RH.....crashed......ugh

 All in all I'm pretty stable.....didn't experience much in the way of dumping in my early years and I've only had a few crashes over the years.  Crashed big time today.......entirely my fault but ugh.  Had to scramble to find my glucometer in the middle of it as I hadn't had to test in over a year (needed to replace a disk battery and grabbed one from my electronic key for my car!)...all the while with my hands shaking so bad I couldn't do anything.  WIthout calibrating this unused glucometer the reading was 42.....not sure I trust that but I trust that I was crashing.       I was on my way to get my annual blood draw.......and now I'm wondering if I should stablilize and do it tomorrow (they test a free glucose but it's not a fasting)....and my A1C should be unaffected (I think).   Ugh.....

So what did I do?  I made a pan of brownies - very fudgy brownies with icing for my boyfriend last night....he had to cancel...so today I was cutting the brownies into quarters to freeze half and was wrapping the third quarter for my neighbors kids.....I liked the knife of very fudgey goey icing and then ate about a tablespoon of brownie......on am empty stomach.     I can usually handle that much sugar if I've had protein etc. before........stupid.   I was a diabetic preop.....I know this **** is poison for me.....and still I do it.    Should have gone to the gym instead (still recovering from pneumonia so doctor told me to wait until my lungs are clear.......)     Susan

It is amazing how we get these not so gentle reminders of how different we really are....for life.  Glad you recovered okay--lesson learned (well, maybe....I still occasionally do it KNOWING what will happen!!)

 In September, 2009, I was driving to Walmart and started to get low and dizzy on the road.  I just kept driving and praying I could get into the parking lot without wrecking my car.  I finally parked the car, got into the store, got a regular coke from the machine and sat sipping it for about 15 minutes until my dizziness cleared up.

I did a lot of thinking and praying after that.  My husband had just died, I was and still am living alone.  I needed to be able to drive my car, go to work, and get up at night to use the bathroom without worrying about passing out.   There was nobody to do things for me and nobody would pick me up if I passed out on the floor during the night.

From what I knew, weight loss surgery patients used to be told that they could eat anything, just in smaller amounts.  When they ate sugars, they dumped. Then it became popular to tell weight loss surgery patients to always severly limit simple carbs.  For me, at two years out,  that was causing reactive hygoglycemia.  If I had the slightest amount of sugar, I did not dump, but sometimes did the blood sugar crash.  The lowest I measured was a 39.  I get shaky when below 60.

I made a decision to try to get my body to tolerate more carbs without crashing.  Now I keep my fasting blood sugars at about 120.  They are high, but I no longer worrying about crashing.  I did it very slowly and with trial and error and some pretty nasty dumping along the way.  

As the people who are eating low carb get further and further out, I wonder if they will also find it helpful to add some simple carbs back.  I wonder if the reactive hygoclycemia will become prevalent enough so that new patients will no longer be told to severly restrict carbs.  I know the current thinking is to treat RH with protein.  I add things like a few bittersweet chocolate chips to be sure my blood sugars do not crash.  I no longer would crash from a spoonful of icing.  I am just learning as I go.

It must have been crash day because last night I decided to have two graham crackers and about an hour later I was crashing so I thought hmmm what brilliant fix do you have in mind, anther graham cracker.  I say brilliant because at 2am I woke covered in sweat because I was crashing yet again, I always wondered what happened if you did nothing, because I did nothing and when I woke up this morning I felt drugged yet okay.  How ****** up is that, all over a couple of cinnamon graham crackers on an empty stomach.  So much for cinnamon helping to control blood sugar.  Sorry you crashed, I know we both know better, yet this will not be the last time for sure.  Sometimes I think this surgery really does suck, then I go look in the mirror and realize oh wait I was diabetic and nearly 300 pounds, this surgery is a ******g miracle and these crashes are probably the only thing that keeps me successful.  Sick as that sounds its the truth.

 Well I'm not proud of how I got myself out of it.   I did have peanut butter on a rice cake....which is the right thing.....but I then had two teaspoons of icecream...which was not......followed by a hamburger patty which was cooking while I was scarfing down the other stuff......hopefully the hamburger will hold me and the ice cream won't have been a grave error.  You're right......the potential for this....even with my avoidance of these episodes for the most part is a powerful reminder.  My whole exercise/daily life is all ****** up......as I've been sick for weeks upon weeks and trying to let my body recover.    These slip ups are just stupid.   I used to go hypo from insulin injections.  Why isn't the memory of that enough to keep me in line!    Susan

I know its why you and I hang out here, so we never forget, yet sometimes we do forget, sometimes you just want to be normal for a minute and eat a brownie or two without ramifications to your blood sugar.  I know I can eat some dessert if I don't eat on an empty stomach, but usually after I eat my stomach is full and I don't want dessert, so if I wait an hour and its partially full and then eat my dessert I am okay, but I still am usually not hungry and don't really want it yet.  So I wait until I am empty and then eat my dessert which of course causes all kinds of bad reactions, the only thing I can do to avoid a big crash is to eat something else that counteracts the sweet, i.e. more food which means now too many calories.  Oh yeah this is my life, wtf, how do I get off this rollercoaster?

 Susan ..... OMG keep that glucometer properly charged sis... ... it is good you recognized the cause and were able to at least get a reading.  I steer away from that stuff especially after a mini box of raisins on an empty stomach did me in... I dropped so low and so fast I was totally disoriented  ...  I hope you feel better ... get that bloodwork done regardless.... see what is going on...

((((HUGS))) ... feel better.

Scary stuff Susan.
Thanks for posting.
I worry about this myself.

(DM pre-op also)

I remain vigilant but I see how it can sneak up and bite you.

Feel better soon!

You are suppose to call 911 for anything below 50.  But do we? I would rather eat cookies.  When my son gets that low there is no fooling around, 911 and a trip to the hospital.  His body doesn't recovery easily from crashes.

And no, I don't think we learn, I always have to push the envelop and say of course I won't dump this once.

Pat

Interesting.... I have a question for you more experienced with this "crashing" symptom. Last saturday we ate at my fav steakhouse. I had one glass of red wine(never a problem) I ate a small amount of salad which had blue cheese dressing...typically I eat very low fat or no dressing but I did eat the blue cheese but about a tablespoon or so.... and had 3 small grilled lamb chops.....

by the time we got the check I turned to hubby and told him to get me home quickly.... I just wanted to pass out ....ly in bed and freakin die.... finally crashed and slept for hours...

In 2 yrs since surgery this has only happened twice before but because I ate something really fatty or fried.....I never eat fried foods anymore and am not  a sweet eater..

Any insight? Is this dumping? or is this my blood sugar.....

Thanks

CC