Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gerri on January 31, 2013 at 11:59pm

Welcome, ash.

I had violent vomiting & also thought it was a virus. Some virus. Had my husband not rushed me to the ER (after days of my refusing to go to the hospital), I would have died. Passed out cold & woke up in ICU, like you. My stay wasn't as long as yours.

How's your BG now? The tingling in your feet is most probably nerve damage. Nerves are extremely sensitive to high blood glucose. The good news is that nerves heal with more normal BG. Best thing you can do, of course, is do whatever you can to keep BG as stable as possible. Easier said than done, I know:)

My vision took the hit. I had no distance vision. Everything was a blur. It took about two weeks for my eyes to return to normal.

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Permalink Reply by Natalie ._c- on February 2, 2013 at 12:00am

Can't help saying, LISTEN to him next time (which I hope never comes!) No more refusals -- better for it to be nothing, than for you to be dead!! This is your Jewish mama friend who doesn't want to lose you!!!!! <3

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Permalink Reply by Gerri on February 2, 2013 at 12:07am

Promise I will! He saved my life & was beating himself up that he didn't get me to the hospital days before. Yea, I'm a mule & the world's worst patient. I just want to be left alone & hate anyone fussing over me.

Thank you, my Jewish mamma friend. Everyone should have at least one:)

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Permalink Reply by ash-harris on February 2, 2013 at 10:42am

Thanks Geri, your reply has really relieved me.
I visited the Dr. yesterday to try and find out if it was my circulation and if anything could be done - I was starting to worry myself about the possibility of loosing my feet after all the KDA palaver as my legs are starting to go numb in the cold. I just needed a little reassurance really. But the lass was more concerned about my mobility and said that I had muscle wastage due to mostly three weeks in bed. Well I've been walking around the house. The only reason I'm still shaky on my legs is that the liquid diet i've been on doesn't give me much energy so I've been tiring quickly and thus not walking or stretching my legs much. Muscle wastage my arse.
Thanks again, finding this thread and this website has been a big help to me over the past few days. With the exception of my boyfriend; who's the one who got me into hospital in the nick of time. I've been very much alone mismanaging my condition over the years. I think if I'd been part of a support group or something sooner I'd have gotten over my 'diabetic fatigue' and sorted myself out.
Regards, ash

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Permalink Reply by Gerri on February 2, 2013 at 11:09am

Grateful for the loving men in our lives.

Scary how quickly muscles can atrpohy in three weeks. My legs felt like jello after DKA. I wasn't in bed as long as you, but I lost so much weight prior to hospitalization that my muscles were wasted from near starvation.

Why are you on a liquid diet? After DKA, I ate a good bit of protein to help repair damage. Well, as much as could be repaired.

Happy Tu is helping.

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Permalink Reply by ash-harris on February 2, 2013 at 1:21pm

The vomiting due to the acidosis and dehydration continued throughout the hospitalisation and some of the anti-nausea meds were ineffective.

It was only the last day there I realised that the fruit juice in the water was too acidic and causing me to vomit as well as the cupasoups they kept giving me!

I asked my partner to bring in some milk after managing to keep down and even enjoy the morning porridge. I was on a glucose drip and sliding scale for insulin to keep me hydrated. But it was only after keeping down the milk and soup that I realised it was the food that was making me sick. I was discharged on Saturday last and spend most of this week eating half a tin of soup every three hours or so. Friday I started with omelette and porridge again, then cereal and spaghetti bolognase and now homemade soup which is more filling and nourishing.

The more I'm eating the stronger I feel and the better I'm resting, I don't need to eat so often either.

I've been very slow to respond to the treatments and meds... but I'm getting stronger and have been sampling the wheelchairs in the Supermarkets and shops which has been fun :)

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Permalink Reply by Gerri on February 2, 2013 at 1:47pm

Staggering to give a diabetic patient fruit juice! Not that I'm really surprised given hospital care. I was given ridiculously high carbs meals. DKA left me with a horrible, metallic taste in my mouth, so everything tasted horrible. Thought that was never going to go away.

Doesn't spaghetti & cereal send you soaring? Glad you can eat now & are getting stronger. Does take a while after the DKA experience you had.

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Permalink Reply by ash-harris on February 2, 2013 at 1:54pm

I was berated everyday by the canteen wench saying that I should eat my meals or i'd never get out of there. Or would I try and eat something or order something I'd eat!! It got really annoying. That and when I did order 'homemade soup' off of the menu I recieved cuppasoups!! which made me vomit...

I'm only having a meagre amount of carbs but yes they are sending me soaring. My Lantus dosage is way out so I'm well high after a meal and take extra humalog which makes me either hungry or come down to much to fast... Going to be a bit more trial an error for a while yet, joy.

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Permalink Reply by Gerri on February 2, 2013 at 2:03pm

Homemade soup--ha! I can relate to being reprimanded about not eating. Nurses said the same to me. Found out later that hospital didn't prepare food on site. It was trucked in 3 times a week from a central commissary. Why salads were revolting & I couldn't get eggs for breakfast, only pancakes or French toast. Nothing as yummy as microwaved prepared pancakes:)

Indeed, the joys--sorry.

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Permalink Reply by Natalie ._c- on February 2, 2013 at 2:26pm

When I was hospitalized, near dead from DKA a couple of years ago, the CDE on the case had to fight with the hospitalist (a doctor that only treats patients in the hospital -- jack of all trades, master of none), to use T1 protocols on me, not T2. I was in pretty bad shape -- kidney failure, liver enzymes way out of whack, I don't know what else.

But my biggest fight, once I got my head screwed on right (I was mentally out of it for at least a week, even though I appeared conscious, and do remember some things) was to get them to feed me things I could eat. I was massively insulin-resistant (temporary, due to high BGs) and they weren't giving me enough insulin to cover the food they expected me to eat. So I just refused to eat it. Then they sent me to a nursing home because they felt I couldn't take care of myself (Alzheimer's patients are SO much fun to be around!), and the dietitian there was the only cooperative person -- I told her that I wouldn't/couldn't eat all the carbs they were serving (good for Alzies with low appetite) so she got the kitchen to prepare special meals just for me. That's the only way I was able to get my BG down, and it took a month to do it. What a waste -- with proper treatment, I could have been home a LOT sooner. Moral of the story is not to get so sick. But truth is easier said than done!

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Permalink Reply by Gerri on February 3, 2013 at 1:45am

That's horrid! Waging a battle is the last thing a sick person can do, but is forced to do. Sorry to repeat what I've said before, but hospitals are prisons for sick people. They function on the same model of control.

Permalink Reply by Joni on February 2, 2013 at 3:56pm

Hello Ash and Gerri and all of you here. I haven't posted in this topic, so perhaps I should give a little background first. Sorry it's long.

Prior to my "DKA", I was a healthy and active 52 year old mother of a 4th grader. I had been doing a whole lot of yard and house work and trying to have a yard sale among a very busy life. The outside temperature jumped to 100 degrees or more and I became really thirsty and tired...seemed reasonable. I thought I had a virus, perhaps, and went to bed early.

About midnight, I woke up, having shortness of breath, that was new for me. We still thought it was a virus. I had a restless night, finally getting to sleep around daybreak, so I stayed in bed and slept. Later that afternoon, I was losing consciousness and unresponsive.

By the time the ambulance got me to the ER, 5 miles away, my breathing was shallow and my heart stopped when the ER doc stuck a tube down my throat. The Code Blue documents said that I had died, but they did revive me, so I'm not a ghost-writer ;D.

They told my family that my condition was grave, but I was in a coma before my family could even got to the hospital. Eventually, an MD on staff called it DKA and diagnosed me with new onset of type 1 diabetes. My blood sugar was 880. I was placed in CCU on life support.

They gave me huge doses (hundreds of units per hour) of insulin for several days and filled me with bicarbonate and water for dehydration, among other things, pain relief type medications, antivirals, etc. Soon, my kidneys failed.

My sister said there were 20 different tubes in me when she arrived. They cut a hole in my groin for the dialysis foley catheter, but it failed for lack of blood pressure, so they used my carotid arteries for the dialysis and it was continuous round the clock for four days until my kidneys restarted. The dialysis failed to clear my blood, so I was given at least ten bags of plasma. Eventually, my kidneys started to work on their own again. Then, the dialysis was tapered off.

Eventually I responded. After 8 days or so in the coma, they brought me out. My legs and feet were swollen to about three times their normal size. I was in a special bed in CCU that had rollers up and down my back to keep my blood moving. They put special booties on me to stimulate my feet.

I was moved out of CCU and kept another 10 days in the pulmonary area of the hospital. The person in the next room sounded like they were coughing up a lung, and the food was unbelievably unhealthy. But ever so slowly, I started to gradually improve.

Finally, I'm getting to the foot and muscle parts you mentioned, Ash.

It took two people to stand me up the first time they tried. Eventually, I was being held onto with a strap and someone helped me take a step. We went from exercising my legs in a chair to me shuffling across the room.

It wasn't long until I could walk down the hall, then around the nurse's station with a walker. They called it a miracle. I left the hospital in a wheelchair, but I eventually was able to walk on my own. My legs were still swollen and yes, my feet and hands had the tingling and pain, etc. Soaking them in hot water has helped. So has magnesium, most often used as epsom salts soaks.

It's approaching two years after the near death experience. No, I am not "recovered". My strength has not fully returned. I tire easily. There are some new problems. My blood sugar sometimes seems to have a mind of its own. But I hope that I am now on the path of learning that my thyroid may have a lot to do with what happened to me initially as well as my current health status.

It is not great that we have this "DKA" thing in common, but it is helpful to be able to hear your stories and share mine in this journey we call life.

Wouldn't it be nice to hope that we each find comfort and perhaps share it too as we each try to deal with the after effects of this strange diagnosis/symptom they call diabetes.

I am curious, how many of you have learned about thyroid developments with diabetes? There is a lot to always read, but this one seems relevant to me. What about you?

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