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How to treat weak nervous system after hyperglycemia

K

kuszu

BANNED
Messages
6
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Hi,
I'm 23, I have T1D since 17.
Last week my BG spiked up to 20mmol/L and after a few hours of my BG not budging from 20 (my insulin had gone bad in my pump and I had to change it), then it dropped to 6mmol/L within 1-1.5hours.
After the whole incident I'm left with a terrible nervous system, basically all I can do is stay in bed. Because of the nervous system damage I've been having diarrhea as well, while not wanting to eat.
My other problem is that the spike from last week scared me so much, that I'm left with panic attacks and anxiety, which makes my nervous system even weaker. I'm scared to stay alone, but I don't think I can go out yet, because all of this.
What do I do? Any tips, other than resting?
Thanks in advance.
(pump user, no CGM)
 
kuszu said:
After the whole incident I'm left with a terrible nervous system, basically all I can do is stay in bed. Because of the nervous system damage I've been having diarrhea as well, while not wanting to eat.
Click to expand...
Are you sure that this is caused by the hyper and not a separate illness? Can you talk to your clinic/doctors? Any chance they will fund you a cgm for the future? Note that illness can also cause blood sugar to spike badly so is it possible that the diarrhea is a cause of the hyper rather than a symptom?

Not a pump user so I haven't ever experienced zero insulin in my system (or a DKA, if that is relevant), but have had quite a few 20s in my day. (Try being a teenager pre glucometer on a fixed dose insulin... :)) Yes they made me feel absolutely awful but they didn't have much long term effect after my blood sugar was back in range. (Maybe that is just me.)

Most long term T1s have the occasional bad spike, whether from illness, gone off insulin, carbohydrate miscalculation, or a dozen other reasons. We treat with insulin and carry on. My understanding (and personal experience) is that it shouldn't do any long term damage to your system as long as you don't do it too often. It's long term high blood sugars that damage nerves. (Disclaimer, I am not a doctor and that is a personal opinion.)

So it seems to me that you have two issues here
1) current diarrhea and weakness. See a doctor
2) anxiety about the high. Have you get any friends/family/councillor that you could talk to about this? Or your doctor? Push for a cgm?

Lots of virtual hugs.
 
EllieM said:
Are you sure that this is caused by the hyper and not a separate illness? Can you talk to your clinic/doctors? Any chance they will fund you a cgm for the future? Note that illness can also cause blood sugar to spike badly so is it possible that the diarrhea is a cause of the hyper rather than a symptom?

Not a pump user so I haven't ever experienced zero insulin in my system (or a DKA, if that is relevant), but have had quite a few 20s in my day. (Try being a teenager pre glucometer on a fixed dose insulin... :)) Yes they made me feel absolutely awful but they didn't have much long term effect after my blood sugar was back in range. (Maybe that is just me.)

Most long term T1s have the occasional bad spike, whether from illness, gone off insulin, carbohydrate miscalculation, or a dozen other reasons. We treat with insulin and carry on. My understanding (and personal experience) is that it shouldn't do any long term damage to your system as long as you don't do it too often. It's long term high blood sugars that damage nerves. (Disclaimer, I am not a doctor and that is a personal opinion.)

So it seems to me that you have two issues here
1) current diarrhea and weakness. See a doctor
2) anxiety about the high. Have you get any friends/family/councillor that you could talk to about this? Or your doctor? Push for a cgm?

Lots of virtual hugs.
Click to expand...
Well, my doctor said that a quick and high change in BG (from 20 to 6) could cause temporarily symptoms like this and if it doesn't get better in 2-3 weeks to seek for a neurologist. To be honest, I would be happier to hear that it is caused by the spike, because then I wouldn't have to blindly look for another cause, you know. But I'll be seeing a neurologist next week (I'm not about to wait 3 weeks feeling like this), so I'll ask them what else could cause it. For the CGM, I used to have one a year ago, but my ex threw it out accidentally and I couldn't afford to buy a new one. I hope to buy a new one end of october tho, but as my contract for the current one is still in place I need to get some paperwork done to get a new one, which will take a few months.
I'm really frustrated with myself for letting this happen and not being able to go to school and work, also just not being able to have a lengthier conversation with anyone who comes to visit me, because I just get so tired and ill after a little bit...
 
Hello @kuszu

Is your doctor a GP or specialist diabetes consultant ? The info they have given in regards to your drop in BG's is questionable, I have never heard of anyone suffering nervous system damage from a sudden drop in BG levels in my 10 years living with t1 and having read loads of posts from t1's on here, so wouldn't directly link it to t1, yes the sudden drop can affect us temporarily but it's temporary, I would view that there is another issue going on here not directly linked.

What pump are you using ? What CGM should you be using ?
 
Juicyj said:
The info they have given in regards to your drop in BG's is questionable, I have never heard of anyone suffering nervous system damage from a sudden drop in BG levels
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Gotta agree with this.
In my 40ish years of T1 I've definitely had numerous times where I have plummeted a fairly large amount and have never had symptoms like that are not gone by the time my sugar level has sorted its life out

I would definitely been suspecting something else
 
Hi guys, it seems that my pump was wrong, but it didn't notify me of any error, the pump's selfcheck test didn't recognize any error either. I'm doing fine now, still scared sometimes, but I'm keeping it together. Just trying to stay much more cautious and not be scared if I'm a bit out of the range. A year ago my ex trashed my CGM, and I wasn't financially well enough to buy a new one, but I'm working on getting a new one now a year later. Thanks for the advices everyone.
 
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