Diabetes Unscripted
Creating a community for folks living Type1 diabete to learn and grow from one and other. Because until there's a cure there's a community.
Diabetes Unscripted
S1E8: Treating Low Blood Sugar Fixes and Hilarious Sugar Stories
What's the weirdest thing you've done to treat a low blood sugar episode? In our latest episode, we get real about those desperate moments when you find yourself digging under car seats for glucose tabs or picking up dusty fruit snacks off the trail. Join us as we exchange personal stories about our favorite go-to snacks like dried mango and banana chips, and reminisce about childhood memories with Smarties. This lively discussion celebrates the camaraderie and shared experiences of managing diabetes, reminding us that while the challenges are real, there's always room for laughter and connection.
Ever chewed on sugar packets straight from the diner table? We explore the quirky identity of indulging in granulated sugar and the hilarious thought of waking up with cavities. Through these amusing anecdotes, we reflect on the funny self-realizations that come from our everyday choices. This episode is an ode to embracing the unexpected in our diabetes journey, finding humor in the quirkiest moments, and staying prepared for whatever life throws our way. Get ready for some laughs, relatable moments, and maybe even a new perspective on those sugary snacks.
You're listening to Diabetes Unscripted, where we are focused on creating a platform for people living with diabetes to share, learn and support one another, because until there's a cure, there's a community. So Diabetes Unscripted today we've got kind of a fun one. We've got kind of a fun one. The question that you'll be hearing the answers to was what are your go-to for treating lows and what is the worst thing you've had to use to treat a low? These are lows are part of living with diabetes, and I think you're going to find this one pretty entertaining.
Speaker 2:Here we go, oh gosh. Go-to's I mean fruit snacks are the classic. You know I go in phases. I went through a mango phase recently. That was a pretty good one. I like dried fruit Huge fan. I'm on banana chips right now. It's got to balance your fiber a little bit, but really anything that's good that you're willing to eat, easy to pack.
Speaker 2:My most creative solution was having to just eating through my glucose tabs. I wasn't great, I feel like, as a teenager, with making sure I was prepared for every situation, and maybe that's why I'm different now. But I would eat through a tube of glucose tabs and then be in so much trouble because I wouldn't have anything else. And then you're low and then you're in trouble. So I feel like the amount of sugar packs that I've had to keep in my pocket traveling place to place or just even like walking around campus. It's not very exciting but it'll. I usually wait until I see my arrow start to go up and I'll I'll give a lot of insulin. Yes, absolutely. Um, usually it's too late, but usually I'm just so happy not to be low anymore. I really don't care, and sometimes I'll like go for a little walk or something, if I feel like my insulin is taking too long to work and I'm now getting frustrated because I'm so high, it happens.
Speaker 2:I do remember as a kid spitting out frosting into my poor mother's hair because I thought it was glucose gel. So I would say those are one of the worst things. If you have literally any other option, pick the other option, not glucose gel. Oh God, no Again. I'm a rule follower. You don't just pick up food from the back seat. A rule follower, you don't just pick up food from the back seat. I did, I well. I was driving in Chicago. I remember eating glucose tabs that were in my car and then all of a sudden I realized that they were probably expired. So I do remember spitting them out the window on Lake shore drive and then being stuck in traffic wondering what the heck I was gonna do yeah, I love this question.
Speaker 3:This is. This is great. So my go-to's are it's normally like fruit snacks. If I'm doing something active and I just want to pack something really quick, I normally take those with me. And then apple juice or any kind of juice is normally my go-to, like when I'm going to bed, because it's the quickest and easiest. If I have a nighttime, low blood sugar, I can just drink a juice. Normally it's pretty rapid too. So that's been great too.
Speaker 3:But I used to treat with Smarties all the time and it got to the point where I could not look at a Smartie anymore. I just it got to the point where it just was way too much. And even now when we see them in, like around Halloween time and all the candy starts coming out, so I have like a reaction to Smarties. I don don't. I don't know what it is. I think it's all the trauma from having a low blood sugars as a kid. But Smarties are they're. They're not good for me anymore. They, they're medicine, um, but then I would say the, the ickiest thing, um, I. I have this very clear memory and this is going to bring up Smarties again from being a kid and sometimes we would do things, and maybe we weren't always the most prepared, but we had to deal with what we brought with us on a trip or if we're out playing and whatever we're doing. So we'd always pack those little Smarties with us, um, and probably cause they're so small and they're convenient too. Um, but one time one of the packs exploded in my pocket, and so I remember they. They must've sat there for months by pocket. So I have a low blood sugar. I didn't pack anything else with me, but I know I have those gross exploded Swardies in my pocket. So I remember pulling them out and they were all like freckly from like when the air gets to them, and oh my God. So that would be one of them, and then another icky one, and this just happened the other day on the trail, because we're getting those steps every day.
Speaker 3:I pack my fruit snacks with me, like I always do, and one of them exploded out of the bag as I was going to open it and fell onto the ground and it had just rained, and so the trail was not the cleanest it could have been by any means, and I was out with my mom too, actually, and I was like what am I what should I eat? It like I don't want to eat that. It's all dirty and wet now because it had just rained. And she was like, well, what else did you pack? And I was like that's the only thing that I packed. So I had to go and I had to eat with all the dirt and the sand on there trying to wipe it off. But it was too late for that poor fruit snack. But so, yeah, it's.
Speaker 4:I like the smallest amount of volume with the most amount of glucose. So, generally speaking, those are like maybe the marathon packs that runners have and stuff like that for energy drinks or not. Energy drinks, energy packets of goo and gels yeah, all that sort of stuff you know. Again, mark reflecting upon our diabetes, I used to, I literally used to carry juice boxes in my pocket. I went skiing one time, fell and like two juice boxes like exploded all over me and by the time I got to the bottom of the mountain I was like frozen in high sea orange.
Speaker 4:So, like you know, stuff like that was real and stuff like that is real. And if that's what you got for your source, that's what you got for your source, but you got to have your source. I don't really think it matters if it's stinger goo gel, whatever it can literally be packets of sugar for coffee, but obviously you can sweat through those and things like that. So it just has to be something that has a good shelf life and duration and again, when you get the diabetes tuned in, you shouldn't be using those very much.
Speaker 5:I would say my go-to for treating a low and if I know I'm dropping. One thing that I found is Mountain Dew raises my blood sugar very quickly, but it also spikes and comes right back to another low. So this is probably one part that I should do better. But I still use Mountain Dew to treat a low because my lows normally occur late at night. But what I do now do is I'll treat with a certain amount of Mountain Dew and I'll follow it up with cheese crackers, which will then allow me to taper off and stay at a manageable, steady level.
Speaker 5:Other I mean other things that I've used to treat lows is I have diabetic tabs which I keep in my golf bag, my car, and those are, you know, the typical four tabs. You know 15, 15, treat with 15 carbs. Check 15 minutes later. But I think most, if not all, diabetics have been in scenarios where, if you're tanking, nothing in the kitchen is safe. You know we joke around. You know that third bowl of cereal never should have had. So it's really hard. Being a diabetic, I still get those lows where the kitchen is not safe.
Speaker 6:For sure. So my favorite things the older I get, the more I really like glucose tabs, the more I really like glucose tabs. I find them to be like I have because as a kid, at camp especially, I hated fruits. Glucose tabs they're just. They come in pretty interesting flavors to like. I hate the orange ones, but there is like a fruity tropical fruit one or something and each one kind of tastes differently. So it's fun. I really liked the white ones. If you ever get that pack, um, but yeah, glucose tabs, and the thing I like about those is they work so fast. So I feel like that's the fastest sugar I've been able to find.
Speaker 6:Um, if I'm eating something, cause sometimes I feel like, oh, I really need to eat something, um, but then there will be be lows, like my favorite thing when I'm golfing is especially in tournaments too is a full sugar soda. I will usually just get the miniature ones and then have like just a little bit if I need it, because there's a lot of sugar in those. But I find that to be the easiest because then I'm not trying to shove food into my mouth and focus on playing. I just take a quick little sip and take more if I need to. I hate apple juice, so I will do anything but apple juice, like fruit punch or grape juice or anything but apple juice, especially like in the middle of the night after I had brushed my teeth. It's just not going to be good, um, and the worst thing that I've ever had to treat for. So don't take advice from me. But one time I was golfing and I had forgotten that a couple of days prior, the day prior, I had had a low and I'd used up all of my granola bars and stuff in my bag and I was on like hole seven or something, and we only do nine hole practices. So I knew I just had like a hole, two holes, and I'd be fine. But I'm like digging around my bag and I'm like I know I have to eat something or else I have to immediately walk to my car and it's going to take me longer to walk to my car than it is to just finish up these holes. So I dig around in my bag and the best thing I could find is like smoothie flavored Tums. So I loaded up on a handful of those and I can say that I made it out. I got more sugar when I finally got to my car but yeah, I didn't have any heartburn for the rest of the day so that was pretty good. But yeah, I would not recommend.
Speaker 6:One time when I was really little, we had gotten back from Mackinac Island and of course we got a bunch of fudge and I think I was probably like eight, so I was pretty little and I had had a really bad low, like that night, I'm pretty sure and of course we treated with fudge and then the following day I was like I didn't want anything to do with it. I don't think I ate fudge for like two years after that because it just I was an awful low and I like connected those two to each other. I think that was. I can specifically remember that moment of treating so much with the chocolate fudge from Macna it was. It was a hard thing to get back into, but if someone offered me fudge now I'd probably say yes.
Speaker 7:I like Power Bar. I, you know, at that point I loved it, loved Power Bar. You know, at that point I loved it, loved Power Bar products. But after you know that many days of your primary diet is Power Bars, first of all, I don't care what flavor they are, they all taste pretty much very similar. It doesn't matter what they're calling the flavor and the sound of those wrappers opening up, it was just like now it's nightmare material. I don't even want it. So what I like to use now is Smarties. They're easy to carry and they're not very tempting to me. I don't like or fun in retrospect, funny to have treated.
Speaker 7:I was staying at a hotel made entirely of ice. Now there's two of them at least at that point there were two of them in the world that I knew of. One was in a Scandinavian country I can't think of right now. The other is in Quebec, and at that point I mentioned it to my kids like hey, look at this, I looked at, you know, showed them my phone. Like hotel made of all of ice and it's got like LED lights, super aesthetically pleasing, you know. So would you guys want to go? Well, first off, I didn't do the routing on the trip because, of course, they said, yes, we want to go to stay in a hotel made of ice. It was a 13 hour drive each way and uh. So I drove to this hotel made of ice with three of the four kids. The one was too young, he wasn't being punished and you know nothing like that, but he didn't go, he's too little anyway. So we went there and it was beautiful but frigid and the weather there was especially cold when we were there.
Speaker 7:So they will give you these. You tell them when you're ready to go to bed, and the bed is also made of ice and there's plastic sheeting so you don't get wet as you're laying on it. They give you a warm sleeping bag. So I'm in the sleeping bag, it's got a hood, like part of my face is exposed, and then something in my pocket starts beeping and I thought, oh no, you know, it was like one in the morning, like there's not much food here, and but what I grabbed before was what was available, and what it was is they had a coffee like this coffee area and sugar packets just like granulated sugar packets.
Speaker 7:So it's cold and things beeping and I just don't want to deal with this, but there's no choice, like I don't have to deal with it, but at your own, you know, think of the outcome of that. So, absolutely, you got to do it. So I'm chewing these granulated sugar and it's loud, like as you're chewing something like that. You're hearing it in your own head and stuff, and I just thought, oh my gosh and you know I'm not going to brush my teeth after this Like my teeth might I don't know I'll probably have five cavities in the morning, but you do what you have to, and that was so. That was kind of a funny time. Yeah, it was horrible. It's like all right, this is who I am now. I'm the guy that eats sugar packets.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this episode of Diabetes Unscripted. The information presented in this podcast is for general knowledge. The mention of specific products, medication treatments or services does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding your care.