Diabetes For Dummies, 5th Edition

Chapter 4

Avoiding Short-Term Complications

In This Chapter

Defining short-term complications

Dealing with low blood glucose

Handling very high blood glucose

After receiving a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, you need to understand how the disease can affect you. The previous chapters cover some of the signs and symptoms of diabetes, which you could consider to be the shortest of the short-term complications of the disease because they’re generally mild and begin to subside when you start treatment. This chapter covers the more serious forms of short-term complications, which occur when your blood glucose is out of control, reaching dangerously high or low levels.

With the exception of mild hypoglycemia (low blood glucose that you can manage yourself), you should treat all the complications in this chapter as medical emergencies. Keep in touch with your doctor and go to the hospital promptly if your blood glucose is uncontrollably high or you’re unable to hold down food. You may need a few hours in the emergency room or a day or two in the hospital to reverse your problems.