I’m Not Sure Why This Happens
I get this thing that happens to me. And I’m not sure why. The majority of the time it happens if I skip a meal. But sometimes it’ll happen a couple of hours after eating. I seems to resemble the symptoms of low blood sugar or diabetes. I can feel it coming on. It starts out with a kind of funny feeling in my stomach that spills in to my limbs, a sort of tingly, tired feeling. After a while, say about 5-15 minutes, I start to get shaky, much like “the shakes” people get when they get real hungry, but these are a little more violent. Very soon after the shakes I’ll break out into cold sweats.
Now I’ve only let the condition progress beyond this a few times when I wasn’t anywhere where I could get some sort of food or sugar to fix the problem. Often slamming a coke will help. For instance, when this happened to me this morning, I ran down to the convenience store in the lobby of my building and bought two ice-cream sandwiches and a mango snapple and ate/drank it all immediately. The condition subsided in about 10 to 15 minutes.
The last time I had this was when Jami was in town. I don’t think she understood why I had to immediately run up to the laundry room and get a coke and the scarf down a bag of fritos in the car when we were already running late. But if I don’t get something in my system I start to shut down. My thought process gets cloudy. It becomes extremely difficult to hold a conversation. Eventually my motor skills deteriorate. Once while driving around with an old girlfriend, I had a particularly bad spell (attack?), and had to have her drive my car to the nearest restaurant because I was unable to continue driving safely myself. Other times I have sweated right through my shirt. I’m gonna ask my doctor about it next time I see him. Has anybody else ever had a similar situation?
1 lotus Says:
That’s a little scary, Hubs! You should definitely get it checked out. Let us know what happens.
2 Lux Says:
Hmm. Do you have low blood pressure? I have orthostatic hypotension (fancy way of saying low blood pressure caused by brain sending heart the wrong signals) and if I don’t eat, or get dehydrated, or stand in one place for a long time, I get the same kind of symptoms you just described.
I’d go to a doctor, and in the meantime, stay hydrated and don’t worry too much about it, just take care of yourself.
3 chevy Says:
the problem would solve itself if you would just eat like a normal person. it happens when you’ve skipped a meal and when you’re hungover. its not a huge mystery.
4 hubs Says:
lotus - it doesn’t scare me because it’s easily remedied but it does concern me enough to want to now whats happening with my body.
lux - no, i think if anything my blood pressure is high (there is a history of it in the family). but when i find out i’ll let you know.
chevy - yesterday it happened two hours after eating an omlet, potatos, and pineapple slices with coffee (which i’m thinking may be the culprit) and oj. it has never happened while hungover.
5 chevy Says:
last time it happened was after you hadn’t eaten breakfast and you’d drank the night before!
6 hubs Says:
i almost never eat breakfast and almost always drink the night before but i donn’t always get these attacks. anyway’s i wasn’t hungover, we went to my mom’s (and i didn’t have a single boxed wine) the night before, i drove back and everything.
7 eelnahs Says:
the same thing happens to me … hit the doctor!
8 Dahl Says:
that happens to me too - i’ve started keeping snacks in the car to make sure i don’t let myself get that bad while driving, and my drawer at work is stocked with all sorts of goodies (instant oatmeal, granola bars, pop tarts, etc.)
my mom’s a doctor, and i’ve talked to a nutritionist about this too, and both said its just low blood sugar and that i should just get accustomed to keeping “fixes” around at all times.
9 Dave Says:
As witnessed by the Coke– it’s low blood sugar, hypoglycemia. Coke is nothing but empty carbs and caffeine, and gets into your system quicker than a high carb food will, and helps restore your balance.
Of course, that’s just an armchair diagnostician’s point of view. Let me know if I’m right or wrong, though…
10 DigitalUts Says:
Hubs, I have been going thrue same thing the last couple of days.. I have stopped smoking for about a month now… I was thinking maybe it was withdrawls from that.
But if you do find out any thing about it please let me know! It kinda scares me
when it happens… And to tell you the truth im not one too go to the doctor they scare me even worse:)
11 Bonnie Says:
I am 67 years old. I have had panic attacks for several years. I stress a lot. My newest problem is almost every night I start to dream and suddenly awake with a weak feeling, elevated blood pressure, rapid pulse.and think I am dying. I take a low dose of Lopressor a beta blocker. This only occurs at night. I need input. Bonnie