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Avatar universal

Diabetic Seizure?

HI I am new to this board. My husband has type 1 diabetes. Today I came home from work and he was laying on the bed in a puddle of sweat and upresponsive. His eyes were open. I could not get him to drink anything(oj) and he started to make some weird sounds and moving around almost like he was an animal. Every time I touched him he would scream and back away. I called 911 and the medics came and after several attempts were able to get an iv in and with in minutes he was coherent. So I guess my question is, is this considered a diabetic seizure? It was almost like he was hallucinating. He could not speak during this and does not remember any of it. We aren't sure how low his sugar was because the medics could not get a blood sample to test becasue he would not be still. This has never happened before and so I am just doing some research to see what this was.
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Avatar universal
I'm not a medical professional but my father has juvenile diabetes and I have been dealing with it my whole life, so hopefully I can provide some insight.
it sounds to me like your husband was in the stages before the actual seizure or "insulin shock".  Usually what will happen is the person will behave very strangely before the actual seizure occurs, while their glucose level is dropping.  There are many different things that can happen...hallucinations, personality change, aggression, etc.  The person will start to display symptoms that get progressively worse.  If you are not able to help them in time (by giving something with sugar like orange juice) to get their glucose level back up, it will eventually get so low that a seizure occurs.  My personal experience with seizures has been actual convulsions.  However, even if the person does not get to that point, he or she will still not remember the episode.  Since you are new to this, the best advise I can give you is to learn the warning signs of when his glucose level is getting low.  That way, you will be able to recognize it in time to get him food/drink.  It takes a lot of practice and it's definitely a scary thing because it's horrible to watch someone having  a seizure.  Anyway, my opinion is that your husband didn't get to the point of actually having a seizure but rather the stages leading up to it.  I hope this helps!
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Avatar universal
April of 2003, I had a grand mal seizure.  I don't remember most of the day.  When the medics (I was at work) checked my blood sugar it was 18.  I had done everything correctly, but with a combination of stress and heat, they thought I had a diabetic seizure.  It turned out to be seizures unrelated, but that the intense force my body was using during the seizure that my blood sugar bottomed out.  I had grand mal seizures for the next 8 months (very sporadically).  Now on seizure meds, and doing fine.  All the rest of my seizures, I was aware of the onset and actually would check my blood sugar and they would be normal to below 200.  

Just a thought, you can have reactions to other things, that produce seizures (albeit petite mal or grand mal, or partials) and not be diabetic related.
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Avatar universal
WoW!  This sounded just like an episode that happened to me about 14 years ago.  I must have woke my wife up at about 5 am in the morning. She said that I was making noises just like an animal and I would not respond to her and she called 911 and they came and gave me an IV of Dextrose and I came back to life in about 10 min.

My case was that I forgot to eat my night time snack.  I also did not check my blood sugars at that time in my life.  Now I check my BS about 6 times a day and if I have a LOW I have time to help myself fix the low by eating some smarties (dextrose candy).

I am glad everthing turned out Ok, but have him check his blood sugar often, as this is what made me aware of my lows and allowed me to correct them.

Bob
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Avatar universal
Last April I had some seizures for a few days.  The first onset came with my bg at 414.  I also had a stroke in that timeframe also.  They still don't know why but my right side was paralyzed.  They called it Todd's Paralysis but it lasted almost 3 months...not sure if that was a correct diagnosis.
I am glad your husband recovered and was able to get the help he needed!
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Avatar universal
I also am not a medical professional, but I do have a 15 year old with type 1 diabetes. My son about 2 years ago had a seizure that sounded very similar to what you are describing. He had a blood sugar of 73 when the paramedics tested him, but they feel that had risen due to the seizure activity. They felt that his blood sugar had been much lower. He was put on seizure watch for 1 week to make sure it was not a different condition. He hasn't had one since. It is a very scary experience. He does not remember the seizure at all.
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Avatar universal
Hi, I'm not a medical professional, just the parent of a kid with diabetes.  I'm glad that your husband recovered, I'm sure that was a frightening experience.  I'm not sure if I'd call that a seizure, but most certainly it was a severe hypoglycemic reaction.  Confusion, fighting against those who are trying to help you are all symptoms.
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