Doesn’t matter if you are going for a short trip or a long, diabetics should always check their blood glucose levels before going for a drive.

Here, we are mainly concerned with hypoglycaemia. It is the most common emergency in diabetes, which can lead to very severe complications like coma and death, if proper medical care is not provided on time in case of severe hypoglycaemia(mild hypos can be treated by the patient itself).

As all the diabetics have experienced hypoglycaemias many a times in our lives, we can easily imagine a situation when we are driving and gradually start experiencing the symptoms of hypoglycaemia like dizziness, confusion, sweating, fatigue, blurring of vision etc. 

The situation needs attention at times, when we are unable to figure out the symptoms of hypo or some patients never understand the warning signs of hypo(this can prove fatal).

Symptoms like dizziness and confusion can make you lose balance of your steering wheel and can lead to roadside emergencies.

Traffic jam is another big concern in this situation. Suppose I have planned to go out and finish my to-do-list in an hour but unfortunately I got stuck in traffic jam, now this situation in every city and country is the same and may take minutes to hours to resolve. This is concerning for diabetics as you may have your meal scheduled at that particular time or you may have to take your bolus.

‘In a nutshell, every diabetic should check their blood glucose before driving and carry all the needful stuff like insulin, sweeteners etc whether the drive is short or long’.