Scariest Diabetes Moment...

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Permalink Reply by Sloane on June 23, 2009 at 12:01pm

That's great!

Even being 12, not eating for a full day was terrible. I had skipped breakfast before the doctor appointment and when we were on the way to the hospital, we almost stopped to eat, but we weren't sure if I was allowed to eat. By the end of the day, I was basically screaming at the nurses that I needed to eat. I had 3 meat and cheese trays that didn't have any carbs, even though I had stopped eating meat. :) Then, when I was allowed to eat really late at night, I had a bunch of chicken strips and a huge bowl of macaroni. The kitchen wasn't even in use, but my sweet nurse made the food herself!

You must be a wonderful parent to be dealing with all of this!

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Permalink Reply by Tony S. on June 20, 2009 at 7:27pm

Two scary moments for me and a lesson:

Incident No. One: Watching my father start slipping into a diabetic coma. My mother and his 'caregivers' all thought he was dying and called me, rather than an ambulance, at 1:30 a.m. to rush over there. He was in terrible shape, awful, pathetic sight, shaking and cold, and speaking in this low gurgling voice, unintelligible. Then realized I could actually make out his words---he was still conscious and not speaking gibberish. We called 911 and the first of about 15 first responders began to arrive almost immediately. They immediately tested his BS, when we told them he was a Type 2 diabetic. His reading was somewhere in the low 50's I believe. They gave him an insulin injection and juice and put an oxygen mask on him. After 5 or 10 terrifying minutes, after he'd regained his speech and alertness, after which they took the mask off him, he looked around at the assorted sheriffs, firemen, EMTs, etc.and us, and said "You scared the hell out of me!" One of the firemen said, "Well, you scared the hell out of us!"

That scary moment that ended with a laugh, but also ended with Dad in the V.A. hospital for almost 11 months and now permanently in an assisted living home. It was a wake-up call for me, also Type 2, in more than one way. I never want that to happen to me, I vowed.

Incident No. Two: Having said all that, a few months ago I had an incident, after a big, carbo-loaded holiday meal, where I had to pull of the highway into a rest area because I got so tired from high BS. I fell asleep after parking the car and when I awoke, the car wouldn't start. I'd pulled into a spot and put the car in Park, setting the parking brake, and then promptly passed out before turning off the ignition and headlights. The battery of course was now dead. What if I hadn't pulled off the road and fell asleep while still on the freeway doing 65 mph? Or worse, what if I too slipped into a diabetic coma in the rest area with no one realizing I wasn't just napping?

About 6 months ago, our local police beat up a guy who turned out not to be a drunk or a doper driving a car and resisting arrest, but a diabetic going low, and acting stoned and groggy, and trying to explain to the cops what was happening the way my dad was trying to tell me to get help.

I now wear an ID medallion, backed up with medical info in my wallet. A really really good idea, as not everyone is trained to spot a diabetic episode.

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Permalink Reply by MelissaM on June 20, 2009 at 8:20pm

my scariest diabetes moment was a few months ago, i had gone severely lowafter i had eaten something and tested my blood to see a BG of 50, ithen fell asleep thinking i was just tired. woke up to a BG of 70 then went to eat something else and fell asleep on the couch and woke up to find my BG was 35. i was so scared to go low again so i grabbed as much food as i thought i needed and started to stuff my face.

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Permalink Reply by Michael on June 23, 2009 at 1:31pm

Well one bad time I was 45 so I was like "OH S**T" and I went to a pop machine and got a pop ... I then took a nap (Not!! a smart idea and I will tell you why) I woke up tested again 2hrs later I was 27 now mind you I was scared to death at the time ... I check my trash ... I picked Diet Pepsi. ... It was so bad so now I keep juice in my room all the time for instances like that. I think it is second nature now to pick Diet and and my head was in overdrive so I will hope not to make that mistake again.

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Permalink Reply by Sohair Abdel-Rahman on June 20, 2009 at 11:45pm

Treating children with diabetes,the scariest moment for me as a doctor was when I accepted a ten year old girl,misdiagnosed for days as a case of gastroenteritis,managed with loads of fluid and sodium bicarbonate,to arrive with cerebral oedema and diabetes insipidus,as a complication added to her missed diagnosis of normoglycemic DKA. She looked dead,not alive and wasted compeletly. She left well,thanks to God.

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Permalink Reply by Andreina Davila on June 22, 2009 at 2:35pm

and thanks to you, wow sohair. God bless you.

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Permalink Reply by Andreina Davila on June 22, 2009 at 2:34pm

the scariest for me has been Manuel's lows at the middle of the night... last one was specially scary, he was almost not responding. Everything was fine... I know, ibut t is scary sometimes only to sleep profoundly not knowing if he or I will notice a low-low. I am so happy he will have a CGM soon.

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Permalink Reply by Karen on June 23, 2009 at 12:41pm

thanks for sharing this because I don't fear lows in my sleep but then I don't notice them either! My husband is amazing in that he can notice sleep lows and I am ever thankful for that. Sadly, he often over treats them though. And as for that cgms, that's way cool - I wonder who will be alerted when the alarm goes off ;)

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Permalink Reply by Anonymous Diabetic on June 22, 2009 at 3:50pm

Without the long story recovering from a low sugar when living alone, this is beyond scary. This is where our responsibility lies to, in a user friendly manner inform those who do not understand (as we did not at one time) how EASY it is to go too high, and how DIFFICULT IT IS to stay in the VERY TINY window of reasonable control that best suits YOUR LIFESTYLE.

THE RULES ARE DIFFERENT IF YOU ARE ALONE FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME so please err on the side of caution by running sugars a little higher, and let your family, friends, coworkers and DOCTORS know if this is the case. Leave as many ways as possible for someone to get a hold of, or track you if they think you are not O.K.

Love Always
The Anonymous Diabetic.

P.S. It would be very interesting to hold a "Diabetes Carnival" where people could either make a small donation or take a small injection of fast acting insulin to see the effects, especially those who think we are "making a bigger deal out of it than it really is"

No that would be absolutely crazy however, there are those who believe we are in fact making a big deal out of it. This is an actual quote from someone in H.R. at my workplace. Yes this would be extreme and sadly there are many of us doing exactly that every day. Continued success to all, let's get together and get the word out. If it were easy everyone would be doing it.

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Permalink Reply by Kathy on June 22, 2009 at 8:17pm

My friends always tease me beause I live alone and keep one of many supplys of glucose tablets on the kitchen floor. In the past 5 years I have had three times when I woke up low and could not walk, but was able to crawl. When I'm hypo I forget that I have sugar stashes in every part of my bedroom, yet, I always go to the kitchen to look for sugar. I remember one agonizing time when I crawled to the kitchen and there was a big jar of Skittles on the counter and I could only look at them and not reach them. For awhile I even had a pocket sewn into my nightgown and kept a bunch of tabs there. Never used them. .I even considered hypnosis - surely comeone could plant a message in my brain that when I'm low the tabs are right on the table next to my bed. I guess old habits are hard to break.

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Permalink Reply by J.A. (Jeff) Neitzel on June 22, 2009 at 5:38pm

Oh boy, this is almost funny now that I think of it .. but it was scary as !@#$ at the time =^/

Well, I was in bed and went really hypo in the night. Somehow or the other it resulted in a nightmare bad enough that I woke up screaming. I got up out of bed, still not realizing I was low, and impulsively ran to the kitchen (not very gracefully)... Presumably to get something to correct the low I didn't know I was having.

Well, long story short... I ran my shoulder into a doorframe and dislocated/broke it. I corrected the low, fell back asleep on the floor for awhile. Then, I woke up again and realized that I had messed up my shoulder, was petrified, and didn't know what to do. I ended up phoning one of my sisters, and she drove me to the ER. Ugh, painful, scary, and stupid. I've had at least 3 near bone breaks because of getting too low to realize it.

Fortunately, nothing like that has happened for at least 5 years.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Phillips on June 22, 2009 at 7:47pm

two things:

The first was when I broke a needle off in my leg. I still don't know how or why, I had given myself insulin for years and boon it broke off and I could not get it out. I went and got in a batch tube and with the cold water it extended out of my skin so I could get it. Scared me to death.

The second was a low outside a doctors office in a hospital. My BS just plummeted and i was sitting on a bench after the appointment. i knew i was going low, and could not do a thing about it. I woke up with EMT's around and feeding me glucose tubes of stuff. They had four in me before i sort of woke up. Later I was brought to he ER, the EMT's said their glucometer registered 21. Had someone not come out, I would have gone in the fountain and even if I did not I would have died.

I am still thankful for the perosn who found me.

rick

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