icon-nav-help
Need Help

Submit your question to our team of health care professionals.

icon-nav-current-questions
Current Question

See what's on the mind of the community right now.

icon-conf-speakers-at-a-glance
Meet the Team

Learn more about our world-renowned team.

icon-nav-archives
CWD Answers Archives

Review the entire archive according to the date it was posted.

CWD_Answers_Icon
November 26, 2006

Daily Care

advertisement
Question from Ohio, USA:

My girlfriend has diabetes and I want to make sure she does not end up in the hospital again. I need to know all there is to know about it to prevent such actions.

She takes four shots of insulin, before breakfast, before lunch, before dinner, and right before bed. If she takes two or three shots, is she at risk of going to the hospital? Plus, she’s supposed to check her sugar five times a day. Sometimes she checks it only once or twice. Is that healthy? What are the average ranges? My girlfriend averages around 170 mg/dl [9.4 mmol/L].

Could you also let me know what I could do to help her? I am interested in keeping her healthy.

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

This is not probably something that can be answered adequately in an e-mail. I would suggest that you let your girlfriend know your concerns and see how much she is willing to share with you. Maybe she will ask you to go to a doctor’s appointment with her so you can learn more. I think that it is great that your are concerned about her health but she probably wants you to be her boyfriend and not another health care professional or parent bugging her about her diabetes. Learn as much as you can and let her know you care for her and support her and will help out in any way she wants you to. Diabetes is a very difficult disease to manage and even with 100% perfect compliance with testing and insulin and eating (which is virtually impossible for anyone to do), blood glucoses will not always be in the normal range.

Here are some answers to your specific questions: normal blood glucoses are 70 mg/dl [3.9 mmol/L] to 100 mg/dl [5.6 mmol/L] and the goal rages for people with diabetes will vary but, generally, under 120 mg/dl [6.7 mmol/L] before meals and under 180 mg/dl [10.0 mmol/L] after meals would be an average goal. The more often you test, the more information you will have about how to adjust your insulin doses and the effectiveness of the dose you took before. It is generally recommended to test four times/day, but many people with type 1 diabetes test more frequently (and less frequently, too, but I wouldn’t recommend that). Missing injections of insulin will cause the glucose to rise and will cause high glucose levels (hyperglycemia). Over time, this can cause severe problems. Missing the dose of long acting insulin in someone with type 1 diabetes can cause ketoacidosis, which can require hospitalization. Low blood glucose (hypoglycemia) is a big concern for most people with diabetes. You can read more on our web site about Hypoglycemia and make sure she carries glucoses tablets (or another fast acting glucose) with her. You might also find the American Diabetes Association web site to be helpful.

MN