Hi all. I just wondered if anyone could help me.
Last year I woke up as normal in the morning and went to the bathroom. As I was in there I started to feel quite hungry first then started sweating (ALOT) could litrally see drops on my arms. My t shirt was dripping wet.
Then all of a sudden I got very dizzy an started to feel sick. I’ve had low blood sugar in the past that was solved by sugary drink. But this was different!
I called my brother for a drink. While he was making it I somehow passed out on top the floor. When I came round I started throwing up on the floor. Unable to move my limbs I couldn’t lift my arms. So my mum rang the ambulance for me. By the time the paramedics said my blood sugar levels where fine.
I choose not to go to hospital and stayed on the sofa for awhile. My body was aching so badly after it. Since then it hasn’t happened again.
Can anyone help ? Is this just low blood sugar or something else ?
I’ve experienced something similar; I didn’t pass out, I dropped, or lowered myself to the ground, then spent a few minutes wondering why I couldn’t make any of my muscles work so I could get up. (At the same time I was wondering if I was going to die, but I didn’t.)
It passed after a while and I was able to get back to the house (about 500ft) without any problems.
What I experienced was definitely low blood sugar, but I’m a T1D. It passed because I have a good glucagon response; that kicks in to release glucose from the liver and (possibly) muscles, that might explain the muscle failure.
Hunger, sweating (excessive sweating; lots of liquid coming out of the skin) and sickness are also effects that T1Ds experience. This is all just a result of low blood sugar, but in non-T1s the effects are normally mild because the insulin production in the body just stops. That said, it does happen to everyone so far as I can tell; it’s just most people don’t report it.
Oh wow really. That sounds scary. Glad you made it back to your home 
Did you recover quickly from it ?
Hopefully my situation was just from low bloody sugar too. It was just a scary experience. Not being able to move an being sick at the same time 
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It’s difficult to remember; I gradually regained the ability to push myself up, the initial few steps walking were a little challenging but by the time I got to the house I had recovered.
Well, yes: most of the time people just deal with low blood sugar, but it is always potentially dangerous. Getting to the point where we can’t move is for certain very dangerous (e.g. I was holding a running chainsaw when it happened to me.) It is definitely worth discussing with your doctor because it is just a symptom of something else and doctors are trained to work out what is going on.
Could be an episode of vasovagal syncope and unrelated to blood sugar, especially if it was fine afterward. That would be my guess, and using the bathroom can actually trigger an episode sometimes.
I’m sorry that happened. That sounds quite scary.
Do you own a blood sugar meter? Have you tested your blood sugar during your previous feelings of possible low blood sugar?
My non-D wife has; indeed it is pretty much routine for her these days to do a test if she is feeling that set of symptoms. Unfortunately there is a 5 minute delay between the brain feeling those symptoms and the numbers appearing in a fingerstick. Her glucagon response fires at what I assume is a normal rate and 5 minutes is more than sufficient to bring her BG back to 80. So getting a meaningful number with a fingerstick is extremely difficult; a couple of months ago she came up with a number in the 60s which is certainly low enough to produce the standard symptoms (I expect 30 or lower for the whole sweating/muscle failure stuff) but so far as I can see the exact number depends on how long she takes to find the test kit.
I don’t have a metre. I should probably get one tbh. It comes on so quickly though. Sometimes I can’t stand up to get a drink and have to get my family to get me something quickly.
I’m not a doctor and could be way off base…but testing your bg with a meter might help rule out or conversely, zero in on, whether blood sugar or blood pressure is your issue.
I had both issues prior to my T1D diagnosis. My syncope issues continued for the first three years after T1D diagnosis. Knock on wood, I’ve only had one (probable) syncope episode in the last ten years. I was also sick to my stomach, cold sweat, could barely move, and then passed out. My blood sugar was completely normal through all of that.
It seems to me that I really have to watch my hydration level. If I get dehydrated, my blood pressure tanks and it drops further when standing up. Orthostatic Hypotension, I believe.
Along the same lines as mentioned above by Alli and Card…
If it happens after using the bathroom or when standing up, it might be low blood pressure.
Low blood pressure can happen after urinating. When your bladder is full, your blood pressure is generally higher than when it is empty. When you empty your bladder, your blood pressure will naturally drop.
Look up the term “micturition syncope” and read about it.
Have you checked your blood pressure? Is it generally low?
If it is on the low side, after using the bathroom a further drop in blood pressure can cause dizziness or fainting.
Anyway, it might be good to get both a blood pressure monitor and blood glucose meter and test yourself on occasion to try and figure it out.
The blood pressure monitors are not too expensive. I would recommend not getting a wrist one, those are not very good. Get one with an arm cuff.