I Have A New Bf Who Has Type 1 Diabetes. When His Sugar Gets Low He Sleepwalks. Is There Any Way To Prevent It?
We have only been dating for 1 month but I am starting to fall in love with him. However, he has not been managing the disease well and went into a coma once and recently I was told had convulsions when his BG dropped to 18. He recently was hospitalized and is being treated by a specialist for this. I believe he will be getting the insulin pump in about a week.
One night I did an overnight and it was very scarey for me. He turned into a different person in the middle of the night and called me bad names. I posted before on this forum about this. It frightened me terribly and I ended up leaving the hotel and police and paramedics came.
I am now happy that he getting the medical care he needs and will be getting the pump. He also mentioned something about a new kind of insulin - NPH - that is longer lasting.
on resaerching all this for weeks, I believe what happens to him at night is called Nocturnal Hypoglycemia. It was night sweats, night terrors, and sleep walking. This experience was so traumatic for me I am afraid to ever do an overnight again. Of course this hurts him terribly and it hurts me.
It is early enough in the relationship where I can walk if I have to. I am just hoping there is some way to avoid leaving him. I am trying to figure out if there is anyway to guarantee this sleep walking will not recur. I know the pump should significantly reduce the chances of reoccurence, but everything I read sounds like there is no cure for this.
As he is a former marine (got diabetes in the marine corp) for those wondering, and also has an abusive childhood, I worry that the low blood sugar and sleep walking could cause combative or even violent episodes. He is a wonderful guy the rest of the time, it’s just these overnights i dread. Without overnights we have no future.
I am very sad for him and for myself as this might mean he will ever have a normal relationship or get married. He is a very big guy 6′3, 230 lbs, and if he gets combative in his sleep it is terrifying to me.
Is there anything I am overlooking? Is there anyway this can work out. I read about some alarms that can attached to the wrist at night that will ring if blood sugar drops. Would that be a solution?
Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks so much everyone.
Tags: diabetes
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Tell him to knock it off. Diabetes is not an excuse for everything
I sympathize with you. Please follow the advise of those who answered very intelligently. Good luck to you and God bless you.
Hi,
I suggest that you read these two books. You don’t have to pay close attention to the books, but you should. Trying to get your boyfriend ot read them is unlikely, yet you can try. If he refused, don’t worry much, you can do the suggestions in the books, and lead it into your common diets.
Dr. Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes.
The PH Miracle for Diabetes, by Dr. Young.
You can get both at Border Books or Amazon.com or other local book stores.
Once he has his blood sugars under control, and gets his A1c level below 8%, then try the overnight thing again. Be ready to wake him if required, and have a box oc cinnamon gram crackers available at all times, in case his blood sugar level drops.
There is a list of low and high blood sugar syymptoms, and sweating is low sugars, and needs a couple of gram crackers to quickly raise his blood sugars.
Changes in his diet will give his body the minerals required to allow the pancreas work properly (if it will work again). Has he ever drank de-ionised or distilled water before? This can be bad for anyone, especially causing required minerals to become in short supply.
Drinking distilled water while at the same time exercising can cause huge problems including lack of salt in the diet.
In a way, you can consider diabetes as simple to fix - the Medical community knows what is wrong, produces drugs to correct the situation and so on.
Gout and scurvy are two other conditions - they are super easy to cure. Gout just requires less meat and protiens in the diet, while scurvy was caused by lack of fruit in the diet for sailors in the 1800’s.
It sounds like you are not ready to give up on this relationship, and I hope that you give it three months to see how he is willing to improve his health. Geta A1c test this month, and another in 3 months. If he is committed to making it work, and becoming a relaible partner for overnight stays, well he should commit himself to lowering his A1c level. He can not fake it, he must do it.
You need to help out too - but he needs to grow up and take charge of his condition, his mommy is not going to be there for him, he is a Marine, not a kid, and if he can survive bootcamp, then diabetes is a minor speed bump in the road, unless he is determined to make diabetes into a huge mountain.
I have a 68 year old and 85 year old friend who both have diabetes. They can measure their blood sugar levels 3-5 times daily, and control it, so can your boyfriend.
If he is not committed to a relationship, then let it go. He might change his mind before you find another boyfriend, and his lower A1c test will show his commitment.
You can find out all about the A1c test in the books.
My diabetic friends are also using Kangen alkaline water. This has allowed them to use less medication while stabilizing his blood sugar levels. Becoming less acidic can assist in needing less insulin because the insulin becomes more efficient.
You can ask for some free Alkaline water by placing a wanted add on Craigslist.com
Ask for some 8.5 PH drinking water. The same machine will make 9.5 PH drinking water, you want to start out drinking 8.5 PH water and give up soft drinks. Then after a week or so, drink the 9.0 PH water for a few weeks.
As you exercise, the alkaline water will neturalize the acids that normally build up in your body, and can cause stomach cramps. It cures acid reflux in a couple of days (even at 8.5 PH).
I am a little larger than your BF. 6′4″ and 275. You want to make sure he is under control at all times. Something as simple as a cinnamon gram cracker can raise his blood sugar enough to bring him out of the sleepwalking, or solve a nightmare.
Cinnamon should also be a part of his diet. It helps slow the absorption of foods into blood sugars, so he will not get as large of a sugar spike after eating.
My son is at the moment being tested for diabetes, he sleep walks, has sweats and gets quite agressive and he is only 4 so I dont think he is doing it on purpose, he is still asleep when he does it. We are not sure yet if he is diabetic, but these are the reasons the doctor is testing him for it.
Diabetes can make people appear drunk and they can become agressive when thier blood sugar is low.
Speak to a doctor about it and see if they have any solutions for your problem
First of all I would ask you to ignore the first two clowns that responded. They obviously know little, if anything, about diabetes or how hypoglycemia can affect someone.
Noccie is correct about the CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) system. It’s not worn on the wrist, but is another short-term implant that fits in just like the cannula of the pump’s set.
What I would say is that there seems to be some confusion over the use of NPH insulin. Although you are correct in saying that it is a longer-acting insulin, it’s not the sort of insulin that would be used in a pump. These are run using fast-acting (and shorter duration) insulins.
Although the long-term benefits are apparent in many cases, the early days may actually cause more anxiety. This is because due to the fact that only fast-acting insulin is used, there’s a greater chance of hypoglycemia occurring. This, of course, means that more frequent blood testing must take place, and my own advice, based on personal experience, is that your boyfriend should wake up at least once or twice a night, to begin with, to purposely check his blood sugar levels.
One advantage of using a pump is that the insulin being infused can be temporarily paused when blood sugar levels are low, and restarted after remedial action is taken.
I realise it’s a bit late offering this information now … after the earlier incident has already taken place, but your boyfriend should ensure that he tests his blood sugar level prior to going to sleep. This way he would be able to ascertain whether or not his blood sugar level is low enough to warrant eating something before he goes to sleep.
Unfortunately, hypoglycemic attacks, and particularly when you’re asleep, do cause changes to mood and personality. (I speak from experience on this.) First of all, your body will get signals that your blood sugar level is falling. This is very often noticeable when you’re awake, but when you’re asleep you, obviously, wouldn’t recognise it straight away. By the time you do recognise it, your blood sugar level may well already be very low. The instinctive thing then is that your body will try to survive. It will do this by ‘ordering’ your body to find the nearest source of ‘food’ … which could be anything that’s close to hand, or even things that are not there. If someone is in the way, they’d better move, or have that source of food right in front of them.
Hypoglycemia does, in fact, cause severe confusional states, so your boyfriend may not even be aware of where he is, who you are, whether he’s on this earth or fuller’s earth.
The sooner glucose has re-entered his system, the sooner your boyfriend will return to normal. (You’re boyfriend must surely know this anyway, considering he’s a type 1 diabetic, and he MUST ensure that there’s a ready supply of glucose available … especially at night.)
Even after glucose has been administered and your boyfriend has returned to normal he MUST ensure that takes in some food that contains carbohydrates. (Carbohydrates are broken down to give a supply of glucose, which your body needs to survive. Obviously, the breakdown of these carbohydrates takes time, hence the need for an immediate supply of glucose. As this takes time, it ensures that there’s going to be a supply of glucose within the system for considerably longer. Taking just the glucose … either by drink or ‘tablets’ causes a sudden rush of glucose into the bloodstream. Unfortunately, this ’spike’ in glucose levels will also fall quite rapidly as there’s still insulin within the system, which is making the glucose available to the muscles, etc.)
I wish you both the very best of luck for a happy and continuing relationship.
At those levels he was in big trouble!
He needs to take charge of his disease and not let it rule his life. He has to eat correctly and at the proper times. The pump will help but only if he learns to count carbohydrates correctly.
Sounds like he didn’t eat properly or injected too much insulin.
There is no excuse for getting violent, even if low glucose level. It must not be allowed to rule the rest of his life. But watch carefully how you wish to proceed. Most people from abusive homes turn abusive themselves without psychiatric help.
k so: diabetes does NOT equal personality change. at all. sleepwalking, ok maybe - but calling you names? nuh uh.
he needs to take better care of himself, and you should explain that to him if he wants this relationship to work as much as you do.
He needs to be wearing a continuous glucose monitor which will sound off an alarm when he goes low. This does not attach to his wrist. If you are thinking of the “gluco-watch” this thing just hasn’t worked that well. The CGM is attached to him like the pump would be.
He also needs to be working with his doctor to avoid hypoglycemia. There are also dogs that are trained to alert someone to hypoglycemia! Do a Google search for hypoglecemia and dog.
Start going to the endocrinologist appointments with this guy so you can learn how to help him and make sure he talks to the endocrinologist about his hypoglycemia issues.
This guy sounds like he’s awfully high maintainance - is he worth it?
When I first met my Husband he was not looking after his Diabetes at all. He refused to see the doctor and was not on any medication let alone insulin!
He used to have terrible moods and would get agressive, althoug hto be fair not as bad as your BF seems to be.
People with Diabetes do not necessarily have problems with mood although changes in Blood glucose do affect this, however someone with Diabetes is 50% more likely to suffer with conditions such as depression, anxiety etc…
My husband did eventually have an episode where he was so agitated that he could not sit in a car for more than 200 yards without having a complete psycho fit! This was when we were supposed to be flying to America!
We rang the airline and asked if we could let them know when he was fit to fly etc…. and got him to his GP.
I virtually forced him to get treated and I would have left him if he refused. Luckily he got his treatment.
It’s not easy but it does get better. You need to learn as much as you can with him. I was lucky I am a Pharmacy technician and so he didn’t dare ignore me, but it’s not the same for everyone.
Give him a chance as he can’t control everything, but he needs ot take responsibilty himself.
It is not fair of him to let you worry about such a serious health condition.
Hope that it works out for you, don’t give up just yet…he is probably just scared out of his wits. My husband was terrified which is why he left it. Try and support him and see how it goes.
i dont get sweats or sleep walk but i can get aggresive and pissed off real easily(type 1 as well). i never thought that could happen actually-sleepwalk.what my mom does is checks me in the middle of the night to make sure im not low or high. he could have an alarm clock or somthing go off at like 2am or whenever he usually is low. he could have a snack before he goes to bed like peanut better crackers or something.
the pump will help LOTS! you can change the settings so he CANT go low-or at least less often-at night. plus you change it every 3-4 days instead of doing shots like 5 or more times a day. you can also get this thingy that does your BG every like minute and tells the pump. you change that every 6 days and its pretty simple to use! but you still have to do your blood sugar-just less often but when you do the blood sugar, you have to put in the pump so the blood meter thingy knows.
yea, well, hope i could help!
You need to be very strong and ‘”straight” with Him:
If HE does not learn to control his disease then YOU will be gone.
I am REALLY surprised that a MARINE cannot control a “simple” disease like diabetes. yes, the disease IS very serious, even deadly, but CONTROLLING the disease is very simple — follow doctors orders as to medications and dosages, eat correctly, get exercise.
Frankly, it is ALL self-discipline. just what DID the Marines teach him, if not self-discipline?
Your boyfriend is “justifying” his actions, poor behavior, and lack of self-discipline. This shows a basically poor character. But YOU seem to be showing pity rather than compassion. Frankly, it seems that youa re in love with him BECAus E of his disease rather than in spite of it, and I sense a feeling that if he was not diabetic you would not be with him. Therefore, YOU are not insisting that he get better because YOU want somebody to “help”, even “mother”. this is a POOR basis for a relationship!
IF he cannot learn to control his disease instead of letting it control him, then YOU need to walk away. he has mental issues that are going to destroy your relationship — nothing is “his” fault; “Da Diabetes made me do it” (to mis-quote Flip Wilson). Leave now before the relationship deepens. Heaven forbid you should marry this man and get pregnant. At this time he does NOT show the self-discipline necessary to be a good husband and father.
You might be his most prized posession right now, and it is often the removal of those things we love most that forces us to change our ways.
By making your continued participation in his life contingent on how well HE learns to handle his disease, you may be able to affect how and how well he handles the rest of his life.
but I CAN tell you for a fact — THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO HELP HIM. He must learn to help himself, and you CAN be a “causitive factor” in that change of lifestyle.
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