Taming the Dragon or Dancing with the Bear

When I have High blood glucose scores my husband calls dealing with me: Dancing with the Bear. He says it is like having a bear that is very cuddly and wants to dance one minute but cannot be sure when or if it is going to try to eat you. Last night I coined it Taming the Dragon and told my kids to call me a Dragon and to Check my sugar levels when I was being especially ornery, picky, or in high bad attitude form.

Bailey x 4 Asked a question on my last post about how I feel when my Sugar Levels are High. Thanks for the Comment by the way...

In answer to that question I could give all the usual answers that you are taught when you are first diagnosed like: extreme thirst, frequent bathroom calls, etc.

I am pretty sure that you are wondering about the nitty gritty stuff. The stuff that most diabetics have a hard time explaining.

One time I had a copy of a book that a wife wrote about her husband who was a Type 1 Diabetic, but in the intervening years, I have lost the copy. She told a gruesome story about his inability or complete disregard for his health and blood sugars, the kidney and liver failure and the amputation of limbs, and his general day to day struggle that involved her and their children. She described in detail about his mood swings going from loopy and eating to all out abusive because of the extreme anger episodes.

There were pictures in the book and I would be scared of this guy as he had to have weighed 250 lbs and was at least 6 ft tall. Can you even imagine someone that big getting angry and throwing things? Scary.

Ok so back to the subject of how do I know nitty gritty when I am high. One of my biggest clue ins if I haven't been paying attention to checking my sugars and taking insulin for the food I have been eating is Paranoia. That's right, you heard/read it correctly; I get paranoid when my sugar levels go above 200.

I want to run away.
I am afraid that everyone, especially the people I am closest too and love the most, are avoiding me, do not like me, are ignoring me and/or wish I would go away. I feel that I want to run away.

Anyone who knows me well and has been around me alot, would have a hard time believing this. Usually I am serious but fun when you get to know me and my sarcastic sense of humor, I seem to others at my funniest when I am being absolutely serious; at least that is the only time they laugh at what I say...Anyway: I am nice, fun, outgoing, friendly--the kind of person people like to be around and talk to.

However, when my sugars are over 200--I feel the opposite. I retreat from society in my mind and withdraw into myself to "protect myself"; I do paranoid things. You can take that how you want--. Something else that I do is react more stongly than I usually would. My anger is more angry and every negative emotion seems to be magnified. Strangely, every positive emotional response is minimized--I don't feel as excited or happy about things as I normally would. Unpredictability is the norm for high blood sugars. And the higher you go the more amplified the reaction. This is more of a worst case scenario situation.

Isn't brain chemistry interesting?!

When I get like that I need to be reminded that I am High and it will pass when my blood scores are back to normal. In an extreme case after I have treated the high my husband will tell me to go calm down somewhere by myself and come out when I am back to normal (no longer a dragon). Usually I will recognize the cause and effect of the problem and am able to mostly control myself because I understand the what’s and why’s of the irrational response.

A lot of the time, I just feel thirsty, or something internal reminds me I haven't checked or, haven’t taken any insulin in awhile and I have been eating. “Why didn't I take insulin for that huge piece of cake with the mile-high frosting on it?” I think to myself.

So when I check and the result is: you guessed it: 7million (ok less so, I’d likely be dead before I reached 1000) but I think you get the picture. All the while I am thinking: “Why, did I think I could eat that and not pay the consequences?”, “Oh man, my doctor is going to see this--agggghhhh!.

If I bite down on the response to get angry and contain the dragon, I am ok. I take insulin and wait for a couple of hours, drinking a few quarts of water, making numerous bathroom calls and my sugars come right down and I am relatively normal again.

False Hi's

Has this ever happened to you?

I am feeling Low. So I eat a banana; then I think: "Oh Crap! I didn't check my blood!

So I go check my blood. The result is 200 !

I think: What?!? and treat by giving myself insulin.

My husband sees what is happening and says, "Did you wash your hands?" (Did you know you need to wash your hands? They may have sugar on them from hugging your sticky kids, or something.)

Hello Synapse!!!!

So I wash my hands. Then I check my Blood. AAAGGGHHH--52 ...

Oh Crap: I just gave myself a GALLON of insulin!----Better get eating... and eating... and eating... (This is where eating the entire contents of the Fridge would come in handy).

And the moral of the story is: Always wash your hands before checking your blood.

Dancing with The Bear

When I am High it is different. My husband refers this to dancing with a bear. Although bears appear cuddly you never know when it might try to eat you. This however is not as dangerous as a low to the diabetic, as high blood sugars are not as quick to kill you. When my BGS is high I feel explain………

Low Blood Sugar--How do you know and what do you do about it?

Three questions I am asked frequently are:

"How do you know when your blood sugar levels are low ?", "How do you know what to do to treat them?", and "What can someone else do to help someone who has low blood sugar?"

One of the first things I learned when I was diagnosed with diabetes was when and how to check my blood sugars. The nurses in the hospital would come in and check my blood glucose regularly on an hourly schedule; kind of like the nurse thing for making sure the patient is resting well by waking them to ask every hour if they are resting well, except they came to extract blood from my fingers every hour. Evil but necessary, especially in the beginning. Then, I was given a meter and taught how and when to torture myself (check my own blood). The schedule looked something like: test upon waking, before and after eating, prior to going to sleep, and then whenever I felt I needed to or didn't "feel right".

When I am feeling “not right” because my blood sugars are low some symptoms others may notice or that I feel are being 'off balance'--I can't focus, I change the subject in the middle of a sentence, I feel 'panicky'; parts of my body tingle or go numb. In extreme cases, I start to act like someone who is "drunk"; if you check though, the test would be negative for "drunkenness". I quit making sense, become edgy, excessively happy or angry; Often switching back and forth for no apparent reason. This sudden unpredictability keeps my family on their toes because at times it gets pointed at them if I don’t catch it fast enough.

This sound worse than it actually is. I have a habit of presenting the worst-case scenario and then you get to be pleasantly surprised when my blood sugars are 49 and I am joking around and acting loopy and not exhibiting any of the above behaviors. Wow--what a long sentence--I think I am low, I am going to go check my blood...be right back...

This feeling was very unnerving when I was first diagnosed, and can still be a pain if I get caught off guard by it. At first I wanted to stop that feeling quickly so I would eat all the food in the "refrigerator" until I felt better. Talk about OVERDOSE! I would have to deal with the "7,000,000" blood sugar (ok the 300 +) that resulted. Not a really fun experience to say the least.

I guess I could put something in here about CONTROL....people with OCD have nothing on people with Type 1 Diabetes who want to have good blood sugars all the time; but that is another post. I can see it all now.

A Type 1 diabetic (I can only guess that Type 2 is similar) with a very low blood sugar isn't going to like anything you give them. Low blood sugar affects how they taste things and they may or may not give you a preference. If they do: give them what they ask for, if you have it, and then have them check their sugar again in 15 minutes to see if the food you provided had an effect.

Just for your information: if you know someone who is dealing with this or you see any of these signs, or they ask you for something with sugar--juice is best:--preferably not Orange Juice.

Why not orange juice (or anything acidic?) you may ask. Because the acidic taste is nasty to me in this state, as my brain is not firing normally. You are likely to end up wearing it if you stand in the wrong place when I spit out the nasty tasting fluid on the well-intended you (not on purpose, of course). However if nothing else is available talk me into drinking it anyway; just stand out of direct spitting range (hubby's experience speaking). I like apple juice, or anything that is sweet; a small package will do; (Gallons not required; see the 7 million BGS above). I need a snack with enough sugar to pump glucose into my system. Then I can stabilize the whole thing when all the synapses in my brain are firing correctly.



The order for treating low blood sugar in my opinion and experience is the following:

• fruit juice--or some other sweet liquid--1 serving having 15 grams of CHO(carbohydrate)

• 1/2 of a Banana or some other fruit easily eaten and digested

• Milk--1 cup --milk has protein which the body turns into glocose at a much slower rate. This helps the BG to stabilize.

• If all you have available is a candy bar, that will do, it's just not as healthy or as fast as juice.

When you check the BG level again, if the number has not changed or is lower: treat again by giving 15 more grams of carbohydrate. Repeat this process until the blood sugars return to normal; normal range being between 80-120mg.


*FYI: I am not a medical doctor. I am someone who has battled type 1 diabetes for 16 years with no complications or hospitalizations. Yeah I’m proud of that accomplishment!!!... (and humble too)!