Ketone recovery?

K

KinkingPump

Member
Messages
5
Hi

A few weeks ago I was admitted to A&E- long story short my sugar was up around 35 as my pump had kinked, I was vomiting up everything. The sugar had been rising for about 12 hours, the first ketone reading I did practically turned the dip stick black, but within 4 hours it was coming back as no ketones (I know how to down water!) and my BS 7.

I had an easy day the following day and just slept, drank loads of water and then started trying to do "normal" routine stuff the day after that. It took about a week before I was back to normal, I felt crampy and achey, couldn't concetrate on anything and just wanted to sleep! Is there any way of speeding this recovery up? How long does "recovery" take from an episode like this until you feel normal in yourself again? And how do people manage with work- I was getting tellings off for my lack of concentration, I didn't want to go on the sick per se as I didn't feel that I needed to be home in bed, but equally I wasn't capable of performing (I'm an engineer- not a physical labourer, someone who does calculations and lots of sums!)... What should I have done?

Thanks for any responses, experiences and tips would be really appreciated- I've been diabetic since I was 9 (now 22) and this is the first time I've had real problems (was a teenager with HBAs in the teens on injections, and only been on a pump 9 months with a HBA of 8 now so guessing I'm a lot more sensitive to the highs that I was before!)
 
L

Lady_luce_x

Member
Messages
10
I had DKA just before I went on my pump, which was caused initially by a sickness bug. i was on placement for my university degree at the time. I was in hospital for about 24 hours, and then my mum took me home. I had 3 days off to recover, and like you said mainly just slept and drank water. The week following I felt very crampy and achey, and i think it took a week or so to feel "normal" again. Now if my pump ever messes up (on friday night it disconnected over night) and i ended up with ketones, i recovered without need of A&E but I felt rubbish yesterday (tired, crampy, irritable) and today I'm not feeling 100%. I think once youve had a high level of ketones it takes awhile for your body to recover, they are "poisonous toxins" afterall. Hope you feel better soon :)
 
Mimastones

Mimastones

Member
Messages
16
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Diabetes.
I was in hospital for 5 days recovering from DKA before they discharged me. But I'm not on a pump so maybe that affects recovery? But don't feel bad that it takes ages to feel normal again, your whole body is effectively poisoned for a short period of time.


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L

Larkin1

Member
Messages
6
I was admitted to a&e yesterday due to ketones I've only had my pump for three weeks and this was caused by a bent tube. It feels really horrid I've been diabetic 31 years and it has not been easy to manage, but this is a whole other level of being sick. If generally your control is good and you rarely need sick days for your diabetes, then won't your work be understanding about a one off? If you feel comfortable doing it, could you maybe explain just how damaging ketones are and explain your following medical advice to speed up your recovery, they might be more understanding than you expect.
 
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