possible diabetic seizure

[concernedmom1193]

Today my daughter had muscle spasms, was shaking very badly, and had difficulty talking as her teeth were chattering so much.  Her bcg was 128 then dropped to 90 within 5 minutes.  She had a juice, continued to shake for a while longer-but less intensely, rose to 156-had another juice and it eventually subsided.  Was she on her way to having a diabetic seizure?  She did not have a temperature and was not sick.  Although her bcg's had dropped earlier in the day after a dance class-but there she had a juice to stabalize as well as precarbed before the dance class.  This is the second time this has happened to her.  The first time she woke up in the middle of the night shaking-her bcg was around 130 at that time so she did not have a juice. The shaking lasted quite awhile.  Does anyone have any idea why her body would be doing this since her bcg level was not low?  She has only been a type 1 diabetic for one year.

[JDRF-VOL-RL]

Hello.  I'm not a medical professional, just the parent of a kid with diabetes.  Not much was really understood about the conditions which cause seizures until the invention of the continuous glucose monitors.  Since then, there have been only 3 documented cases of seizures of people on the CGM.  Of those 3, one was low for 2 hours, one for 3 hours, and one for 5 hours.  And in this case, 'low' means below 60.  So endos now believe it takes at least a couple hours of lows before a seizure is induced.  Based upon that knowledge, it's unlikely she was on her way to a seizure, particularly since she wasn't even low.

But your question is valid, if it's not that, what is it?  It's possible that it is a problem with the thyroid.  The thyroid is the same type of organ as the pancreas, in that it is a gland that secretes proteins and homormes that the body needs, and as such it is also subject to autoimmune issues.  In diabetic patients there is a higher likelihood of of thyroid problems.  Many of the symptoms are the same.  I would suggest that you take her to your doctor and get her checked for thyroid problems.  Good luck.

[JDRF-VOL-SG]

The other possibility is that she WAS low for a while but didn't find out until after her liver had dumped some emergency sugars, raising her glucose levels some. So by the time she started seizing, her glucose levels may have read as normal even though her body was still in its emergency distress mode. It does take some time for the body to call the liver's stores of sugars into play, and I personally have found that a very mild low for several hours can leave me feeling absolutely awful even after the sugar levels are stabilized. This is because those emergency hormones have been called into play, and the body FEELS it.

The real issue here is for your daughter to perhaps test more often at least for a while so she can catch lows if they happen, and catch them before the liver is used.

Of course, this is all hypothetical, and RL may be absolutely correct that this may be caused by something else entirely. Best to take some careful notes, to perhaps have some tests run on other endocrine glands, the thyroid being the most common problem, but maybe the adrenal functions should be checked too (my twin has low adrenal gland function, and she can get the shakes from cortisol shortage or from adrenal stimulation).