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Thread ID: 114143	2010-11-19 18:30:00	PCTeks Medical Dramas	pctek (84)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1154593	2010-11-19 18:30:00	Supposed to start with Telstra 29th. Husband is Type 1 diabetic. He has a problem with low sugar levels - not high, like most diabetics. He also has a condition called hypoglycaemic unawareness. Common after having diabetes a long time, he's had it 41 years. Anyway, he is extremely bad at testing his sugar when he should and combined with the HU (Can't tell when it's going low) it's dangerous. Low sugar has a similar effect to a lack of oxygen. Initially you can seem drunk, then it progresses, fairly fast - hours though not minutes. Not that many hours either. Without treatment, extreme hypoglycemia can cause seizures, coma, and permanent brain damage and death. Anyway he's been especially bad since we moved. Yesterday I came home and found him on the floor. Not an uncommon thing, but this time he hasn't come out of it properly. He lost speech - sort of - can't say a lot of words, talking gibberish. He also isn't processing information, like an alzheimers person - ask the same questions endlessly, he forgets the answer a few seconds after you've told him. Or something. He doesn't exactly know where he is either. I'd say it's the end of him being able to do any work or even stay home alone. He may improve (like stroke patients) or he may not. Regardless the doc said if it happens again - well. And of course, the one guaranteed thing is if left to himself, it will happen again. Oh and the hospital just rang me - they want to send him home now. Of course, they can't fix it.	pctek (84)
1154594	2010-11-19 18:38:00	Cripes! Sounds like a good excuse for you to get a benefit to support your staying home to keep an eye on him... although you may yearn for the challenges and income of a regular job instead. Hope he does improve. It'll be a very nervous time while you wait. Surely there are devices that can monitor him and remind him... dermal (skin) or breath monitoring devices? If he has had a licence to drive, then this might see him losing it. What about a simple recurring (hourly?) alarm - when the alarm sounds you eat something, or test yourself.	Paul.Cov (425)
1154595	2010-11-19 18:39:00	Oh PC - I feel for you. Hope things improve. It's often hard work being the 'patient's advocate' - I know!	R.M. (561)
1154596	2010-11-19 19:29:00	Shiv I hope things improve soon, at least in Auckland he can get decent medical care unlike Gore	gary67 (56)
1154597	2010-11-19 19:33:00	My thoughts are with you both, hope he improves.	KarameaDave (15222)
1154598	2010-11-19 19:46:00	Sorry to hear pctek, hope he improves.	xyz823 (13649)
1154599	2010-11-19 20:00:00	Cripes! Sounds like a good excuse for you to get a benefit to support your staying home to keep an eye on him... . Haha. Do you know what that pays?! Even if I felt like having the argument with them, he walks around, he won't die (well as in cancer or some such), so it doesn't count.	pctek (84)
1154600	2010-11-19 20:43:00	I know they've been developing an "automatic injection system" for insulin .... maybe you should contact the Diabetes Assn or hospital specialist to see if there's going to be anything in the future for regulating glucose levels - if they can measure high glucose and inject insulin, surely they can measure low levels and inject glucose. Must be putting a hell of a lot of stress into both your lives ... One person who may be worth contacting is Dr Jim Mann ... he's down here in Dunedin and doing amazing research into diabetes in conjunction with the Otago University ... maybe he could shed some light on what may be available in the future. I know it doesn't help right now ....and hope everything comes right with hubby soon.	SP8's (9836)
1154601	2010-11-19 21:05:00	Oh noes, that isn't good! Must be quite stressful for you both, hope that something can be done for him soon. LL	lakewoodlady (103)
1154602	2010-11-19 21:11:00	Sorry to hear.	Metla (12)
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