NewBee Question about Diabetes Control

[JoeLitt]

I am new to diabetes so need a little help, and sorry for being so long winded. Apparently my exposure to some of the defoliants used in SE Asia may have contributed to my recently being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes so fighting my own battle. Consequently my 92 yr. father was also recently diagnosed with Type II Diabetes so would like to bounce a few things off of the group. My father is currently in a nursing home a hundred or so miles away (a truly horrible experience, but that is another story) and is being treated for his Type II Diabetes by the nursing home staff. The Staff LPN’s are taking his blood sugar reading prior to every meal , breakfast, lunch, dinner and then at 8:00 PM and giving him insulin 4X per day after or during the meal and then prior to him retiring for the evening on a sliding scale. Apparently the scale is set up so that it jumps 3 – 4 units every 50+ increase, such that a glucose reading of 246 = 14 units of insulin. It appears that the scale is designed to lower his glucose readings into the 80 - 130 range. The only problem is that the staff LPN’s are giving my dad up to 15 units of insulin 4 times per day. From an uneducated observation, it appears that when they drop his blood sugar that quickly, even though it may drop from about 300 to only about 114, he becomes almost comatose with pin pointed pupils, slurred speech, unable to stay awake and sometimes unable to respond.

For example, I drove down to visit my Dad a couple of days ago and when I found him, he was basically passed out in his wheel chair and very very unresponsive. When I finally got him to a partial level of consciousness, I attempted to help him eat. He was very drowsy, basically he was just barely awake until I got some food into him and he started coming out of the stupor/sleep for a very short time and then fell back into an almost catatonic state. He started responding about 20 minutes later and I fed him some pears which he perked up temporarily and then he again went back out. About 15 - 20 minutes after he had eaten, he again perked up until they took his blood sugar and gave him, another 14 units of insulin which put him back out. These symptoms/contraindications appear to resemble what I am seeing thru my research listed under hypoglycemia, and similar to falling into an insulin coma. My question, is it possible to send a person into an insulin coma when your blood sugar is dropped so quickly, say from the high 200’s/low 300’s to the 80 to 130 range?

 

[Unjustified]

Joe,

I've had problems with high blood sugar levels for a while now, and have found when I drop my levels rapidly like you describe the same thing happens. The basic understanding is that if you have constantly high blood sugar levels, your body will acclimatize to these levels, and when you drop them back down to a "normal" level, your body will show the signs of a hypo, even if they are now at a normal level.

The only way to fix this problem is to struggle through the fatigue and other side effects and to keep the blood sugars at a lower level, and eventually the symptoms will go away, and your father will feel better for it. If his sugar levels keep going that high, despite the amount of insulin, I would suspect it is something in his diet and to consult a dietitian.

Hope this helps, and Happy New Year

James

 

[mikegresty]

hypos can resemble many forms to start with including phasing out of reality and staring into space, shaking and jerking of body and limbs, confused behaviour and shouting without need or making sense and whilst the symptoms you describe could be hypos the end results don't sound familiar to me as when blood sugar drops to much fitting would start and if untreated would last approx 8 hours before he finally came around although being like this can cause physical injuries and brain damage at the extremes. I'd advise you take a test meter and check his levels yourself and never under no circumstances give insulin if levels are low other than to counteract a current meal etc plus another thing bloods are best taken half an hour before a meal and an hour afterwards and insulin given should take results at these times into account, if you need anymore advice please don't hesitate to ask I've 30 years experience with diabetes myself.