Struggling to understand

[Emmz]

Hi there I'm new to this support group I wonder if anyone could offer any advice ...my brother who is 27 was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 13. It has come to light that he is having up to three hypos a week which he will hide from us as his family often drinks a lot of lucozade to regulate his blood sugars what's your thoughts on this as I'm concerned.
Thanks in advance

 

[Robin]

Hi there I'm new to this support group I wonder if anyone could offer any advice ...my brother who is 27 was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 13. It has come to light that he is having up to three hypos a week which he will hide from us as his family often drinks a lot of lucozade to regulate his blood sugars what's your thoughts on this as I'm concerned.
Thanks in advance

Hi Emmz, I can see why you are concerned, but the answer really is, it depends....
As a Type 1 I don't think I've ever gone a whole week without having least one hypo. Even with today's tools for management, they're not 100% reliable, and your body never stays the same two days running.
I often find I'm a bit low, especially if out of routine, or have been exercising, and I have recourse to a fruit pastille or two. If I felt that I was spotting them early, and treating them successfully, I think I'd be a tad irritated if the rest of my family were having a panic about them.
However, if you mean that his hypos are so severe that he needs help to bring himself out of them, or its affecting his behaviour, or his life, to a point where you feel he isn't safe, that might be a whole different ball game.

 

[RoyalBlood]

Hi Emmz,

Three hypos a week is actually not all that bad, and wouldn't be a great concern to me if I were in your brother's shoes. Obviously, this is assuming that the hypos are mild and not severe...

As a T1 myself, I would tend to shy away from other's when having a hypo. I certainly wouldn't broadcast it "EVERYBODY, MY BG IS LOW!" - because that draws attention to you. That attention can be slightly embarrassing because you're "not at your best" when suffering hypo: sweats, slurred speech, erratic behaviour, confused, muddled, etc...

From all that you've mentioned in your opening post; I wouldn't be worrying. That is providing your brother is healthy, fit, well and controlling his condition as well as he can.

 

[Northerner]

Hi there I'm new to this support group I wonder if anyone could offer any advice ...my brother who is 27 was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 13. It has come to light that he is having up to three hypos a week which he will hide from us as his family often drinks a lot of lucozade to regulate his blood sugars what's your thoughts on this as I'm concerned.
Thanks in advance

Hi Emmz, welcome to the forum 🙂 It would depend on how serious those hypos are. The good news is that he is able to treat them and has things to hand in order to do so 🙂 It can be very difficult to explain to people who don't have diabetes what a hypo actually is. In my case, I probably have a similar number, but they are usually easily treatable with a jelly baby or two, so they don't worry me particularly. Using insulin can be difficult to predict and there are a number of factors that can send levels low unexpectedly. If he's having them at similar times then it's worth investigating why it might be happening so he can head them off, but if you are trying to keep tight control on your levels a few dips are almost inevitable.

Often, people with diabetes don't want to talk about things like how many hypos they have because there is a feeling that, even with many healthcare professionals, they will worry and fuss unduly. The only real problem that can occur is when you only start getting the symptoms at lower and lower levels, known as 'losing hypo awareness' - this can be potentially dangerous if not addressed, usually by running levels a little higher for a while. 🙂

 

[Emmz]

Hi Emmz, I can see why you are concerned, but the answer really is, it depends....
As a Type 1 I don't think I've ever gone a whole week without having least one hypo. Even with today's tools for management, they're not 100% reliable, and your body never stays the same two days running.
I often find I'm a bit low, especially if out of routine, or have been exercising, and I have recourse to a fruit pastille or two. If I felt that I was spotting them early, and treating them successfully, I think I'd be a tad irritated if the rest of my family were having a panic about them.
However, if you mean that his hypos are so severe that he needs help to bring himself out of them, or its affecting his behaviour, or his life, to a point where you feel he isn't safe, that might be a whole different ball game.

Thankyou for your reply. Yes he does need help to bring himself out of them this tends to be from his wife and he can get quite aggressive when she tries to help. There have been occasions he has had to have the ambulance to support and he seems to lack the motivation to access any support from GP or diabetes nurse to address any of this. Currently I am really concerned as he is presenting with a lot of anger and hate this is directed at his wife who he has only been married to for 6months. In part I wonder is this depression that is creating a whole lot of issues the problem being he won't talk to any great extent and I'm not sure he even knows himself.

 

[trophywench]

The other thing you need to know is, because they've changed the recipe of Lucozade, those of us who use it to treat hypos, now have to drink more of it to be as effective as it used to be. They've reduced the sugar in it! - hence where I needed to drink 100ml, I'd now have to drink 150 ml to get exactly the same effect on my blood glucose. Your brother will be the same. Which bearing in mind there's 300+ml in a small bottle, so I always reckoned on being at least 3 treatments, now it will be only two treatments - so he and I will both get through the bottles quicker than we did this time last year.