Hi
@Kerrylou, T1D here I am awake and bushy-tailed DownUnder !!
I can understand some of what you have been through. Maybe like the nightmare you cannot quite remember or the toothpaste tube is quickly running out and you need the paste back in there.
As much as it was a shock and a sudden crisis, it is now an experience to learn from.
From my experience of hypos it can take a full 24 hours, sometimes longer to fully recover.
I try to avoid driving and making important decisions in that time
It is not only the
physical troubles, there are often
emotional ones too.
I describe the feeling in my head as a 'Brain bruise", feeling of fuzzy numbness and loss of usual rate of thinking, which is frustrating and saddening, lasts a number of hours to most of a day. From speaking with others, we are all different in how long and how severe or mild it is.
I wonder how I behaved, what I said, did, who I may have hurt and how I might have embarrassed myself. There might be scattered memories but nothing solid enough to rely on. I can feel quite down and depressed for several days.
Learning to be kind to one's self, not being super-critical,
but forgiving of oneself,
explaining when you feel up it to fellow staff about what happened and almost
obtaining some idea about what happened are all important but in your own time frame.
Some
observant people may have noted certain behaviours, perhaps not usual for you leading up to the event. That may enable people to just keep an eye out for you in future and perhaps to be able to intervene with a suggestion to have a sweet cuppa etc.
The
timing of the event helps to establish the cause of the hypo. ? Late getting to lunch ? near the peak action of one of your insulins, ?more physical activity earlier in the day than usual, needing higher dose of insulin or ? overcorrection of a highish BSL? It is a detective story well worth the solving of.
I find, as embarrassed as I might feel ,that a
good chinwag with my diabetes nurse or doctor is invaluable. They may have other insights into why things may have happened and how to prevent a recurrence.
And as part of the
healing process over time I try to remember any of the funny parts of the event as I recall it and as recounted to me. You try to remember the good things and less of the not-so-good things.
I am attaching a description written way back in about 1968 of hypo symptoms in diabetic schoolchildren, not that we are children any longer, but the description is quite good and perhaps modified a bit could be a good thing to hand out to trusted friends and family.
Hypos - once experienced, never forgotten but always forgiven. Please rest and recover and pick yourself up for the new day!!
Best Wishes!
........
