scary experiences

[chotapeg]

Hi all,


I have come on here to see if anyone can make sense of what has happened to me so sorry for the long post, but need to give the full story. Earlier this year I had a rotten wisdom tooth op which caused terrible pain afterwards which kept me up 3 nights waiting for the hospital dental dept to open so that I could get some help, I was also attending lectures for an intensive MA during the day, and keeping my blood sugars high with mashed potato and fruit juice etc as I couldn't eat, felt rotten and all of a sudden on my way into hospital just began to lose strength and feel like I was passing out but not quite all the way until I could not speak or move virtually. Husband pulled me into wheelchair and I hung over the side, sudden thirst and fainted, came round and wretched a few times, nurse yelled at me for not opening my mouth for a thermometer but I could just hear her in the distance and couldn't respond. Assumed I had a wisdom tooth infection, they put me on a bed with a drip and tested everything, came round a bit and was shaking violently with fear as I thought I was dying, then perked up after a while, they found nothing and I went home and recovered.

Moving on to Christmas day two days ago, I misjudged alcohol, late dinner and insulin and was heading for a hypo, ate and drank and managed to get it up, it sank again and I began to panic badly as I got to the point are I felt I was going to vomit if I ate or drank another drop and was worried I wouldn't be able to stop a hypo, eventually the sugar kicked in, it all settled, and I had an OK night. Finished breakfast as normal the next day but then had sudden feeling of passing out and wanting to vomit, lay on the floor with my head down and it passed. Felt very weak but later offered to drive our guests to town. During the drive began to feel that weird loss of strength I had felt before, just about got there and had a version of what happened to me before with the wisdom tooth and couldn't speak, slummed down, everyone went distant and didn't have the strength to speak and answer questions and after a while hanging out of the car with my head between my knees came round, someone had to come and drive me home then I lay on the sofa all night with very high blood pressure and on and off feeling of collapse if I got up and walked around, or even just lying there. What is happening to me? Only similarities are poor management of food so feeling rotten and maybe a bit exhausted due to Christmas preps, feels so horrible, like I am going to vomit, lose consciousness, become unresponsive but blood sugars are not low, anyone else felt this? It has really scared me. Is it a fake hypo? there are a lot of similarities to a hypo. Feeling sorry for myself and messed up everyone Christmas.

 

[searley]

Phantom hypos are generally when your levels normally run high and you reduce them to a sensible level, or reduce it quickly. Your body is used to being high so start to give the signs of a hypo.

If your levels went lower than normal due to the slower release of glucose from your liver due to alcohol then it could be a phantom hypo

I've had a lot off 'odd feelings' the last couple of weeks I've dismissed it as there is a lot of bugs doing the rounds..

I used to feel like that quite a bit when I was on blood pressure meds..

 

[chotapeg]

Phantom hypos are generally when your levels normally run high and you reduce them to a sensible level, or reduce it quickly. Your body is used to being high so start to give the signs of a hypo.

If your levels went lower than normal due to the slower release of glucose from your liver due to alcohol then it could be a phantom hypo

I've had a lot off 'odd feelings' the last couple of weeks I've dismissed it as there is a lot of bugs doing the rounds..

I used to feel like that quite a bit when I was on blood pressure meds..

I cant understand as my blood sugars were quite high as I was trying to avoid a hypo both times, with the tooth because I couldn't eat and on Boxing day, after the Christmas day hypos

 

[searley]

Many things can raise it.. stress being a good example.. so you could have been stressing about your tooth for example

 

[Hertfordshiremum]

I cant understand as my blood sugars were quite high as I was trying to avoid a hypo both times, with the tooth because I couldn't eat and on Boxing day, after the Christmas day hypos

Hi. Yes I recognise this, Are you testing for ketones? I have had very similar symptoms when I am ill and my BG is a bit too high, I have to be really careful when I am ill, my ketostix have shown the 4th level up with BG of 13-15 when I had an infected insect bite. If I am well I can have the same BG without a problem although I drink more water before trying to correct with insulin at the next mealtime if still too high. Do you know what your BG was when you had to stop driving? Could you be coming down with a cold or have an infection? The first time you had a tooth infection, is something wrong this time? I would tell your diabetic nurse as well.

 

[Circuspony]

High blood sugar can cause excess potassium in your system. That can cause your heart rate to drop a bit leading to feelings you describe.

Might be worth getting a fitbit which measures your heart rate so you can see what it is doing at the times you feel wobbly. If it is regularly dropping then it's a GP visit otherwise it's just a reminder that you can't let your BG levels go up.