Advice needed on sporadic unexplained vomiting.

Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Jani

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent
Hi everyone,
I posted at the weekend after my 22 year old type1 son had been in hospital with severe low blood sugar after vomiting a few times. He's had type1 for four years and it's the first time he's had any big problems.
Anyway this morning he's woken up and vomited again and feels nauseous, he's been taking half the insulin he usually takes both for basal and quick acting.
He's left a message for his diabetes team,but tbh he has had minimal support from them.
Is the the nausea and vomiting part of having type1or something else? It doesn't seem like a bug as there are no other symptoms, as in temperature or stomach ache.
He's getting more and more anxious about his health with the random vomiting.Hes trying to keep his level a bit higher than usual as he is afraid of going low again.
Any advice on this would appreciated.
Thanks
 
So sorry to hear your son is still unwell.

No, vomiting is definitely not part of Type 1, but we can get sick from other things the same as anyone else. We are also probably more prone to anxiety and eating disorders. I am not sayng this is the issue your son has, but it is important to keep all possibilities in mind. Anxiety can make us nauseous and vomit and since food can cause us anxiety, it is possible that that is at the root of his problem, but equally possible that there is something amiss completely separate of his diabetes or perhaps something linked to his diabetes but in a different way. For instance, could he possibly be Type 3c and not Type 1 and his pancreas is flaring up, perhaps with pancreatitis, although generally I would expect levels to go high rather than low in that situation.

I think the best you can do is keep pestering his team.... unfortunately many of the diabetes clinics are overloaded with work and struggling to provide adequate support, so you do have to be politley pushy to get the help you need.

Does your son have a means of testing for ketones? I appreciate his levels are going low at the moment but with vomiting it is important to keep an eye on ketones if his levels swing the other way or he pushes them higher to prevent going too low again.

Diabetes is very much a balancing act and it is really tricky, especially when illness stirs things up and messes with the balance and all the more so when you lose confidence in your ability to manage it. Does he have Libre or other CGM as that can give some peace of mind as alarms can be set higher to warn of levels going low. It is also important to know that glucose will absorb quite quickly through the cells inside the mouth so he doesn't necessarily have to swallow hypo treatments for them to be effective. If he can chew or swill sweet stuff around in his mouth, that will help to raise levels. I know there is a tendency to panic over hypos and get the hypo treatment into our digestive system as quickly as possible. I know I used to just do a couple of chews of jelly babies and swallow them down, but our digestive system starts with out mouth and that is closer to the brain than the stomach, so absorbing glucose through the mouth is usually quickest and less likely to trigger vomiting as when something hits the stomach. Liquids are usually absorbed quickest because they don't need any chewing. I found a spoon of runny honey was good when I was poorly as it was very concentrated thick sweet liquid. You can also get special gel hypo treatments, which I am told taste yuk, so may not be helpful when you feel sick already, but I haven't tried them myself.

Really hope your son feels better soon. I can imagine it must be incredibly worrying for you as well as him. Sending (((HUGS)))
 
Sorry to read about your son's issues.
You say he is keeping his levels higher - how high?
The reason I ask if that vomiting could be a symptom of DKA if his levels are maintained too high.
 
Hi @rebrascora and @helli Just an update, he has spoken to his diabetes team and they think he's most likely still in recovery mode from his original incident, they suggested keeping his level around 7 ish if possible His ketones are low as in 0.2/0.3 he's been told to eat much smaller meals for now and they will see him next week. He's now up and about feeling perfectly normal! I’m pretty sure it's not an eating disorder although I can understand why it was mentioned, it's such a roller coaster, they will refer him for further investigation if it's required, fingers crossed its just as one off situation. Yes he has a libre but his team have offered him a Dexcom 1 as the libre readings can be pretty out of whack for him. Thanks for all your advice, it's so helpful.
X
 
Stomach troubles can drag on sometimes @Jani I once had a horrible bug that lasted a couple of weeks but, even when recovered, my digestion didn’t feel right and I had to limit my diet a lot. This went on for many weeks. I don’t know what caused it, but sometimes our digestion can really be shaken up. It’s not to do with diabetes, just bad luck.

I would ask if he’s had a recent coeliac screen though. If not, that would be worth ruling out. In the meantime, I’d advise him to stick to bland meals. I actually couldn’t eat any fruit or cream or anything rich for ages. My daughter had the same thing and developed a temporary lactose intolerance. What helped us were specific probiotics.

Keeping his blood sugar slightly higher is sensible. I did the same.
 
Hi @Inka Thats interesting, No he hasn't been offered a test for coelics, Yes he's definitely going to be sticking to bland meals for a while. I’m lactose intolerent myself, I had kind of ruled it out for my son because he didn't have any stomach pain, but who knows, it's all a bit of a mystery at this point.
 
People with Type 1 have a greatly increased risk of developing coeliac disease. It would be something worth ruling out.
 
Thanks for the update @Jani and glad to hear he is up and about and feeling much better.

Hope the smaller meals help and the investigations bring some clarity.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top