If you work in the martial arts gym at the top of my road, you’d have witnessed a 32 year-old man fitting next to a brick wall the other week. Not your average Tuesday, I imagine.
So first of all, thanks to those guys (and my wife) for making sure I didn’t smash my head into anything solid. And secondly, let’s look at why that fit happened, and how I’m gonna go about getting over it.
Hypos happen. Sorry.
Fitting isn’t something I do very often. In fact, I went a whole five and a half years without doing it, making my doctor very proud in the process. But as a type 1 diabetic, hypoglycaemia is something that can always strike, no matter how careful (and good) you think you are.
For me, on that fateful day outside the martial arts gym, it happened because of the heat. We’d gone on a walk after work, at which time my blood sugar was reading 10. A little high, so I corrected. That was my first mistake. The heat was a horrible 36 degrees, far too hot for my pale complexion and my non-responsive pancreas.
The walk started fine, but as we started to make our way back home I noticed my vision was going a bit blurry, and I was seeing spots. I know these are signs of low blood sugar, but I assumed because it had been high just moments earlier, it couldn’t possibly be the case. IDIOT BILLINGHAY. BAD BAD BAD.
What happened next is a little hazy to me, but I’m informed I did eventually sit down and take some sugar, before falling to the floor and making a scene. I’d acted too late, and made the kind of poor decisions I’d not fallen victim to for over half a decade.
I felt foolish. I felt embarrassed. But ultimately, this is the life I live. It’s happened before, it may well happen again. It’s how we move on that matters. So…
How do you get over having a hypo?
It would be easy to wallow, wouldn’t it? And when you’ve got marks from where you unconsciously punched the floor, settling for the sympathy vote would be the obvious option. But that’s not my vibe. I’m more about ignoring it and denying it ever happened to anyone who asks.
However, the sensible way to get over having a hypo is to learn what caused it and make sure you don’t let that same cause happen again. In my case, it was a combination of the heat and an over-enthusiastic correction dose.
But Ash, why can heat cause hypos?
Basically, the hotter it is, the faster blood runs around your body. This means any insulin you take goes around your body faster too, making a much more immediate impact than it usually would. Amounts you’d normally take can suddenly make a far bigger impression, leading to you surprisingly ending up on the floor.
When it’s hot, try lowering your units. Your body will thank you.
How do you explain what happened to other people?
My least favourite part of any kind of medical emergency is having to explain it. I HATE the attention. It reminds me of a time when my diabetes was out of my control, where I’d regularly be in an ambulance, and when people just knew me as a fit risk. (Not in that way. Only my wife has ever known me as that kind of fit, for which I am eternally grateful.)
Now I like to be known for other things, like being a great copywriter, or a cracking husband, or a top gardener who only occasionally over-waters his houseplants. Sadly, when your hands are covered in cuts and you look like you’ve lost a fight with concrete, you can’t really hide it.
I was at a wedding a few days after my fall, and had lots of curious questions to answer. As much as I wanted to run away from them all, I knew they were coming from a genuine place of concern, so I did a very similar thing to what I’m doing here - talked people through the occasion in a very matter of fact way.
This is what happened. Here’s why. Aren’t I bit of a tit?
We laugh, we learn, we move on.
When you’re diabetic, hypos will happen. Most of them will be easily resolved, but when the odd one gets the better of you, it’s best just to accept it and face up to the facts. That way you can hopefully stop it from happening again, and leave those martial artists to keep kicking each other.