Notes from a Spinning Planet:New York Low

There are moments,in the life of a person with diabetes,that produce pure terror.Those are the moments outside of one's own control.Those are the moments that strike,out of the blue.Those are the moments that too often,have no real explanation.

We'd just come from the Radio City Music Hall & were chillin' on Broadway & (34th?) St.,eating dinner. Because my blood sugar was somewhere over the rainbow(420) & the cgm was confirming the meter(360,and going up) I corrected,and only ate half the fries with my ribs.

7 units. 50 carbs. Usually,I'd need twice that but we were doing alot of walking,and exercise does crazy things to my bgs.

By the time we'd made it to the subway,I was tanking like a train engine.Double arrows down.Not a bad thing,but it was awefully early in the process to be doing that.15 minutes later,270. 10 minutes later,200.Bulk of said insulin still not at it's peak. So I drank a juice box,ate 3 glucose tabs. (39 carbs)It didn't slow down the descent one iota,we got off the subway and I was 110.

By that point,I was getting really freaked out and begun stuffing glucose tabs into my mouth with complete abandon,I didn't much care if I OD'd to 200+ mg/dl. That,I could deal with.This,I could not.I have never in my life dropped 300 points in about 45 minutes & didn't know what in the world was going on.One thing was fairly obvious though...

"Honey,we have to go up & get juice from a store.NOW." Panic filled my voice,though I'd just consumed 10 tabs I was feeling the effects of a low.

So up we went,into the frigid(under 10 degrees Celcius)night air to find the nearest convenience store,where we purchased two bottles of juice and I drained one in short order.

LOW. I was definatly feeling the effects now,and could only hope that the 95 carbs I'd just consumed would do something quick before I became another statistic on a NYC sidewalk.

And it did,the tabs kicked in,the juice kicked in,& the Dexcom line rose to a healthy 150 mg/dl.Eventually,we got back to the hotel & it was still mid 100's. The rest of our trip,I didn't go anywhere without 2 full bottles of juice & a bottle of glucose tabs.(that's what you call being a hyper-hypo-iac)

Diabetes can be pretty scary sometimes..I'm glad I don't live in a big city,because I am not used to walking everywhere.I'd have alot more of that kind of low. And I'm VERY glad I have a Dexcom,it could have been very bad.




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