hi, I am writing as a seriously concerned daughter. My Dad is 70 and genuinely a well, healthy able man however he is type 1 diabetic and has in the last 6 months put on an even stricter diet. He isn't allowed to eat very many carbs and has become very sensitive to small changes in his diet. He keeps having small hypo in the night, yet has eaten what he is told during the day and checks his levels before bed. He lives in Spain so things might be different there but he is told to try and get his sugar levels at 100. He can go to bed with it near that and wake up (he may have had a hypo in the night) but they will be down at 75, if not lower. He then had breakfast. Anyway that a bit of background!! Last Thursday he was in his office and said he felt a little odd & knew he needed to eat something but just wanted to finish something off. He then went to kitchen to make some lunch but from making his lunch to walking up the 3 stair to the lounge he was swaying. My mum then got him to sit down and with minutes he turned in what can only be described a lunatic. He threw his lunch at her, she was trying to get him to eat some chocolate - wouldn't tak it. He was punching out, eyes like a mad man, swearing and wouldn't do anything she asked. They live quite remotely but have a neighbor who used to a nurse, she came over and then they called an ambulance. His sugar levels we to 32. He wouldn't let anyone near him, he was making no sense.They tried to give him a sugar syringe, he spat it out. In the end they injected him and he started to calm down. The whole thing was like nothing my mum had seen or experienced before and it scares her to imagine if she wasn't there he'd be dead because he wasn't at all aware of what he needed to do - completely confused. She also couldn't get near him to give him what he needed. Is there anything out there, like epi-pen for people with nut allergies, that she could 'stab' him with to get the sugar into him if he ever gets into this state again. He can't remember anything about it and knows he can no longer leave it if he's feeling odd and that he need to carry glucose tablets with him at all time. But we are wondering what options you have as a carer in that situation, assuming you don't have a nurse available or a ambulance. Is there anything my Dad can do to prevent this as we are now scared to leave him on his own, yet he is a very able person outside of this - sorry for the long message!! He does she a diabetic nurse on a regular basis but has to speak through translator.
