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HUSBAND DIAGNOSED TYPE 1

S

spammy

Member
Messages
13
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
Insulin
Hello, my husband was diagnosed with tyoe 1 aftere a bad case of ketoacidosis, where he ended up in intensive care. He came home last Wednesday with all the paraphernalia and a few instructions. He has just had a hypo where it went down to 3.4, I gave him lucozade and sweet and it went back up to 10.7. He had just tested it again and it is now 25.7. It is all so very scary and hard to understand and not enough help on hand. Why would he have a hypo after dinner, did I not feed him enough carbs....so much to know. Any help or advice would be appreciated
 
HI and welcome. It will inevitably take time for you both to take it all in and learn to manage the insulin etc. I hope you are getting at least some initial support from the hospital diabetes clinic or your surgery. I assume your husband is on two insulins and called the Basal/Bolus regime? It will take a week or two to get the Basal balanced so that it matches the background glucose output from the liver. The meal-time Bolus 'ratio' also needs to time to fine tune and you also need to learn the typical carb content of different foods; not always easy for even the experienced. I can only assume the hypo after the meal was too much Bolus insulin or as you say less carbs than you expected. Next time I'm sure you will be able to get a better match. Bolus insulin can take at least 1/2 hour to start working and last for 3-4 hours so timing is always a factor. Let us know more specific questions and if it is the Basal/Bolus regime. Do try to get your surgery involved to assist.
 
I seem to have noticed this only minutes after you posted, please be patient, there will be others with much better advice. I'm type II so probably not the best to advise. Please be assured that you have come to the right place as there will be many other type I forum members with plenty of useful advice.
There is a lot to learn and dealing with the balancing act of carbs and medication isn't always easy; as someone who has changed my diet to ditch some medication I am familiar with the balancing act.
You mention a few instructions, has your husband been told how to count carbs or been offered any courses? Before the hypo how much carb did he eat and how much insulin did he inject. I can only imagine a hypo happening if he had more insulin than the amount of carb consume required.

Lucozade and sweet? Could that possibly have been too much? Some other more knowledgeable type Is will be along soon.

All the best
 
spammy said:
Hello, my husband was diagnosed with tyoe 1 aftere a bad case of ketoacidosis, where he ended up in intensive care. He came home last Wednesday with all the paraphernalia and a few instructions. He has just had a hypo where it went down to 3.4, I gave him lucozade and sweet and it went back up to 10.7. He had just tested it again and it is now 25.7. It is all so very scary and hard to understand and not enough help on hand. Why would he have a hypo after dinner, did I not feed him enough carbs....so much to know. Any help or advice would be appreciated
Click to expand...

Hi,

Friendly advice alert.. Get off the "trip" in red. :D
My wife jumps to this conclusion on the odd occaision I miscalculated the carb count.. ;) Even after being type one for nearly 39 years.
It could be your husband over bolused? Or the insulin action profile worked quicker than the type of carb eaten being digested..?? Hard to tell. There are a few more factors involved to take into account too. But I don't wish to ramble on without a full detail of the events regarding your husbands incident.
What were his BS before eating?
Hypos. The key is not to panic & over treat with the sweets.. There is a 15/20 minute lag with blood testing. Like snapshot in time due to blood circulation. So it's easy to think if you test five minutes after glugging Lucozade & scoffing a five pack of Mars bars (for instance.) in this time, that it's not having any effect..

I'm not trying to "blow your mind." My general advice would be get your husband to sign up here.!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
spammy said:
Hello, my husband was diagnosed with tyoe 1 aftere a bad case of ketoacidosis, where he ended up in intensive care. He came home last Wednesday with all the paraphernalia and a few instructions. He has just had a hypo where it went down to 3.4, I gave him lucozade and sweet and it went back up to 10.7. He had just tested it again and it is now 25.7. It is all so very scary and hard to understand and not enough help on hand. Why would he have a hypo after dinner, did I not feed him enough carbs....so much to know. Any help or advice would be appreciated
Click to expand...
Now I actually don't know anything about insulin but as to blood sugar I'd find a reading of 25 much more worrying than a reading of 3.4.

As I understand the injecting insulin thing is that a reading of 3.4 can be a problem if bg falls further.

My general advice to you is not to take too much responsibility for your husbands bg. He has to manage this.
 
The issue with the insulin dependant hypo when detected. (& say found on a test at 3.4mmol.) is due to the "lag" is this reading on the way down? So imediate treatment is paramount. Due to the experience. For me a little like being stoned. It is easy to go on a "bender". Essentially over treating & sending the BS in the wrong direction... It's a balancing act for all D types.

To add to the blurb your hospital no doubt already gave your husband...
A link on hypo treatment. http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Hypoglycaemia/Pages/Treatment.aspx
 
First off.. Hi..

Generally speaking....

If hypo within 2-3 hoyrs of having a foodbolys then it would be the bolus that was incorrect.

Your hubby may have ate something 2-3 hours earlier and that caused the hypo directly after eating.. Or the basal rate is a bit too high.

Going to 25 indicates that the hypo was over treated. A hypo advice would be to take 15gbworth of fast acting carb such as lucozade (not a whole bottle) and test 10 mins later to see if increasing.

However, your hubby should speak to DSN about this as there may be other factors such as incorrect carbcounting, the different way insulins react, exercise, stress etc, insulin too early before meal.. Etc

Being able to suggest something without knowing exact details of levels is very hard to advise on. Certainly diabetes is hard for both the diabetic and partners initially...
Neither of you should beat yourselves up about this. It is a huge learning curve.

Even at 30 years + T1 I still learn.....
 
Thanks everyone for your advice. In the end it went up again so nwe phoned out of hours docto, where my husband spoke to a nurse for some time. By 12.30 ITF had started to cone down and this morning its 10.7. There is so much to learn and know but I'm sure we'll get there. He will get on to his diabetic nurse today for more support. He is on insulin rapiud acting one , 4mml 3 times a day and then a long acting one at night time of 12mml. We just need to get that balance right and get back to a "normal" life. Once again thanks for your advice and I'm sure I'll be asking for more x
 
You just need to experiment and test often. I know of type 1s who use smaller amounts throughout the day and not a huge fast acting before a meal. I'm trying the new inhaled insulin and seems to be a purfect answer for type 1s, plus no pump or needles. Carb counting is so innacurate. You need to learn the glycemic loads of foods by a book or app. That's most important.
 
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