April 10, 2003
Hypoglycemia
Question from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, USA:
While a patient in the hospital, my daughter, who has type 1 diabetes, was given a fast acting insulin at bedtime instead of her Lantus (insulin glargine), and her blood glucose at 4:30 am lab was 20 mg/dl [1.1 mmol/L]. She remembers going to bed at 10:30 pm and then coming to at 6:00 am after getting an amp of D50. The nurse claims my daughter spoke to her at 4:40 am and was okay.My daughter has never had any episodes where she can’t remember what happened even when hypoglycemic at night before. Do you think it’s possible for her to have been able to converse coherently after being hypoglycemic all night?
Answer:
Yes, it is quite possible she spoke and, given the time of night, any slight incoherence could have been construed as tiredness. I assume that she made a full recovery.
KJR
