Friday, December 07, 2007

Mystery Hypo (or Senior Moment).......



This is one of my many hypo stashes. I use the baby juices because each bottle has 14 gm cho, they taste ok, and they are not something seductive that I would be tempted to binge on. I only use them when I'm starting to get low. If I'm below 50 the plastic cap is hard to open and the inner safefy seal impossible.

Last night I tested at 1:30 am and was at 88 - a very good place to be. Then, two hours later, I woke up and knew I had crashed. Meter read 37. I treated, went back to sleep and woke up feeling a little drained and rebounding at 250.

When I got home this evening, I was startled to open the refrigerator door and see three empty juice bottles on the door shelf. WTF?


Obviously I had consumed them last night and not remembered it. This is sort of freaky.

After all, I remember the hypo. I even documented it on my logsheet.



But I do not recall retrieving the jars from the cupboard. How on earth did I open all three? And why did I put the empty ones in the frig? It is sort of funny, but it also makes me uneasy. I live alone. Have I been doing other things that I have no memory of?

I fret a lot about my db - sometimes over rational things and other times over irrational things. It's hard to know where to put this new little worry monster. Maybe I'll just leave it in the frig with those empty bottles.

Have a good weekend, everybody - colder than blazes here, with 10" of snow. If this is an indication of what winter's going to be like, consider me in hibernation.

17 comments:

Donna said...

Kathy,
When my BG gets as low as 37, I have a tendency to graze through the kitchen & eat whatever is there. It's a bad habit; but I can't help myself. I know I'm doing it, but I'm so low, my brain won't tell me to "stop this you crazy person!"

I hope you don't crash like this anymore. That rebound effect is an awful feeling, I know.

Maybe you could try only keep 1 or 2 bottles of juice handy. Hide the rest of them somewhere where you wouldn't think to look when you're having a low in the middle of night. Just don't forget to restock later.

Hope you have a nice warm weekend! It's freezing here!

Cara said...

Wow! I've heard of that happening, but thankful (I think) it's never happened to me. I keep a juice box next to my bed, and I've been known to grab it in the night and wake up the next morning with it still in my hand, only empty...

Molly said...

I used to wake up with the juice box straw wrapper stuck to my cheek.
Thank goodness for my furry continuous glucose monitor!
I was laughing when I read this, only because I can so relate! But I'm sorry it happened and hope that you don't find any mysterious bottles in your fridge again.
Bundle up and hunker down! It's going to be a COLD weekend here!!!
:-)
Molly and Dixie

Zazzy said...

I haven't been that low - but I can totally picture doing things I'm not aware of in my sleep (or near sleep). Can you tie bells to your doorknobs or something to make sure you're awake while you're treating?

Oh, it's only going to be in the mid 50s tomorrow. Brr. ;)

Unknown said...

I think in a hypo state at 3am, it's normal to not really remember consuming the juice. I've done something similar.

Early this morn, about the same time as your hypo, I was having dreams of low blood sugar and eating Italian food and my brain finally woke me up--I had that glimmer of an idea in my sleep that maybe I was dreaming and really did have hypoglycemia. Sure enough--I was at 54mg/dl.

I've been as low as 30 and must say I don't recall what I eat when I am that low, either.

Enjoy your hibernation and here's to staving off those hypos!

:)

Anonymous said...

What would be even more strange Kathy, is to leave those empty juice bottles in your refrigerator and wake up the next morning to full ones with a cap on. lol

Sarah said...

As a result of overnight hypos which were severe and nightly in my teens (thanks to NPH) I still wake up and snack (in my sleep) in the middle of the night. I find stuff on the cupboards, in the fridge, and sometimes the milk in the cupboard on a fairly regular basis. I understand being a little creeped out about it, but I have trouble even getting doctors to take me seriously when I say I eat in my sleep.

Anonymous said...

That's kind of scary!! I'm really glad to hear that you are and were okay, though.

Sleep is such a funny thing. Once Daniel was only half awake and I asked him for water or something, and he went into the kitchen and put a pyrex bowl of henna, 2 eggs, and some saran wrap in the oven at 400. He came back with no water and half asleep. When I asked him what he had just done in the kitchen, we both went to see, and were pretty shocked to find out!! Yikes!

Hope your winter is beautiful and peaceful and full of fiber art and beads...

Minnesota Nice said...

Donna - that is a good idea about hiding the juice - but, with my luck, the remnants of my "thinking" brain would know where they were. But heck, I still can't figure out how I got them open.

Cara - I usually don't keep juice boxes because I can't get the tiny straw in the teeny hole. And, I always have a jar of glucose tabs at my bedside - it's just that I go looking for something else.

Molly - Fortunately these really sneaky lows don't happen too often. I'd be a lot better off accepting that there are some db things that cannot be figured out.

Beth - what was Daniel intending to make - a henna quiche? At least he used the pyrex bowl vs something that was not ovenproof. It is so curious that some tiny parts of our brain work when the rest is entirely conked out.

Zaz - the bells are an interesting idea. When I test during the night, I always make myself walk into the kitchen, thinking that it will stir me enough so that I can make a proper decision with regard to the number.

Amylia - Yes, I've also had similar dreams and then confusion truly abounds.

Yes, Barry, not only would it be funny, but I think I'd check myself into "the unit" for afew days of rest.

Sarah - it is a comfort to knnow that I am not unique in this experience - maybe that's why my box of Vanilla Wafers never seems to last as long as I think it should. I should start looking for crumbs on the pillowcase.

Thank you, my friends, for all the good ideas and reassurance. I appreciate the comments!

Scott K. Johnson said...

Heh. That is unrefutable evidence right there my friend!

Molly said...

Merry Christmas Kathy! :-)

Molly and Dixie

Susana la Banana said...

I sometimes get low in the night and have a sleep-awake state which my husband says is very weird and scary, where I can walk around and eat whatever he gives me and sometimes talk a little but it doesn't make sense. Once I was dreaming that there was an intruder in the house but I was actually low and my husband and I were sitting in the kitchen eating a snack...I didn't think I could trust him, though, because I thought he might be the intruder. As in, my brain was still manufacturing dreams while I was technically "awake." Very strange. And scary. So I can relate! I'm sorry you had to go through those uneasy feelings of not knowing what you had done. That stinks.
Happy New Year from a new reader! =)

meanderings said...

Kathy,
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. If/when I get to St. Paul to visit my sister, I hope we can meet.

Bernard said...

Kathy

I hope you had a good Christmas and I wanted to wish you an excellent 2008.

Minnesota Nice said...

Scott - yes indeed!

Molly - may great adventures inspire you and Dixie in '08!

Susana - nice to meet you. "Sleep/awake" state is a great way to describe it. My hope is that I'm not doing anything too weird, like walking the halls of my condo building improperly dressed.......

Colleen - Yup, I'll be here, whenever you make a trip west.

Bernard - You are a kind and steadfast person - may wonderful days await you!

Anonymous said...

i've done this same sort of thing a few times. I remember having a low once and "coming to" with the top to the glucose tablet container, and a pack of green tea in my hand and thinking- WHAT THE HECK? so it was sort of amusing but, at the same time, scary! it's understandable you might do something like this when experiencing a low.. especially in the middle of the night. I hope it doesn't happen again though! I keep all my low treatments by my bed to avoid going to the kitchen and eating anything in sight.

Minnesota Nice said...

Seconaid,
I've sort of calmed down about it now.
I do keep tons of glucose tabs in my bedroom - under the pillow, in the nightstand, on top of my dresser...........so.............why did I wander off to the kitchen?