Carers of type 1 diabetes

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Nikki

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Hi
Im 28 and my husband is 29. He has been type 1 since he was 11 years old. Sometimes he has hypos which can be a little stressful and i was wondering how other people deal with this situation. :confused:
 
Hi Nikki, my OH is utterly brilliant with my diabetes. He knows when i'm going low even if i don't and tries to bring me round (though sometimes im horrible to him in the process). The other night when I overcorrected a massive high, he sat up with me half the night making sure my levels were ok 🙂 But these things can be very stressful on the OH's, and i think they all deserve medels sometimes!
 
Hi and welcome to the forum!:D

My son is 11 and was diagnosed 10 months ago. I do understand how horrible it can be to watch someone suffer a hypo. I feel quite useless - but i just focus on making sure he has enough glucose to bring his levels up and dont let him see i am worried. It is very difficult to watch someone you love suffering. I dont think it is something you can avoid unfortunately, but staying calm and making sure there is always glucose very near is the key to keeping things calm.🙂Bev
 
Im always their for my husband but sometimes after the hypos i ask him if he has checked his bloods but he says things like (he cant be bothered or he hasnt had time) I get abit frustrated with these answers as it is so important to keep checking and to keep on top of his diabetes.
 
hi Nikki

last night i spoke to my o/h the reason being before me and him got together he was with a t1 for 4 years and i wanted to know off him how he managed to cope with it , the main thing he said is you have to read up as much as possible on how to treat and get it stuck into your brain so when it happens you know instinctivly straight away how to deal with it , he also said you must stay calm you dont need to be stressed either or it wont help neither of you , thirdly he said THINK when he has a hypo go back to the last 4 hours and think what he has had to eat and pin point what it was that caused it.
 
Nikki said:
Im always their for my husband but sometimes after the hypos i ask him if he has checked his bloods but he says things like (he cant be bothered or he hasnt had time) I get abit frustrated with these answers as it is so important to keep checking and to keep on top of his diabetes.
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Sounds like he could use some support too, Nikki -- it's hard to look after someone when they are resistant to looking after themselves. Oh dear. When's the last time he went on a course or sat down and evaluated everything with a DSN?

Hard on you...
 
also if you could afford it maybe worth doing a basis first aid course , some are even free, they are invaluble and they give confidence in dealing with those situations
 
steff09 said:
also if you could afford it maybe worth doing a basis first aid course , some are even free, they are invaluble and they give confidence in dealing with those situations
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Thats a good idea to deal maybe with tricks on keeping calm but be very careful about what they say about diabetes. I know for a fact that some first aid courses give wrong (very wrong) info about diabetes which is not good. ie give chocolate to treat a hypo as it is quick acting, ummm now what do we all know !
 
chocolate - not the sugar of choice, but sometimes just right...

If there's chocolate to hand, then it may indeed be the quickest way of raising blood sugar levels, but it's not the best if the choice of avaialble food also includes orange juice, sweets etc. A first aider has to weigh up the risks / benefits of leaving casualty to fetch food / call for help to bring food etc or just use what's there - admittedly, very unlikely that chocolate is actually kept in a pocket, as it would melt, but several times, I've had a couple of Quality Street sweets from a tin on a desk / station in a clinical setting, which was the easiest thing to grab to keep levels right, even easier than taking jelly sweets from my own pocket.
 
Copepod said:
... but several times, I've had a couple of Quality Street sweets from a tin on a desk / station in a clinical setting, which was the easiest thing to grab to keep levels right, even easier than taking jelly sweets from my own pocket.
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if i have chocolate in the house I will almost definitely use a hypo as an excuse to eat it 😎

unfortunately I dont often have chocolate!
 
I guess one of the things to remember for partners of diabetics is that blood sugar levels can affect mood quite strongly...my hubby bravely (rashly?!) points out when I'm grumpy & prompts me to check my sugar levels - brave man! 😉 Try not to take it personally if you feel like he's giving you the brush off re testing sometimes - we all get diabetes fatigue from time to time & can be a bit sensitive to even well intentioned reminders... but deep down I bet he appreciates that you care. 🙂

Re first aid courses - I always have to bite my tongue hard when they trot out the "aggressive hypo diabetic" stereotype - this may be true for some but definitely is NOT for me, & it's frankly flipping annoying to have to sit there feeling like everyone's now looking at you like you're some kind of a bomb on a hair trigger! Growl... (Oops, does that sound aggressive? Better check my sugar level he he! 😱)
 
Maybe I've been lucky that every first first course I've attended have said that people can be aggressive when hypoglycaemic, not that they always are - otherwise I, like Twitchy, would have to correct the instructor...
 
Unfortunately all the first aid courses I've been on (and I've been on a few) and those that my friends have (the ones that know about diabetes) have all been told rubbish about diabetes. So all I was doing was saying be aware that not all first aid courses will have the right information.

The correct way to deal with hypos is a burst of quick acting glucose which isn't chocolate I'm afraid. However as we all learn what works for us then people do use chocolate. I just didn't want any newly diagnosed people or their carers to think that chocolate is a great fix for a hypo. It has too much long acting in it to be classed as a quick acting fix of glucose. I wasn't saying don't use it but you need to be careful as it may not work quick enough.
 
sorry about suggesting first aid course , i thought it was a good idea.
 
steff09 said:
sorry about suggesting first aid course , i thought it was a good idea.
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Hey no you were right, it is a good idea. All carers should go on a first aid course if they can, they learn about resus and other stuff and they may get a general idea of diabetes. Its a good idea to ask about the courses first as some don't even cover diabetes. Some do and it is basic stuff and may need checking out and confirming after. It is a good idea. 🙂
 
first aid courses - recommended, even if not perfect

I'd go further - everyone should go on a first aid course. There have been several occasions in my life when knowing how to resuscitate people who have been pulled from sea, dealing with several nasty head injuries involving cuts and / or loss of consciousness, dealing with friends' children with various cuts, scrapes, stings, broken arms etc has been very important. None of those incidents happened when I was working in clinics, hospitals etc. Even if some instructors give slightly / very poor advice about dealing with hypoglycaemia, knowing what to do in other circumstances can save a life or minimise serious harm - for example, a friends' father had a heart attack in the street and was saved by 2 "alarmingly dressed" young women with "brightly painted finger nails", who kept his circulation going until the ambulance arrived - the important fact being not what they looked like, but that they knew what to do. I attended many course over the years, not least because my mum was a first aid instructor, but by the time my sister and I were teenagers, she insisted that we each did proper courses - about 10 evenings. We were able to count these courses for our Duke of Edinburgh's Awards, so got an added bonus for ourselves, as well as being able to help other people in the 30 odd years since then.
 
I agree with Copepod, in fact I'd put FA training on the high school curriculum and make it compulsory. I've had to use my training several times over the years, in one case saving a life - not on my own I hasten to add, there were two of us there that day.
 
going back to the agressive hypo thing, I get very very agressive with mine. To the point i once hit a paramedic. I apologised afterwards but bless him, he told me not to worry. I was only about 14 at the time. Poor Matt knows when I'm having a bad one as i get very very snappy and agressive, unfortunately work had no idea how bad i could get...and i had a huge go at one of the team leaders the other day. Oops.......
 
AlisonM said:
I agree with Copepod, in fact I'd put FA training on the high school curriculum and make it compulsory. I've had to use my training several times over the years, in one case saving a life - not on my own I hasten to add, there were two of us there that day.
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yup my o.h is in agreement there he had to resusitate some guy who he found lying on the ground who had had a heart attack , he was praised by the ambulance staff that day , he had only just been 5 days out of his FA training.
 
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