No real news. The night we got home from UPenn on April 1, we got a call from the lab nurse -- she reported his glucose level had caome in at 35 -- dangerously low. Thinking there might be something about the disease affecting his glucose, she wanted me to take him to the ER. He was not showing any symptoms so I got some OJ, and we went to bed. The next day we got a monitor -- but it was reading normal.
Our explanation
That blood sample was taken at UPenn after a rough morning -- we left the house at 6:30am, and made the rush hour drive on the turnpike and to the Schuylkill Expressway, where we had a brief moment of getting lost. Both Bob and I were mildly panicked as our strategy of leaving early did not pan out. Minutes ticked by and our comfortable time frame turned into "running late." I had mildly scolded Bob that morning about leaving on time, and how awful it would be to miss an appointment we had agitated for (recall we were originally scheduled for June 1). I suspect we were both totally amped when we got to the hospital, and his glucose showed the ill effect that stress has on the body...
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Bob update: Glucose April Fools
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I'm glad he was asymptomatic. Some of my patients (I'm a nurse) will have blood sugars in the 40-50s have slurred speech and confusion. Lowest I've seen was 20, that person had involuntary seizure-like movements and was unresponsive. For most people the sugar is low in the morning because they've been sleeping and not eatting. I don't want to sound negative, but usually when they are asymptomatic at levels that low, it means the body has alread adapted from being at low levels. Maybe he could eat a small snack before bed to keep it decent, glucose in the 30s really concerns me.
ReplyDeleteBit of a worry, there but it seems to have worked out OK. I've often wondered just how much the stress of a trip and anticipation of a doctor visit can have on test results. Certainly seems to be the case here.
ReplyDeleteGive Bob my best once again. And to you.
I used to be a caregiver for a diabetic old lady and yes, at 35 she DEFINITELY had slurred speech and confusion. If I found her like that it was always first thing in the morning and I absolutely dreaded it... she was uncooperative on a good day with normal BS, so getting some sugar into her when she was super-low was not fun at all (think: wrestling match with a spoon of honey). I'm amazed that Bob was still acting normal - yikes! I concur with the idea of a snack before bedtime. Protein is best so peanut butter or some other nuts are always good (the old lady was supposed to eat PB before she went to sleep but she'd forget).
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