Thank You ... weird and wonderful hypo experiences

[Adam_Smith]

Hi All,

Thank you all for sharing your experiences, stories, humour and pain with the rest of us - I find that your stories mirror my own.

While I'm new to this forum, I've been a diabetic for about 17 years (found out when I was 14 - you do the math) and have worked my way from one shot a day to four now, across (so far) five different insulins. I'm comfortable with my diabetes - hell, I don't even remember what it was like waking up and going directly to the pantry and making brekkie - it's now just a part of my routine. Hypo's of late have been increased in frequency for me - that's okay, I've just changed from the last of the old guard of insulin (Monotard) to Humilin NPH and still getting used to it. One of the benefits of sharing a house with a Doctor was that after doing the research, and sharing with her she prescribed it and has kept a close eye on the outcomes. It has dropped my HBA1c to 5.7 which is the best it's ever been.

This is going to sound weird, but have any of you ever experienced feelings of connectedness to the universe when you hypo? I have, and worked with a guy who's father (incidentally, who found the flaws in the old and designed the new mirrors for the Hubble telescope) had been on insulin for almost 70 years (who says we die young and have bad eyesight???) and he thinks that when he goes low he feels closer to god and sees the patterns and connections in the way things go together. Since I heard about this I've hypothesised that there may be some other way we look at the world when we are below 3mmol - i.e. the distractions of the world come away...

I'll talk about my hypo experiences in some other posts! There's enough weird stories there (that I'm sure you will relate to!) to challenge a Picasso exhibition!

Thanks again!

Adam.

Moderator's note: Hey Adam, I've edited topic of your post to reflect the content so people see it and jump in if this is something of interest.

[LL Lambo]

Yes, yes and yes. I have had quite a few epiphanies (as in: A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something - not the religious type) whilst hypo. They have all been profound realisations - just can't quite remember what they were once I had come around.

The other time I had one of those moments was when I was a lot younger and had a fever connected with mumps.

Very interesting indeed.

[Bruno]

This gives some insight into the practice of "fasting and praying".

And certainly a cry for divine help is more a lot more heartfelt when there's nobody else around you that understands the exquisite mix of detachment, panic, depression and physical unpleasantnesses that you're forced to travel through in a full-blown hypo.

Regardless, when I'm hypo, I certainly feel a deeper level of connectedness with the lounge room carpet - which may have a metaphysical component because ordinarily it's a rather too scratchy to have a good lie-down on, but I think it's mostly because once I'm down on it I don't have the willpower to get vertical again until the jellybeans have done their business.

[Kimbo]

a deeper level of connectedness with the lounge room carpet

Weird!! I've had that very same connectedness with the footpath once or twice.....

[Lisa]

Hehehehe,

I remember one hypo, I had...

I had just seen Foo Fighters with my bro... and whilst I was trying to sleep, I sort of invented a cool new rock song in my head, chorus and everything... It was really good too (well I thought so)

Um, then I realised I was mid hypo, ate some jelly beans and the song was gone... never to be heard by anyone!

I can't even remember any of the lyrics now... should have written them down!

[Tim M]

I can remember a long drawn out hypo in a workmate’s car last millennium. I had the epiphany that aliens were coming to earth before the year 2000 with a xenobiological cure for diabetes. I had quite a nice ride with a stupid smile on my face thinking that everything was going to be alright from this moment on.

When I’d had my BSL’s normalised I realised that I had been non-compus mentis for half an hour in a grotty old Falcon. There are some times when I am fortunate that I can’t articulate what I am thinking when I’m low.

Low blood sugar = more brain farts. This can be confused with being “closer to God”.

[artemis]

Hypo = greater connectedness to anything sugary, preferably something involving chocolate. When god invented chocolate, she knew what she was doing!

[Nikki]

I often feel a closer connection to god when I'm having a hypo.

"Oh god where are the jelly beans?", "Oh god I can't get this food down quick enough!", Oh god when will this end?" Oh god I'm so tired!" :p

[Adam_Smith]

:) Love it! Not exactly what I meant - but know exactly where you're coming from

[Kimbo]

I'll talk about my hypo experiences in some other posts!

Hey Adam,

Looks like your post sorta went on a different track....I'm sure you really weren't enquiring about brain farts or snogging the carpet. Ha Ha

So....what's been your favourite anyway??

[Adam_Smith]

So many - where to begin.. My most recent was a funny one - only for the brain farts it contained. I'm in a reasonable new relationship (4 months) and things are going pretty well. She's okay with the diabetes angle - forcing me to see an endo (well, it's about time really - been a few (read 6) years between bats) but there have been a few hypo's that have freaked her a little.

Sunday morning last week was one of these. I woke sweating and trembling (and, well not really awake - still in that beligerent dream like state) which she recognised as not normal. I share a place with three other girls - and being young women there's an obsession with not leaving sweet food around. So Adi (my better half) found a nectarine that was about three days past its best but still sugary enough to rouse me.

Now at this point I was still happily swimming through my dream that the universe was made up of strings of nectarines - and that there was an almighty force in the universe which through some omnipotent power couldexcrete (read: crap) nectarines for building the universe. It wasn't until I regained full awareness that I realised I was covered in juice and fruit from mouth to navel.

Nothing so embarassing as passing out in a toilet (with my pants around my ankles) and needing a neighbour to oush the door open far enough to get me bodily out and re-panted; or waking up with no control over my arms, legs, voice or other bodily functions; or the animated discussions at work where I tell people their every fault in great detail - except I call them someone elses name (and give them a list of things that they have no idea of) ortrying to invent new technology at work by mating a computer screen and a telephone... No doubt these will come out as well!

Adam.

[wacky_walrus]

yes, i know what you mean about the closer to god thing. i too am prone to great epiphanies when I'm low, not that I can recall any right now of course. d'oh! When I was in my teens I actually intentionally let myself get low sometimes because I liked the way it stimulated my creativity in writing. It's been years since I did that, but I've never forgotten that going low is one of the cheapest and most legal ways to "get high"

[carolyn]

I used to have out-of-body sort of experiences when low. It was like I'd be watching myself do strange/silly things and as I started coming back up (usually with someone almost force feeding my lollies) I'd realise I had actually been doing those strange things.

[Tim M]

Short Answer -
Yes I think that everyone feels this. Whether they admit it or not.

Long answer -
Sorry Adam I am an Agnostic and don"t normally view anything in a religous context. Not saying that one of us is right and one of us is wrong it's just that where I am coming from determines how I label and percieve things that I observe.

What I might call 'feeling weird" someone else might call a "religous experience". I have had the "feeling weirds" where my monitor said that I was spot on - maybe it was something else or I need a "connected to the universe" monitor of some sort. While I have experienced it the fact that it goes away when my BSL's are normal means that I question it's validity as a true observation.

I would like to "bring back" some of the hypo feelings/sensations/connections that I have experienced just so that Icould see if they were as profound later as I thought they were at the time.

[Eastwood]

I've never felt like this. Just the usual hunger, sweating, shakiness etc. A bit of light-headedness. I was speaking to the endo the other day about this when she suggested I should let more people know at work in case I have a hypo and scream at someone and they think that I am an arsehole rather than insulin challenged. I've never felt angry, emotional, sad in any way with a hypo (well, pissed off yes, because it's interfering with things I am trying to do, but not uncontrollably emotional or outwardly aggressive.) I've had hypos in meetings, with other people etc who have never cottoned on.

The endo suggested it might have something to do with different personalities - I think she meant that it might lower your inhibitions, like have a good drink. So if you get pissed off easy, or feel really emotional easily, it's more likely to happen when your sugars are low.

I know everyone's different and I have no doubt this legitimately happens to people but I was asking the endo about it in the context that maybe people act this way on occasions because hypoing 'allows' them to do it. It's a good excuse, in the same way that some people have posted about how they blamed a hypo (that didn't happen) to be forgiven for speaking to someone rudely, or getting out of activities, responsibilities. I know that this sort of comment has the potential to make people angry. But I never considered that hypos could have this affect until I came to Reality Check. I remember a friend at the gym told me that diabetics get pretty violent when their sugar is low, and I told him he was completely wrong, never having experienced it myself. So from my perspective, when I first came across it, I just thought people were using diabetes as an excuse for their behaviour. I don't think that's the case anymore, but I'm still a bit suspicious that some people allow themselves to 'lose it' sometimes, when they could have the ability to stay calm and focus through the hypo.

Apologies in advance if there are people wanting to throw a brick at me right now.

[Jen (nli)]

Yeah, I also think the context in which the hypo takes place is really important. So that goes just one step in additon to Eastwood's theory on one's personality. I can be cool and calm during a hypo whilst in a business meeting, or I can be a teary mess during a hypo if I'm PMT and at home (where I'll let my guard down).

My night time hypos ("nypos" - nice word) are often weirder than my day time hypos simply because I might begin to act out my dream. I don't know about experiencing a "connectedness with the universe" whilst hypoing - but I do remember one nypo where I became very connected to the furniture in my house.

I woke up (hypo), pointing madly at my chest of drawers in my bedroom. Apparently I was trying to convince my partner that the two top drawers would fit in the top of another cupboard in our loungeroom - and that they would fit perfectly. I kept on and on about it asking him to "do the maths!". And I kept saying "Don't you see it?". I remember also trying to work out the square root of the internal mass... I was working very busily on this... I remember being really offended that my partner was ignoring my mathematical insights. He seemed more intent on offering me food and I thought that was really weird. Once the sugar brought my brain back to logical thought... I dismissed the whole cupboard insight as a confused hypo thought.

Next day - unbeknown to me, my partner took the drawers out of the chest in the bedroom and tried my theory by putting them in the top of the cupboard in the living room.

They fit perfectly.

[Jess]

yes-I ,unfortunatley.........I have to fight this very, very strong urge when im low to see how low i can go -I find it all extremly funny at the time !

[Be11ydancer]

I either go really quiet or become a real giggler. . The quiet ones are when I'm in situations where I have no choice but to keep it together e.g. at work on playground duty- gigglers happen most other times.

Never been connected to the universe though- been connected to a chair and I have (like Bruno) been known to appreciate the weave of the carpet.

[T]

Next day - unbeknown to me, my partner took the drawers out of the chest in the bedroom and tried my theory by putting them in the top of the cupboard in the living room.
They fit perfectly.

ROFLOL That is SO funny!! AND so incredible!

[Tony]

Funny. It's nice to hear I'm not the only one.

When I'm REALLY low, I get this overwhelmiing feeling that if I go just that little bit lower, that I'm going to learn the answer to EVERYTHING :)

This usually coincides with sitting on the Kitchen floor in front of the open Fridge trying to decide what to eat

[Kate]

Jen- That is extraordinary! Wow! Kate

[Jen (nli)]

Yeah - thanks. Its obviously a hidden talent. I wish I'd been able to work out the square root of the internal mass - who know what I might have discovered.

I think its one of those things I probably thought of during one of my non-hypo moments... and then just forgot about it - to have it return when I was hypo. No great insights since. None - infact!