Jo’s Cafe

I have had one instance where my sugar became too low while I was driving. 

It was my own fault.   I had been at a wives function and didn’t eat enough, had a class of wine AND my daily shot of Lantus.  I shouldn’t have had the glass of wine, nor the shot - but I was celebrating and not thinking.

Five minutes into my drive home it hit.  My vision blurred and I started sweating to beat the band.  I knew what was happening and reached for my glucose tablets in my purse and popped 2 in my mouth; all the while trying to find a spot to pull off the road.

There wasn’t one.

I turned on the air conditioning and slow downed, concentrating with every fiber of my body on the road.  Two more glucose tablets and when I finally was able to pull off the road, my vision was re-setting itself and I’d stopped sweating.   I am more conscious now before I drive. 

From Reuters Health:

Some diabetics prone to unsafe driving choices

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Drivers with diabetes who have trouble telling when their blood sugar is low may get behind the wheel when they shouldn’t, a small study suggests.

The study, of 65 adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, found that many of those with impaired awareness of hypoglycemia symptoms thought they were OK to drive even when their blood sugar was dangerously low.

Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, hinders a person’s ability to think and make quick judgments — which makes driving a hazard.

In the new study, published in the journal of Diabetes Care, 21 of 45 adults with type 1 diabetes had problems recognizing they had low blood sugar. Of these patients, 43 percent felt they were able to drive even when their sugar was low.

The problem is not that these individuals did not know hypoglycemia symptoms — such as heart palpitations, sweating, tremors and visual disturbances, explained lead researcher Dr. Alexander D. M. Stork of the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Instead, their bodies don’t trigger clear symptoms until their sugar levels are markedly low. This is in part because of the body’s adaptation to hypoglycemia, Stork told Reuters Health, and partly due to diabetic nerve damage.

Know the symptons of too low sugar.  If you don’t recognize them, then don’t drive without testing.