Sam90
Member
Hey, I'm a type 1 diabetic and have been for 19 years. I was diagnosed when I was 7 years old, and I am now 26.
One month ago I had a really bad case of diabetic ketoacidosis, my first time, which is what made me want to start to really look after my health instead of being in denial about it all the time. Before that incident, I never ever checked my blood sugars, and just played a guessing game. I'd say in the amount of years Ive had diabetes, I was probably testing my blood sugars three times a year and quite often I'd miss my long acting insulin at night and try compensate by taking it in the morning.
The diabetic ketoacidosis was something I was completely unaware of before. It happened like this...
I had woken up and immediately noticed I was extremely dizzy and nauseous. I was having a hard time thinking straight, and next thing you know I was vomiting profusely and uncontrollably. The top of my head felt like someone was hammering an ice pick into it. I felt myself losing consciousness but luckily my brother was there and called an ambulance. They sent the quickest response team and once they got there they put me in a stretcher and hooked me up to an IV. I was drifting in and out of consciousness at this point. It was when I was in the ER that I just couldn't comprehend what was happening and have no recollection of what my family told me. Apparently I was in the ER for 7 hours, being pumped full of antibiotics, antivirals, as they assumed it could be an infection like meningitis because for the whole 7 hours, I couldn't recognise anybody or make any sense out of what I was saying.
Apparently they kept bringing my twin brother in front of me every 15 minutes and asking me to open my eyes and tell them who he was and I just had no idea I couldn't recognise him. Apparently I was talking gibberish. I remember the nurses asking me questions and I could understand what they were saying but it was like my brain was having the hardest time trying to find the answers and I couldn't answer them. They started to tell my family I may have permanent brain damage and gave me an MRI scan. Luckily, they saw no complications.
After the 7 hours I began to regain full consciousness. I was hooked up to two IVs and the whole ordeal was an uncomfortable experience. Having to use the toilet every hour, the pain of the IV in my right hand was almost unbearable. Having to go use the toilet every hour, they would have to disconnect my IVs, and when I would come back to my bed they would have to inject a solution to clean the tubes which was pretty damn painful and also gave me superficial thrombophlebitis, causing a painful hardening of my vein which was bulging out of my hand and is still in the process of healing. Eventually after 3 days I had washed out my ketones from my body and was well enough to go home.
My older brother had bought me the new FreeStyle Libre scanner glucose monitor which has honestly changed my life. Its a small scanner who attach to your skin, a small flexible needle is inserted into the fat layer underneath the sensor (pretty much painless) and you just scan a device over it to get an instant reading. However, these are glucose readings from the fat layer so there is apparently a 15 minute delay in readings which can be a bit troublesome if you are in a situation where you need direct monitoring, otherwise for general checking its great.
I have began to change my diet thanks to my sister who is a naturopath and have seen a major improvement, except for this week I was slipping back into my old habits of eating takeaways and two days ago began to experience the same ketoacidosis symptoms, after getting lazy again and missing my injections. I had high ketone levels in my urine, so went to the ER before anything more serious could develop. They assured me it was probably from gastroenteritis, a virus from a dodgy takeaway, since this can also lead to high ketones...
I was sent home, but visiting an endocrinologist today to get a specialists opinion.
These incidents are the reason I want to join this forum and be part of a support community of diabetics. I can't believe I was dumb enough to slip back to old habits after experiencing what I experienced, but I'm determined to stay on the right track now.
Thanks for reading!
One month ago I had a really bad case of diabetic ketoacidosis, my first time, which is what made me want to start to really look after my health instead of being in denial about it all the time. Before that incident, I never ever checked my blood sugars, and just played a guessing game. I'd say in the amount of years Ive had diabetes, I was probably testing my blood sugars three times a year and quite often I'd miss my long acting insulin at night and try compensate by taking it in the morning.
The diabetic ketoacidosis was something I was completely unaware of before. It happened like this...
I had woken up and immediately noticed I was extremely dizzy and nauseous. I was having a hard time thinking straight, and next thing you know I was vomiting profusely and uncontrollably. The top of my head felt like someone was hammering an ice pick into it. I felt myself losing consciousness but luckily my brother was there and called an ambulance. They sent the quickest response team and once they got there they put me in a stretcher and hooked me up to an IV. I was drifting in and out of consciousness at this point. It was when I was in the ER that I just couldn't comprehend what was happening and have no recollection of what my family told me. Apparently I was in the ER for 7 hours, being pumped full of antibiotics, antivirals, as they assumed it could be an infection like meningitis because for the whole 7 hours, I couldn't recognise anybody or make any sense out of what I was saying.
Apparently they kept bringing my twin brother in front of me every 15 minutes and asking me to open my eyes and tell them who he was and I just had no idea I couldn't recognise him. Apparently I was talking gibberish. I remember the nurses asking me questions and I could understand what they were saying but it was like my brain was having the hardest time trying to find the answers and I couldn't answer them. They started to tell my family I may have permanent brain damage and gave me an MRI scan. Luckily, they saw no complications.
After the 7 hours I began to regain full consciousness. I was hooked up to two IVs and the whole ordeal was an uncomfortable experience. Having to use the toilet every hour, the pain of the IV in my right hand was almost unbearable. Having to go use the toilet every hour, they would have to disconnect my IVs, and when I would come back to my bed they would have to inject a solution to clean the tubes which was pretty damn painful and also gave me superficial thrombophlebitis, causing a painful hardening of my vein which was bulging out of my hand and is still in the process of healing. Eventually after 3 days I had washed out my ketones from my body and was well enough to go home.
My older brother had bought me the new FreeStyle Libre scanner glucose monitor which has honestly changed my life. Its a small scanner who attach to your skin, a small flexible needle is inserted into the fat layer underneath the sensor (pretty much painless) and you just scan a device over it to get an instant reading. However, these are glucose readings from the fat layer so there is apparently a 15 minute delay in readings which can be a bit troublesome if you are in a situation where you need direct monitoring, otherwise for general checking its great.
I have began to change my diet thanks to my sister who is a naturopath and have seen a major improvement, except for this week I was slipping back into my old habits of eating takeaways and two days ago began to experience the same ketoacidosis symptoms, after getting lazy again and missing my injections. I had high ketone levels in my urine, so went to the ER before anything more serious could develop. They assured me it was probably from gastroenteritis, a virus from a dodgy takeaway, since this can also lead to high ketones...
I was sent home, but visiting an endocrinologist today to get a specialists opinion.
These incidents are the reason I want to join this forum and be part of a support community of diabetics. I can't believe I was dumb enough to slip back to old habits after experiencing what I experienced, but I'm determined to stay on the right track now.
Thanks for reading!
