Last Sunday night I experienced my first emergency glucagon shot, along with a trip to the emergency room.

I’ve waited about a week to write this post. Why? It’s embarrassing. Maybe a bit risqué. And scary.

But I’ve decided to tell the story (with the permission of my husband), because other Type 1 Diabetics should understand what happened…and be better prepared.

So here’s the scoop: We had a super fun weekend with company. My cousin, sister, sister’s boyfriend, and of course, my husband…all under one roof. It was like a weekend lock-in…except that we also went out to explore. We happy houred (that’s a verb, right?) at The Pearl, ate delicious Mexican food at Chuy’s (my guilty pleasure), played horseshoes under the Saturday sun at Specht’s, rocked the San Antonio Rodeo (corn dogs!), and wound down the weekend with some craft brewery visits on Sunday. Lots of laughs, food, and booze. It was delightful.

Sunday night we were exhausted and decided to head to bed early. My sister’s boyfriend had an early drive back to Houston before work on Monday morning, and my cousin had a flight back to Denver.

It was about 9:30 pm, and I checked my sugars before getting in bed: 86. Kind of low for me to head to bed with an 86, but my sugars had been rising in my sleep the past couple of nights…so I let it go. I figured my Dexcom would alert me if there was an issue.

I started to cuddle with my husband and reminisce about the awesome weekend…and one thing led to another and a certain affectionate activity happened.

And a bit later as I was lying in bed, my Dexcom alarm went off at a 56. I checked my glucose: 35! Not good.

I downed glucose gel and glucose gummies that are always sitting on my nightstand. Sixty grams of carbs and 15 minutes later, I checked again: 29. Sh*t. (And I usually don’t curse unless I’ve had a few drinks and am feeling feisty.)

I hear my husband asking, “How do you feel?” And honestly, I felt pretty normal. Maybe a bit hot and buzzy, but I would say that’s normal for the intimate circumstances that had just taken place. And then I hear, “I’m giving you the shot.”

And unlike last time on the plane, when I resisted the glucagon, I was completely okay with it. Yes, I felt relaxed. But I was also over downing the sugar, especially with the gluttonous weekend we just had.

I could hear him tapping on his phone—double-checking the Glucagon app for best place to give the shot. (First-timers…) He decided in the glutes. I turned over and wasn’t even anxious. It stung a bit, but I was hopeful that this would get my sugars up.

We waited. Checked again: 35.

My husband jumped out of bed and grabbed a jug of orange juice. (Thanks, Joey, for wanting mimosas last weekend!) I downed two glasses with aggressively shaking hands. Maybe I wasn’t feeling all that normal…

Then I hear, “We’re going to the ER.” This is when I knew it wasn’t good. I got up to get more fully dressed. I couldn’t find my clothes or shoes. It was that mind-of-molasses feeling…almost like I was a child. Jordan helped me get dressed, and we went out to the car.

During the drive, I took my sugar again: 59. A good sign that it was on the rise, but Jordan insisted that we continue on with the trip. I don’t blame him. It would be difficult to head to bed after such a dramatic low, and what if it happened again in my sleep? (ugh. Let’s not think about that too long…)

In the end, all was well. They monitored my blood sugar every 30 minutes or so. The nurse was trying to get me to drink more OJ and eat more snacks, but I didn’t think I could fit anything else in…and my sugars were already heading up.

I was soon in the 200s with all the sugar and the shot, but much better than in the 20s.

After a couple of hours, the doctor told me that I could head home, but I needed to eat some carbs with protein. She was worried that I would crash with all of the fast-acting sugar that I had consumed. So I ate a peanut butter and jelly Quest Bar. (I always have a Quest Bar in my purse.) And about 1 am, we headed back home.

In the moment, somehow this incident wasn’t as scary as my last 29. I’m not sure whether it’s that I wasn’t alone (and up in the air on a plane full of strangers) or that I was so out of it…but I was ridiculously calm this time. Which if I’m honest, scares me a bit. 29 is not something to be calm about.

So how the heck did it happen? All we can do is speculate. I could have over-bolused for my dinner of a fried chicken sandwich. Maybe a bit of this is true. I also need to remember that intimacy can be an aerobic activity…and if you think of it that way, it’s a bit dangerous to start working out at an 86.

Moral of the story? As unsexy as it was…the next time, I checked my blood sugar and suspended my pump beforehand. And I’ve been much more conservative about my insulin before meals. I’ve been working hard to keep my A1C down, but keeping my sugars “tight” doesn’t really matter if I don’t wake up from a low. And I’m a lot less anxious about that shot. I won’t hesitate next time.

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Some of you might be a bit confused on the details of what all this really means. I know that I would have no clue if I wasn’t experiencing this as a T1D myself. So here’s some of the straightforward details about going hypo:

• What is hypoglycemia? A condition of abnormally low blood sugars, usually below 70 mg/dL. Symptoms can include shakiness, sweating, nervousness, fast heartbeat, headaches, and blurred vision.
• Severe hypoglycemia happens when the blood sugar drops below 55mg/dL. The brain is deprived of glucose and can’t function properly. It leads to confusion, slowing of reflexes, and inability to comprehend. At this point, it’s likely that the person isn’t able to treat the hypoglycemia themselves—and needs help from someone else.
• If the blood sugar falls below 30mg/dL, it can lead to seizures, coma, and even death.
• What can be scary is that people with tightly controlled sugars and A1Cs below 6.5% (like me with a 5.8%), can start to “reset” what feels normal to their body. So with sugars below 40mg/dL, I can feel reasonably normal.
• What’s scarier is that doctors say it’s well known that each episode of severe hypoglycemia has the potential to be followed by an even lower level. The only way to “reset” the body is to let go of some control and allow the body to experience higher sugars.