Living with Diabetes

Driving Mishaps

Written by

kathleen

in

This is under discussion right now, on the insulin-pumpers mailing list.

It’s scary that doctors don’t talk to diabetics about driving. I check my blood sugar before driving unless I just finished eating and I’ve used checked before the meal.

I also check frequently when making long trips, at least once an hour, as I can think of few things worse than going low while driving. I also keep Snickers minatures in the car and use them to keep from having an emergency — they are about 5 grams of carb each of slow sugar. I also keep a couple of bags of lifesavers in the car for fast sugar.

Diabetes Care: Diabetes and driving mishaps: frequency and correlations from a multinational survey – Original article: epidemiology/health services/psychosocial research

Comments

2 responses to “Driving Mishaps”

  1. Rick St Avatar
    Rick St

    Yes– there is nothing more dangerous to yourself and others than driving with low bG (except, maybe, operating a chainsaw). But I don’t agree with your food choices: (1) Lifesavers aren’t fast sugar, they’re table sugar. Dextrose tabs are fast sugar… keep a full bottle in your glove compartment at all times. (2) Snickers hardly qualify as “sugar” at all, they’re fat. If you were out here in Nevada, getting stranded in Black Rock desert for a week, then calorie-intensive snack food like this would be a good emergency choice. But they’re hardly a replacement for real meals. I’d get off the road and eat something balanced.

    Reply
  2. Rick St Avatar
    Rick St

    Yes– there is nothing more dangerous to yourself and others than driving with low bG (except, maybe, operating a chainsaw). But I don’t agree with your food choices: (1) Lifesavers aren’t fast sugar, they’re table sugar. Dextrose tabs are fast sugar… keep a full bottle in your glove compartment at all times. (2) Snickers hardly qualify as “sugar” at all, they’re fat. If you were out here in Nevada, getting stranded in Black Rock desert for a week, then calorie-intensive snack food like this would be a good emergency choice. But they’re hardly a replacement for real meals. I’d get off the road and eat something balanced.

    Reply

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