My husband is 28 and has had type 1 for the last 11 years. He is fit and healthy and exercises a lot. Over the years the frequency of his hypos have become greater.
He can rarely detect the signs himself now and unless someone else points it out to him he is a gonna.
He has had 7 episodes at night since the beginning of this year where he has gone low to the point of having a fit. Normally I wake up to his signs of his sweating, twitching or being restless and am able to help him avoid a fit, but since the beginning of the year these signs have gone too.
He usually keeps his sugars around 5.5 or 6.
Does anyone know how he can get his early warning signs back and how he can control it better?
Oh he works shift work – not night shift though.
30
Dec 2009
My Husband Has Type 1 Diabetes And Can Not Control It Very Well?
By 5 Comments
One very simple thing you can do to help him with his diabetes, is to have him eat 5 times a day. If he has small frequent meals, his chances of going into a hypoglycemic episode are greatly reduced. He sounds healthy otherwise, so just keep giving him little snacks to eat besides the regular three meals a day. If for some reason he can’t eat often while at work, he can at least eat something on his breaks which should be about every two hours. I hope this helps!
Make sure he eats before bedtime! If he can’t, don’t take the night dose of insulin. Is he taking NPH or Lantus at bedtime, these are long acting insulins and if he is having trouble at night, should not take them. Talk to his doctor, record glucose results 4 times a day (before each meal and at bedtime) for a few weeks and bring the results with you to the doctor. He is the best person to advise.
How often does he check his blood sugar? Is he in control of his diabetes or is having just as many highs as lows? What is his diet like? Does he lots of carbs? My suggestion would be to go see a diabetic specialist. He needs to get his hemoglobin A1C checked every 6 months at least. Eating small meals four to five times a day might help, but if he does shifts that can impossible. He needs to check his blood sugar several times a day!!! That is crucial so that you can see trends–if he is experiencing them more at certain times than others then he will know that he needs to eat something at that time. You stated it was happening more at night. He needs to eat something with high carbs before he goes to bed. Also he may be taking too much insulin and may need to cut back. He really needs to see a diabetic specialist (one who has diabetes and/or is involved in research and training). No offense to regular doctors, but if you don’t have the disease or work with people that have it often, you can’t truly treat diabetes because of its complexities. Hope this helps!
you might consider getting a continuous glucose monitor for him. that will give a blood sugar reading every few minutes and he can see which direction he is going in and you can check it at night without waking him.
I just had a low blood sugar incedent with my husband over the weekend. I’m not sure what the answer is. How many shots is he on? Can I suggest that he lower his last insulin shot before bed? Also, what type of exercise is he doing and how often? I want to know that only becuase I am trying to motivate mine to exercise more.