Do you find their lows change over time? Or are lows the same now as they were 5 years ago? I find them changing. For a while I really couldn’t recognize them. Years later I could feel them coming as I would get depressed and need to tell my self it wasn’t real. Recently it has been more of a panic. I wonder what causes them to change?
Your descriptions of yours are great!
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I just had a slight low this morning at work (very rare) while microwaving my breakfast. Not sure what happened as I tested the same morning number, took the same shot at the same time, and was nuking food about the same time. The stupid microwave is so slow and horrible and it takes like 10 minutes to heat anything up and I’m standing there feeling my heart pounding, the sweat on my chest building up and just about ready to start flowing. Gross and annoying! My neck and upper back feel super hot like I’m mad or embarrassed and I’m guessing that’s what a hot flash feels like? I guess I will find out in about 10 years. I got back to my desk with my food one foot in front of the other with the intention of stuffing as much food in my mouth as I could as that ravenous feeling was starting. I halted and took a glucose tab to bump me 20 points quick, took a breath for a few minutes, and then ate normally.
Having a low - you just have to know yourself, how you feel, and have strategy of what you’re going to do to take the thinking out of it. I find it nearly impossible to test myself when I’m low although I have done it. It’s impossible to think, rationalize, and make a decision in that state. Do all the thinking and rationalizing while you are feeling good so you know what you are going to do.
I do agree with the crazy abstract painting feeling while in a low - it’s an interesting experience for sure!
Beth
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This almost perfectly describes some of my lows, too. Sort of like slow motion, not being able to make a decision one way or the other, and not even totally knowing that it is a low causing this. Yes, a desperate feeling. I don’t get black squares like you but black outs, or double vision. Our poor brains 
If I’m in a safe place, like home, I will try to lay down (after eating something) and yes, close my eyes, too, and wait to get my strength back. I’m not sure if closing my eyes actually helps with the panic but it makes sense from the way you describe it, I just never analyzed it before! Thank you for putting this idea into words!
At the same time, what @Eric says, about not closing his eyes, makes sense, too, in case you never regain the strength to stay awake. For sure, you need to be sure that you’ve treated the low with sufficient sugar!
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7 posts were split to a new topic: Embarrassing lows in public: what is your story?
This doesn’t surprise me about you. 
In general, I agree. I don’t close my eyes for things… metaphorically. In this case though, it’s not a gesture of denial or hope or anything like that but is an attempt to stop the sensory input… which turns to overload… which makes me be crazy.
I told you yesterday I headed off 2 crashes like this, and neither crash ended up in my getting the black squares or the panicky thoughts or any of it. It absolutely could’ve just been that I got the sugar in time, and the rest was a result of that and not in the magic of closing my eyes. But it’s still Closing Eyes Strategy- 2 to Mindnumbing Sugar Crash-0. However, the second time I went up into my room, closed the door, lied down and closed my eyes, i did experience that feeling of how nice it would be to sleep. I’m not lying when I say I’ve never associated lows with sleeping, but I’ve always just blasted through them. If that is a common feeling, that desire to sleep, then this strategy would be terrible. I’ll have to just try it where there are others until I get a feeling for what will happen.
Yes and no. Instinct to eat, sure, but no thought necessary… no. It’s not that I need to think in order to do it, it’s that I need to not have my thoughts stop me. I told you about this, too. I can confuse myself to the point where I’m afraid to eat and even to the point where I think I need insulin. That’s some serious stuff right there. It’s like my brain… is using… mind control against itself. 
Imagine having to deal with a head full of these kinds of thoughts when you’re dropping. 
We need to get you out more.
How are you feeling??
You know about the squares?? Or just that … nonsense? I had brain surgery in 2007. They put in a large titanium plate in the back of my skull and put in (or on?) a brain patch. My endocrinologist used to tell me that my symptoms of that absolutely terrible burnt onion taste and black squares were because of my patch.
I’ve wasted many an hour imagining messages getting tangled in brain patch before reaching intended targets. I wonder if doctors ever just make stuff up.
See, that’s a strategy. I don’t have those. I’ve never thought about it that way. If you see black, then A. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t consider any possibilities. Oh, I like how simple that is. I don’t know why I don’t have any rules, but it’s always just been kind of a spontaneous fix. Grab whatever’s nearby.
An automatic rule… it’s another way to cutdown on the sensory and mental pollution. I like that. Thank you for the idea, @bkh.
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That’s an interesting question, and, in all honesty, I’ve never thought about it. I’ve been thinking a lot about my lows recently and have really started to take notice of how they differentiate— and not just according to BG but by rate of fall as well. A plummet has different symptoms than a slow fall.
I was doing some logging about a month ago so I could compare the Guardian and Dexcom through a dropping blood sugar, and it was the first time I realized that some of my symptoms appear not because of a certain number but because of the amount of time I’ve spent in the red. I never knew that. I always thought that numb and tingling lips was that I had gotten low enough for that to occur, but during a test about a month back, my BG floated just below 70 for almost an hour and a half. The lowest it ever got was a 64 maybe, which is not particularly low for me. Towards the end of that period, even though my BG was actually on the slowest possible rebound, my lips began to tingle. If I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve thought it was a fresh drop, but it wasn’t. It was a prolonged, yet mild, low.
I’ve reacted to my symptoms and my anxiety for a really long time. This exploration of symptoms and numbers is really good for me. What would be better would be just not going low, but…
It’s not real. I have to remind myself of that often. It’s my blood sugar and not my life. Well, maybe my life, but that’s probably not the sudden case of the blues.
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I im’ed you about inviting someone to fb. I fell alright, I guess. Not looking forward to them letting me out. They let me keep my pump but been low all day. They give me o.j. whenever I want and snacks to help. I dropped my basal. My endo just left a bit ago and told them to check my bg every two hours and if they have problems with how I decide to treat to call him that I know my system better than anyone. Love my doc’s.
I’m not sure either, but if they’re like that… Then that’s pretty unfair. It used to make me laugh (after the fact) when I would crash at the playground. All of the moms would be sitting on the bench talking and visiting with one another, and I would be running around with the kids. My oldest is on the autism spectrum, so I would get in the game to help him get in the game. The other kids always love an adult who will play, and before I knew it we’d be chasing each other and climbing… and then getting nervous… then sweaty… then unable to speak coherently. I would be bone white and pouring sweat and shaking but had no reason to tell the other moms why. I can remember them actually shielding their children. And because I go into hyper explaining mode when I’m crashing, I’d be trying to tell them about the running and how we should hang out sometime and that their kid could come over and…
I’ve scared a lot of playground moms in my day. Sorry. Not sure how I got into that…
More good stuff. I insist on testing when I’m low, and I think that’s what triggers the decision-making… I’m 36, but if I have 20 g of carbs, I might… and then I get to thinking about needing the insulin. Testing really might be a useless strategy. Maybe that can be a rule, too. Just that I can’t.
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Soulmates.
I’m terrible at mom-dating on the playground. All of my pick-up lines fail miserably.
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It’s a very good thing to keep in mind. Something about never regaining the strength to stay awake sounds bad.
In a safe place, yes. I’ve thought about that, too. I’m not sure whether or not closing my eyes in the food store would be okay. They know me over there. They’ve seen my kids, my life… I don’t think anything would scare them, but I still would feel weird doing it. However, and this part is true, I’m way past caring what people think, and if squatting down and closing my eyes stops that awful madness, then maybe I just squat. The good news is, because they’ve just demonstrated this, my children will notify the appropriate authories that there mother is acting weird but that’s just what she does when she’s “high”, and then I’ll be arrested and not alone with my eyes closed.
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I’d mom-date you. If you promise not to sweat all over my stuff… like just sweat in the other direction. And I’ll show you the same courtesy…
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Deal!
This is exactly what happens to me. To the point I’ve started thinking there’s something in their lights… which would make me sound paranoid. Target is the worst for me. The more I realize I need to treat, the more I start to look at some product and wonder if it would be right for some long lost relative I don’t know the name of. I fell in their jewelry department once and knocked over the thing of bracelets. I don’t wear jewelry. I have no idea why I was there. My local stores are not my biggest fans.
You and @elver getting it done. Elver’s scaling countertops in the pharmacy and you’re walking out with cart. I’ve gotta lighten up.
For the same reason I can’t figure out what to eat… and then don’t.
This is all really helpful stuff. Thank you for sharing.
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@Nickyghaleb I get the circles that obscure my vision, and it is impossible to see anything. Bg’s around 30 with IOB gets the circles every time.
In retrospect, they are pretty cool, in a psychedelic way.
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Boy do I know that feeling. Sitting in my car parked in front of a neighbor’s house because I couldn’t recognize mine right next to it. All the houses looking like oversized cartoons. No real idea of why I couldn’t get out of the car. A bag full of Taco Bell tacos on the seat next to me. Starting to panic because I couldn’t. figure. out. what. was. wrong. I was almost upside down in my seat before some weak signal in my brain fired. I sat up and grabbed the bag and started shoving tacos in my mouth. About 15 minutes later my brain cogs all locked back together and started turning. I was so embarrassed that I’d been parked in front of my neighbor’s house for probably close to an hour. I felt so glad it was dark out. I backed up, parked and went up to my apartment and cried that another low had snagged me so fast it took over before I could react. And while I was driving no less. Ugh. So grateful for my pump and cgm that have helped stop that nonsense. But even so…I had one last week that was going faster than my Dexcom could keep up. Luckily I was home. But that confusion…it sets in and you. just. can’t. think. I walked from the kitchen to the bedroom and couldn’t remember why I was there. Then suddenly I was standing next to the couch and couldn’t figure out what I was doing. I saw one of my kittehs eating from her bowl and I said, “I need to eat something.” A few too many pieces of candy but the over correction always makes me feel better mentally. Take THAT you stupid low!
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Impossible to see anything. That’s it. It’s crazy to hear it from someone else. 
I’m going to have to open up my mind a little and try to appreciate the beauty in them. 
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@ nickyghaleb, if you want to experience the vision parts with a hypo, search for black.and.white fractal. Images. Mine are eerily similar (and no I’m not a.math whiz- I bailed out @ calculus)
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