Irritable. Nausea. Nervousness. Unclear thinking. Uneasiness. Anxiety. Difficulty speaking. Light-headedness. Sweating. Hunger. Confusion. Clumsiness. Mood swings. Headache. Shakiness. No this is not a list of side effects on one of those cheesy commericals for Valtrex or the drug that makes your eyelashes grow. This is a list of things that I sometimes deal with on a daily basis. It’s a condition called Hypoglycemia or also known as low blood sugar. It’s like diabetes but the exact opposite. Your body can’t process sugars properly or quick enough or your body isn’t getting enough healthy sugars resulting in the symptoms stated above. It’s a condition that many people have and don’t even know it. Even I had no idea I had this condition until the scariest night of my life.
Before this scary night, I was working almost everyday part time at AnF. It was my Junior year of college and I had just encountered my final exams. It was Christmas break and I had decided to stay during the break to work. During the break I was going out basically every night, drinking, not getting any sleep, working, and eating 1 meal a day that consisted of a 6 count chicken nuggets Chick Fil A kids meal. Let’s go back even further to the beginning of the semester. I had just joined a sorority, was getting into my major and finally taking my core classes, going out a lot with my new sisters, having a rocky patch with my long distance boyfriend, all while working maybe 4 days a week. So yes, I would say my Junior semester all though was really fun, it was also very stressful. I noticed by the middle of the semester I would be at work and get really light-headed. I never complained and never thought “oh maybe I need to eat something”, I just thought I was tired from the night before. I would find myself grabbing at the nearest table so I didn’t fall over and then just lean on it for support until it was time for my break or time to go home. I also found myself getting flustered, again blaming it on lack of sleep or stress. I would start sweating out of no where. My t-shirt would have sweat blotches on them even when I didn’t really feel that hot. I would get really bad headaches, but I always got bad headaches being my mother and father’s daughter and plagued with the migraine gene. I was always pretty clumsy and drinking coffee all my life I always had a shaky hand. None of these symptoms were really worrisome to me until that one scary night.
Like I said, it was Christmas break and I was working and drinking more than I was sleeping and eating. That night, my boyfriend, some of his family, and my roommates went out to a club in good ole Ybor City. I was drinking Red Bull vodkas all night. Later that night I got really pissed off(won’t go into detail but I’m pretty sure I might have broken a glass at my apartment) and ended up locking myself in my room. I laid down in my bed and my whole body started shaking. I had no idea what was going on. I couldn’t stop shaking. My boyfriend had to break into my room because I couldn’t get up to unlock the door. During this shaking episode, his phone rang and it was one of his fraternity brothers telling him another brother had died. This news made me shake even more. I couldn’t even speak at this point. He ended up taking me all the way to my parents.
There, my parents made an appointment with my doctor. My dad looked at my eyes which kept rolling around not focusing on anything and saw that my pupils were dilated. I laid down and finally went to sleep. When I went to my doctor, they did many tests. They thought someone had put something in my drink. They did many drug tests and blood tests. I think they even tested me for diabetes which one would think they would have seen how low my blood sugar was then. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me but set up appointments for more tests that Monday. The entire weekend I couldn’t drive or even just be by myself. My mom, dad or boyfriend were always there, watching me, like I was a ticking time bomb, but having no idea when I’d blow up again. At this point in my life, I had found my independence and hated having to depend on someone, especially not being able to drive. It was like I was a kid again. I went back for more tests where they did some kind of scans of my brain and hooked all these little wires to my head. The shit they put on my head was not fun getting out of my hair. They found nothing and scheduled more tests the next week. That week was Christmas and my family came down. I had a conversation with my Aunt Sharron telling her what I was feeling before and during the seizure. She told me that I needed to get checked out for low blood sugar because she had experienced the same thing. My parents called the doctor and scheduled a blood glucose test.
For this blood glucose test, I couldn’t eat anything. When I arrived they took my blood. I hated needles and asked if the nurse could just take blood out of my right arm since I’m left-handed. She explained she would be needing both arms for the amount of times they would be taking my blood. After the first prick, they gave me some nasty orange soda tasting drink. After that, they took my blood every hour for about 8 hours. By the end, I was so weak, cranky, and hungry. It didn’t help that my dad was sitting there taunting me with M&M’s. When my test was done, I believe my blood glucose was around 45 milligrams. A normal person is usually around 100 milligrams. I finally had an answer to my seizure. My crankiness, light-headedness, mood swings, sweating, confusion, anxiety, nervousness. I finally knew what the hell was wrong with me. I almost felt relieved, even though I hate living with this damn condition.
I must say, living with low blood sugar is a daily challenge. Anything and everything can mess with my body’s blood sugar. Stress, caffeine, alcohol, lack of sleep, types of food, vitamins and supplements. In the beginning of learning how to control this nasty condition, I would sometimes find myself on my apartment floor, having fainted because of not eating properly. I would break out into a sugar shock attack after a night out of drinking. When this happened, I think I freaked my friends out more than it did me. I would just down a glass of OJ, go to bed, and I was usually okay by the morning, weak and fatigued with a headache, but okay once I ate breakfast. I found myself not being able to concentrate in class because I forgot to eat breakfast. Breakfast for a hypoglycemic is vital. I found myself not being able to find my words and put them in a sentence, making no sense when I spoke. I would get confused, flustered, and just damn frustrated. I read a lot of articles on the internet and bought the book Hypoglycemia for Dummies.
I have finally learned how to somewhat control my sugar levels. I have to eat, like all the time. I always have snacks. Some of my associates at work have made fun of me because I seem to pull snacks out of my ass. If I start to feel light-headed, my sentences aren’t coming out right and make no sense, and I’m cranky, it’s time for Stella to eat! Since I’ve been drinking coffee since I was 5 years old and with my job being a high energy environment, I can’t cut out my caffeine in take, but I just don’t mix it with alcohol anymore. And alcohol is another story. I can’t not drink. It’s something that I enjoy. I enjoy coming home after a stressful day and having a few glasses of wine or going out for drinks with my friends. I just can’t go out and drink without eating first. If I do, there’s usually trouble. When this happens, I might have an attack that night or wake up weak and nauseated in the morning. I feel like death and it might be from a hang over, but sometimes I know it’s not, it’s just my blood sugar punishing me.
I hope this blog post has educated my friends and family on how I feel when I experience low blood sugar. It’s not fun at all, but if others know what I’m going through then maybe more people will be more understanding when I get irritable, flustered, tired, uneasy, nervous, moody. Just stuff some food in me! And not just any food. When people hear “low blood sugar” they automatically think I need a lot of candy. No. Candy, cake, cookies, anything with sugar is actually really bad for me(or anyone for that matter). It may help my blood sugar at that exact moment, but it sky rockets my blood sugar and quickly bottoms out and can make my blood sugar even lower after my body uses the sugar. I need natural sugars like fruits and also protein. Starches are bad even though I crave them everyday.
Also I hope this blog post has helped anyone else experiencing this condition. Or maybe you have no idea what you’re experiencing but have felt the same way I have. Go get tested! You’re not going crazy, I promise. It’s just your body not being able to process sugars properly. You would never think your body could react in so many ways just because of your damn blood sugar, but believe me, it can make you feel like you’re not yourself.
Here's a link I found interesting about hypoglycemia. http://www.authorviews.com/authors/bennett/obd.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment