The Lowest of Lows

I suppose you could say I've been luck in my diabetes life so far.  I have experienced my share of lows and more than my share of highs.  I've dealt with lows in the 40's and 30's because I don't often feel them before that point.  But I usually recover from them pretty quickly.  I get that shaky feeling, the rapid heartbeat and the outside my mind feeling, but I pop a few glucose tabs, down some orange juice, or eat the entire contents of the fridge and then I feel fine again after a few minutes I feel good again.  Even after making the mistake of taking my Humalog in place of my Lantus I was lucky enough to catch it in time and not go too low.  But last night I was hit with a low that left me reeling for a bit.

Before eating dinner my meter showed a blood sugar of 407, so I corrected and took my bolus for dinner.  The kids bedtime routine usually consists of multiple trips back to the bedroom for various reasons.  In the old house this was a nuisance but just required a short walk down the hall.  In the new house it requires dragging myself up and down the stairs.  As I got the kids into bed I started to feel a little shaky and after the second trip back down the stairs I could tell I was getting pretty low.  The fog of confusions started to set in, the shaking got worse, and I started to feel a little light headed.  As I searched around the kitchen for my meter I started seeing the white fuzz around my eyes (which I find kind of ironic because I had just been talking about never having passed out because of a low after my trip to the DMV the day before).  The reading on my meter revealed the lowest number I've seen.  29.  I inhaled 4 glucose tabs and laid on the couch to wait it out.  After a while I had some fruit snacks and checked again.  45.  Usually at about that point I start to feel better.  But this low was different.  It was clinging on.  I ate 4 more glucose tabs and laid back down.  The shaking feeling was hanging around.  I was freezing but sweating.  I was starting to feel nauseous.  And I was starving!  Such a mix of conflicting feelings!  The Pretty Lady was eating tortilla chips so I dug in.  I don't know what it is about post-low feasting but everything tastes so good.  I savored every salty bite and slowly started to feel like myself again.  This was a scary and unusual low for me.  It hung around for too long, ran me through a lot of weird symptoms, and left me feeling awful for the rest of the life.  And then there is the fact that I felt pretty close to losing consciousness.  The Pretty Lady and I talked about the fact that we don't have a glucagon kit in the house.  I have been avoiding it because of the cost and the fact that they expire quickly.  I haven't had a low where I felt like I was going to need it before, but after yesterdays low I'm beginning to reconsider that.