52 in Hardware

Last night I had a blood sugar crash in the hardware department at Walmart. Low blood sugar is nothing new, it happens and I deal with it - it's just part of having reactive hypoglycemia after RNY.  But last night was a bit different. Here's the deal...

After class last night I stopped for gas and grabbed a small hot cocoa. Yep, a full-sugar hot cocoa. So yes, I brought this whole incident on myself because of a poor food choice - but that's not the point of the story.  So I knew that I if I was going to drink that hot cocoa that I would need to eat some protein within 90 minutes to soak up the excess carb/sugar intake.  No problem, I'd be home by then and would have my planned evening snack anyway. 

But then I decided on the drive home to stop at Walmart for a couple things.  Suddenly it was 11pm and I'm standing in the hardware department and realize that I should have had a blood sugar crash about 30 minutes ago.  But I don't feel anything. No shakiness, no light-headedness, no overheating or rapid heart rate --- I feel fine.  So I decide to test my blood just to see what was going on with my blood sugar levels. 

My blood glucose was 52! 

So I hightailed it across the massive store to the grocery department.  It's always interesting to see the looks employees give you when you're standing in the middle of the aisle eating a granola bar straight out of an open box from the shelf.  Finished up my shopping and headed out not long after. I tested again before I drove and my count was back to normal within about 20 minutes. 

Typically when I drop into the low 70's or high 60's I have learned to recognize symptoms of a crash coming on and can catch it in time to fix it.  But typically when my count is down in the 50's things are already way beyond bad and I get pretty confused and can't really concentrate or focus. I've ended up in the 40's a couple times and I can tell you that once things drop below 50 it's a very bad situation. 

So for me to be at 52 and have no symptoms at all ---- yeah, that seriously freaked me out!  How many other times has my count been that low and I never noticed it before?  What if it happens again when I'm not as in-tuned with what I'd eaten and how I should be feeling and I end up passed out somewhere - or worse yet, what if I'm driving at the time? 

So I'm slightly freaked out today.  Just thought I'd share...

Pam