Big Bad Hypo (by sarah)
As some of you know Dad is diabetic this is slightly different to the gestational diabetis I had during the pregnancy. The link will probably make reading this post easier - sorry everything isn't clearer.
Last night we got back to Gloucestershire and having put Jean to bed I set out to do some sorely needed work, I saw that it was late and went to find Dad - who was laying on the bed, he responded dopily and I initially thought he was just tired. But when he came out onto the landing he kept checking his glasses becuase he thought they were dirty - this gave me the first glue as it ment his vision was blurry and as soon as he stepped into the light I saw the sweat pouring out off him covering his face and bald spot.
Dad was deepish into a hypo (hypoglycimic or low sugar levels) if I had left him or not checked on him he would have gone into a coma and died before I would have fetched him for breakfast in the morning. I was so annoyed with myself as I normally check he's eaten enough and keeping the sugar level steady-ish but of course with all the hospital stuff it turned out he had just had some toast for both breakfast and lunch with a bannana thrown in for goood measure. I hadn't thought to check and hadn't been at home when they where having these meals as I'd fallen asleep on route back from Highgate to Upminster and had ended up in Leytonstow (sp).
He was on the very cusp of it being a major hypo and failed to navigate the stairs perfectly which scared me (he slide down like three steps). I had to initially feed him as he wasn't with it enough to do this him self but I have had to deal with worse hypos in the past (he is a type 1 juvinile onset diabetic - insuline controlled and had a bit of an allergic reaction or something to a new type of insuline made synthetically in the 90's. On that stuff I had been unable to get him out of the coma even with the sugar solution and so had had to call an ambulance.) We'd been doing so well and he hadn't had a hypo for a while 🙁
Until...
The day of mum's opp. he'd just started to go hypo then too but me and David spotted it and fed him lunch - now he had eaten properlly that day and so everything should have been fine but I think that stress may have an effect on his metabolic system or something, I know tempuratures can affect things.
I was in the middle of dealing with this when Barbara came to find out what had happened to us and then ensued a confused conversation about why had I let dad get that cold - realisation that she thought I ment HYPO-thermia and that was sort of straightened out though she still insisted that I make him a hot drink :/ Alarmingly for me she thought he was fine and just a bit sleepy though his behaviour was erratic and speach slurred etc...
I was then stuck with a dilema - in his worrying about mum he had not packed his blood test kit - I had checked up on medicans and made sure he had all of them but had stupidly assumed that the blood test kit would just be with them. This ment we could not monitor Dads sugar levels and so we are running a bit blind. I didn't want to feed him too much sugary junk as that would just result in a short term high - at this point I was cursing myself for not having pinched the diabetic uk mag I'd seen in the bog at their home. I waited a bit and he seemed to be coming out of it and we both agreed that I would make him some proper food with the long term carbohydrates in (now I've probably got this all round my neck as I'm not medically trained and haven't really looked into things too well but I think that its the things like startch and that that the body actually has to digest to get the sugars that makes them long term - again I have no idea what the actual terms are or even if this is correct.)
This shook me up a bit and at some point I'll have to tell mum that I let him go that hypo - mew :'(
I get concerned about the hypos becuase as far as I know its not just the danger of death from the coma but each time it happens brain cells die, and capillaries do something odd which can result in blindness, uncontrolled sugar levels can also lead to gangreen and all sorts. It is so important that the surgar is controlled.
I've been trying so hard with this one as well as mum has type 2 diabetis and I have got the special cook books and read up on the GI of certian foods and stuff like that but I just wasn't thinking with everything that was going on.
The Family | sarah | 
Thu 25th Oct 2007 10:18 am
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