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type 1 and going under general anaesthetic

claire_786

claire_786

Well-Known Member
Messages
71
Location
birmingham
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
hi everyone, so maybe on friday i will be going under general anaesthetic for about half an hour, and they told me not to eat 7 hours before the procedure, so that is not eating 2:00am and it starts at 09:00 in the morning so any tips on how to avoid hypos and even going too high
 
Is your basal insulin set at the right dose Claire? if it is you shouldn't have too many problems but the stress of the procedure may increase your bg levels, if in doubt have a word with your DSN.
 
I had a general last year that lasted 1.5 hours. I just reduced my Basal a bit and obviously had no Bolus. The hospital will check your blood sugar shortly before the op and correct if necessary.
 
I,ve had it 3 times, but the first 2 I had to go into hospital the day before as they where big operations on my hips. 3rd time was getting a wisdom tooth out, bllods where fine but after I came round they where really high (30,s) had to give myself a shed load of insulin and was doing press ups in the waiting room. If I remember rightly it took about 3-4 hours for it to come down low enough before they would let me go home
 
I've had surgery 3 times since my T2 diagnosis. The first time due to inaccurate fasting advice and an unforeseen delay on the day, I went 17 hours without food and was beside myself with "false hypo" symptoms - my BG was about 3.5 IIRC, which felt like a lot lower to someone not used to that. So they corrected it with some glucose in theatre, which sent me up to about 17. Not cool.

The other two times, the fast was shorter but I still went low and they corrected this slowly with a bag of saline that had a little glucose in it, by IV over about 4 hours, while I waited for the op. This was much better and my BG after the op was only 9 or something. Also, they tested my BG every hour while I was on the IV glucose. I think that would be really important for a T1.

My advice (from a T2 perspective, so it might not apply to T1) is to stay up as late as possible the night before so you can make your fast as short as possible. If you need glucose at the hospital, a slow drip is probably better than a shot of glucose in one go. Make sure the procedure is going to happen at 9am - either it's an appointment time, or you are first on the surgical list. Diabetics should always be first on the list if possible. If the procedure is going to happen at 11 am, then ideally you would eat at 4am, which is pretty inconvenient. If I have the chance to, I try to get procedures scheduled for the afternoon, so I can have a small breakfast.

Good luck!
 
thanks everyone for the reply in definitely going in tomorrow morning, all im worried about is going low while fasting
 
claire_786 said:
thanks everyone for the reply in definitely going in tomorrow morning, all im worried about is going low while fasting
Click to expand...

Good luck tomorrow, worrying /stress can out your BS up, I think the highest is about 14 to have an operation. I was told it's best to be a bit higher, than too low.

Take care RRB
 
They will check your BG as soon as you arrive and then as often as needed. If it is low, they should give you IV saline/glucose. If they don't, ask for it as slow infusion is better than getting glucose in one go.
 
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