Weakness, vision problems, sweating, nausia

[MHall33]

My daughter is 14 and has a heart condition known as tricuspid atresia. She has had the surgeries to correct it the best it can be. Her cardiologist says her heart is working as it should be for the problem it has. She often has numbness in her arms and legs for several hours at a time. This is not related to the other symptoms. Anyway, in the past several years she has been having "spells" as she calls them. She gets a headache, sweating and a trembling weak feeling. Her heart beats very hard and she gets very pale. 4 years ago and again last year she wore a heart monitor to try and catch one of the spells and see how her heart was acting during one. She did not have a spell for 2 months. We did record some activities using the monitor and the cardiologist said her heart was fine. I'm not completely convenced, but if it is not her heart then why is she having these spells?
Some friends and I finally decided she must be hypoglocemic. Her pediatritian doesn't feel we need to do any further testing since hypoglocemia can be controlled with diet. This isn't woking! Today she went out with some friends to an amusement park. She ate every 3 or 4 hours and had plenty of protein and water (since it was hot.) She had a spell and had these symptoms: Sweating, shaking, unable to stand without assistance, unable to eat (she thought her sugar was low so she was trying to eat) heart beating very hard and the scariest of all she could only see white for 20 minutes. I'm not sure what she meant, but she was unable to see until someone got right up in her face. They took her in a cool room and gave her ice and she rested for about 30 minutes before they brought her on home. She slept all the way home and was still very weak when she came home. She was extremely hungry.
She had a spell last week where she woke up vomiting, shaking, weak and her heart beating real hard. It took her most of the day to recover.
Please help me figure out what is wrong. What do these symptoms sound like? I can get her to a specialist, but I don't know what kind to take her to.

[JDRF-Team-wak]

I am a volunteer, and a mom of a type I diabetic, not a physician.

The first thing you should be aware is that protein will not bring up blood sugars if
A person is feeling low, your need to give them carbohydrates.

The following is a list of symptoms of diabetes:

People who think they might have diabetes must visit a physician for diagnosis. They might have SOME or NONE of the following symptoms:

Frequent urination
Excessive thirst
Unexplained weight loss
Extreme hunger
Sudden vision changes
Tingling or numbness in hands or feet
Feeling very tired much of the time
Very dry skin
Sores that are slow to heal
More infections than usual.
Nausea, vomiting, or stomach pains may accompany some of these symptoms in the abrupt onset of insulin-dependent diabetes, now called type 1 diabetes.

I would suggest you ask your doctor to do a blood work up including an A1C (which helps tell how blood sugars are over a 60 day period) on your daughter.  An endocrinologist is the type of doctor that you would see if your daughter is a diabetic.  If your pediatrician does not feel the need to do the blood test I would suggest getting a second opinion.

I hope this helps, please let us know how things go.