For the last couple of months I’ve been experiencing nausea with either severe lows or maybe just fast drops. I’ve never noticed this before and am pretty sure it’s relatively new. Last night, I had a fast drop which resulted in a very severe low—so a double whammy. I was so sick I couldn’t treat. Sorry this is gross, but I ended up vomiting in a very intense way and then passed out. I’ve never been terrified from my diabetes. I’ve been scared, concerned, overwhelmed… but last night I was terrified. Is this normal? I’m very familiar with nausea with hyperglycemia but not with hypos. I’m just curious if anyone else has experienced this…
Oh, I am so sorry to hear this. How long did this go on for? Did your husband help you out of it or was there a pump suspend that helped you?
I haven’t passed out from vomiting with lows, but I have passed out from other things. I wish I had more to offer.
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I was up with my 5 yr old and 7 yr old. Everyone was asleep. I knew something was wrong and told them to wake up daddy. I woke up to him cursing all of my meters while trying to jam contour test strips into my Freestyle Libre…talking about we were going to throw away my guardian. He was a wreck and had no idea what to do. My mom got up. And had no idea what to do. I’ve never seen my family under pressure… they were REALLY scary. 
I ripped out my pump. It was my only thought… that I needed to stop the insulin. Well, there was that thought and the “oh no, I’m gonna be sick” thought.
We have some organizing to do. It was a clown act. I am just wondering what to do with eating while nauseous in case it happens again…
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Wow. That’s so scary. I’m so sorry.
Do you keep an unexpired Glucagon kit on hand? My husband’s had to do that to me once. I’ve trained people in my office for it, too, when times have been rough.
Good for keeping yourself safe! I need to retrain my husband on some basics so he can take over if I pass out. Good thing to do for all of us.
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No glucagon. Definitely need to tighten up. And train the people. It never occurred to me that it would be a METER that would stump them. So many steps between meter and rescue… I’m gonna try not to think too much about it.
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I get nausea from sudden/sharp drops. I suddenly feel like I’m going to vomit, and I think the only reason I usually don’t is because I’ve been dealing with nausea almost daily for nearly 14 years, so I don’t vomit easily anymore - point is, I’d be in the nausea AND vomiting camp if I didn’t have my other health issues.
I am so sorry that happened. I would get glucagon, but in the meantime I think I’ve heard/read there are other sources of quick sugar even if you’re not fully conscious…can’t remember them of course…something rubbed on the gums??
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You are safe. You made it thru. It will probably rattle you for a little while. But you made it. And now we both have a plan. I just retrained my husband bc he didn’t know how to test me on my PDM, either, when I passed out in June. Luckily I regained consciousness nearly immediately and did it myself. I also just showed him how to suspend insulin.
You’ll be okay. I hate how much it sucked and sucks currently, though.
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I don’t know about how to eat with nausea…but can you set higher low alerts or more sensitive drop rate alerts to catch a drop before it might make you nauseous? I move my low alert between 80 - 100 depending on how unstable the day is going. More erratic numbers = low alert at 100. But that’s just me. Used to keep it at 70 until I got spooked enough times after having kids. I also set my Dexcom fall rate to alert at a 2 pt drop per minute instead of the default 3 pt setting recently.
Holy cow dude.
I am so sorry. So, so, so sorry. That sounds like a shockingly awful experience, and I (thanks to @T1Allison for pointing this out) am also thankful you are safe and made it through. But, I shed a few tears thinking of what a bad night that was for you (and also said plenty of swear words.)
Glucagon.
That is what to do in case of a severe low and nausea. There are a few threads about mini-dosing (not using it all). I’ve included a number of threads which you might enjoy reading, and selecting the best bits to pass along.
But, seriously, yes, family retraining must happen. I’m glad you’ve had this opportunity to realize this - beats hell out of the alternative.
It wouldn’t ever occur to me to even test BG if Eric vomited and passed out, I think I would assume LOW and treat if possible, Glucagon if not possible to treat. I know that high BG is the boogieman here, but I am of the impression that being high for a moment won’t kill you, but being low might. Eric reports that he’s never felt nauseous during a low to that degree however, so we don’t have any firsthand knowledge to pass along.
Here are some Glucagon threads:
Here are some threads about sugar and treating lows in general…but rereading them it occurred to me that they don’t solve the nearly unconscious problem.
I will end by saying I am glad you are fine and typing your message and not still puking. I am SO GLAD!
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Sorry to hear of your terrible experience!!! I hope you’re feeling much better now and that it never happens again.
I had a severe low a long time ago, and this was how my mother brought me up. I don’t have any scientific links, but my understanding is that you do digest some sugar in your mouth, and rubbing honey on your gums (not swallowing it) can actually work faster if you’re not capable of eating due to a low.
This still might be hard to do if you’re vomiting, but it’s likely easier than eating. Glucagon is obviously a good idea too, but that method is dependent on the amount of glucose in your liver, and I like the idea of having an outside source of sugar too.
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Chicken or egg type question… are the lows causing the nausea or are the lows the result of digestion problems that occur after you eat that are causing the nausea (i.e. you gave insulin and because the food is not absorbed correctly the insulin you took for the food is driving the low bg.)
I have had the latter a few times and solved it with glucagon both times. (Ok by sending my wife to an all night pharmacy to get glucagon both times while I waited in the couch.) In my case I had a tummy bug that caused mild gastroparesis (i.e. gut not moving the food through properly.) This resolved in my case after the stomach ailment cleared.
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Yes, that’s it. I suck at being nauseous though. Although it usually is way more mild than what it was last night.
I’ll research this tomorrow. From the comfort of my own living room.
What is all this passing out with you??
Excellent idea, and, yes, I can. In this case it wouldn’t have mattered because I was overdue on a calibration. That was a BIG part of the problem. If I had known earlier I was dropping, I could have intervened. So I can change my settings and also calibrate when I’m supposed to calibrate and quit messing around.
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I hope you didn’t really…
Those are well-deserved. Yes, have at those.
Very nice of you. And spot on… it’s another area I’ve never spent a minute looking into… other than how to administer the shot. Never felt like this was a real danger to me, but I’m aware of it now.
Excellent point… if it weren’t so close to the event, I’d ask them WHY they were continuing to test my BG. I’m guessing it was just pure panic mode… which does not comfort me more than thinking it was because they really NEEDED a BG and just couldn’t figure out how to operate the meter. 
Maybe not, but they might solve another problem. The glucose necklace sounds like something I’ve been dreaming about for years. Thank you again for all of the links. Lots of interesting stuff in there…
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Good to know. We don’t keep any, but we’ll certainly start. Thank you for the idea!
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Another excellent idea… I hadn’t thought of that at all. I have Inefficient Esophageal Motitity, and I’ve always wondered whether or not it could impact my insulin timing like something like gastroparesis does. I definitely could feel it last night… when I was eating the birthday brownies… That just reminded me about the birthday brownies and the fact I was just mashing away at the bolus button. I see I didn’t mention that detail up there.
Thank you for the idea. It’ll be something else to mention to the endo at the next appointment. When I slide over the brownie detail.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate. Still need to go to my GP and touch base about that wine night and if I should be allergy tested for sulfites? One glass shouldn’t cause an exorcism.
But hey, I didn’t pass out Wednesday when I was puking from the stomach bug! #winning
Btw, don’t be hard on yourself about what happened (if you’re tempted). EVERYONE has stuff happen that leads to reevaluation of how we do things…more than once. That’s what makes you awesome.
@TravelingOn, I will be reading all of those links, too. Talking to my husband last night, he was like, “Yes, I need to know how to test you. But if your Dexcom shows that low I’m Glucagoning you and I’ll deal w the rest later.” Yeah. Good point.
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@Nickyghaleb, I am so relieved that you came through this ordeal safely! Your story terrified me: I have had a couple of bad lows but never passed out. Scary! Your thread has elicited some excellent actions for all us PWDs to take in terms of preparing family and friends.
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Thank you… I was worried that the only thing I had accomplished with the thread was creating fear or concern, which absolutely was not my intent. I’d be relieved to think it instead led people to review or revise their own action plans. In hindsight, it was a wake up call to see what my family didn’t know to do. It was 2 o’clock in the morning, or whatever ridiculous time, and it was a very scary scene for them to come into I am sure, so panic would’ve played a part, but I also can’t imagine an episode that WOULDN’T be those things. And they couldn’t get the meter to work… which begs @T1Allison and @TravelingOn’s question, why were they messing with the meter at all?
I don’t even really worry about carrying glucagon…not the way I worry about having insulin and supplies for administering it. I’ve never really worried about lows the way I worry about the potential highs. It happened fast though, and I was too sick to take care of things myself. I’ve just gotten home and definitely will be taking some time over the next few days to revisit my thinking on this. Glad to be home. And thank you for the well wishes. 
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