What a "high" feels like

I've searched the forums and can't really find what really high blood sugar feels like so I thought I'd share. I'm only 9.7 at the moment but I will share what I experienced at 27 mmol/L in case it helps someone. I've modified the form of this post to try and separate immediate symptoms from those that are mid- to long-term. Anything that I've removed can be found in the comments, but if they need to be added back they obviously can be

* Thirst
* Urination almost constantly. Maybe related to how much I was drinking because I was so thirsty all the time (edit: maybe not... homeostasis will try and get rid of excess glucose.... one way to do that is via the kidneys, so maybe the urination and the thirst were the other way around)
* Unpleasant smell on my breath and in urine; I don't really know how to describe it (note: check BSL with finger prick... may need immediate medical treatment)
* Heart palpitations
* Insomnia
* Agitation

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Additions based on feedback
* Sleepiness/fatigue
* Dryness of skin, or perhaps a feeling of dryness in general
* Visual changes. E.g. "cloudy" or blurred vision
* Dry mouth
* Lack of concentration
* Lack of coordination
* Pets licking your skin

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Removed because maybe they take a longer time to develop
* Fungal infection on private parts
* Tongue dark brown dark
* Abdominal pain (I've removed this because I don't experience it immediately and my abdominal pain has been pancreatitis. It might be an immediate or short-term symptom though, I'm not sure)


Anyway, I'm nothing like this now. I just thought I'd share because I can find lots on low BSL but not a lot on very high BSL. High BSL, in my experience, is very different to low. When I'm low I could probably just go to sleep

Edit: sorry if some of those descriptions sound yucky, but they are what they are

Zhnyaka said:

interestingly, with a bg of about 30 (and an off-scale glucometer) I feel only thirst, frequent urge to urinate (logically, due to the fact that I drink a lot) and also almost can't sleep, but there are no other symptoms, although it seems to me that my skin becomes very dry and as if there is no water even in the bones
it's so interesting that we all feel it differently!

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The more I think about it the more I think that the urination is homeostatis trying to get rid of excess glucose. I don't know and will research tomorrow. I think that highs are not talked about enough though

In Response said:

Symptoms of a high are symptoms of untreated diabetes - these are the symptoms used to diagnose diabetes.

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In Response said:

Symptoms of a high are symptoms of untreated diabetes - these are the symptoms used to diagnose diabetes.

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Pity I had to go to THREE hospitals to get diagnosed. I mean even without the other symptoms the BSL should have been a clue. But, no.

I'm not "blaming" the hospitals. I just can't find a lot on on untreated diabates. If my description helps just one person I'll be happy

I thought I'd share my experience of highs, that's all

Several people have mentioned tiredness/sleepiness. I didn't think of that! I experienced that as well but thought it was just because of all the other stuff going on, but it seems like it's a symptom by itself. Nice (well, the tiredness is not nice but the list getting more complete is nice).

JAT1 said:

Before diagnosis, I had all the symptoms listed above. These days since I began a low-carb diet (less than 50 carbs a day, usually less than 30 a day) my blood sugar is more predictable and doesn't spike and fall like it used to. If I do go above 10, I feel tired and enjoy a short nap, but other times I nap without being above 10 simply due to normal fatigue. I want to have an awareness of when I am going higher because it would be useful, if I need a correction dose for instance. I have good hypo awareness at the other end of the scale and would also like to recognize my body telling me when I'm too high. I finger-prick so hearing my body is important to me.

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Developing awareness is one of the reasons I was thinking about this yesterday. I'm starting to feel hypos but not quite there yet. Feeling if I'm high I think would be useful. I went to 11.4 after breakfast today and didn't feel a thing, but the BSL dropped back to 5 fairly quickly (less than an hour). It's probably more useful for hypers in the range of hours. Unfortunately, after reading today, I think most of the things are longer term symptoms and maybe not useful for that

My new "awareness list", which I think can happen in an hour or so but more research needed, now consists of:
a) Sleepiness (thanks to those who brought my attention to it)
b) Thirst and/or polyuria
c) Unpleasant smell (breath, urine) (I'm not sure about this one yet... it might not happen immediately)
d) Heart palpitations (unsure about this one as well because maybe it's me panicking when I overshoot and I don't get them when I go a little bit high after breakfast. Well I didn't today anyhow. Will monitor and delete this annotation of I or someone else can confirm it happens quickly)

I've removed

h) Extreme abdo pain. This was like 10/10 pain. First two times they induced me into a coma. I have scars on my neck which look horrible because of intubation (they put me in ICU). Pain killers did not work

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from my original list. I think that's more pancreatitis than BSL related. Although I've read the abdominal pain can be a symptom and misdiagnosed as pancreatitis so I might add it back using different words when I'm on my main computer

HSSS said:

Are you looking for a list of symptoms that happen specially during a high and ass as levels return to normal or those that show consistently and regularly high levels. Eg I don’t think dry skin or sores not healing are “in the moment” type issues, more longer term issues caused by diabetes and overall high levels. I initially thought you meant in the moment ones as you compared it to hypo symptoms as the opposite situation and those symptoms pass when levels return to normal. But now I’m confused

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Yeah I'm looking for immediate symptoms more than things that take awhile to show. My original post might be confused/confusing because I originallyl thought that those I listed came up pretty much straight away but after more reading today I've realised that many may take days or weeks to develop and those are not what I'm interested in really -- those are more diabetes symptoms in general. Any changes I make to my original post I'll note here in the conversation to, hopefully, avoid confusion. E.g. I'm thirsty now and I'm 12.6 so I'll probably leave that. The whole subject might be redundant but I'm on fixed doses of insulin (before meals and a basal dose) so can't, yet, just take insulin to lower my BSL so I was googling symptoms of hyperglycemia

Zhnyaka said:

it's funny, but until about the age of 13, I thought that the descriptions of hypo and spikes in books were wrong, because I don't feel all the symptoms and I feel some symptoms that are not mentioned , and then I realized that people just feel it differently. As a child, I thought that the authors of books were stupid, but it turned out that only I was stupid

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Well it's also strange because people report sleepiness. On reflection, I sometimes do as well I think, but more normally I feel the complete opposite (agitated and unable to sleep)