Low Blood Sugar Memories

My 30 Years of Diabetes – Part 2:

I’ve seen so many advances in the last 30 years of diabetes. We’ve come so far in such a short while. I mean, It’s been less than 100 years since the discovery of insulin¹! Today, diabetics not only have to worry about high blood sugars, but having a low blood sugar level too.

Insulin is actually why I am alive right now. The discovery of insulin was a turning point for diabetic care. Without it, I would have died… and so would all of the other diabetics in the world. To explain, blood sugar levels naturally rise after eating so certain pancreatic cells deliver insulin into the bloodstream. This insulin allows the body’s cells to absorb the sugars. Since my pancreas no longer produces insulin, the sugars from the foods I eat stay in my blood stream and my body starves for energy (unless I administer insulin).

I remember being so tired and thirsty in the days leading up to my diagnosis. I was just a little kid and I was supposed to have an unlimited supply of energy, but I didn’t. This was because my body wasn’t getting the energy it needed from the foods I was eating. I was slowly starving to death.

Insulin Therapy

The common treatment at the time of my diagnosis in 1986 was insulin by injection. Just 4 years earlier, the pharmaceutical race to mass produce synthetic human insulin using gene technology was won by Eli Lilly, followed by Novo’s semisynthetic insulins. Eli Lilly and Novo both claimed that their products were identical to actual human insulin, and therefore were the best form of insulin therapy possible². Exciting times!

Insulin, Nutrition and Life, Oh My

Back then, I was on a very strict insulin and nutrition regimen. I was given an insulin injection 30 minutes before breakfast and an insulin injection 30 minutes before dinner. I was also regimented on exactly what to eat. For example, my breakfast was to include 2 starches, 1 fruit, 1 protein… and so on. Back then, packaged foods didn’t have nutrition labels like they do today and there weren’t cell phone apps to help decipher things either. Diabetics used servings to ensure they were meeting their nutrition requirements. I remember the great big poster the nutritionist gave to my parents. Mom taped it to the inside of one of our kitchen cabinets so that we could remember exactly what “one fruit” or “one starch” was. Everything had to be counted. Everything.

Initially, I didn’t take an insulin injection at lunch time. I was scared to give myself insulin injections so that would have been pretty difficult. However, this meant that I had to eat exactly the correct foods at the correct times. Timing was another factor I had to be aware of. There was absolutely NO flexibility at all for me.

I was also naughty back then. Mom did her best to make me yummy lunches but to this day, I cannot eat a hot dog without thinking of mom’s thinly sliced hot dog sandwiches she’d make every so often that I’d pretend to eat and hide in my desk because I didn’t want my teacher to tell my mom I wasn’t eating. Oh boy. Those were the days!

Life Began to get Easier…

Along the way, my insulin and nutrition regimen evolved. I remember how thrilled I was to get a prescription for faster acting insulin. With this insulin I’d be able to take it right before I ate and I would have more flexibility with my meals.

It was during this time I also learned about carbohydrate counting. Foods were now required to have nutrition labels. In 1990 the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA)³ was passed requiring all packaged foods to bear nutrition labeling. In Canada, nutrition labelling became mandatory for all prepackaged foods in December, 2007⁴. Life was slowly getting easier. However, this was also the same time that I began to deal with teenage hormones… not so easy. Hormones and diabetes aren’t the greatest of friends so blood sugar control was a challenge at times.

My endocrinologist started to suggest insulin pump therapy to help me better manage my blood sugars. I was having low blood sugars and sometimes I wasn’t aware that my blood sugar was going low. This condition is termed hypo-glycemia unawareness.

Hypoglycemia unawareness is a condition in which a person with diabetes doesn’t experience the usual warning symptoms of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Click HERE to view a list of low blood sugar symptoms.

Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Sugar)

I lost count of the number of times my parents had to save me by putting corn syrup in my cheek, praying it would be absorbed. I had some very severe low blood sugars in my youth.

To date, I despise regular coke – it reminds me of going “low.” The smell actually makes me cringe. I also hated the accusation that my blood sugar was low. Even though I knew my blood sugar was low, I’d try my damnedest to pretend everything was ok – a pride thing. To this day, I still don’t like admitting that I need help. I know, I know… I am ashamed when my blood sugar goes low. Totally, completely ashamed. I try so hard to find blood sugar balance.

In my youth, if my parents referred to me as “low” while I was having a low blood sugar, I would actually get violent! Mom will never let me forget one particular middle-of-the-night low blood sugar where I refused to eat and I ended up biting her ON THE BOOB!

My First Low Blood Sugar

My very first low blood sugar occurred in December 1986. Our church puts on a Sunday School Concert each year. I was so excited to go. Christmas was just around the corner. There would be treats, festivities and fun. There was so much to be excited about!

My sister and I were in our best dresses and mom was taking so much pride to curl our hair perfectly. Those were the days when curling irons were in every ladies cabinet. At that point in life, I don’t even know if a hair straightener had even been invented! Curls were all the rage. I stood patiently in front of the sink & mom smiled; my sister Shannon’s hair was already done. We would be so cute! And then, it happened.

I actually don’t personally remember this part of this story even though it has been recounted every Christmas since 1986. Back then, I was a very quiet, shy and polite little 7 year old. I stood in front of the bathroom sink as mom curled my hair and farted so loud and with such force that a plane probably crashed somewhere. My mother was horrified: Laura did not do such things!

That was my first low blood sugar. Mom and I stayed home from the Sunday School Christmas concert drinking juice and having snacks worried life would always be this way. I can only imagine what my parents were thinking and feeling that night. That was the beginning.

CLICK HERE to learn more about typical low blood sugar symptoms. Farting is not a typical symptom, however uncharacteristic behaviors may indicate something is not quite right.

Insulin Pump Therapy?

My endocrinologist asked many times over the years if I was ready for an insulin pump. Eventually he stopped asking. I was deathly afraid of an insulin pump.

In fact, no one had actually shown me what an insulin pump was… but I could imagine what it was. Until I was in my mid-twenties, I actually thought that an insulin pump was a device that “replaced the pancreas” (that’s what my doctors said!) – literally. I imagined that I’d have to go for surgery and I’d have a big mechanical device inserted into my abdomen. Yikes! I didn’t realize an insulin pump was actually a cute little piece of technology that is worn on the outside of the body that diabetics carry around like a cell phone or pager to deliver their insulin instead of injections. I wish I’d have asked more questions earlier in my treatment.

Next time, I’ll share more about my insulin pump decision and all sorts of other things. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of my early years of insulin therapy and my first low blood sugar. Stay tuned for more.

Questions or Comments? Share below.

Also… do you remember your (or your child’s) first low blood sugar? What happened? All of us have a story and it’s pretty darn cool to hear them and not feel like “we’re the only ones.”