Art, surprisingly, type 1 insulin dependent, blood sugars rise even without much food intake. The body uses the insulin to convert sugars in the blood into energy the body's cells can use. Without the insulin no sugar is converted so any at all in the blood stays there. When blood sugars get too high the sugar starts spilling into the urine (not literally, it's an old phrase they used to use and the one part of the process I am not certain how it really happens. I assume it is the excess levels of blood sugars being filtered out by the kidneys but thats just a theory). Couple that with the literal cannibalizing of the bodies other cells (no sugar being convrted to energy so the cells start feeding on neighboring fat tissue) and you have real problems. When I was diagnosed I was nearly in a coma and rushed straight to the hospital. What a present for my ninth birthday. Fortunately I remember very little of those days now.

In an emergency, if insulin is available, lower intake of food means less insulin is required anyway so it would last a little longer just on those merits. Of course it only delays the inevitable. Perhaps it will be long enough to finish DSs education and teach DW to be more self-sufficient. One can only hope.