My husband is showing signs of brain damage due to repeated episodes of hypoglycemia. Can anyone else relate to this? It is affecting our lives more than I care to admit and we don't see eye-to-eye on anything anymore. It's like a war that's been going on for 10 yrs. and I'm to the point of waving the white flag. I feel so very much alone.
Soibhan
p.s. I might add that I've been my husband's number one caretaker and I've worked hard to make sure the right thing has been done. This man is NOT the person I married. Please help!
You need to talk to his endocrinologist and get a handle on his hypoglycemia. It can cause so many issues. Yes, brain damage is one of the problems, but severe depression can also occur and that may be the cause as well. I am assume with the constant lows that he is hypoglycemically unaware. There are courses of treatment (running higher blood sugars for a while - not enough to cause damage, but enough to get his body used to a normal level) for the blood sugar and maybe you should think about getting a pump.
My husband is showing signs of brain damage due to repeated episodes of hypoglycemia. ...
What makes you think he has brain damage? It is possible but unlikely for this to happen. Blood glucose has to drop really low, like below 10mg/dl, before brain damage occurs. And the liver won't normally allow this to happen. Have you considered that your husband's issues could be psychologically based, in which case counseling might help. Speaking to the endo would certainly help you get a better handle on what is going on.
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Type 1 since 1977. On Lantus, Novorapid and Actrapid.
Brain danage can be caused by low blood sugars/shock but repeated shocks don't really make a differance.. If he had a bad shock (I mean really bad), yeah he can have brain damage, but it has to be seriously bad....
For instance.....
A year ago October, I was sleeping and went into shock.. Fortunately I am disabled and live downstairs from my parents (it's a bi-level house, so they are upstairs and I have an apartment-like set up downstairs)...
That morning, my step father went down to the landing (between both floors where the door is) and heard strange sounds.. He came into my room and found me barely breathing, with vomit all over the place and I was blue....
He called the ambulence and injected me with Glucagone... The paramedics came and had to inhubate me and was taken to the hospital... On the way to the hospital I flat lined once... In the ER I flat lined a second time...
My blood sugar was essentially zero....
On top of the blood sugar, I ended up with kidney failure and the vomit filled my lungs...
The docs induced a coma and I was put on a ventilator for 4 days, plus chest tubes...
Was in the hospital for two weeks, but only remember the last three days....
Even with all this, I did NOT develop any brain damage and the doctors figured that I had to have been in shock for hours....
