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Unconscious Hypo

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J

jimmysmum

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
I am curious to know how many of you (if any) have had to administer the Glucagon injection to your child because they have become unconscious because of a hypo?

If you have what were the circumstances surrounding it? like had they had a hypo before and you treated it but they still fell etc?

I ask because today, my husband picked our daughter up from pre-school; she goes 9-12 and at 10.30 he goes round to check her BS, he went as normal today and at 10.30 she was 14.8 (we are still getting her doses right so shes still a bit high, only diag 2 weeks ago) anyway he went back at 12 to pick her up and as soon as she came towards him he knew she didnt look right so sat her in the buggy and done her BS which was 3.1 and she started to 'go' as he put it, her eyes were rolling and sunken and she was shaking quite badly, he was very worried... they got a fruit shoot down her and then a flap jack (bout 25grams combined) and she only came up to 5.4 after 20 mins, she then scoffed her lunch of a sandwich and soup down when they got home.

Our son has had hypo's and has never been that bad at 3.1.

Shes been her usual nutty self for the rest of the day thank god.

It's just got us thinking, thank you in advance.
xxx
 
(((Hugs))) to little D! That sounds scary. F has had some very bad wobbles, but never had the eye-rolling. Do you think the reading was off because she was out and about (no handwashing?).
 
Hiya

I hope she is ok now.

When Jessica was little she always had the 'falling asleep' hypos, just like you have described. Yes they are worrying. I used to keep clicking my fingers in her face to keep her 'with me' if you know what I mean. I always managed to get coke in her.

I know you have done this before and have two kiddies and I hope you don't think I'm interferring here but....... (don't you just hate buts) fruit shoot really isn't the best thing for hypos and giving a long acting food at the same time will really really slow down the work the quick acting is doing. Lucozade or full sugar coke are the best, they are like putting a glucose drip in your arm. So you should give about 15 carbs of that. You can buy the small party cans of coke which are exactly 15 carbs and 100 ml measured in a cup of lucozade is 15 carbs (I used to carry around a small bottle of lucozade with a plastic beaker marked with permanent markers at 50 ml, 100 ml and 125 ml.

You should then wait 10 to 15 minutes (I know, a very long wait), retest. If the levels have come up then you should give the long acting ie biscuit, crisps, sandwich etc.

On to your question, yes I have given glucagon. This isn't only for when unconcious though. You should give it if unable to drink or eat. Jessica was fitting (very still odd shaped limbs kind of fit) and foaming at the mouth. I tried coke but she was too far gone. I tested and she was 1.9. I ripped her pj bottoms and mixed up the gluacagon and stuck it in her leg. At this point she was howling but it was no human sound, it was the sound of a trapped animal, I've never heard anything like it. I had to wait and I kept testing every 2 minutes !!! Eventually she started to come around, not that she had passed out at all, I mean back to me. I talked to her constantly saying 'mummy's here' and stuff like that. I kept asking her if she could see me and who I was. To begin with she had no idea and was just crying and crying. Eventually she knew I was mummy but she was just really crying and didn't know why.

This was 11 pm at night. I put her in bed with me and I stayed awake all night testing hourly, sometimes half hourly. Normally you should have phoned for an ambulance, they say that when you use glucagon, especially on children call an ambulance as if they have another hypo which is likely you cannot use the glucagon again for at least 48 hours.

Jessica however, was being a bridesmaid the next day and no way did she want to miss that and I was fairly confident I could manage. She went up to 24.0 odd which I had to correct but only a bit. She walking, or rather floated, down the ailse the next day with levels of 27.0 !!!!!!!!

So yes I've used glucagon.

I did not hear the fit by the way. It was pure chance I went in to her. I had tested at 10 pm and she was fine, I think 10.something. I was due to test at midnight. I only went into her bedroom to hang some ironed clothes up and found her mid fit !! There was no reason for it at all.
 
Kei said:
(((Hugs))) to little D! That sounds scary. F has had some very bad wobbles, but never had the eye-rolling. Do you think the reading was off because she was out and about (no handwashing?).
Click to expand...

Hi

We had the eye rolling, head lolling and seeming to pass in and out with levels of 3.? and 2.? and 1.? but also no symptoms with levels of 1.? and 2.? sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to it.
 
Hi Adrienne,
Thanks for the reply, its very informative and how you describe the 'sleepy hypo' is exactly how my husband said she was, they wet her hands and were talking to her right in her face. Shes never had a fizzy drink in her life and this has only been her 2nd ever hypo and she doesnt like lucozade tabs and water (this is what our son uses, or mini cans of coke) but i think im gonna try and get her used to the taste bcoz the fizzy's do definitely work well, we used fruit shoot for the last hypo she had and it worked well, mind you last time i treated it and didnt 'slightly panic and forget' like my husband did today and give her the flap jack aswell! I did ask him why didnt he wait then re-test as we always do then give the food but he honestly just panicked a bit i suppose what with it being her 2nd ever hypo. The fits you describe sound awful, your poor little one and poor you it must be stressful.

Kei, i know what you mean about the hand washing, i think your right, she could have been lower than 3.1. I suppose its all a learning curve and we will unfortunately get to learn her hypo state.
 
Hiya

I started my daughter on fizzy drinks at about 2 years old !! I know, big intake of breath. She had been insulin dependant mind you, since 5 weeks old and I always knew that coke and/or lucozade would save her lift so she needed to like it. So when the other mum's in MacDonalds (when we went with friends) gave their kids those milkshakes (with more sugar that you can bear thinking about) I gave mine diet coke ! I got some funny looks as you can imagine but I was right. She ended up liking it and it has saved our bacon many a time.
 
I think the fizzy drink malarkey might be a bit difficult, tried her with some diet coke with her dinner tonight, she pushed it away before even trying it and said yuk and gave me a filthy look. will keep trying! x
 
jimmysmum said:
I think the fizzy drink malarkey might be a bit difficult, tried her with some diet coke with her dinner tonight, she pushed it away before even trying it and said yuk and gave me a filthy look. will keep trying! x
Click to expand...

Hilarious. You'll get there and you'll waste a lot of fizzy stuff. You could always start a star chart or a goody bag and every time she drinks some she could get a dip in the goody bag !!! I've brought at the goody bag for a lots of stuff in the past (hair clips and things). :D
 
Hiya, I hope your little one wasn't too traumatised by it!
I've been diabetic (Type 1) since I was 9, and hypos have ALWAYS been an issue with me. I was home educated when I was younger, and my older brothers used to look after me when my mum was at work, and ofc. typical teenage lads slept in late! One particular morning I felt hypo, and so I tested myself, and I was around 5 (I can't remember EXACT result, it was a few years ago! 😛 But I DEFFINATELY remember it being around 5), but as I FELT hypo, and I was, and still am pretty good at noticing a hypo early, I decided to get something to eat. Well I don't actually know what happened after that! I remember going into the kitchen and getting the cornflakes out of the cupboard, and then running into the dining room and crashing out on the floor, around two hours later (again I can't remember the times, just that it was in the morning) my brother woke me up shaking me, and made me do a bloodtest, which what around 2.something. To this DAY I don't have a CLUE what I did in that kitchen, just that for days afterwards we found cornflakes in all the cupboards and drawers!
Another occasion being when I was in Manchester with my mum, and STUPIDLY we didn't have any glucose with us, as I usually run very high, but my blood result was 1.1, which scared me as I didn't even notice it, it was my mum who noticed me not looking right. (We late found out that was due to some anti-biotics I was on). I, at fifteen, HATE hypos, and so I'm sure for a little one it cant be easy. Have you thought why the pre-school didn't notice she wasn't quite 'with it' ? Did they mention it to you/your partner?
I know I'm not answering your question AT ALL, so I'm very sorry!
xx
 
Hi Sophie,

OMG you must have been scared to think what could have/did happen that day, it sounds scary.

The pre-school leader is a freind of ours and my D is a bit clingy with her at pre-school(bcoz she knows shes our friend) so on Monday she distanced herself a little from D bcoz she didnt want her becoming too dependant on her bcoz she might not be there one day and after all they go to pre school to become dependant anyway she thought D was sulking bcoz of this but obviously she wasnt :(
D was only diagnosed 2 weeks ago just as our DSN was about to go on leave but she said she would go into the school as soon as she got back and she has, shes going in tomorrow but in the mean time we are 2 mins away and said for them to call us if they werent sure, and weve been going round and checking her BS at 10.30 (half way thro the session) xx
 
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