
May 4, 2006
Other
Question from Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland:
My eight years, seven months old son has had type one diabetes for four years. He is on three injections a day. Last December, he was also diagnosed with coeliac disease. He is a very active boy and plays a lot of football. Two years ago he woke up during the night with a blood sugar of 3.4 mmol/L [61 mg/dl]. He was very distressed and had no feeling down the right side of his body. He was rushed to hospital and, within hours, all the feeling had gone back to normal.
Two weeks ago, this happened again with the loss of feeling on the left side and severe head ache and pain in his eye and vomiting. Yesterday, after playing football, it happened again with the loss of feeling on the right again. Doctors have not really given me any answers as to why this is happening. I am not sleeping as I am so frightened this will happen again. It is very frightening. My son is otherwise a fit and healthy boy. What could this be?
Answer:
This sounds like it could be Todd’s Paralysis, a temporary condition. Please be sure your son has a neurological evaluation.
LD
[Editor’s comment: See a previous question about Todd’s Paralysis and Lyn Hickox’s story about her experience with this.
BH]