“My mother suffered from 3 episodes of hypoglycemia in a day. Will she be okay?”

Depends how low her sugars were and what her mental state was. Definitely warrants calling her doctor and discussing change in her diabetes medication to avoid recurring episodes of hypo’s.

Your mother should be seen be seen by her physician to determine the cause of hypoglycemia. If she is being treated for diabetes, she should be seen by a specialist.

Hypoglycemia needs to be avoided. She should be seen by a physician and do therapy.

Frequent hypoglycemia - below 60, can cause memory loss and also can cause hypoglycemia unawareness. For this reason it is very important to see your mother's doctor as soon as possible to make appropriate adjustment to her medications.

Multiple hypoglycemia in a patient over age 65 is dangerous. It may be due to eating habits, drugs selected, or patient compliance. An immediate visit should be made to the responsible physician. If the patient fails to respond normally, an ambulance should be called.

What a terrible thing to have to go through.

First, I am sorry you and your mother are having to suffer low sugars.

If she is diabetic, then I would take a serious look at what medications can be contributing to hypoglycemia. Namely, we are looking at insulins and oral hypoglycemic agents like glipizide, glimepiride, glyburide. If any of these are on her medication profile, then I would HOLD them.

We often use "The rule of 15" to correct for low sugars. Give 15 grams of sugar and check in 15 minutes. If > 100, then you're out of the "danger zone". If this is needed more than 3-4x, then I would consider being seen in an Urgent Care/ER setting. The most concerning thing is a 'long lasting insulin' that just is in the system too long and requires time to excrete.

At this point, there is not enough information at hand to advise an ER visit, but if there is enough concern, I would certainly error on the side of being seen in person.

Best to you,
CH

She needs to have her medications reassessed.

This question is hard to answer without knowing something about her level of control, drugs she is on, general state of health, etc. I would also need to know how low the blood sugar was. In general. most hypoglycemia does little or no permanent damage but severe lows can cause brain damage & should be avoided at all costs especially in the very young and the elderly. If this is a recurrent problem she should see her physician and get her medication adjusted. It is also important to look at other reasons for the lows. Over 90% of lows are not due to the wrong meds or the wrong doses but due to errors by the patient such as timing of meds, med errors, not matching food, exercise & meds, etc. This should be looked into & be sure she has received the proper & completer education in self care.

The severity of the episode would determine if she needed to visit the hospital. She should especially go to the hospital if she is unable to eat or drink to bring the blood sugar up.