<p>Hi, I'm a junior in high school and I'm planning on enrolling in an out-of-state college in fall 2007.
anyway- i have had diabetes my whole life and about once or twice a year I will have a SERIOUS insulin reaction in my sleep where i go unconscious and my mom or dad has to feed me/give me a Glucagon shot and wait until I regain conciousness or wake up. I just had another one of these episodes last night and when I finally woke up (at 4:00AM with my entire family standing around me looking as if I had died) I was so scared, thinking, "WHAT IF THIS HAPPENS WHEN I AM IN COLLEGE!!!!!" I will (most likely) be out of state, far away from my family, so my question is: Would people in my dorm be notified that I am diabetic, or will any other precautions be put in place? Also, if there are any diabetics out there who have any advice for me, I would LOVE that. THANKS.</p>
<p>Hmmm, this is a trciky situation. If this happens in the middle of the night, how would your roomate know if they're sleeping? Also, you'd have to cross your finger that you end up rooming with someone really caring, and someone you really get along this. In case this happens in college, hopefully your roomate would be able to be at your side. Is there ANY possible way of avoiding these "episodes" from happening???</p>
<p>Thanks for replying. It's kind of hard to prevent them from happening; I could get a low blood sugar in the middle of the night based on some minor excercise I did 10 hours earlier, it really just depends on my body i guess. But they do happen very rarely, (almost exclusively at night) so yea maybe i could just explain it to my roomate when I first meet them. I just wouldn't want to freak them out and have them thinking they would have to be babysitting me whenever I fall asleep. wouldn't want that.</p>
<p>Exactly, but hopefully he understands its only a one per semester type of thing (IF that). What do you do if he stays over a friends house one night? Or goes home for a week because of family issues or something??</p>
<p>im confused on what happens during an insulin reaction. do you twitch or make noises or do something that allows your parents to know you are having an attack? this would be a good thing to inform your roomate about. if the attack goes unattended, what will happen? sorry for my ignorance.</p>
<p>thats okay dreamingofdreams. Yeah, sometimes you shake, you may sweat, or you may start talking/mumbling in your sleep. I think that it's different for everybody, so you would just have to be familiar on what that particular diabetic's symptoms are during an insulin reaction. I've heard of diabetics who have died during insulin reactions, because they showed no obvious signs and people thought they were just sleeping. don't want to scare anybody, but it does happen:(</p>
<p>Wow man thats a harsh situation. Im with dreaming, like how is your college roomate suppose to know when your having these attacks. I mean you should probably find out what you actually do and what symptoms you display during these reactions from your parents so you can inform your roomate. Also, there are always chances that your roomate may not always be fully aware of the situation due to drugs/alcohol or whatever from partying, which in that case would just suck for you... Anyways dude you have like 2 years to work it out and hopefully it will stop happening! Good Luck :)!</p>
<p>thanks guys for the advice i appreciate it</p>
<p>just a side note: i'm a girl, not a guy.</p>
<p>My guess is you can easily be paired to room w/ another diabetic or a person who is familiar with medical intervention....a student w/ paramedic training who will in fact be in the room most nites. I wouldn't worry too much. I have a friend at school who is deaf and has a roommate who wakes her and helps handle other situations that deafness presents. It has all worked out just fine.</p>
<p>If these episodes happen at night - be sure to eat before you go to bed and check your BG before going to bed. It's really up to you to take good care of yourself and closely monitor your levels. Since you've been dealing with this for a long time you should know your triggers, whether it is exercising, eating, not eating..etc.
You may also have to monitor throughout the night if this continues to happen. Just stay on top of things.</p>
<p>This is definitely something that you have to be totally honest and open with! You must let adcoms and the university health center know up front exactly what your medical needs are. You can't wait until after housing and a roommate are assigned to mention, "oh by the way, I have this medical issue that needs to be addressed!"</p>
<p>People in universities can be very supportive of you as long as you communicate with them up front.</p>
<p>Yeah I'm with gsp
You cannot count on your roommate to do anything - she will almost assuredly not have much (if any) medical training. If not (hell, even if she does) there would likely be issues (legally, with the school, etc.) with her having the ability to give you shots. E.g. if they misdiagnose the situation and give you a random shot of glucagon while you're sleeping, that could also seriously screw up your sugar levels.
Here's the thing - I'm an EMT who has worked on a 911 rig for over a year and have had plenty of diabetic patients and I have no idea what the situation you're describing is. Unless your parents regularly take sugar levels on you at 4 am in your sleep, I have no clue how they could tell you're having an issue with that. </p>
<p>You should for sure tell your university about this and see what they say about it.</p>
<p>Hmmm the only advice I can give is when I went away to sleepaway camp a few years ago, a roomate of mine informed our room that she had a disorder where sometimes she coughed too much during the night and could pass out or something scary like that, so we were all on the lookout that if she were coughing a lot, we should check to make sure she was okay. It's just a common decency thing I guess, I'm sure you'll be fine if you take the necessary precautions. Good luck!</p>
<p>well most housing forms ask you to indicate if you need any special services, this would definitely be one of them. I am not too well versed on diabetes, but I do have minor hypoglycemia, so I know what low-blood sugar levels are like and how to avoid them, but by insulin reaction, do you mean your blood sugar soars or drops? I assume (i.e. I am trying to remember from AP Bio) that if glucagon shots are what you need, it means your blood sugar drops during the night. Wouldnt eating snacks before you go to sleep help you out with this? Maybe you could set an alarm in the middle of the night to wake you up so you can have a little gatorade or something and then sleep the rest of the time untill morning?</p>
<p>hmm, why not consider a state college? then you could still go home at night</p>
<p>How about an insulin pump?
That might work very well...</p>
<p>I have a friend who has a D who is diabetic. Her D is in a single this year. When she is having problem regulating her blood sugar, she calls her Mom and Mom calls her every two hours (maybe 3). The D wakes up, tests her blood sugar and does the appropriate action. It's not a great solution but the only one that seems to work. I would suspect if her D did not answer the phone, my friend would call emergency services.</p>
<p>I think for somebody with a medical condition, you should either stay home for school. or go to school with a really good current friend who knows your situation.</p>
<p>My D informed her college that she was a diabetic and definitely needed a roommate who would not be freaked out by it. She has a great roommate who is a bioengineering student who said that she would rather have a roomate who was diabetic and had to inject herself every day than a party animal drunk who barfed in the room after going out partying.</p>