My mom is an SC! :(

[leaping_baby]

We went to Taco Bell today through the drive-thru.
It's our turn, and my mom asks if there's anything that just has meat - no rice or beans. The young woman starts to answer and then my mom cuts her off saying, "I have a low blood sugar so I don't really want anything with rice or beans." She starts speaking again and I can tell the poor girl is kind of speechless and not sure what to say. She's stammering a little and finally suggests something. My mom not only interrupts her again, but also gives her a mini-lecture in a not-nice way saying, "When you have a low blood sugar you need to eat protien - no rice or beans." Finally my mom orders, I order and we get our food and leave. Fortunately, the person we gave our money to was not the girl.

Ok, my mom is not diabetic. She does have sugar regulation problems and she can get in a pissy mood when she hasn't eaten right. But this is not the first incident. I've seen her do it to other people and other places before. And not always when she has a low blood sugar (and that still doesn't give her any right to treat someone that way). She's so rude! Just because she's a customer, she feels like she has the right to treat them as if they're below her and that she can talk to them with disrespect.

And finally -- beans do have protein in them, just not as much as meat does.

[Barefootgirl]

So did you ask your mum not to speak that way to the cashier? Because she was rude and objectionable.

Plus, she was WRONG. Perhaps this should be in the brainiac thread because, with the very greatest respect, your mother is talking nonsense. If you have low blood sugar, you need to eat something with carbohydrates in it, so that it can be turned into blood sugar more quickly. You don't eat proteins to raise blood sugar ! Whether your mum is diabetic or not, she needs to be re-educated on that rather important fact, because it could kill her.

Aside from the fact that she was rude and ignorant about her own condition, who goes to Taco Bell if they know they don't want to eat rice or beans? Its like going to Burger King and whining about the veggie options.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Hypoglycemia is usually caused by an overactive pancreas reacting to trigger foods and producing waaay too much insulin. What happens is this: hypoglycemic eats rice or wheat. Pancreas goes into overdrive and produces so much insulin the sugars that have been eaten get converted to energy, and the rest to fat, abnormally quickly. Instead of burning that sugar fuel over a period of time, it all goes at once. When that sugar rush ends, there is no sugar left in the bloodstream and the person “sugar crashes.” This is why Leaping Baby’s mom is such a crab. I’m willing to bet when she eats, she gets almost high, giddy and almost hyper. Shortly thereafter, I bet she gets sleepy. Maybe she takes long naps every day and has trouble staying awake during the day. And I bet her weight is gradually creeping up there. She’s hungry all the time, eating all the time, and unsatisfied all the time. Frequent headaches, dizziness, and sweats. When her sugar drops, she becomes an unreasonable, crazy bitch.

I just described myself before I changed to a low carb diet. Actually, Barefoot Girl, she’s dead on about her condition. Eating a bunch of carbs when you have an overactive pancreas is like treating a heroin addiction by simply taking a shot of heroin every time you start withdrawing. I was eating several meals a day, and still feeling awful. I was not safe to be behind the wheel of a car. I am surprised I didn’t lose my job for constantly nodding off.

People who have this condition are frequently at great risk for diabetes, which does run in my family. I’ve heard it called “pre-diabetes.” Eating a bunch of high carb food might make you feel better briefly, but all you are really doing is overtaxing your unregulated insulin production. If you don’t stop, eventually, you will just stop producing it altogether and then you have a REAL problem.

By cutting out your trigger foods, i.e. high sugar foods, simple carbs, etc. and concentrating on complex carbs (nutrient-dense vegetables and fruits, cheeses, etc.), fats, and proteins, you give your body a fuel source that takes much longer to process, hence, it evens out your sugar levels. I now eat three meals a day, just everyone else. I feel great, I look healthy. I no longer fight sleep all day and suffer migraines. And before you ask, yes, my blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides are perfect.

Leaping Baby, I realize your mom is acting in a way that embarrasses you, but believe me, she is in the middle of a low sugar episode, it’s more than she just feels bad. Her brain is not firing on all pistons. No insane behavior is too over the top. She just won’t realize how nuts she’s acting till her sugar gets back up to a certain point. Anyone ever seen Steel Magnolias? Remember the scene where Julia Roberts goes batty at the beauty salon and they have to give her juice? That’s because she was a diabetic and her sugar had dropped. She had lost the ability to think and gotten combative. That really does happen.

We had a guy at Public Television who had hypoglycemia who took the front off the drink machine with a crowbar to get a cola out. Seemed reasonable to him while he was doing it because he was crashing.

Do some research on the subject. Maybe you can help her not only feel better, but to stop being a SC. Good luck. Sorry this is so long, but it’s important, and not enough people understand this problem, in my opinion.

[ThinMick]

/me waves to RecoveringKinkoid

So who's the diabetic in your family? My mom still makes jokes about the time I punched an EMT in the teeth without waking up while he was trying to put a glucose drip in my arm. If somebody'd *mentioned* it at the time, i'd totally have apologised.

But, yes. Low blood sugar makes people stupid and violent. My doctor always said that the best thing for it, if you're still in a condition to *chew*, is a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. You need some really fast carbs (jelly) so you don't die while you're waiting for the protien (peanutbutter) to stabilise your system. Of course, that might only apply to diabetic hypoglycemia which is a whole lot more fatal than the non medication induced varieties.

Anyway, back to the original poster, a bean burrito would not have killed your mom, unless she's allergic to beans. She really needs to have it brought to her attention (when she's *not* sick) that she gets like that when she's not well. Eventually it'll sink in. I'm pretty well reflexively polite until I get to that punching people in the teeth stage of blacked out and swinging.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Actually, a bean burrito probably would have been fine. Beans are a good complex carb.

Every single person in my immediate family has varying degrees of low sugar. I have at least three uncles, four (I think) aunts, and four close cousins I can think of off the top of my head with diabetes. One of the my cousins, the son of a diabetic uncle, has hypoglycemia and with his habits, will likely develop diabtetes. Several other cousins also have low sugar. I myself actually had gestational diabetes (which I guess figures.)

[trunks2k]

What happens is this: hypoglycemic eats rice or wheat. Pancreas goes into overdrive and produces so much insulin the sugars that have been eaten get converted to energy, and the rest to fat, abnormally quickly. Instead of burning that sugar fuel over a period of time, it all goes at once. When that sugar rush ends, there is no sugar left in the bloodstream and the person “sugar crashes.”

I occassionally do this. Primarily when I eat very little, then have something with a bunch of sugar in it, then nothing else. My blood sugar will spike for a bit, then crash. Except for the end result is not being pissy and such, but rather I start shaking, and get very weak, particularly my hands. This happened to me while driving once and it got so bad that I almost had to pull over and let my friend drive. When I got home I started to eat something and my mom saw me shaking, did a blood sugar test, and saw my blood sugar was dangerously low. But once I ate, it went back up to normal and I was fine. She quickly made a doctors appointment for me. My mom's a nurse and can take care of day to day problems, even the more serious ones, without a problem, doc visits are usually for perscriptions we already know we need. When she deems something serious enough to go to the doctor for something other than a script, then you know there's a problem.

[Becks]

May I suggest that next time you either avoid the drive thru with your mom, or you arrange it so that YOU can order?

I understand your mom's point, but there was no call to be rude...especially when the poor employee was trying to answer your mom's question.

[AFpheonix]

I'm honestly trying to wrap my head around the rice and beans part. Those 2 together actually make a complete protein.
Why was she freaking about those, and not the tortillas?

[Kiwi]

I have to watch my blood sugar levels, I can swing both ways, go high and literally be crawling out of my skin then crash and freak out, crying and passing out. Because of my kidney situation I cant go on a low carb diet, anything near ketoses could put me in hospital, so what do I do.....

stay the heck away from fast food as much as I can.... you dont go to tacohell and expect healthy...

The best thing you can do is lead by example, treat the cashier as a human being and speak to them as nicely as possible. If anyone in your party has special requirements dont go through the drive though. Your not responsible for your mums actions but you are responsible for yours. Ask your mum how she would feel if that was you behind the counter being yelled at. That one always stumped everyone I knew...

I wont go out with my mum to places because of how she can act unless she promises me she will let ME do the talking if she inst satisfied.

[wagegoth]

I've had my blood sugar go as low as 37. Thankfully, I had a chiropractor/nutritionist years ago who knew how to handle it. R Kinkoid is right on. You need the complex carbs to raise your sugar, the protein to maintain it. That was also when I started taking chromium picolinate, which helped a lot, especially when I couldn't eat properly.

I usually drink water, but if I'm having a crash, I'll have a soda with my food. I won't drink anything sugary on an empty stomach. That glucose high is horrible.

[auntiem]

I'm hypoglycemic and have to be told that my intollerence level is crashing along with my blood sugar. My SO can see signs long before I can and suggests that I have a snack before I get in full swing. If we didn't catch it in time, he will order for me because, although I've never been rude to a food service worker I apparently can be awful to the poor soul who dares to be in front of me in line between me and my food. One "poor soul" was busy being a SC and turned to me for back up and I lashed out at her. I belive something was said about her IQ and parenting skills and her rude behavior I don't really recall all of it, but she quietly appologized to the cashier and got out of my way. So now I sit at a table and wait.
If you are going to be out and about with your Mom, perhaps you should do what my SO does and carry snacks with you - peanuts, beef jerkey, processed cheese sticks are all good. Maybe you could convince her to carry something in her purse.

[leaping_baby]

So did you ask your mum not to speak that way to the cashier? Because she was rude and objectionable.

Yeah, I did. She started getting all pissy at me and yelling that, "I'm the parent, you're the child! You do not correct the parent! That's disrespectful and you're out of line! Blah blah rant rant!" Talk about disrepectful? Oh, the irony.

[leaping_baby]

Who goes to Taco Bell if they know they don't want to eat rice or beans? Its like going to Burger King and whining about the veggie options.

We're in the middle of moving, and the fridge has been cleaned out. So there's no food in the house. I wanted to go to Taco Bell so that's where we went.

[leaping_baby]

May I suggest that next time you either avoid the drive thru with your mom, or you arrange it so that YOU can order?

Actually since we're moving, I won't have that problem much longer. After the weekend is over, I will have my own place and she will be in Colorado. So all is well.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Heheheh....my husband used to say to me "uuuuh....when was the last time you had anything to eat?" Which was Hubbyspeak for "You're being a bitch. Let's get you a snack."