Low blood sugar comes on quickly but high blood sugar is a slow deterioration
An accurate account. As ever, Radgirl is on the ball.
One slight caveat, diabetic control has become a lot stricter than back in the day, (for good reason.).
As such, some of the antidiabetic meds we use are a little more powerful, so, can, technically, could induce hypoglycaemia. In reality, I see lots and lots of type 2 patients, and have never come across this. (yet!)
Type 1 is a slightly different matter. The agents used are, I think it's fair to say, a little more "volatile." This is because the mechanism of disease is different, total destruction of the insulin producing cells vs wearing out. (The picture is actually a little more complex.)
As regards "warning signs" i that's a bit of a difficult one. Treat a "collapse" as a "collapse" in the first instance.
Obviously, history of past events could give a clue as to what's going on. Realistically, I'd be obtaining some info from the family, and maybe try and obtain an in the field blood glucose reading before shoving anything in their mouth. Remember, your patient is in a state of collapse, so you have to be very careful before putting anything solid near their airway.
The other thing to think about, is, if you do "bring someone round" with a Malteser, then the recovery period will be quite short lived, as maltesers are very simple sugars......more complex sugars, that break down slowly, are then needed. (Beans on toast are my fave.)
As
Radgirl says, hyperglycaemia, is a whole different kettle of fish.
Long term, it's a killer, short term is rarely an issue, unless the patient is ketoacidotic, which is a whole different ball game :-)
Safe flying.