Past medical history. Do you remember what the history was on that guy? Speaker 2: I,
Oh no. Speaker 1: Did he have any allergies? Speaker 2: I, I'm not, I don't know. I don't.
Speaker 1: What are you doing? You haven't done any of this. Speaker 2: I'm alright.
Speaker 1: Man, we gotta go. We gotta clear. Speaker 2: It's okay. Speaker 1: C'mon buddy,
we gotta get going. Speaker 2: Yeah Speaker 1: What was, you picked up his list of medications,
right? Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: Jodie Speaker 2: Huh? Speaker 1: Are you feeling
okay? I thought you were just kidding around. Now you're acting like your sugar's low. Speaker
2: I, I don't, yeah I'm okay. Speaker 1: What are you drinking? This is diet pop. Hey listen,
I think you should, I think your sugar's low. You're acting like your sugar's low. Have
you checked your blood sugar? Speaker 2: No, I no. Speaker 1: Here listen, I want you to
take some sips of this. Take some sips. C'mon. Speaker 2: Alright. Speaker 1: Just start
sipping that. Because if this doesn't get any better we're going to get you some help.
Did you have lunch? Speaker 2: No. Speaker 1: Here, drinks some more then. Drink some
more. Speaker 2: Alright, alright. Speaker 1: Now, lets talk about emergencies that can
occur due to blood sugar problems. So, some of the first signs and symptoms of a person
who might be experiencing a sugar issue is if they become confused. They might start
messing with something. They're kind of doing random acts that are not coordinated. Or they
start saying things that really don't quite add up. And that will progressively get worse,
both with high blood sugar and low blood sugar. But I think there's some distinctions we should
make. When a person suffering from high blood sugar, regardless of their diabetic condition,
high blood sugar usually comes on slower over time. Now, the side effects are less drastic
but they really end up kind of being the same. Confused, headache, not feeling well, and
eventually they will go unresponsive and end up dying if they're not treated appropriately.
Low blood sugar on the other hand actually occurs much more quickly and the onset could
be from minutes to, you know, 10, 15, 22, maybe less than an hour, where this person
really begins to lose their blood sugar and they really get confused and do things randomly
much more quickly. Now the treatments in our situation are going to be the same, but the
condition is different for the long term definitive treatment. So, keep that in mind as we go
through this. Now, what would you know about a high blood sugar event vs a low blood sugar
event. The fact that they are basically having these symptoms gradually come on. Their body
is trying to burn off the blood sugar any way it can. That could be through urination,
it could be through hyperventilation and what happens when they hyperventilate is they're
actually blowing off ketones. Ketoacidosis is the by-product of unused sugar or improperly
used sugar that's becoming a bit toxic in the body. And the body knows it's gotta get
rid of this. And again, if it can't urinate it out, it's going to even try to respirate
it out. So, what we might smell in a high blood sugar is that fruity acetone type of
smell, that almost like cheap wine kind of smell on the breath, but they haven't been
drinking wine, you know, and they haven't been eating fruit. And so that might be a
giveaway that they may be fighting high blood sugar instead of low blood sugar. However,
let's not get hung up on whether it's high or low. If they begin acting confused, if
they begin to kind of show some of those signs and symptoms that they are having a blood
sugar issue, the way that we treat that is to rule it out with sugar. Now, it can be
done through over the counter, where you just have soda randomly available or it can be
done through other particular products that are designed to be used for diabetic emergencies,
specifically low blood sugar. Now, these can only be used if the person can actually swallow
safely. If they're to a point in their sugar that, where they can no longer control their
swallowing reflex without choking, it's too late. We need to activate EMS, call 911 and
get help on the way so we can get them the sugar that they need through IV or through
glucagon treatment through a inter-muscular injection. But as long as this person was
so able to kind of follow commands, they weren't getting overly aggressive or agitated or combative
we could possibly just encourage them to start drinking some soda or something with some
glucose in it to rule out the sugar issue. If it's low blood sugar, this should help
within about 10-15 minutes. If it does not help after 15 minutes it's an EMS call. We
might have something else going on. But, as long as they're trying, as long as it's improving
and not digressing we're heading in the right direction. But some of these other products
I like a little better than relying on soda or a candy bar because they're designed to
absorb quickly and they're designed to be more stable when they're in their packages.
What do I mean by that, well if I was going to rely on a gel or a liquid, what happens
if it's in my car and it gets freezing cold outside and the substance turns into ice.
Well, that's not going to work very well. So, you got these glucose tabs that are really
stable and it's going to be very difficult for them to freeze to a point where a patient
cannot chew them up and absorb that much needed glucose. One of the things to think about
though is, is the soda diet or is it regular? You know, time and time again I've kind of
responded to the places where they said "yeah, I was giving them pop or soda and it wasn't
helping. And I look at the bottle and it turns out to be a non-sugar product. That would
explain why it's not affecting the diabetic or the low blood sugar event. There's also
the concern that we're dealing with fibrous longer absorption rate foods which are great
for sugar problems that are slowly creeping in and you it and so you eat a snack to try
to stabilize the dip but not for emergency rescue of low blood sugar event. This is something
we need to have that it's going to absorb quickly. Keep an eye on the actual dosage.
Remember, most of these people that have sugar problems, they have talked to their physician
and the physician has told them what kind of grams they should be trying to absorb when
they're running into a situation. These are 4 gram per tablet glucose tabs. So if they
were supposed to get 20 grams of glucose, we would need to give them 5 tablets, not
just 1. So keep that in mind when you look at the different grams of sugar per serving
or per dose when you have these available for you. This container is 70 grams of sugar
just in this one bottle. Obviously a third of the bottle is going to be plenty of sugar
to try to bring that blood sugar up, but because it may be made out of high fructose corn syrup,
the burn rate of those sugars is going to be much more rapid than a longer acting dextrose.
They're all going to burn out though. So after they experience that diabetic emergency it's
important that if it's the first time, you follow up with emergency medical services
and get them the definitive care that they need and if they're a known diabetic and they
know how to keep it going or they can explain why they had this sugar event then get them
back on the plan so that they don't have it again. And maybe they took their insulin but
they didn't eat lunch, or whatever the case may be. Or, it may be time to check in with
their physician, let them know it happened, as they might be fighting an infection or
something may have changed with their diabetes. Either way, contacting emergency services
is always a great backup plan and buys us time for their sake and getting them back
on track so they can get their diabetes under control.