My Aunt and her hypo in the night

[Carina1962]

I went to visit my aunt today she lives with my cousin and her family, she is a Type 2 on insulin and is 79 years old. My cousin was telling me today that they had to call out the paramedics the other week because my aunt was down to 1. something BS reading and was already in a coma. She had gone to bed as normal and my cousin took her a cup of tea and put it by her bedside like she normally does and then later on something made my cousin go and check on my aunt and that is when she realised that she was in a coma. The paramedics brought her round with glucose but my question is - if my cousin hadn't checked on her, would my aunt have died in the night? that is so awful and frightening and my aunt couldn't remember anything at all until she came round and saw a paramedic standing in front of her - she could have 'gone' in the night so easily and my cousin would have probably found her dead in the morning 😱

 

[Northerner]

That's pretty shocking Carina It is possible to drop really low and for the liver to eventually react and release some glucose into the bloodstream, but unfortunately this doesn't always happen so can't be relied on. Does she test before bed? We have had another lady on today with a similar story about her elderly mother who has had a lot of hypos in the night. Your aunt must make sure that she is at a good level before sleep and perhaps needs to look at her insulin doses to see if they need amending. She might also be advised to have a snack, like bread and peanut butter, before bed to help keep her levels up.

 

[Carina1962]

hello northerner, thanks for reply i assumed that she knows by now what to do ie check BS before bed etc i remember now my cousin saying that she's been a bit off her food lately so maybe she didn't check and treat it but yes it's pretty scary to think what might have happened, i think i'd be too scared to go to sleep again but my aunt was saying that she wouldn't have minded if she'd slipped away as she has never really got over the death of her husband and she is 80 next year and i think she feels she's had a good 'innings' but then as my cousin said, it's not nice for the ones left behind but how do you avoid this, is it by waking up in the night and testing? i really hate the prospect of ever getting hypos

 

[Northerner]

All you can do really is try and do all you can to prevent it happening. When it has happened to me I will usually set my alarm for a few nights following to check what is going on. If I've had a night hypo, the chances are that my background insulin is too high, which could be for a variety of reasons, so I lower the dose and then check for a few nights that it has worked to keep my levels reasonable. Your aunt should also make sure she has something sweet readily to hand, like on her bedside cabinet.

I hope it doesn't happen to her again, and that she can find some new interests to help her enjoy her life 🙂