I know that must have been very scary for you, even more so if you are alone. Did you immediately take some kind of sugar to bring it back up? I hope you did. usually if you do that feeling doesn't last long because real sugar, whether it be actually sugar or candy, juice, milk or regular soda will bring you sugar up very quickly.

You probably should talk to your doctor about this. I don't know how many units you take of the Victoza, but your doctor may need to get you to lower the number of units or lower the dosage of your Amarl. I am not familiar with either one of these. Is Victoza a long lasting insulin that you take every 24 hours, or it is a faster acting one that you take more often?

I take Metformin 500mg twice a day and Lantus a 24 hour insulin and take 15 units. Even with these my sugar is fairly low usually ranging from 75-96 most of the time. I don't feel any effects though from these levels. I only feel it when mine gets below about 65. But believe me I talk to my doctor when this happens, and she has taken me of 1 med, Glimepiride and also told me that if it keeps going to low to cut down to 10 units of insulin. So far I have not done that yet.

I hope you will talk to your doctor to keep this from happening to you again.

79 is low but not so low to do harm. Yes your body reacts differently and sometimes some insulins can cause lows...check with your doctor to see if what you are on has a side effect of lows.

carry some glucose tablets with you to help and next time you get this feeling, take a deep breath and slowly let it out, try to relax and take a glucose tablet. you will be able to ride it out

Yep, scary, mine was 55 at breakfast, which rarely happens to me. The reason was I did not eat my protein snack at last night's bedtime.

Keep track of what you eat and you can probably figure out why it runs low.

79 is not terribly low, though it is on the low side, but 55 is!!

I was told that the symptoms could happen when our sugar is lower than we are used to even if it's not very low. When I was first being treated and my sugar averaged around 300 when I got down to 120 I would get low sugar symptoms. Now I don't get those symptoms usually unless it's down to 85 or 90.

Using sugar to get it up makes the level spike and then go down again, so to have only sugar doesn't really solve the problem. for a level of 55, which is very critical, yes, you need something that's going to get it right up, but also something that is going to keep it at a normal level, and not just a quick spike.

I carry and keep a liquid nutrition drink, like Boost or Glucerna on me for those low bs emergencies. The liquid digests quickly and gets it up, and the other ingredients like protein, keep it up till I can get home and make a proper meal.

Some meds more than others tend to cause drops in blood sugar level and need more careful monitoring. how many times a day do you test your blood sugar level?

Hi TC40

There are things you can do to make it easier.

First, learn your warning signs.

Then, make sure you are stocked up. Keep some sugar always with you - in fact keep some in multiple places, home, work, family you stay with often, car etc. I usually use a glucose drink or jelly baby sweets.

You will need around 20g carbs of this. Then wait 15 minutes and test again. If still low have a little more. But be very careful not to overdo it.

You might also want to look into more serious supplies - you can get glucose you can rub in the inside of the cheek or inject. This is for others to do so instruct them what to look out for and what to do.

You could also get medical alert jewellery.

Make a plan of what to do if this happens again. Is there someone who can help you, a relative, friend, neighbour? Go to them and ask for help or just someone to sit with you for a few minutes until you feel better.

Also, test test test. Work out patterns, if you go lower at certain times of day or whatever. Think what might be causing it and what you could do - but don't make changes unless you are confident. Once you have data, take it to your doctor and talk it over with them.

As xa1nbowR says, it could be that your body has become accustomed to high blood sugars and is reacting to this reading as 'low' even though it is not strictly low, if that makes sense. If this is the case speak to your doctor, they can help you bring your sugars down to a normal range.

In the future it might be worth investigating whether your hospital runs some sort of diabetes education class. This will help you feel more confident and also show you are not alone, others are going through the same and can support you.

Again, be careful about taking just sugar to make your level spike. If it spikes it will just go up and then drop back down and you'll be in the same situation again. Better to eat a combination of something that will raise it fast AND something that will keep it up. And don't think that your symptoms, if your bs level is not really low, always justify a piece of candy. If your bs is like 90 and you feel hungry then just eat something normal.
if eating sugar is the problem then eating sugar is not the solution.

We all do need carbs but it's the processed carbs that are mostly doing us in. Ultimately, you want to get your system on an even keel. A sugar packet 4 times a day is not going to do that.

What do you eat for breakfast?

You may also need to change your meds or dosages.