"Hypo fit"

Thumper

Member
Messages
9
My 13yr old son has been type 1 since he was 18 months old. He has his insulin via pump for 2 years. On Monday night he had a fit during the night. Although I have a nursing background I had no idea that this could happen. He is usually pretty ok with pump but that night had was overzealous with bolus dose. Although we know why he had the fit, how do I now regain the confidence to let him go on sleepovers? I feel now like I did when he was first diagnosed. :(
 

hanadr

Expert
Messages
8,157
Dislikes
soaps on telly and people talking about the characters as if they were real.
Very low hypos do trigger fits. Usually in insulin users.
It happened to my husband some years ago. He was in the supermarket with our daughter who was only 4 at the time. The manager called an ambulance and tiddler was able to give name address and phone number. That was the one and only time.
Hana
 

Thumper

Member
Messages
9
Thanks Hana. I now know its rare but can't help feeling worried about him being away from home at night. At least it's made us all step up to the mark- we were becoming a bit complacent as he's actually very well and fairly well controlled. ( last HbA1c 7.9) which I've been told is not bad for a teenager.
In the 12 years he's been type 1 I've never used Diabetes UK resources, but I felt impelled after this incident to talk to other people about it. It's GREAT.
Helen
 

elainechi

Well-Known Member
Messages
249
my friends son tends to fit when has a really bad hypo...always night time...told her to mention it to the clinic as last one he was compromising his airway...lucky he was heard thrashing around x
 

Giverny

Admin
Administrator
Messages
1,683
Type of diabetes
Friend
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Dislikes
Dishonest people, pessimism, spiders, mushrooms.
I'm not even diabetic and I've had a fit due to low blood glucose. I had been up for 36 hours and not had anything to eat in over 24, during which time I also travelled from Coventry to Reading for a music festival. It's a really horrid and scary thing to go through, but if your son's control is usually good, then just make sure the people he's usually around are aware that this can happen and ensure they know what to do if it does.
 

CarbsRok

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,688
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
pasta ice cream and chocolate
Thumper said:
My 13yr old son has been type 1 since he was 18 months old. He has his insulin via pump for 2 years. On Monday night he had a fit during the night. Although I have a nursing background I had no idea that this could happen. He is usually pretty ok with pump but that night had was overzealous with bolus dose. Although we know why he had the fit, how do I now regain the confidence to let him go on sleepovers? I feel now like I did when he was first diagnosed. :(

Set his pump so it has a maximum delivery. Also insist that a bedtime bg is done and whitnessed by an adult.
Hope you soon regain your confidence.
 

Thumper

Member
Messages
9
Thanks for comments. Have reset pump for max delivery so hopefully he won't be able to overdose. The night he had fit his BM was 13.9 going to bed. He's had another night since when his BM was 2.4 at 3am, I woke him to give him riven a but he doesn't remember anything. In the past he has always woken when he has felt low, so I think I'm in for a few interrupted night doing BM watch. My husband worries about our sons diabetes but not enough to check BM even though he gets up to go to the loo! :|
 

CarbsRok

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,688
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
pasta ice cream and chocolate
Thumper said:
Thanks for comments. Have reset pump for max delivery so hopefully he won't be able to overdose. The night he had fit his BM was 13.9 going to bed. He's had another night since when his BM was 2.4 at 3am, I woke him to give him riven a but he doesn't remember anything. In the past he has always woken when he has felt low, so I think I'm in for a few interrupted night doing BM watch. My husband worries about our sons diabetes but not enough to check BM even though he gets up to go to the loo! :|

Sounds as if your son's basal needs testing. Perhaps you husband will do half the night and you do the other half. So not to much sleep lost between you.
 

Thumper

Member
Messages
9
CarbsRok
Not much sleep lost on my husbands side as he's slept through the few lows my sons had over the last couple of weeks. Howvever, basal rate now at a level where no lows for last 6 nights, whew! ( and he's just learnt how to "dual wave" bolus so we'll see what happens.
 

Liamg99

Newbie
Messages
2
My son has been diagnosed as type 1 since September. We haven't had any low sugars in the night yet, but the thought of him having a hypo in the night scares the life out of me. I havent slept because I am constantly checking him. How will I know if he is having a hypo, what are the signs? And what do I do?
 

Laubie

Member
Messages
8
I was diagnosed type 1 when I was 9. I had my first 'hypo fit' when I was 14 and on holiday with my family. I had a sneaky few glasses of my parent's Sangria and got a little tipsy!
I accidently injected two lots of levemir that evening (60 units in total), probably because I was a little out of it. I ended up having a horrendous fit and rushed into hospital etc.

I was told that 'hypo fits' are quite rare. However, I had another hypo fit at a friend's house party when I was 16 and a further 3 fits whilst at University. This time, I had definitely NOT over-compensated on insulin but all were a result of heavy alcohol consumption. At the house party, my parents were called over and they dealt with me after the first experience. They brought me round with small amounts of honey on the inside of my cheeks and then I was fine - no need for an ambulance! The times at Uni were interesting - once I was discovered by my House Mate and they called an ambulance and I went to hospital. The second time it happened my housemate came to my room because they heard me thrashing around but I had stupidly locked my door. By the time they broke it down I had recovered and was just re-gaining consciousness. I was fine, though sore. My BG was 13 and although it was scary when my firends told me what happened I also felt re-assured as I had gone through it and come out the other side un-scathed.

I did DAFNE in March this year and found out that I wasn't the only person this had happened to! There were 9 of us on the course and myself plus three others had experienced hypo fits at some point. Although mine seemed to be associated with alcohol, other people's were due to a number of reasons.
They were then explained properly to me. Some diabetics will fit if they have a severe hypo. Others will not purely because their body has a different idea of what constitutes 'severe'. Some people may fit if they drop below 2.5, others may not fit until they get into the 1's or below!
They are dangerous, but mostly because the kind of toll a fit will take on your body, rather than because your blood sugar is severely low. Apparently, the fit eitehr prompts or is perhaps a side-effect of your liver releasing all of your glucose stores. It is quite a natural response, though certainly not healthy.

I had another fit about 18 months ago, this time I hadn't had any alcohol but was quite unwell with cold/ flu at the time and may have been a little over-zealous with my insulin. My husband found me but luckily I had already told him what to do in such a situation.
He made sure I didn't bang my head as I was fitting and waited until I stopped. The he tested my blood sugar and as it was under 4 he rubbed hypostop gel on the inside of my cheeks and lips. Then he kept repeating testing and administering gel until I became conscious every 5 mins. He was under strict instructions that if I didn't come round after 40 mins he was to call an ambulance! But luckily it only took 10 mins for me to regain consciousness.

I write about my experiences of this to hopefully enlighten but more importantly to re-assure you! I have been through these fits and although they are scary and can be dangerous they are a natural response.
The important thing would be to keep panicking to a minimum and deal with each situation as it arises.

Thumper - your son's age will mean he has a LOT of hormones racing through him at the moment! And as insulin is a hormone any sort of unbalance can make it have a slightly different effect! And as most of us diabetics know, it only takes a slight upset to the equilibrium to send the whole thing haywire!
Close monitoring is probably the best thing to do at all times, not just at night. I know that now I am well controlled I do not test quite as regularly as I should. So just stepping up the amount of testing will be hugely beneficial to see what is going on.
His body is going through some big changes so it only makes sense that his diabetes may be changing too.
Just wait until he starts drinking with his mates!!!

Liamg - unfortunately night time hypo paranoia is something a LOT of parents have. Whilst you are still in the early stages of getting everything under control 1 x 2/3am test each night may be beneficial as it will improve control and may also put your mind at ease. You don't want to be disturbing him too much as it is important that we learn to live normal lives with this condition!
But if you just do it for a short time, until control is improved and things become a little bit more predictable, then it may be more manageable.
There isn't a lot you can do as far as identifying symtoms whilst he is sleeping - there are things to recognise during waking hourse and your Specialist Nurse and Doctors should have gone through all of this with you. But sleeping hypos will wake most diabetics up. So it's important that your son is taught to recognise the symptoms himself. Keeping a glucose monitor and a hypo treatment by the bed is a very good idea (I broke my toe trying to get downstairs to make jam on toast to treat a hypo once...) and letting him know that he can call to wake you up if he feels he needs help?

Hope this is of help!
 

adrian29459

Well-Known Member
Messages
77
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Hello Thumper. I'm a type 1 diabetic with both experience in injections and insulin pumps. I've had diabetes for 14yrs since I was 12 and over the past 6 years I've had over 30 seizures (or fits). This was really hard for my parents and we come up with a number of reasons why they could have occurred. Some were due to exercise, some over-bolus, there's even ones where my BG was high and I put it down to a recent stressful situation. It might be worth checking any of these.

Good to hear you have the basal rates sorted. Also make sure he has a good carb rich/low GI supper before bed, especially if he's been exercising. At first this may result in a few high readings on morning so be careful not to over-correct on breakfast - I had a few severe hypos at work due to this.

After a number of unexplainable seizures with blood sugars being normal/high before or after I was later diagnosed with epilepsy and now take a small tablet dose to control. Luckily I haven't had a seizure since April 2011 and have lived alone since June 2011. If you haven't already, look at getting a Hypowallet, it useful in emergencies when you're out of Lucozade http://www.hyposite.co.uk/hypowallet/
 

CantThinkOfAUsername

Active Member
Messages
25
I've had quite a few over the years and broken two bones while fitting because of them and those were some of the less dramatic ones I have experienced. Some were extremely scary.