Hypos: Awful or Awesome!

For many diabetics the hypo (hypoglycaemia) is a pretty scary and altogether awful experience. Some hypos can be easily managed whereas others can be totally debilitating and (embarrassingly) require aid from others. Fortunately, I've never experienced a hypo that I couldn't treat myself but I know a few people who have.

Luckily, my diabetes was caught relatively early, thanks to my mother who had been diagnosed prior to me and spotted the early signs. My mothers early catch meant that I was able to learn about my own body (I feel like I sound like a teenaged girl going through puberty at this point but I digress, although I could delve into my own experiences of puberty which would simply involve the sprouting of hair on just one side of my face and the dropping of my voice/testicles, but i'll leave the details for another time) and how it reacts to low blood sugar and high blood sugar. Through this early 'trial period' and the relatively low frequency of hypos I learnt how to spot and treat at the earliest possible stage. This may not sound helpful, but more than anything, what helps me spot a hypo is a totally unique feeling that's almost impossible to describe however this can be followed by confusion, hunger and commonly the last red flag for me is dizziness. This helps me spot a hypo in its early stages but for many some symptoms that include shakiness, difficulty concentrating and confusion (to name but a few) can be numbed by a high frequency of hypos or by just ignoring some signs (as I and many others have done) and they can fall deeper into the even more dangerous stages of hypoglycaemia.

A friend of mine had once gotten to a stage where she fell so deep into a hypo that she was unable to treat herself. This friend was my mom by the way. So my mother had been shopping at at local supermarket and had finished her shop, had left and was walking to her car when she felt so dizzy, confused and trembly she had to stop and almost collapsed if it weren't for a concerned passerby, who steadied her and guided her to a bench. Explaining that she was diabetic and was most likely experiencing a hypo (or more likely just said the word diabetes), my mom told the aid that she didn't have any sugary items with her (despite literally leaving a supermarket seconds earlier, which perplexed my slightly, and made me question my own mothers story). The passer-by leapt to the rescue by entering the adjacent supermarket and buying a chocolate bar and a coke (the saviour of many a student's essay deadline night) and then left (not really but that would be pretty funny). Roughly 10 minutes after drinking and eating, my mother had recovered and thanked the kind stranger, then went on with her day.

Why don't I fake this all the time!! I seriously think I should be doing this all the time to get some free food or something and I should at least try it to see if it works or see if I'm a good enough actor to convey a person with a disease that I actually have. Yah, at this point I am worried that much like the many 5.3 rated movies listed on imdb that are loosely based on 'the boy who cried wolf', I will inevitably be eating my own words when I in fact do suffer from a hypo and am left to fall into a coma by an angry mob (not sure if i'd be able to generate a scenario with a mob) whom i've scammed for bacon and other various non-hypo helping products.

So that's hypos… Awful or awesome? Well, almost certainly the former but I can dream can't I!?

Had a similar experience?
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Introductions!

My name, as you might have guessed from the title of the blog, is Dinesh and despite titling this blog 'Dinesh the Diabetic" I don't tend to bring up my diabetes at the earliest possible moment. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes  on November the 23rd 2008 and although it affects my everyday life, the majority of the people I meet don't notice, unless I whip out my injection and pump insulin into my flabby torso.

I'm currently in my 3rd year of studying Medical Physiology (which is essentially glorified human biology) at the University of Leicester and writing up my dissertation, which just so happens to be diabetes related.  I'm pretty fascinated with endocrinology and especially diabetes. Some may say my fascination is slightly selfish, like maybe me focussing my time on diabetes only and not giving other diseases a chance is wrong, just because I have it. This is true. I may only be primarily interested in diabetes because I have it, but most people are naturally curious about themselves and people are learning about themselves everyday. My initial interest was to try and understand what the heck happened to my pancreas but this has flourished into a more general interest in science.

I've decided to start this blog to a) provide myself with a better pastime (other than watching youtube or masturbating) b) provide an insight to those who might be interested in the life of a type 1 diabetic, and most significantly c) use this as a platform to show any worried/concerned/scared diabetics that its not all bad…. In fact, it can be pretty great! (whatever IT is (probably life))
As a keeno undergrad I will also try to look at scientific articles and provide an overview of the current research taking place in diabetes.

If you've happened to stumble upon this blog, somehow, through the limitless acres of procrastinative material found on the internet, please comment etc and I hope you like it.