November 11, 2000
Daily Care
Question from Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA:
My nine year old daughter has had very severe migraine-type headaches over her eyes and frontal sides of her head nine times in the past three weeks since diagnosis. These have a pattern in the afternoon at about the time her Regular insulin is wearing off, and her NPH is almost at its peak. What causes this and how it can be prevented? When we check her blood sugar, it is usually between 117 and 188 mg/dl [6.5 and 10.4 mmol/L] and then climbs steadily. She doesn’t feel a real low before all this occurs.
Answer:
I’m not sure. I just don’t have enough information. I suppose it could be the drop in glucose with from lunch and the peak of NPH, but the numbers don’t say so. When in doubt, back off of the insulin. That should do away with lows. See if that works to fix the headaches. Otherwise it could be something else. You might have to pursue it.
LD
