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Hypoglycemics (or parents of)....help


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My daughter has surgery tomorrow afternoon (and by afternoon I mean 3pm).

She cannot eat after 7am. Even if I protein load her, she she will be sick.

I am not worried about before the surgery, but during recovery----- when they give her juice and crackers ------ she'll probably barf. How will they know if it's from the surgery or her blood sugar??

 

Does anyone have experience with this???

Should I ask them to give her a slow glucose drip---or will that LOWER her blood sugar you think????

 

She is less of a reactive hypoglycemic and more of a "uses all food up too fast and is low" type. But she will be sick and faint after the surgery. Would giving her milk in recovery be a bad idea?

 

Lara

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Oh Lara, I'm really sorry. I'm severely HG and fats are what work best here. For me, I'd go with the crackers and juice or whatever i had to do to get my blood sugar up and then do the proteins/fats as I can. Fats keep me really stable. Maybe try a nice avocado after surgery, if that is a permissible food at that point.

 

I would definitely ask about the glucose drip. I'd be surprised if they didn't do that anyway. But wow! Until 3pm! I'd have a headache going before the surgery started. Pray things go well!!

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If there is any way you can get them to agree with it, take some organic coconut oil and give her a tablespoon of the stuff (melted so it's easy to get down because some people have a really strong texture/gag reflex when first coming off surgery). The fat might help the simple carbs stay down.

 

Talk to the surgeon, the nurses, etc. and see if anyone will consult the nutritionist on staff. The nutritionist should have a protocol laid out for HG patients coming out of surgery. Be noisy about it until you are taken seriously.

 

:grouphug: Faith

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I am thinking about feeding her for breakfast (at 6:30)

 

ham

eggs

avocado

milk

 

She can have clear liquids (like 7-up) but I think that will make things worse.

 

This could cause her to vomit.

 

Did you tell the surgeon she's hypoglycemic? I couldn't have dd12 wait until after three to eat. She would NEVER make it.

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how could this cause her to vomit? This is breakfast at 6:30 am--- 8 hours before the surgery. I am just protein loading her. (she could have this regularly for breakfast) I would just normally let her have some toast or chocolate milk to make it go down easier--breakfast is hard here

 

She can also have milk until 6 hours before (8:30 am).

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We dealt with this monthly when my daughter needed monthly MRIs for her brain tumor....she was under a couple of hours at a time.

 

1. Tell the dr. and anesthesiologist. They can run different sets of fluids for her if she's going to be out long.

 

2. We always gave my dd chocolate milk in recovery. She did great with it. It was her comfort food and we worked with the same recovery team, so they never tried to force juice and crackers on us.

 

3. It doesn't really matter *why* one is throwing up in recovery. My ds often doesn't start having issues until about an hour post-anesthesia. The main thing is that they don't dehydrate. (He will continue throwing up for 6-8 hours.) We know his is anesthesia related, so we try to have them use propofol rather than some of the sedation drugs with him.

 

4. Give her clear liquids as long as you can. Chicken broth is actually one that goes over here better than juice or jello. Anything that will delay the crankiness of dropping low on blood sugar is good.

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We dealt with this monthly when my daughter needed monthly MRIs for her brain tumor....she was under a couple of hours at a time.

 

1. Tell the dr. and anesthesiologist. They can run different sets of fluids for her if she's going to be out long.

 

2. We always gave my dd chocolate milk in recovery. She did great with it. It was her comfort food and we worked with the same recovery team, so they never tried to force juice and crackers on us.

 

3. It doesn't really matter *why* one is throwing up in recovery. My ds often doesn't start having issues until about an hour post-anesthesia. The main thing is that they don't dehydrate. (He will continue throwing up for 6-8 hours.) We know his is anesthesia related, so we try to have them use propofol rather than some of the sedation drugs with him.

 

4. Give her clear liquids as long as you can. Chicken broth is actually one that goes over here better than juice or jello. Anything that will delay the crankiness of dropping low on blood sugar is good.

 

 

 

Thank you!! This has been really helpful. I am sorry that you have had to go through it enough to be an expert!

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how could this cause her to vomit? This is breakfast at 6:30 am--- 8 hours before the surgery. I am just protein loading her. (she could have this regularly for breakfast) I would just normally let her have some toast or chocolate milk to make it go down easier--breakfast is hard here

 

She can also have milk until 6 hours before (8:30 am).

 

I have been told food in thr stomach combined with anesthesia could cause vomiting, which is why no food or water after midnight, typically.

 

ETA: they told you she could have milk until six hours before? Can she have any solids?

 

I am wondering if you heard from the doctor yet. I wish they coukd take hypiglycemics/diabetics in first.

Edited by Denisemomof4
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I have been told food in thr stomach combined with anesthesia could cause vomiting, which is why no food or water after midnight, typically.

 

ETA: they told you she could have milk until six hours before? Can she have any solids?

 

I am wondering if you heard from the doctor yet. I wish they coukd take hypiglycemics/diabetics in first.

 

 

No solid food for 8 hours before surgery. (6:30am is cut off)

can have non clear liquids up 6 hours before (milk, oj, )

can have clear liquids up to 4 hours before. (apple juice, 7-up)--I am worried that this will make lower her sugar (it does me!)

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No solid food for 8 hours before surgery. (6:30am is cut off)

can have non clear liquids up 6 hours before (milk, oj, )

can have clear liquids up to 4 hours before. (apple juice, 7-up)--I am worried that this will make lower her sugar (it does me!)

 

I was wracking my brain trying to think of when dd12 had to wait a long time before eating. Until recently, she absolutely HAD to eat upon waking in the morning. This was not optional. She was weak, faint, shaking upon waking up.

 

She had to undergo an echo stress test and a pulmonary function stress. One of those tests wasn't until 1:00 and she could eat NOTHING in the morning, drink only water. Then go through a stress test running uphill on a treadmill?? Really? They insisted dd could have nothing because she could have had an "event" (cardiac/pulmonary) and she needed an empty stomach. She has a medical condition which causes fainting, and the spells are brought on by not eating soon enough and dehydration, among other things. I was such a wreck that I probably should have been medicated myself! I made sure two people stood on either side of her to catch her if she went down, and they gave her a signal to give if she felt faint.

 

She actually did fine, which absolutely SHOCKED me. She was starving so we went out to lunch as soon as the test was through.

 

I do hope they can give your dd in fluids with glucose. They gave it to dd when she was recently hospitalized with a virus.

 

I hope all goes well tomorrow, and I'm sure it will.:grouphug:

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One more thought....pack a luna bar or something with you for her post-anesthesia and ask about their post-anesthesia recovery time frame.

Our local children's hospital is awful if you are not staying on floor....they boot people within 20 minutes of waking....if you can drink and eat then you are gone. The hospital we were at in DC for specialized cancer care was more awesome. You were expected to stay for a couple of hours, and they would order a meal for you to make sure you were taken care of.

 

I'd take her glucometer with you. Sometimes a nurse won't take you seriously until you shove a number in her face. ;) One of our tips was that if we were having scans done at the local hospital and we had a two-hour pre-scan check-in procedure, we'd do our paperwork and meet with interventional radiology first to place an iv line so if we needed to hang a bag of glucose we could. We'd also be sure to talk to the anesthesiologist directly as part of the pre-scan or pre-op discussion. Nurses don't always check files and pass stuff along as they should.

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