Hello! My 55 year old mother has had Type 1 diabetes since the young age of 9. Her blood sugar despite being on the Omni Pod with close blood sugar monitoring is uncontrollable with an A1C around 11. She also has Addisons disease.
She often wakes up close to 500, takes insulin but then dramatically drops to 30 and NEEDS a quick fix as many of you with type 1 know when your blood sugar is low your a little bit to say the least not put together. To connect your brain thoughts with words of meaning or function such as chewing a high carb bar of some sort or chew glucose tabs is nearly impossible so she relies on glucose gels to bring her up to a level she at least can help herself eat her way our of and its something a family member can safely give her with out a risk of choking her as food and glucose tabs risk. Its been a constant battle her entire life though better in thee past few years but harder to bring her back as well up once she gets so low that we need the ambulance to bring her back.
To my point, those ever expensive but life saving glucose gels seem to be as easy to find as a unicorn these days! Level One used to sell them but for some reason they have chosen to discontinue manufacturing them despite the company founder also living with Type 1 diabetes. I wrote and called the company all of which got me no where. The level one brand sold around $3.99 for 3 gel packs. Other brands which are seemingly hard to find such as cvs brand price for $4.99 a SINGLE gel pack.
Whats going on here? My mother who has a mound of medicine, tests and doctor appointments to pay already for is being forced i’m sure like many others to pay an extraordinary price for something so truthfully inexpensive and lifesaving.
Why are the companies no longer making these?
Are you experiencing this scary problem as well?
What have you found as an alternative?
Is it possible for us to make them ourselves?
Please any input and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
I know another T1 who just uses sugar cubes. These would dissolve PDQ under the tongue so as not to be a choking hazard. Not as quick as the glucose gel but better than nothing.
Honey is widely available and another possibility.
From what you wrote, it seems that rapidly changing blood glucose from very high to very low is at the root of this problem. Can your mother use a continuous glucose monitor (CGM)? This device, if your mother will wear it and can afford it, will reveal these dangerous trends before they become threatening and debilitating. I know what those severe lows feel like! They’re no fun.
Finding an acceptable emergency low blood sugar antidote is important but restoring a more moderate blood glucose profile is an even better goal for your mom. Good luck!
