QuestionDear Dr. Borucki,
The other night while we watched a rerun of Burn Notice my husband ate a pint of Haagan-Dazs ice cream. From start to finish he ate the whole pint in under 15 minutes. I looked at the serving information the next day, after he told me he woke up sick. A pint is supposed to be 4 servings; each serving has 320 calories and 27g of sugar. So we're talking 1280 calories and 108g sugar, total.
He went to bed around midnight, and woke the next morning around 5am very sick, and for a while thought he might be having a heart attack. However, he didn't wake anyone else up, probably because he knew I'd make him go to the ER.
He said he was soaked with sweat and so hot he had to sit in front of a fan on high. He was also nauseous and his vision was blurry. In about an hour, though, after drinking some sweetened ice tea he felt much better and went to work.
I can't get him to go to the doctor, though I've tried and tried which only makes him more stubborn. Years ago he was being evaluated for some allergic reactions, possibly to solvents and other stuff at the machine shop where he was working. While we were at Hershey Medical Center the doctor casually informed us that the mole on his face was a basal cell carcinoma and invited some medical students to take a look at it. It was three years before he finally had it removed! It started bleeding and I'd had enough of his procrastination and told on him to his MOTHER and we double-teamed him so he went to the surgeon just to shut us up.
He is 51yo and at-risk for diabetes as his mother and a newly-diagnosed brother have it plus an uncle on his father's side. He has lost some weight in the last year, but needed to lose it, so... Sometimes he gets up in the middle of the night thirsty. He also has had Hep C since he was in the Army stationed in Germany in the late 1970's. He was diagnosed about 15 years ago after going with me to donate blood. He was participating in a study at the NIH but hasn't been there in about 4 years as he now owns his own machine shop and is the only employee. If he doesn't work he doesn't make any money. The last we heard his Hep C status was considered stable.
I am not asking for a diagnois. What I'd like to know, however, is how eating the ice cream like that led to him waking up so sick. Is that hypoglycemia? My husband said he will NEVER do that again, and I believe him, but if something else causes the same reaction, what is the best way to "reverse" it?
Thank you for your time and any help you can give. It is greatly appreciated!
Regards,
Linda
Answerit may very well have been hypoglycemia, but, people like him who are reluctant to go to doctors minimize their symptoms even to themselves...... If it was low sugar, the treatment was giving sugar, but he needs a full eval including a stress test..... urge him to get it and if normal, blame it on me.... but he needs to make sure he is OK
