesday 5th Feb via train, as we normally do. Normally on my trips to London, especially on the train, I end up grinning like a loon as we pass the Emirates Stadium and then go through the last big tunnel before you hit King's Cross. Many of you don't know, but I was born in London and I am always at my most happiest when I get to go back there because deep down, I know it is where I belong and where I wish to end up in my future, somehow.

Don't get me wrong, I was smiling as we were pulling into London but that suddenly changed drastically as there was a little bit of commotion a few seats behind us. And in all my time as a type 1 diabetic (27 years to be precise) I have never ever been in a situation like this before, and it was quite terrifying and scary. But at the same time, I was so glad that I had started to carry around an emergency hypo and diabetes travel kit as that suddenly became very damn useful. 

So, we were travelling on the 10.49 (delayed by a couple of minds) LNER service from Peterborough to London King's Cross on Wednesday 5th November 2020, about an hour trip or so. Me and Jake were sat together as per usual, I was listening to my Dir en Grey potential set list playlist to get me in the mood for the gig we were going to later on that evening. I think at the time, I was starting to pack my bag up to get ready to grab cases and get off of the train when a lady suddenly yelled that we needed a nurse or someone with medical experience to help an elderly gentleman, who I later found out had spat and growled at her as she walked down the carriage. 

Normally, I avoid drama, but I guess working in a hospital has changed me a little bit, even if it is just a clerical role. Me and Jake started looking around and thankfully a woman (who I think was a nurse) said she had medical experience and came running down the train. 

Me being me, I was ear wigging the conversation between the ladies and the not-okay gentleman, and I guess like spider-senses tingling, I heard a lot of talk of low blood sugar and insulin, so I looked at Jake because I needed to do something, and rifled through my bag to pull out the pack of Dextros we had got for the trip, climbed over Jake and went to give them to a man who was sat behind the elderly gentleman, I think he was trying to keep him propped up. I said they could have them, I could always get more but that I hoped they would help, so I went to sit back down because I know hypos can be terrifying for the person experiencing them. 

They managed to get him to take some Dextros but then the nurse was asking if anyone had a sugary drink... no-one on the train did, which in a way, is understandable because it was the end of the line, but I had my emergency one in my bag, so I got that out and took it down to them. I got a good look at the table of the elderly gentleman at this point, and I could see his insulin on the table, and as I went to sit back down, it made me wonder what had happened to make this man have such a bad diabetic hypo on his travels and the main and only thing I could think of was that he thought his blood sugars were high and did some insulin... and it turned out they were low. I am sure there could be other reasons but it's the only one I could think of at the time. 

We drew up to London eventually. The last I heard was that his blood sugars were 5.2, which is much better, but... he was still growling and spitting so worryingly, it seemed his sugars could go down again. I annoyingly didn't have any long acting carbohydrates on me, as I don't tend to take them for hypos unless I am at home or they are in my lunch box, so after this experience, I decided to change up my hypo supplies a little bit, just in case this happens to someone else (or myself) in the future. 

On the left, you can see my new, updated emergency hypo kit! A couple of bottles of Lucozade (which I have to drink I lot of for a hypo since they lowered the sugar content, however, not everyone likes the energy drink I like for treatment so I opted to change it out, plus the elderly gentleman didn't seem to be a fan when they rubbed it on his gums) and I also added some new cereal bars for some long acting carbohydrates, and they are very tasty! I also managed to find the lemon flavour of Dextros tablets when I was in London too, so I was more than happy to add that flavour to my kit (which on that note, does anyone know if they still make the Lucozade version of the sugar tabs or if tropical flavour still exists?).

We got to London and made sure we were the last to get off the train. They managed to get some train staff alerted and I believe an ambulance was rung for the gentleman so I felt there was no need to hang around, it wasn't my place too and I had done all I could. We did see the daughter (I think) of the medical professional and told her that her mum(?) was amazing for doing what she was doing and stuff. 

We then went outside and I waited for all the events to hit me in the face (as per usual, yey mental health) and honestly, over two cigarettes and listening to Hyde's cover of "Ordinary World" on repeat (to help me calm), I sat and thought about everything that happened. 

It might not sound terrifying in the way I have written what had happened, but... it has made me think a lot about how my own hypos will be in the future. I obviously do not know this man (I think he was called Bryan) and I don't know what other medical problems he may or may not have, but, I have only ever had a couple of hypos where I've not exactly been myself, but nothing like what I saw on the train. Will I be like that in another 20 or so years, or will I maybe lose my hypo awareness and not even realise I am having said hypos. I am already spending a lot of my time at the moment, fighting to keep myself happy and sane and not let the diabetes control and future get to me, but I won't deny that it truly is starting to eat away at me, as I fight for both control and yet to not be ruled by my health condition. 

But those thoughts are for another time.

The medical professional did amazing and if I was her daughter, I would be so proud of her. I also hope that Bryan is okay after everything that happened to him on the train, and that he was/is being well looked after. 

I don't know if this blog post will ever reach the people that helped or the elderly gentleman I gave the hypo supplies too... but, I hope it does nonetheless! My thoughts are with everyone that was there and helped, even those who helped that I have not mentioned.

I will always make sure I have my hypo and diabetes supplies on me from here on out, and I kinda hope that I may have convinced some of you to put a can of sugary drink or some Dextros tablets in your bag in case you see a Diabetic in need of some help in the future!

[[0007]] Week 2 Overview

Howdy folks, I'm finally back with this weeks diabetes and life overview and boy, hasn't it been a bloody week and a half! 

I'm not gonna ramble on too much about the bad shizzle that happened this week, you can read all about it by following this link right here!!

Long story short, it was hell. So many low blood sugars resulting in a day off work (which I am rather pissed at myself about, alas, sometimes we cannot control these things). I still don't know what happened, but I am more than adamant that it is due to my nighttime Lantus insulin because absolutely nothing else makes sense to me anymore! Also forgot to mention in that bad day blog post that I had to blood test every hour or two on that Tuesday day off just to make sure I didn't let my blood sugars drop again and oh God, my finger tips still feel it now.

I do hope it is enough for the consultant to let me go on to the Libre though... although I have heard

there is a shortage in the little things at the moment, but I don't see him till a week on Tuesday so maybe eventually things will sort out? I do realise that I need a constant glucose monitor at this point as it'll be easier to monitor the trends in my bloods in relation to food and carbs (especially if I have to carb count soon, urgh). I do hope as well, that it means I can finally go on to the long acting Tresiba insulin my dietitian told me a lot about, after all, the diabetes doctors at my local hospital supposedly all swear by it, and I honestly thing a change in long acting meds may be what I need.

So, what else has happened this week? WELL, for the first time in the longest time, I finally went out to play some Pokemon GO (the game that helped me and Jakey meet!) as it was Piplup community day today and it meant I got to meet my lovely friend who caught loads of Ralts for me on another community day that I was unable to attend, so I finally got a shiny Gardevoir for my Pokemon collection, wooo! Very happy about that oh yes!

I haven't been out much to play the games I love as I am always worried nowadays that I might hypo at any time, especially this week but I am so glad I went out. Saw lots of friends, got lots of shinies (and 19p croissants for dinner, absolutely banging!) and all in all, just had a fantastic three hours out the house! I need to keep reminding myself that it is okay to go out and not every day is a bad hypo day or neuropathy day, it's at least good to go and try and do the things I absolutely love! I also have to remember that the neuropathy isn't horribly bad in my foot yet and that I am lucky it is not in my left foot, so I need to make the most of not having both feet in pain whilst I can!!!

SO, up above is the graph of the blood results I have taken this week... at least I can say there has definitely been a lot less hypos and a few more blood sugars in the correct range, but the fact my hypos out number my hypers is still a bit scary to see. Thankfully, the last two days, I have woken up with blood sugars between 6 and 7.5mmol/L which isn't bad. The change I made, is that I try to drink something a bit sugary before bed and so far, it seems to be working. I do however, need pay day to hurry up so I can get some milk to drink before bed as that is slightly better than digging into the hypo supplies to stop night time hypos. I'm going to pray so damn hard that I don't have anymore morning hypos next week... I have honestly had enough of them!!!

My mental health, sadly, has taken a dip this week... which is scaring me a little bit and of course, I am worried that it may scare Jake a little too. I am waiting for counselling though so fingers crossed that helps! What I know has not helped me is the fact I do not sleep my solid 6 hours that I used to do on my old antidepressants... so again, something else to speak to the doctors about at my appt in a weeks time. Long story short (again), when I was in hospital, they changed my normal Mirtazapine (only antidepressant that helps you sleep) for Duloxitine, which is a drug for diabetic neuropathy that is also an antidepressant, but that new medication honestly hates me, and the stresses of this week and the lack of sleep has really made my mental health suffer to the point I've had thoughts that absolutely terrify me. I won't act on them, thankfully, but it has spurred me to get these meds changed so I can at least be on my old meds again with something new for the neuropathy... watch this space I guess!!!

I have tried a few tactics to help me sleep, and boring and repetitive seems to be the way to go for me haha! So, many of you may know I absolutely love Pokemon and have done for years and the new game for Nintendo Switch is absolutely AMAZING (and so British it hurts haha) but I have however completed the Pokedex and the game so what to do next? Simple, SHINY HUNT.

I both enjoy and regret starting this, but its so boring and repetitive at times that it just makes me fall asleep so I'm gonna stick at it for now. Not only that, I may have caught the shiny bug at last!

With previous Pokemon games, I never really went out of my way to hunt shinies, if I got them then great but if I didn't then meh, whatever. But... with some friends at work doing the same and seeing how cool some of the new generation shinies look... I had to get in on it! My first one had to be Dreepy, that derpy dragon looking thing in the picture. There is a method called the Masuda Method in which you use a Pokemon (in my case, a Ditto) from a foreign country and if you have the shiny charm as well, you luck drops to 1.500something in getting a shiny to hatch out of an egg. 250ish eggs later, I got Dreepy! Next was Galarian Zigzagoon (which not shiny, is black and white and looks like it should be in KISS haha!!) but I wanted this one so when evolved into its majestic blue and red glory, I could call it David Bowie and after 62 eggs, I got him too! AND THEN we get Impidimp, and although not confirmed to be based on Lincoln Imp, we assume it is... but the shiny is so cool... try telling that to my brain and I should have given up because it took three/four nights of constant game play and 608 eggs lates, finally got the shiny little guy... but ho damn it was hell.

Supposedly another tactic is shiny encounters in the wild which I haven't done before so I am going to try that out over the next couple of days... and then back to eggs to get my shiny yellow Lucario for my team haha! I am slowly making a list of shinies I want to find so fingers crossed, that will keep me busy until the DLC expansion passes are out in June and Autumn this year.

My, thats a lot of Pokemon talk but honestly? Playing so much of it has chilled me out and made things a little better this week. It's honestly kept me going, given me something to look forward to whilst waiting for Jake to get home to me after work (I still hate being on my own) and it's giving me something to do in my lonely lunch breaks too! Which brings me on to something else I have been thinking about as well, especially with the shiny hunting and expansion passes coming out, but after mine and Jakey's streaming session on Saturday night (catch us next week on mixer playing Fortnite again), I think I want to use my personal mixer to stream Pokemon games, such as community days on Pokemon GO and well, the new content coming out, as well as shiny hunting cos supposedly people like that. Plus, Saturday just gone was the first time my Fortnite gameplay was live for people to see, and I think I had some alright moments... the buzz is real and I want to stream more!!! Especially if I can help raise more money for JDRF with it in the future too.

Well, that's it for my week guys! Ups and downs and geeky glory... pretty normal in my not-so ordinary world!!! Not to see what next week brings, alas... time to go do more shiny hunting haha LETS DO THIS! 

[[0006]] A not-so-good day in the life of a diabetic

So, I should have posted on Wednesday, but honestly? Things have been an absolute mess on the diabetes scale of things so, now I am somewhat recovered (and waiting for a Jakey to get back from work), I figured it was a good time to write about a bad day in the life of being a type 1 diabetic. 

So, you may have seen my post on Monday about Hypo Hangovers after I had a hypo before work and then my bloods rocketed after. Well... let's just say that things got worse. 

I was very tired when I returned home, so had dinner and did my night time bloods and Lantus insulin (which as of about a week or so ago, I had lowered to 24 because I kept getting hypos in the morning). This was a good four hours after I had eaten so everything that happened after was definitely the result of the Lantus long acting insulin and not the one I do before my food. It got to 10pm when I ded my bloods, they were 6.4mmol/L so to be on the safe side, I drank some of my sugary drink and went up to bed to play on my switch till I fell asleep.

I didn't fall asleep though. Frustratingly, my mouth started to taste weirdly metallic and my lips and tongue felt funny, so I came to check my bloods... they were 3.1mmol/L! The sugar did nothing!!! I downed as much sugar as I could and my bloods eventually rose to 4.5mmol/L which seemed safe enough to go to bed and I got a small amount of sleep. My other half had to wake me up to check my bloods again, and they had reached 10.1mmol/L, a but high, but not too bad so I tried to sleep, but around 4.30am, I started stirring and tossing and turning and even after a wee (which normally solves the problem) I still couldn't settle. My alarm for work went off... and, my blood sugar was 2.9mmol/L.

I'm actually super lucky I work in a hospital with an amazing management team of whom I get on very well with, and I also think it helps that I have always been blunt and honest about my health to them. Jake had pre-warned them the night before that I had essentially had a two hour long hypo and we were struggling to get bloods up and stable. It had been discussed a while ago after another hypo incident on my way to work, that if I ever hypoed in the morning, to not come to work, which I did not do on Monday but on this Tuesday, I honestly had absolutely no choice. I couldn't go in and more so, since the Friday before... I had had about 5 hypos, maybe 6 (as I didn't blood test one of them). Again, I am lucky my management team at work are so understanding and respectful to me and my health condition, as they also allowed the other half to have the day off with me as well, so that he could keep an eye on any more hypos I may have (I am not the most logical whilst having a hypo) but to also make sure we could both tackle my food and meds and document everything throughout the day as we tried to get me back to some kind of normal. 

Honestly, I hate taking time off for my diabetes. I really do. I am meant to have this thing under control and stable and I honestly, just don't. It's always been a struggle. There have been many times I have hypoed before or during work and I have still gone to work or stayed at work... if I think about it, the only way I won't go to work if a hypo happens is when I have had little to no sleep, but... even then I don't listen to what is best for myself.

I know that Jake was very worried about me and its understandable, we haven't actually dealt with this amount of hypos together before and I know it can be scary, especially the beginning on Monday night when we couldn't get them up over that two hours. He did really well though and it makes me realise that I genuinely need him around as much as possible, even if it;'s just to check and make sure I am okay. It's made me think as well, if he wasn't around, how would I cope if I was living on my own? What would I do? Who would I turn to? And that actually terrifies me too. I don't think I could survive on my own anymore. 

Because Jake (and myself) were worried about me being on my own on my Wednesday day off, Jake asked my brother to come up and stay with me for the day, which was so lovely, I think he might come on some more Wednesday's I have off!!!  

He made the most amazing breakfast I had ever eaten, which was chocolate and salted caramel stuffed french toast and omg, it was heavenly. I misjudged my meds and didn't take enough but, it just felt good to not have to worry about having a hypo that whole entire day and thankfully, I didn't have one. Either way, my brother is an amazing cook so I'm def excited to see what other things he will make when he comes to visit!!!

I also struggle a lot when Jake is at work and I am home on my own, not health wise, but mentally, I think? Like, the house is too quiet, I don't know what to do, who to speak to or anything and I end up feeling weirdly lost and alone. SO having my brother over on the Wednesday was awesome, because it made the day go so much faster and meant Jake would be home sooner, even though he was coming back at the same normal time, it just felt quicker than last Wednesday which was a horrible, horrible Wednesday for me (which I think I mentioned in this post).

So after a good day... things kind of went down hill that night. I don't know what happened, I don't know why any of it happened... but I just did not sleep. I felt tired, I was exhausted, but I just couldn't settle down. I managed about 20minutes of sleep before Jake came up to bed, and after that, I slept on and off in ten minute bursts, but spent most the night awake. I had another hypo at 3am as well, which I made some toast and drank some sugar water to fix, but then I just lay in bed, wide awake and the mental health kicked in.

It was horrible, so so horrible. I haven't had issues with any kind of bad thoughts for a while but a mix of no sleep and hypo just made my brain churn out the worst possible things it could. Things had been somewhat okay on my new anti-depressant (a future blog post by the way, keep an eye out!) but I had been doubting them as an anti-depressant for a while, more so as they don't knock me out like my old meds used to and sleep helps my mental health a lot. SO lying there on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, with horrible things running through my head, did not help me with the rest of my day. Don't threat though, been speaking to amazing people at work and I should be back at counselling again soon, so watch this space. I also have a meeting with the diabetes team in just over a week and I will be begging for a medication change.

Because I could not sleep at all, I decided to just go to work because no point lying around and I already had one day off that week, I didn't want to lose another bank shift! I managed to survive until 4pm when I started having another hypo, so I was allowed to leave work. I got home, had dinner then went straight to bed and honestly, I needed that sleep as I felt a bit better today.

Touch wood, I have not had a hypo today and my blood sugar was good this morning, at 6.5mmol/L. 

It's given me a lot of questions and things to think about though. According to people I have spoken to online, I am having way too many hypos so I could be in the running for a constant glucose monitor, which I am actually interested in, alas I am unsure if I can get one. I also strongly believe that I need to come off Lantus as my long acting insulin, and be put on something called Tresiba, which my dietician told me about... supposedly less night time hypos so I'm praying I have enough evidence for my new consultant on the 28th January. I've also been given some pointers I am going to try when we have a bit more money, such as drinking a glass of milk before bed, to see if that stops me having a hypo in the morning.

Either way, I am praying that the worry is over for now and I can just enjoy my weekend, hypo free!!! I need a break dammit!!!

[[0005]] Hypo Hangovers... are a thing.

This blog is brought to you by the fact I started my week... with yet another bloody hypo! And then had what equates to a hypo hangover for the rest of my shift at work. TYPICAL.

I woke up a bit woozy this morning, couldn't really feel my typical hypo symptoms but I knew my body wasn't quite "there" so morning blood test showed be I had woken up with a hypo. I should have figured that out myself, considering I'd been tossing and turning half an hour previously and had a lot of vivid dreams.

So, did my normal treatment of a cup of sugary drink then bombed out to work cos I didn't want to miss the earlier buses.

And my bloods did get sorted... but upon going outside for a break with my team leader, I STILL felt like I was having hypo symptoms. SO clever me checked again and my blood were now 12mmol/L.

I spend a lot of time chatting to my team leader when I am at work (she's a gem omg) and she coined a good term for these after hypo effects, thus Hypo Hangover was born. And damn, what a hypo hangover! Sometimes when I have a hypo, I struggle to use my hands and lose some of my upper body strength. And today's problem was, even after the hypo was gone, I couldn't even open a door! I also couldn't stop shaking and my legs felt like jelly for a good half of the day, very odd.

Hypo hangover makes sense though. There have been times before when I have had a hypo in the middle of the night and once its sorted and I have got back to sleep... when I wake up in the morning, it's like I haven't rested at all, I am exhausted, no energy, my limbs feel heavy. It's not just during the night though, say I have a hypo at work, if it takes longer than the normal 10 mins to sort out, or it keeps going down before it goes up, I end up getting home and absolutely crashing for the remainder of the day.

Hypos and diabetes really are crazy crazy things. It's interesting how they can affect us all in different ways, or sometimes the same!

Have you ever had a hypo hangover before? I'd love to know!!! After all, there are plenty of us type 1 diabetics in the world so I know there has to be someone else who has been through similar!!!

[[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!!!