Posted: 10/28/2007 7:23:09 PM EDT
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I wanted to keep some food/drink mix onhand in hunting pack for relative with diabetes what should I keep? When someone goes down at work, I just grab them some OJ or peanut butter crackers. Is there a stable drink mix that that would be okay? Would Gatorade be good? I could just ask him........but preparation isn't really appreciated with this bunch. |
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If you have a diabetic crashing due to low sugar levels, a good food is honey, last forever is cheap and can be given to them if they fall close to unconsciousness. Prep PS I just realized this reply window has a spell checking feature and people still misspell words. |
| You need something with high sugar content aswell as a lot of carbs for sustained fix. For a "instant" fix, you can get tubes to glucose from various medical supply places. a tube or two will bring someone back who is going down on the sugar. However like i said that is a 15 minute fix and you will need some more substantial food source for real recovery. |
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There is a range of treatments depending on the situation: Unresponsive person (so out of it they won't comply with directions to eat/drink/swallow): Use a Glucagon Emergency Kit Glucagon Emergency Kit If you end up with someone who's unresponsive then call 911 first, you've got time to make the call for help before starting treatment for low sugar. Heading downward/Low person (Acting slow, irrational, lethargic, etc): Glucose Tablet or Gel Glucose Tablet or Insta-Glucose or juice if they will comply. Keep in mind the juice needs sugar in it, and juice will NOT bring up the bloodsugar level as fast as a glucose tablet or tube will. I've also seen people try to give crystal light or diet-coke when a diabetic needed sugar. Don't be one of those people, just get the right gear. Additionally if you plan on hanging out with someone who's got issues managing their diabetes, ask them where they plan on keeping their testing kit and know how to use it. |
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good point about the testing kit Good info from all. I didn't think about the short term fix versus long term fix. I just assumed that if his sugar came back up then he would be okay. My concern is to have him able to walk back to the road. Basically, he is a big, old boy just itching for a heart attack.......he has asthma (know where the inhaler is)...... I have a cell phone too, but we will be 30 minutes from small, rural hospital otherwise it is helicopter time. Maybe I am worrying too much, but just trying to be prepared. |
Issues ? Anyone with diabetes is going to experience a hypoglycemic event from time to time . It just happens and has little to do with managing your glucose levels . I've had it happen when I know my levels should be high ( After high sugar/carb Intake ) and I've had it happen 2 min after taking an insulin injection because I just tested high . No rhyme or reason . It's really no big deal because you can feel it coming on and take the steps necessary to remedy it long before you become unresponsive . Glucose tabs & Gels work quickest , but OJ , honey and even plain sugar work nearly as fast and worse come to worst . You can eat some high carb/sugar foods to head it off and just deal with the symptoms while you wait for them to kick in ( 10-15 Min ) I never spoken to another adult diabetic that's needed someone else's intervention to handle it . Although I don't doubt there are idiot diabetics out there  It's really only going to be a problem with someone who doesn't know they are diabetic , or people who go hypoglycemic for other reasons that are going to need help . In which case a BG tester isn't likely to be available . ETA A small bag of Frito's corn chips will jack my BG levels into the 400's in no time flat and keep it there for a couple of hours . Something that even a hunk of chocolate covered cheesecake wont do  |
BIG +1 i ran a call the other day where someone had a home glucagon kit see if your buddy can get his doc to write a perscription, and if you are ever in that situation make sure your buddy is still "with it" enough to swallow before you start pour stuff in his mouth, general rule of thumb diabetics dont get anything oral unless they can put it in there own mouth. Or else now you just made a bad situation worse by obstructing his airway. Just remember its great to be prepared but the best offense is a good defense, make sure he test his bg level often and that he eats, and possibly more than what hes used to due to the increased exercise level of walking around in the woods, also make sure you take food with you incase for whatever reason you are delayed getting back to camp, juices and sugars are fast acting but are absorbed and used quickly too |
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tube of cake icing. cheaper than glucose paste and absorbs faster in the mouth if they cant swallow. if hes out of it you can put a small amount on your finger and rub it between his cheek and gums and do it several times(dont use much) and it will absorb even though he cant swallow. plus it actually has more sugar in it than the glucose paste and taste better. that lemon flavor just dont help. now the big question is, is your friend suffer from hypo or hyperglycemia? these are treatments for hypo not hyper, you give someone with hyperglycemia what where telling you here and your gonna kill your friend. if he is hyper then the only thing that will help is insulin, which doesnt like to be warm. edit, forgot to add, as others have stated he will need something better to sustain his glucose. glucose paste and cake icing is nice but without something else in his stomach he will crash very fast afterwards. maybe pack a MRE only for such an emergency. oh, even packing some cookies if he feels hes going down hill. they will help sustain his sugar as well. |
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Water is critical as well. He should be drinking plenty of water daily, all day long. My daughter is type 1, so the base line gear is water, glucose tabs, powergels, powerbars, chewy bars, raisins, multiple glucagon kits, back up GC meters, frio meds keeper, small otter boxes. Cake icing mix in small tubes is great, idea is it will dissolve in the mouth if the person is still coherent but not require any chewing or serious swallowing, a lot cheaper then the "medical" gels. In 3 years my daughter has never had an episode, she knows when she is going low, and at times I can see it coming too. Frankly, most of it can used by anyone in the field. Same stuff is ideal for get home bags and day packs in general. |
From this he sounds like me and may have type 2. If so he probly will not have problems with low sugar, more likely high sugar if missed meds or can't get them. Now if he is taking shots, diffrent story. With type 2 you can pass out if your sugar get too high but normaly you build up to this level slow, and show signs that its getting there ( drinking more, peeing more...). So find out which type he has and talk with him about what meds he is on to control it. |
Hyperglycemia won't be an issue for you. The emergency situation is hypoglycemia (glucose is low). Brain needs glucose to run. Don't have it, you go unconscious. Prior to that you start acting weird. Normally a medical emergency from hyperglycemia takes time to devolop (several days) and usually don't result in sudden unconsciousness or something that would effect you in the field hunting. Long story short, a test kit is probably not nessessary in the field: if he is unconscious, the odds are very good he is low on sugar. I wouldn't call a helicopter unless I exhausted ALL other options. Hypoglycemia is a problem that is easily fixed in the field. If you can't fix it, call an ambulance. They can fix the problem right on the spot and save him THOUSANDS in medical bills. A helicopter is WAY overkill unless you have exhausted every other option. The thing about the various foods and all that: yeah, once his blood glucose gets back up into the normal range he will wake up and be normal. But, your body is burning that glucose as fuel. How long the fuel lasts is an issue. You can wake someone up with something like cake frosting but his body will burn through that quickly and he will soon be right back where he started. You need something like the cake icing and then he has to eat some regular food with carbohydrates. I have never heard about Fritos before that is very interesting. In the field, any food is better than nothing. It would obviously be something you could carry without it being a huge burden. "I never spoken to another adult diabetic that's needed someone else's intervention to handle it . Although I don't doubt there are idiot diabetics out there. " I have spoken to thousands of them. That's no exageration at all. I have worked professionally, full-time in EMS for close to 25 years. Diabetic calls are one of the most common calls we run. I have treated thousands of them over the years. I also dated a girl that was diabetic. She became hypoglcemic once when we were in Mexico and came close another time on another trip. We just got preoccupied with what we were doing on the trip and didn't eat. I know she tested herself regularly and she had an insulin pump. But, she told me that over the years she has had to have an ambulance called on her several times. She is just a brittle diabetic. FWIW: as an EMS responder, we very seldom transport diabetics to the hospital. If they are unconscious when we get there, or if their blood glucose is low enough to warrant someone calling 911, we fix them, make sure they are in the process of getting something to eat and we leave. Very infrequently we get someone with very high blood glucose. Those, we transport because it is bad enough that they called 911 and we can't do anything about high blood glucose in the field. They usually have other things going on and it isn't that simple. We carry Glucagon and I have used it several times. However, it doesn't always work and it takes longer to work than the other medication we carry which is 50% Dextrose which is given IV. The Glucagon causes your body to release stores of glucose. If your body doesn't have any, it doesn't work. We normally only use Glucagon only if we can't get an IV for some reason, usually the patient is so combative that we can't get one. But, that is a real simple easy to carry thing to have on hand. |