Just wondering if some T2's out there could give me some feedback on how low is too low when it comes to BS. I am T2 diet controlled and my last Hb was 34 and in the past I have had quite a few lows ranging from 2.9-3.7 and apart from the usual symptoms I have been fine but yesterday I actually collapsed at someone's door. I had done about 2 1/2 hours walking and I had been snacking on peanuts and drinking water yesterday morning and about 20 mins afterwards I was standing talking to a lady for about 20 minutes at her door and I started feeling light headed and then it started getting worse and worse. I didn't think too much of it but then all of a sudden I went down, after a few minutes sitting on the ground I got up and started going down again so the lady got me a chair to sit on and I asked her for a teaspoon of sugar and I started to come right so she also gave me a few jellybeans to eat as I was about to drive. What gave me the shock of my life was how quickly it came on with no symptoms apart from the lightheadedness and how quickly I went down. I didn't even have the option to test my BS as my meter was in my van which was parked down the road so there was no chance to grab it and even if I had it I don't think I would have been able to use it.
Oh dear, That must have been alarming.
Your problem is two-fold, I'm guessing. Firstly, you have no way of knowing if you were low, never mind how low you were. Did you test as soon as you got back to your van by any chance?
As you may recall, I run quite low these days and the Libre I have been using recently tells me I have sometimes had quite significant periods at very low numbers. Overnights, I can do the 2s, without any sign, symptom or concern. Awake and ambulant, I get a bit irritated under 3.2, but to be honest, on the days I've breached that it's usually been a pre-meal and I have been er,..... very ready for my meal! In those circumstances I'd gauge how long I still had to wait before deciding if I need to nibble or not.
But, coincidentally, about 3 weeks ago, I had a bit of a funny episode. I'd had a very minor, but somewhat uncomfortable procedure done lying down, with one arm over my head (please don't try to picture the scene!) . I was absolutely fine, but when I was finished I felt a bit light-headed when I got up to leave, so had to sit down again. As I had gone a bit pale, the nurse insisted on bringing me a cup of tea, with sugar. Blimey, that was horrid, but I clearly wasn't going to be released into the wild until such times as I had drunk it. She was so pleased my colour was coming back that she insisted I had another!! (Didn't she have better things to do?! Though I shouldn't be ungrateful for being well cared for.)
Anyway, like you, by bad luck, I had neither my Libre scanner not my meter with me, so I had no idea there and then what my bloods had done, but of course, I could scan when I got home, and the scanner downloaded my history. The Libre reads every 15 minutes. Actually, my bloods had been exactly where I would have expected them to have been, mid-morning, after my usual breakfast, and the two cups of sweetened tea didn't do too much to the numbers either.
I can only conclude I had a bit of postural hypotension, rather than any bloods issue, and I've certainly had no recurrence or anything like it again.
So, if you tested when you got back to your van, your reading then, after a bit of a sugar hit might have given you an indication of what had gone on, otherwise you really are in the dark.
Perhaps, memo to self to keep an eye on things for a while, and make sure you take your meter out with you?
I hope you're feeling OK now, and can quickly consign today to the "just one of those bizarre things" bucket.
That is a LOT of walking and for me, under 4 is too low. Take care.
