I feel like I am asked this question a lot, and I never know just how to answer it. I think that it is easy to list off the symptoms -> irritability, fatigue, shakiness, etc., but what does all of that FEEL like, if I were to describe that to someone who has never felt something like it before? I think this is a good thing for parents, teachers, employers, friends, and significant others of T1Ds to understand. I have decided to talk about some of the worst lows I have ever had in the second person to make it as realistic as possible, so here goes nothing:

You are in the midst of a dream, in the middle of the night, and you hear a faint sound in the background of your dream. You slowly begin to drift in and out of sleep over the course of several minutes until you open your eyes. You begin to remember where you are- in a bedroom at a sorority house with four other girls that are sleeping. Something is off, but you cannot quite pin it. You think that maybe you are just exhausted and you try to fall back asleep. Within the next minute the piercing sound of a Dexcom alarm at 5 am reaches your ears and you frantically try to find your phone to turn it off before you wake anyone else up. You finally reach the phone and acknowledge the alert, which shows that your blood sugar is too low to register on the continuous glucose monitor. Now that you are fully awake, your senses have kicked in and you realize that you are sweating and shaking violently, which is what helped to wake you up in the first place. Knowing you have to act quick before the symptoms get any worse, you reach into the bag next to you with a shaky hand to find the low snacks you left in there the night before. After 30 seconds you find the amount of carbs you think you will need and start consuming them as fast as you can. The exertion of sitting up and rummaging through the bag has taken a small toll on your already weak body, so you lean back to rest while you eat to give yourself a break and feel your rapidly beating heart. At this point you begin to heat up, so you kick the covers off to try and cool down, but nothing is helping. Your Dexcom alarm goes off again to show that your blood sugar is actually going even lower. You begin to panic and reach for more carbs but your head starts pounding and your eyes get a little blurry because you are becoming weak and dizzy. Your mom has your blood sugars linked to her phone, so she texts you to ask if you have the low covered, and you tell her yes so she does not worry. You finish your next snack and wait, knowing that you should start seeing your blood sugar go up soon, but the loss of control of your body makes you start to panic, because you can barely move and you do not like the tingling sensation in your arms and legs. Holding back tears, you try to calm your breath and tell yourself that it will be okay in a few minutes. After laying limp, your body begins to cool down and you can feel your body better, although you still feel weak. The sweat on your face dries and you begin to feel cold, so you wrap yourself back up in your blanket and fall back asleep- until 3 hours later your blood sugar crashes again, and you wake up to another Dexcom alarm. This time you are lower, and start panicking again because you are hot and shaky. Your mom texts you but you are confused and you cannot form a proper sentence, so you send strange incoherent messages that scare her. Again, fighting back tears, you find snacks and eat them with your eyes closed while taking slow and deep breaths to calm yourself down. You fall asleep after you can think clearly and decide that your blood sugar has gone up enough for you to rest safely. When you wake up, you are exhausted, and a little bit weak, but start your day.

You wake up for class with a low blood sugar, so you treat it and begin to get ready to walk to campus. You realize that your blood sugar is not going up by much, so you have some more carbs before heading down the stairwell of your apartment building. Your legs start feeling a bit tingly while you walk, but you do not think much of it because you are thinking your blood sugar went up and your body is tired from getting ready during a low. You set out across the street for the 0.7 mile walk to class, but something is not right. Your body feels heavy, and your vision is starting to get spotty. Once you are across the street, you realize your legs cannot support your body weight, and your knees are buckling. By the time you consider the fact that it is your blood sugar causing this, your start seeing neon, and your vision gets extremely blurry. You are about to pass out on the side of the road. You sit down and begin eating more carbs as you call your friend to see if she can pick you up and give you a ride to class before you are late. Once she is on her way you breathe a sigh of relief and try to calm down so your blood sugar can go back to normal. She picks you up and drops you off to class where your professor asks if you are okay because you look sick and you just smile, say yes, and begin learning for the day.

These are just a couple instances where I have felt the full effects of a low blood sugar, but this is a regular occurrence for Type One Diabetics. Maybe you are sitting at work or in class and feel this way but have to act like everything is normal. Maybe you are at a sleepover with your friend next to you while you are crying waiting for your blood sugar to go up. Maybe you are out to dinner with friends and have to put on a smile so people don’t worry too much even though you feel terrible. Maybe you are exhausted from fighting a low all day and night but have to carry out your responsibilities as normal with no break. Because there is no break, and sometimes you can follow all the rules and do everything the “right way” and this will still happen. And it can be really scary.

It’s such a basic thing to say, but always be kind, because you never have any idea what the person next to you is going through.

As always, thank you all for the support. Sending love!