Low Blood Sugar with nausea and keytones

[TammyLu]

My daughter was recently sick with nausea, vomiting.  When brought to the hospital, they checked her sugar and it was 228,  She had just been treated prior to going to the hospital for low blood sugar.  They said it was probably a virus going around, gave her a pill for nausea, waited 20 minutes and gave her a glass of water.  Then they sent her home.  I personally thought blood should have been taken and her urine checked.  It is four days later and she just threw up again.  She wakes up 2 to 3 times a night with nausea up to the fourth night.  It is "Mardi Gras" here and I can't get an appointment with her doctors.  I am calling and letting them know, but, I can't get any help other than going to the emergency room again.  "How can my daughter have low blood sugar with keytones is basically my question?"

[JDRF Volunteer RL]

It is absolutely possible to have lows and ketones.  Ketones are from the lack of insulin, not because of high blood sugars.

[MHeatherBDDD]

Hi, my 5 year old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 2. This is how it started with him. For about a week he was being not his self. At first I thought that he was going through the terrible 2s. I even remember to this day when I spanked him and sent him to bed. If I only new ...... I even remember telling him to get off of me at a Thanksgiving party. I didn't know that any thing was wrong. He just hung on me every were I went. I really can not stand to think back to that time. But maybe it will help you. Then he started acting sick. And he would throw up. Most of the time it would be after he eat supper. I took him to the doc. and they said it was probable just a virus. So we went home. He continued to throw up every night for a week. At this time he had been drinking a lot and we were changing a lot of diapers. He was pottie trained but he was so week from being sick, I thought... that he was in diapers. He had also lost a lot of weight. Well one night I was in my room rapping gifts for Christmas. My husband and 3 boys were watching Spider man. In the movie, the head of the news paper said some one was going to make him go into a diabetic coma. It seemed out of place in the movie my husband said. This triggered my husband to go get his mothers meter. He started thinking about how our son was drinking a lot and going through the diapers. When he got back and checked him the meter read HI . We called his mother and she said that mint that his blood sugar was over 500. That the meter only goes up to 500. So we took him to the ER. They ran test and took there time doing it. His sugar was over 700  at the ER. Be for they did any thing to help him he was going limp in my arms. They finally started helping him. But it was very traumatic for him. They poked him so much because the nurses were not very good at getting the veins. I found that the men were better at that. Well that was the scariest time in my life.  If my husband would not have went and got his moms meter like his heart was telling him and we would have went to bed that night ... Just like the movie said he would have been in a Diabetic coma or worse..........About your question well when you are diabetic and are sick with a virus or anything else your sugar levels go crazy.  When diabetics get ketones in there urine there sugar has been high for to long. That is not good.  Diabetics are more likely to get ketones when they are sick.             When my son has this problem the signs are thirst, bellyache, vomiting, and his sugar will be high. We get him to drink a lot of a sugar free drink. This helps flush it out. The more I can get him to drink the more he will go to the bathroom. He will drink and drink until he has flushed the ketones out. It may take a few hours and a lot of drinking and bathroom trips but it works.....Also this may not help but I'll tell you anyway. I have read that Diabetes can be triggered by an allergy to Milk. I also have read that people some times crave things that they have allergies to. Looking back my son drank milk all day and night. That was all he wanted. I liked to never got him to start eating food. So because my other son is allergic to milk and now drinks soy milk, I just assume that my diabetic son should drink the soy milk also... Maybe you should get your child allergy tested.....

[JDRF Volunteer RL]

Hello.  I'm not a medical professional, just the parent of a kid with diabetes.  It is possible to have ketones with low blood sugars.  Ketones are caused by the lack of insulin, not high blood sugars.  With your daughter being sick and vomiting, that can cause the numbers to drop so that you wouldn't have dosed insulin, and without getting food in her system to get the insulin needed, that would cause ketones.  

My recommendation would be to do whatever you can to get some carbs in her system so you can dose that insulin, as well as treat those ketones.  It always takes insulin to get rid of ketones.  Good luck.

[KevinHarney]

First a cold and an infection can have drastic effects on your blood sugar so that might be causing the lows and highs.  Second, I am sure that the hospital was not concerned about the 228 high because you told them that she was just treated for a low.  To my knowledge it is not possible to have low sugars AND keytones but I am not a Dr. and am not sure of that.  If that is true I would say that her sugars have been high because she was sick and that is what is causing the keytones and the low was an unexpected thing.  Perhaps the body was trying to dump some emergency "Insulin" into the body to cover for all of the highs she was having.  I know that Insulin is not the right term here but the body does have the ability to release something from the liver I believe that will bring sugar levels down.  This is the same thing that happens to some people when they are exercising.  The Adrenaline in the body releases something that lowers the sugar levels.  

I can't really speak to the nausua and the vomitting.  But remember that when you are in the hospital you can INSIST that they do certain tests.  If they say I dont advise it you can DEMAND it.  Consequences of this are that particular test might not be covered by insurance.  In many cases peace of mind is worth the slight extra expense.