shakey hands and guns... type 1 diabetic

[schafe]

For shakeyness you can try a beta-blocker. Talk to your doctor and he may tell you to take 20mg 30 minutes prior to shooting ant it may help. It does with a condition know as essential tremor as well as other nerve issues.

Propranolol is the best for this and it is generic. $4 script at walmart

I have been diagnosed with Essential Tremor. I was on Propranolol for a while. It helped a little, but I felt like..... the whole time. I got off that and currently take nothing for the condition.
I do try to make sure to get enough rest, and that really helps as much as anything. Secondly, I try to keep the caffein intake as low as possible, but if I get self conscious, or nervous, and have had caffein within a few hours, the wife consistently out shoots me.That's my story an' I'm stickin' to it!! (the only advantage to ET is that you have another excuse in the arsenal)
At the range, shooting technique is king. I do use a left handed, bent arm technique, wierd-oh modified Weaver stance in an effort to learn to control the shakes and get a good shot off. It does produce some semblance of a group.
I intend to ask the neurologist to try a few other things, but I don't hold out much hope for the chemical route. Not much help,I know, but just my experience. Getting old is only for the tough!!

 

[davidparrish60]

I have been diagnosed with Essential Tremor. I was on Propranolol for a while. It helped a little, but I felt like..... the whole time. I got off that and currently take nothing for the condition.
I do try to make sure to get enough rest, and that really helps as much as anything. Secondly, I try to keep the caffein intake as low as possible, but if I get self conscious, or nervous, and have had caffein within a few hours, the wife consistently out shoots me.That's my story an' I'm stickin' to it!! (the only advantage to ET is that you have another excuse in the arsenal)
At the range, shooting technique is king. I do use a left handed, bent arm technique, wierd-oh modified Weaver stance in an effort to learn to control the shakes and get a good shot off. It does produce some semblance of a group.
I intend to ask the neurologist to try a few other things, but I don't hold out much hope for the chemical route. Not much help,I know, but just my experience. Getting old is only for the tough!!

yea, i heard about the B.B. and that sometimes they work, but i have heard they do make you feel like mess... i've been trying alot of shooting positions and techniques, and its funny that some of the most ungodly positions seem to work the best!!! i've been told by my brother and friends like i look so funny in some of the ways that i try, but im still shooting better than they are!!!

 

[Newbomb92]

A couple Ativan will help.

 

[schafe]

A couple Ativan will help.

I had to look that one up. I hadn't heard of it. It seems that there isn't one single category of drug that is effective for the majority of ET patients. Apparently everyone responds differently.
I think it's a kind of crapshoot that Neurologists go on hoping to find what works for your particular symptoms.
We can talk all we want about the marvels of modern medicine, but it is still very limited, and is oftentimes only oriented toward symptom relief, and not cure. I'm not harping on the doctors at all here, they do the best they can, and for the most part are quite sympathetic, but their weapon collection is as meager as mine. (so to speak)
On a side note...this thread shows me that as a shooter with tremours, I am not totally alone.....good to know.

 

[stroyed]

I dont know which is worse. The shakes or the fading vision. I have nearly stopped shooting rifles and pistols and gone almost exclusively to shotguns. I still try to zone in on the bullseye every now and then. Good days and bad days, I guess. I woke up on the right side of the ground this morning. That is usually a good sign.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I've had some sugar and pressure issues. I gained a lot of weight with a couple of bad sciatic nerve episodes. I couldn't walk, much less exercise meaningfully. Oh, yes, I've had the epidural steroid shots, plus some in the hips. One hit the nerve directly and was the worst pain I'd ever experienced. I've lost about 50 lbs over the last year, and my medicine has been cut significantly. Hope to be off it entirely one day. My symptoms with low sugar are I get hot and sweaty regardless of the temperature, then disoriented. I carry glucose tablets. Recently, I had the shakes a lot when a new medication interacted with the others, but i don't usually.

 

[DRob]

Options

It seems to me everybody here has tried to recommend a solution to the medical issues. I don't know anything about all that. I would like to simply point out that a change in the type of shooting you do might serve to keep you "in the game", so to speak. There are lots of shooters here who apparently think of shooting only in terms of self defense. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, and I would never suggest anybody give it up entirely, but why not try bench rest shooting? I do what I consider enough shooting with the gun I carry and our HD shotgun to maintain an adequate level of competence but the majority of our shooting is off a rest or bags. Putting a number of shots in 1" at 100 yards is pretty challenging even off a rest. Different kind of gun, different kind of shooting, but shooting just the same! Whatever floats your boat is great but I say why allow physical or medical issues to dictate your limits. Scope it, bag it, and stack bullets in the same hole.......handguns included!

 

[MrSmitty]

What is your BG level, my son (9) has type 1 and get shakey when his BG is low. And when BG is too high can cause problems too.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

My last A1C was 5.8, which is normal. I had a scare last night, though. I hadn't eaten much yesterday, and I fell asleep at the table. I woke up feeling bad, and found I was at 37, which is getting into the slipping into a coma range. I quickly ate some glucose tablets and a poptart.

 

[Double T]

If you are type 1, do you have an insulin pump? Or how frequently do you check your glucose? I'd say next outing, check your sugar before, mid, and after....and see if you have any spikes or drops in glucose...

Also, try eating some protein before going out. Cheese and crackers would be cheap and worth a shot.

FWIW, not a doctor, just a nurse.

I'd be really interested in knowing your situation, and how your glucose levels are during a range trip.