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pcolls67

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Type 2
Hi all I'm after some advice I was working nights last week at 01.45 I didn't feel well so I went to my car in the car park to get a small chocolate bar and my medication I sat in the car and fell asleep which I informed my manager on returning to work after an investigation I've now been suspended from work can anyone advice me please
Thanks paul
 
What kind of not feeling well? What was your blood sugar before the chocolate? Would you normally sit in a car by yourself eating chocolate if feeling unwell, rather than staying where people are nearby to help if needed or going home sick?
 
pcolls67 said:
My sugar was 0.4 I told my colleague I was going to sit in my car
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Are you sure it was 0.4? Most fingerprick meters don’t read to that number.

What do you know about treating hypos, what are your usual rules? Have you heard of needing fast acting carbs when low and not chocolate? Do you carry fast acting carbs on you at all times?

To be completely honest, if your blood sugar was truly 0.4 and you didn’t realise it was that low and didn’t treat it properly then you’re extremely dangerously hypo unaware. This means you could die from a hypo, or a hypo could happen whilst you’re driving and you could kill someone else. It’s illegal to drive with hypo unawareness unless you’ve declared that to the DVLA and they have cleared you to drive, so that could also result in you being charged with all manner of offences.

If you’re sure your blood sugar was 0.4 and you weren’t aware of how to treat a hypo then you need to urgently contact your diabetes team, discuss hypos and your hypo awareness with them, and likely contact the DVLA to declare the hypo unawareness. It’s not safe to drive at all, no matter how short the journey, until you’ve discussed the lack of hypo awareness with a professional.

Work is the least of your worries here, learning to manage diabetes enough to stay alive is way more important.
 
Hi and welcome.

Sorry to hear you had such a worrying episode.

Can you talk us through some details of your diabetes management. Things like:-

How long you have been diagnosed?
What if any medication you are on?
What you use to check your BG levels?
Who supports you with your diabetes management? ie. Is it a GP or nurse at the GP practice or are you under the care of specialists at a diabetes clinic, usually located at a hospital?

As @Lucyr has said, most BG meters will not read down to 0.4, they just say "LO" once you get below about 1.6 I think, so I wonder if that was a typo on your part or perhaps a malfunction of the BG meter. If you are at risk of hypos, then it is really important to keep hypo treatments with you at all times and chocolate is not recommended to treat hypos because the fat content slows down the release of glucose. You really need something like Dextrose/glucose tablets or jelly babies or orange juice or full sugar fizzy drink. Does the place you work at not have a rest room where you can go if you don't feel well, where you can test eat and recover.

It is really important that you treat hypos ASAP with something very fast acting because the longer your levels are below 4, the more risk there is that you will lose your hypo awareness which is very important for driving legally as well as the safety of yourself and other road users but also it is your safety net to potentially save your life. If you really were down below 1mmol then you are very lucky to be alive and being suspended from work is probably a good thing until you get this sorted out. What sort of work do you do? Is there a risk to others from you blacking out.

The more information you can give us about your diabetes management and medication and lifestyle, the better advice we can give you, but please understand that this is an extremely serious and life threatening situation by the sound of it and you do need to take it very seriously and get some support to improve things and perhaps being suspended from work is the wake up call you need if a hypo like this is not giving you the motivation to do something positive to sort things.

We all know diabetes is a pain in the backside but we have to keep ourselves and others safe my managing it well and it sounds like your management of your diabetes may need tightening up quite a bit. Please don't feel that this is your fault or that we are criticizing you because it is likely that you are not getting enough support or education in how to manage your diabetes, but you also have to take more care and be proactive in getting the support and help you need to manage it better. Joining this forum is a great first step and hopefully we will be able to give you some tips and practical advice once we know a bit more about how you manage your diabetes, but you need to reach out to your health care professionals too.
 
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