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Worried as diabetic boyfriend in USA with work

C

carly

Member
Messages
5
Hi there

My boyfriend is 39, insulin dependant since 18..

He is at a managers conference in Florida with his work at the moment. He arrived yesterday and is there until Thursday night. He text me last night to let me know he arrived safely. Earlier on this evening, he came on msn to tell me he was found in the hotel grounds last night, he had taken unwell. Two guys took him back to his room. He was then left in his room, and missed the conference this morning. His phone has gone missing. He has a room- mate, who knows he is diabetic but he was running late himself and left the room with my boyfriend in it. Luckily, my boyfriend managed to come out of hypo himself, and he is ok now. He has now no phone, and I'm worried his colleagues don't take care of him. He has never been to USA before, and he is not going to be able to contact me much, so I'm just going to have to assume he is ok. Short of phoning the hotel every 5 minutes. What advice can I give him on adjusting his insulin having crossed time zones? He said that the humidity is playing havoc with him,. Will he adjust in a day or so? It's hard not to be worried.
Thanks
Carly
Scotland
 
Is your boyfriend normally well-controlled? I go to the US quite a lot and never have problems with timezones and control, just feel a bit tired coming back, but I have it easy on a pump. If he's not used to it then it's important that he tests more regularly than normal. If he's on basal/bolus therapy then he will need to adjust his basal dosage on his return, sounds like it's too late to worry about the outward trip?!

His room-mate sounds absolutely charming, knowing your boyfriend's diabetic and just leaving him in the room after a hypo? Wouldn't want to be late for an important conference I suppose... Of course the flipside of that is how open he is about his diabetes at work, assuming work does know "officially"? In which case they have a responsibility and duty of care which they're possibly not currently fulfilling?

Personally I'd get him on the first plane home and ensure he has a serious chat with HR or Occupational Therapy at his company.
 
Sorry, I disagree. I have been to the USA on business afew times, and my problems is keeping my blood sugar down. I suspect then that your boyfriend is a well controlled diabetic, who adjusted his insulin...and got it a bot wrong. For me, I would loosen up the control a little bit. I would never normally say, let yourself go a bit high, but for hs own safety, it might be teh best thing, for a few days only though!!

Practically thought. get him to tell the hotel that he demands a personal wake call every morning...not just the automatic one they do these days. They should do this if he explains why. Also, stay off the wine and spirits, as tehy canmake your blood sugar go low. If he is on business, then he can charge is calls back to his company, so he has no excuse not to phone you..lots!

This may eb one of those lessons learnt the hard way..but he should have learnt it, and his colleaugue will now be more on the ball too,

Please don't worry (easy to say I know!) Last night, it all went wrong, and he lost his phone, but he did get back to his room OK, he did wake up today and he was unharmed. Yes, he has to be careful, but I imagine he is feeling very silly now, and will not let it happen again!
 
Sorry, just to clarify, the bit of Kegstores post that I disagree with is the bot about him getting on a plane immediately. Assuming he is not having a particular issue with his insulin, then I trully believe that he willbe so carful for teh rest of teh trip that this will not happen again.

However, if he is ill otherwise ( flu, etc, ect, ie somthing that is not "normal" for a diabetic, ) then he really should push to come home!
I also would not suggest, from the info that Carly has given, that his employer has done anything wrong. We have to help them, help us.
 
Hi,

I totally understand your concerns. My husband is a similar age and travels all the time as part of his work. He is away normally several times a month and it is a constant worry. It sounds like your partner takes his condition seriously and he is probably testing more than usual so he can be sure that his levels aren't dropping too low. As someone else said, it is worth while letting the hotel know so they can check in the morning if he hasn't surfaced. I would also suggest that he leaves a supply of glucose tablets by the side of his bed so he if does go a bit low in the night he can get to a supply of sugar quickly rather than having to get up and locate them in a suitcase in a strange room. I'm sure he will be fine. My husband has been traveling for all of his working career (averaging 4 trips a month) and he has nevel had a problem.
 
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