Would you say I was poisoned?

Hi @Chowie I always look in fear at bar staff thinking they have the opportunity to do this to me if they get my drink wrong !

Question - did it taste sweet ? I have pretty good taste buds for sugar these days so can generally tell with one sip.

I still wouldn't call it poisoning though, based on the fact that people's knowledge is generally poor in regards to diabetes and the immediate effects of sugar, more likely to call it a mistake, which happens.

Could they have used one of those powdered milks that contain carbs?

A tip for soft drinks if ordered in rounds- I've been hit with normal Coke when expecting diet Coke, so I always ask for an ice cube in my diet drink and none in the others.

Hi @Chowie

I have to ask, why did you drink it, if there was sugar in it?

The reason i say this, is because if someone gave me a cup of tea with sugar in it, i simply couldn’t drink it. Tea with sugar is revolting (to me) and the sugar would raise my bg. I would rather not drink than drink sugary tea or coffee at all. I just don’t think someone could hide sugar in a coffee without me noticing. So if i drank it, the responsibility is mine.

Having said that, i was recently in a cafe (on hol) and ordered a gluten free chocolate brownie. It arrived. I ate it. I enjoyed it. But later that day, the unmistakable signs of gluten developed, and stayed with me for days. Not fun. The waitress had obviously made an error.

So I do get what you are saying. I suppose i just see sugar in coffee (easily identifiable) is a different experience from a choc brownie with no discernable way to ID the presence of gluten. Incidentally, no, i don’t think my brownie waitress poisoned me. I think she was busy, possibly distracted, and things like this are an inevitable risk I run by choosing a gf brownie off a cafe menu. If my Gluten reaction was so severe that i wasn’t willing to take that risk, then I would only eat food I had sourced and prepared myself, and I wouldn’t have been in the cafe in the first place.

I opt for water if I ever have a Maccies. Bunless burger and water.

Edited to add: actually Chowie, on second thoughts, if it wasn’t particularly sweet, do you think the coffee had something like Coffeemate in it? Those coffee whiteners are sometimes a revelation, when you see the carb content. But a flat white shouldn’t have that rubbish in it.

I understand the only thing you can think of which caused the spike is the coffee.
However, as there are so many things which affect our BG (and the actually reading given on a CGM which may not be accurate), I would be nervous of accusing someone of poisoning me.
If 20g worth of insulin is sufficient for a normal coffee, I would have thought there would be a noticeable amount of sugar in the coffee (it would have tasted very sweet) if it caused you to spike so high.
The coffee may have been made different to what you are used to, it could be something unrelated to the coffee (stressful meeting with friends, less exercise than usual, pump having a mini-moment,...) or it could have been a mistake due to lack of attention from the servers.

I guess, in theory, it is possible to "administer a substance that is capable of causing the illness or death of a living organism when introduced or absorbed" (the definition of poison) with sugar.

As someone who used to have three sugars in their coffee (but has not added sugar for about thirty years) I can detect someone's mistake a mile off. It simply tastes more like syrup. Personally I'd be incapable of mistakenly drinking a coffee with 'a lot of sugar'. With one sugar it's drinkable, but still clearly has sugar in it.
"I didn't say I'm diabetic, but I don't think that's any real excuse." Mistakes happen. That sounds like you are making it the sandwich-seller's responsibility to check that you, and all other customers, don't have a nut allergy. Or a bartender to check if a GP has told any bar customer that if they start drinking again, it will kill them.
I've known, when ordering coffee, 'no sugar' to lodge in the hearer's brain as 'one sugar'.

Rule One of being a diabetic is to take responsibility.
Rule Two is to allow yourself to make mistakes.

Perhaps your mistake was to drink a 'disgusting' coffee. Perhaps the disgusting taste masked the sugar ?
Be gentler on yourself (and others)
Geoff

Chowie said:

I met up with a number of friends to car pool at an out of town fast food burger place early this morning. The staff were not engaged and it was clear they didn't want to be there. While waiting I ordered a flat white NO sugar. The coffee tasted disgusting, but I drank most of it. I bolused for the coffee 20g and I had already dealt with Auntie Dawn, I had not had breakfast so there was no funny food delay occurring. My CGM shot up and flat lined at 20 (the CGM doesn't go any higher) for about 2hrs and fell back just as fast almost a perfect square wave. The only thing I can think of was it was the Coffee and it was laced with a lot of sugar. The insulin is ok as I didn't have a problem at lunch. I frequently have a morning coffee and I have never had that reaction. I didn't say I'm diabetic, but I don't think that's any real excuse.

That got me thinking, if someone knew you were diabetic and deliberately gave you sugar (excluding serious hypo) would you consider that a type of poisoning?

Click to expand...

Accidents happen. (Especially woth very busy or bored/careless staff) My diet coke got switched with my husband's regular, and I didn't notice until it was halfway down my gullet, and I started to feel ill.


Stuff goes wrong all the time, so now my husband usually orders diet too, if we have the same drink.

Could be the milksugars spiked you, if it was a large one, so there may not have been added sugars, just naturally present ones? I know a tiny bit of milk spikes me, that's why I mention it.

People I know try to give me sugar all the time. Usually because they're being polite. (Cookies, biscuits, sweets, fruit, fries...) But intentionally, to harm me, then yes, I would consider it poisoning. Though a poisoning I can handle by walking a bunch of laps around the block.

Coffee that has been left too long can go stale, and become more acidic, and become pretty horrible. They might have given you some left over coffee, rather than freshly brewed, which might be why it tasted so nasty. It usually tastes more bitter, and not that nice.

Could it raise your blood sugar if it's stale, and more acidic? I don't know, but if it tasted as bad as you say it did, then it might have had an impact.

Another possibility might be, that knowing that the coffee didn't taste too good, they might have added something to try and hide that, I don't know.

Next time, if you don't like the taste, ask for fresh.

Mistakes happen. Deliberate normally requires a motive, from your description there is no motive. So it is for each of us, irrespective of known / unknown health issues, to guard our own wellbeing. It is more concerning you think you may have been “poisoned”.