My Personal Experience with Hypoglycemia

I found out I was hypoglycemic after I blacked out and hit a tree. I was twenty-two years old and had the flu, but went in to work because I was in sales and I had a lot of deliveries to make that day. I was not about to let someone else take all my sales by letting them deliver and upsell all my customers that day.

Because of the flu, I did not eat that day. Not breakfast, nor lunch because of feeling sick to my stomach. As I was driving the company van back towards the office, I completely blacked out and drove off the road, hitting a tree. Some people rushed over to the van and I came to. They got me something to drink and then called my office for someone to come and get me. The van was towed away and a co-worker retrieved me.

When I went to the doctor, they diagnosed me with hypoglycemia. Because I had not eaten, I passed out. I was taught how to control my disease and rarely had a problem for many years.

With hypoglycemia, it is not sugar or carbs that you need to eat, it is protein. If your blood sugar is too low and you are given sugar or foods that are quickly converted to sugar by your body, such as carbs, then you can pass out just as quickly as not eating anything at all. Protein raises your blood sugar slower and safer. When Amanda fainted from her hypoglycemia in the Big Brother 9 house last night, Sharon told them to give her some bread or fruit to get some sugar into her body. That would not have been good for her. It would have raised her blood sugar too quickly. She was already having convulsions and a seizure.

For more information about the Big Brother 9 emergency last night, see these three articles:

"Emergency - Big Brother 9 - Amanda and Allison in Hospital"
(CLICK HERE)

"Update - Emergency - Big Brother 9 - Amanda and Allison in Hospital"
(CLICK HERE)

"Amanda and Allison Are Back - Big Brother 9 Emergency Update"
(CLICK HERE)

When I forget to eat, I start getting a headache, then the shakes. I have learned that when I am in a rush and no time to eat breakfast, to grab one or two slices of cheese. When I get caught up in stuff and forget to eat and the symptoms start up, I immediately drink a glass of milk. The symptoms do not disappear right away, but it does help.

So often I am offered sweets when my stomach is empty. I have learned, the hard way, that I have to eat some real food prior to anything sweet. I get away with eating donuts because I drink a glass of milk with them! I have also learned not to eat carbs on an empty stomach. My body treats them the same as sugar. I love bagels, but I have to eat some cheese or something in the morning before I can have a bagel. I believe this is why Amanda had so much trouble with slop. She had been on slop for only twenty-four hours and from what I've heard, slop is pure carbohydrate. People in Internet forums have been complaining that Amanda was allowed to put sugar and honey on her slop, but she refused. Those people do not realize that if she did that, she would make her condition worse. Amanda was doing the smartest thing she could do in the situation she found herself. She needs protein, not sugar.

During one of my pregnancies, a blood glucose test was run on me. Some doctors routinely test all pregnant women for gestational diabetes and I happened to have one of those doctors. For the test, you have to fast, then drink a large glass of a very sugary substance. I immediately started having problems and was heading for convulsions. The nurses rushed to pump fluids into my body to drown out all that sugar and they gave me some type of injection. This was a long time ago, so I cannot remember what they gave me specifically. Once I recovered, they made me eat a peanut butter sandwich and drink a glass of milk before they let me leave. The emergency room doctor told me not to have this type of test done again unless it was a medical necessity and to make sure it was done in a hospital and not a lab in case I had a similar reaction. One of the nurses told me that throughout my life, I would be asked to fast before having certain types of blood work done and to always carry a peanut butter sandwich, without jelly, and to eat it immediately after the blood is drawn.

Later in my life, after having three children and gaining some weight, I decided to try the big fad dieting by using "Slim Fast" shakes. After twenty-four hours of my "Slim Fast" diet, I fainted and thank God that my mother was visiting my house at the time. I was sitting at the kitchen table and finished drinking my lunch shake and immediately fainted with my chair falling backwards to the floor with a thump. The crash revived me and my mother rushed me to the hospital. Again, it was because of my hypoglycemia and I was told that I could not diet without eating protein. I explained that I thought it was fine because the shakes had protein in them, but the doctor explained that a powered protein was not the same as ingesting real meat or dairy.

Because of my "Slim Fast" experience, I have always been concerned about someone having a medical issue with eating slop in the Big Brother house and my concerns seem to be justified. Regardless of what they put into that slop powder and regardless of what pills and vitamins they feed these people, someone with hypoglycemia must eat real protein. There is no way around that fact.

My prediction is that Big Brother will go back to peanut butter and jelly and get rid of slop entirely.