So my brother has been diagnosed sinced Aug 05. He hasn't had to go to the hospital for it since. Wednesday he woke up and for the entire day couldnt keep anything down. So we called the doctor and they said to make sure he's hydrated otherwise he will have to be taken to the ER. So my mom then called his endo to see what she would say and she told us to bring him in to the hospital right away. Once we get there we find out he was DKA. We had never dreamed of it being that, we never really knew that much of what all it really was. But needless to say we learned a lot from our visit- we were able to come home today.
I am sorry to hear he went through DKA,glad to know he is home and better.
I don't know much about your brother, but I thought this was necessary to tell.
It's SO easy to get lazy when you're on the pump. Ok, so it's easy not to realize it, but the more you depend on your pump, the easier it is to get screwed by it. I mean, ultimately, it just makes life that much easier. I have been on the pump for 2 years and have been getting extremely lazy. I haven't been checking my sugars often. Maybe once a day. It's terrible, I know. BUT just last week, it definitely caught up with me. It's a long story, but I was going home to Orlando from Gainesville for a day trip with my fiance. Well, it turned out to be A LOT longer than that. While we were on our way home, I told my fiance that I must be getting car sick. I knew the awful feeling a little too well. It was keytones and I didn't need a urine check to confirm it. We kept driving and the last hour felt ..... horrible to say the least. When we got to the house, I ran inside and went immediately to the bathroom. Long story short, I could not stop vomitting from 2 p.m.-12:30a.m. My blood sugars were going everywhere. I told my fiance I needed to get to the ER. Heck, I shouldn't have been as stupid as to wait that long, but I did :(
We got into the ER rather quickly and by 1:30 a.m., I was in the ER with 160+ keytones. I was admitted into the ICU and put on an insulin drip. I was there from early Wednesday morning till Friday night. I felt and still do feel a lot better, even a week later. Every hour, they came in and checked my blood sugar and ran blood work.
Moral of the story: DO NOT get this lazy EVER. It's NOT worth it. Scary part about it was that it could really be anything to set you off ... ANY virus. It may not even show physical signs, that's the freakiest part. It takes over your body. Don't let it get to this point. Don't be as stupid and naive as I was. I thought that since I'm young (22), nothing could ever happen. Wrong!
I've learned my lesson and have been checking my blood sugars ever hour. I would suggest you set the alert for 1-2 hours after you eat. Exercise is also essential. I know it's easier said than done. I understand people are busy. You don't even need to devote a lot of time. If you park further away, that's some exercise. If you go to a theme park, we all know you end up walking miles!
I hope I scared everyone enough to realize Diabetes NEVER goes away! Don't assume everything's fine because when you do, it'll creep up again. Take care of yourself.
I'm so happy your brother was able to come home so soon. Whew!
We were told (repeatedly) that if our son vomits ONCE, call the endo IMMEDIATELY! ANY illness can get BS waaaay out of whack, and is NOT to be taken lightly. Any stomach ache or illness, check BS and keytones IMMEDIATELY, and call the endo! (can you tell I"m new at this by my level of hysteria?).
So, on a calmer note, in my d-care class I was told that they frequently see young adults with T1 coming into the ER about 5 years after dx. They get lax about testing, don't remember everything they were told about sick-day management, start eye-balling carbs and guestimating doses, and they end up in the ER with DKA.
Continuing education and refreshers seem to be key in keeping tight control over T1. Any ideas how we could implement or support on-going education on Juvenation?
Mo
Garcia, it does seem like he is more relaxed about it. I guess that is something that happens to everyone because they finally feel "comfortable" with dealing with it. Which isnt always a good thing, because you forget the important things that you need to do in times of need.
Mo, I dont recall our endo telling us when he is sick to check for ketones. But, through our visit we learned that it was a necessity. I guess since you're not sick all the time that you tend to forget what to do when you finally do get sick. Unfortunatelly it took him going to the hospital to realize what he needs to do.