Crazy Moodswings, Irrational Behaviour Of Addisonian Partner, Any Help, Advice?

Errata

The bald fact is that you've known the man for only a year and you've only heard his side of the story. If he truly believes allowing medical staff 'doing their thing' will result in his death, and if his fear of that is making him hysterical he has a significant problem which needs to be addressed..

LouLou

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fashionlover10

With regards to the diabetes what is he like with his eating? What medications is he on for it (for instance OH has 2 types of insulin and a tablet each day). The hypos are more than likely caused by him not balancing his food/insulin ratios properly. Alcohol will not be helping either! The worst hypos I've ever seen OH have were after he drunk too much.

Does he test his sugars around you? Does he ever tell you what number they are? OH always tells me his number after he tests so I know where he's at, whether he's having an unstable day etc. and it's helpful in being able to predict his moods.

LouLou

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fashionlover10

I think you should definitely take more of an active role in knowing everything about his illness. You need to be aware of what to do if his sugars are too low/too high etc. You would need to be able to inform any medical staff of what medication he is on and how much if ever he was unconscious.
There's also carbs in the vast majority of foods which is what he needs to be aware of when he's taking insulin, not just the sugar content.

Does he inject a set amount for each type of food he eats or is it dependent on portion sizes? I have to weigh all the carbs OH eats, he looks up on his DAFNE phone app how many carbs are in that portion size of whatever food and adjusts his insulin accordingly.

fashionlover10

http://www.dafne.uk.com/

Going on this course helped OH massively! He rarely ever has hypos since he went on it and when he does he knows they're happening before they get bad.

Some signs of a hypo OH gets are shaking hands, confusion, grumpiness, zoning out or having a vacant look on his face. If you know the signs it much easier to deal with it because you can say to him before he kicks off 'Would you like something to eat/drink etc?'

LouLou

fashionlover10 wrote: »

I think you should definitely take more of an active role in knowing everything about his illness. You need to be aware of what to do if his sugars are too low/too high etc. You would need to be able to inform any medical staff of what medication he is on and how much if ever he was unconscious.
There's also carbs in the vast majority of foods which is what he needs to be aware of when he's taking insulin, not just the sugar content.

Does he inject a set amount for each type of food he eats or is it dependent on portion sizes? I have to weigh all the carbs OH eats, he looks up on his DAFNE phone app how many carbs are in that portion size of whatever food and adjusts his insulin accordingly.

I'm going to look at the DAFNE phone app, thanks. And yes, I do need to learn a bit more.

To be honest, I just figured he knew best about his conditions, as I am bamboozled by them, and I assumed was coping. It's when there's flashpoints like these that I realise he needs extra support.

aleksrothis

Contrary to most other posters, I know nothing about Diabetes but my husband has Addisons so I'll stick to commenting on that.

Addisons is so rare than we've often run into medical professionals who don't understand it or how to treat it (including the paramedic we called out about a month ago when he was having a Addisonian crisis, who tried to tell me it was just norovirus).

One of his online fellow sufferers was actually told by a doctor to stop taking their hydrocortisone tablets for a couple of days, due to clashing with a different medicine, with predictably disastrous results.

From experience, DH has taken his hydrocortisone up to 4 hours late with tiredness being the only noticeable symptom. It is sometimes noticeable when he is ill and isn't doubling up enough on medication so possibly your partner should speak to his specialist about moderating his doses to account for hypos?

My understanding, from reading online and DH's explanations, is that taking cortico-steriods destroys any remaining function of the adrenal gland that the Addisons hasn't effected, which may explain the confusion about if he produces adrenaline or not. But I'm not a doctor or pharmacist.

I've certainly always assumed he produces no adrenaline as he is very calm and has no visible reaction to things which would cause an adrenaline rush (rollercosters, near-miss car accident...)

Excessive sweating and indigestion/bloating are two symptoms I can relate to - apparently it's related to salt-intake/processing but I don't know the full explanation. Could this be linked to problems managing the Diabetes?

Mood swings/irritability are listed as potential side-effects of hydrocortisone though my DH is generally very mild-tempered rather than otherwises so I can't comment on how common this is or if it is an excuse for all your partner's behaviour.

You may want to try Addisons support groups on Facebook - he recommends UK Addisons Disease Info & Support

LouLou

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ciderwithrosie_2

Carer wrote: »

I have to agree with this, my OH is type 1, so was his Dad and so is our 18yr old son. All of them exhibit the same symptoms when blood sugar is low.
The sweating is also part of it in our case, my OH will soak the bed when he's going into hypo, he is never cold, nor is son ever cold, they are t-shirts in winter people.

Must have been horrible for you to have your son diagnosed with type 1 too. I used to worry about my boys developing it, as OH's younger brother and sister have it too, then one day I just stopped worrying as there was little I could do to prevent type 1 if it was in their genes.

I'd forgotten about the sweating, when OH's unconscious his skin is pale, cold and solid, yet he's drenched in sweat. Many a time I've had to strip the bed in the middle of the night!