What's the worst experience you have experienced with type 1???

novorapidboi26

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Nothing has happened to me, but I witnessed my younger brother having a hypo seizure and then coma when he was 7.....

being diabetic 15 years and I have a wee smidgen of retinopathy.......
 

Spiker

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DKA is the most acutely unpleasant experience. I've had it badly three or four times. It trained me to not get sick and to avoid DKA. Learn your sick day rules and apply them religiously.

Multiple severe hypos ruined holidays and ultimately ruined relationships. And the horror that friends and loved ones experience if they see you fitting. No one you care about should have to go through that.

A near fatal concussion from a severe hypo that would have killed me, if I had succeeded in conning my way onto a transatlantic flight, claiming to be "fine".

Long term high blood sugar turning me into a grumpy ******** (see picture) that no one could bear to live with, destroying relationships and family.

I've learned it's my duty to avoid all these things, for my own sake and for the sake of the people around me.

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chloe1

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I had a hypo which I just couldn't sort out with the usual dextrose and biscuits. At the same time I started to get nausea so found it difficult to eat anything more. My husband called an ambulance and I was taken to a and e as they couldn't get levels up. Then I was stuck in a cubicle and ignored. I had my glucose machine with me and kept testing but still the same. I knew I had dextrose in my bag but I was getting confused so couldn't find it. I was now feeling very sleepy, so laid down on the bed, but I knew I should try and get some sugar in me. I managed to get up and find a nurse to ask for some sugar. She said she would try and find me something to eat. I was treated like I was a nuisance, and it was my fault. After a while they brought me a banana and a chocolate bar. I was now feeling very sick and I just couldn't eat it although I tried as hard as I could. I begged them to give me some glucagon or something to sort me out. I heard the nurse go away and discuss about me with the doctor. Her opinion was that it wouldn't do any good as I need to look after myself better, and make an effort.
I had never been to a and e for this before, and kept telling them that this was not a normal hypo, and I feel like I need to vomit. They kept telling me that I feel sick because of the hypo.
Eventually they brought me some glucagon and put me on a drip. Just as they were injecting I projectile vomited over the nurse and doctor. They were not happy and went to change their clothes. I was left there covered in vomit, and had to go and ask for some wipes to clean myself up. I then asked to be discharged.
It turned out I had noro virus, my daughter had it as well the next day. The hypo was not my fault, and I was made to feel it was. I have never felt so scared or unsafe in my life and wish I had stayed at home and treated it myself. I have told my husband that unless I am unconscious never to call an ambulance again.

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noblehead

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By far being diagnosed with the condition, came as quite a shock and still remember the Dr's exact words to this very day :(

Whilst being diagnosed I would have to say it's having diabetic retinopathy and receiving treatment for it, although it's some 9 years since I last had any bother it's stil there on my mind leading up to the Ophthalmology appointments.

I've been fortunate and very lucky that I've never had DKA or needed third party assistance with a hypo, I say that I'm lucky in the sense that my control was very erratic in my early years yet I got away with it somehow.
 

Sarah69

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I'm not type 1, but when I was insulin the worst thing was DKA. I will never forget it and how I felt I just wanted to die. I've never really been ill before, I was in and out of hospital for 2 weeks and then it took me a month to get over it. It is ghastly!! When I was diagnosed in hospital with DKA I'd never heard of it and had no clue how serious it is.
 

donnellysdogs

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Walking out of shop I was managing..with safe keys and shop keys...being found on dual carriageway 4 miles away, and 4 hours later by a stranger driving.. Waking up in hospital 5 1/2 hrs after hypo started and having psychpoathic boyfriend shouting at me that I had ruined his day / evening test riding his motorbike at a circuit.


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Dzialo

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Walking out of shop I was managing..with safe keys and shop keys...being found on dual carriageway 4 miles away, and 4 hours later by a stranger driving.. Waking up in hospital 5 1/2 hrs after hypo started and having psychpoathic boyfriend shouting at me that I had ruined his day / evening test riding his motorbike at a circuit.


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What kind of boyfriend is that not that plastic one, is it?? ;)
 

lizdeluz

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I'm not going to bother any of you with an account of my worst. My second from worst was not long after diagnosis t1 when, at home, I slipped into a hypo and I felt like the world had come to an end. It was the most frightening if not the most dangerous of all my hypo experiences. Everything seemed oddly quiet and though I was aware of people around me I couldn't understand who they were or what they were doing there. Something dreadful had happened and I couldn't see how I was going to get out of it. It was when I lay on the floor to rest my head on the carpet that my OH realised I was not behaving normally :(. And brought the dextrosols, and started persuading me that I needed them!
 

Miss90

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In 11 years of being diabetic I was very lucky and had no issues, no hospitalisations, until very recently. In the space of two weeks I had a severe night time hypo (fitting, unconsciousness, needing IV glucose to wake me) and a very nasty case of DKA requiring three days of sliding scale actrapid and fluids. Hopefully that is the first and last time for both!!!!!


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DIDO44

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Thanks to all the members who wrote articles about there bad experiences. I feel slightly guilty for being on a "downer" this morning. Not had anything as bad as all the above so I must be managing quite well.
T1, Humulin mk3. Just over a year
 
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ElyDave

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Nothing major so far post diagnosis.

I've had a few "days from hell" where whatever I did I couldn't seem to get my blood sugars up. I think I'm still honeymooning and my pancreas is not fully cooperating like Wednesday when I had important meetings with a client in Reading and after a normal bowl of porridge and dose, my level promptly dropped to 4.1, and stayed below 5 all day. It's hard to focus when you have a feeling of incipient hypo. Needless to say I didn't feel comfortable exercising that evening.

My wife tells me that I had one episode of shaking at night, of which I have no memory at all - possible significant hypo, but she did not test me.

So far the biggest impact on my life has been learning how to manage exercise again,

And I'm apparently a grumpy bast@rd at the best of time.
 

SandyDee

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I don't know about the worst but the most embarrassing was definitely when I was diagnosed. I had been very thirsty and drinking anything that sat still long enough, my mother was nurse on the diabetic ward at the local hospital, she thought I was addicted to the sugar in the drinks, I disagreed. After a lot of arguing she said if I wasn't addicted to the sugar I must be diabetic and I said I must be that then. She said she would prove it was the sugar and not diabetes, I bet her it was diabetes, so next time she went to work she brought home a stick for me to pee on. I did, it went brown and she panicked!
She rushed me straight up the hospital for blood tests, I was a young, naïve 18 year old who had never had blood taken before. The doctor was a junior doctor who was obviously terrified of my mother (as most men were) and as he got more nervous his stutter got worse and his hands shook more which didn't inspire much trust. He tried several times in each arm to get blood without success and then out of desperation he said he would try to get it from my groin! I was mortified, not least because I was wearing the tiniest pair of knickers possible:oops:. After another 3 attempts he eventually got enough blood to confirm diabetes, but he couldn't look me in the face any more. I ended up with bruises all over my groin and both arms, they just seemed to all join up and I looked like a black grape. All downhill from there. :hungover:
 
H

Hooked

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I had DKA numerous times as a teen. I recall wrecking with nothing left in my stomach and just vomiting up black goo on one hospital visit. On another visit to hospital my levels were through the roof. The Dr had prepared my parents that I might not make it through. They couldn't get a vein anywhere, so had to go into a vein on my neck. I remember lying down and they put a cloth/cover over my face before they did it and I just lay there wondering if that meant I was actually dead. The following two days I woke every now and again seeing different relatives coming to visit, and unable to stay conscious long enough to say more than hello.

Back then they would put you on a drip and nil by mouth for DKA. They used to bring in ice that you could moisten your lips with. I remember a number of times being so desperate for a drink I'd crunch on all the ice and beg the nurse to bring me more.
 

tomvonc

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Back then they would put you on a drip and nil by mouth for DKA. They used to bring in ice that you could moisten your lips with. I remember a number of times being so desperate for a drink I'd crunch on all the ice and beg the nurse to bring me more.
I had a nurse bring me a tub of ice cubes and a stick. To make little lollies if you like. I put the tub under my armpit until the ice melted. I was that desperate for a drink!

Tom
 
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tomvonc

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Nothing major so far post diagnosis.

I've had a few "days from hell" where whatever I did I couldn't seem to get my blood sugars up. I think I'm still honeymooning and my pancreas is not fully cooperating like Wednesday when I had important meetings with a client in Reading and after a normal bowl of porridge and dose, my level promptly dropped to 4.1, and stayed below 5 all day. It's hard to focus when you have a feeling of incipient hypo. Needless to say I didn't feel comfortable exercising that evening.

My wife tells me that I had one episode of shaking at night, of which I have no memory at all - possible significant hypo, but she did not test me.

So far the biggest impact on my life has been learning how to manage exercise again,

And I'm apparently a grumpy bast@rd at the best of time.
Agreed. Exercise has been the toughest (and still is) thing to learn how to manage. It is the cause of 70% of my hypo's.

Tom