- Messages
- 55
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
All because I thought it was a flu.
It's late, and for the first time since I left the hospital on Jan 30th, I'm taking a look back at how bad things really were. I managed to get treated just in time.
The timeline starts around the second week of January.
I noticed that I was pretty thirsty all the time. I had a bad dry mouth, to the point I could go over half an hour without needing to swallow. I thought my saliva glands had stopped working. I ended up buying some Biotene spray just to soak my mouth before I went to bed. It made my days at work pretty annoying because not only was I chugging water like mad, but I was going to the bathroom every 20 minutes to pee. If I didn't have water, my mouth got so parched that my tongue stuck to my teeth and I couldn't talk to customers.
I wasn't getting any sleep from all the pee breaks either, waking a minimum of once per hour to go. I tried reducing my water intake, but found my thirst insatiable - I was easily drinking between 2 and 3 liters per day. Every morning when I woke up, my feet and calves immediately cramped up really tight, and to get out of the pain I had to get up quickly and walk around a bit. This had never happened before, and I wasn't sure what to think about it. I started writing down the thirst and the cramps as symptoms of something, but didn't have a lead on what it might be. The real trouble started on..
Sunday, January 22nd
After a normal day at work, I went and got a burger and large milkshake at McDonalds. It came back out about two hours later - I very rarely get nauseous, so I assumed that I simply had too much to eat at once, lesson learned.
Monday, January 23rd
Tuesday, January 24th
I still wasn't feeling better, threw up my wonderful breakfast, and called in again apologizing for what I thought was a contagious flu that I picked up from someone else. It made sense, given that I'd avoided getting the flu all winter so far. At this point, I was frustrated at wasting good meals, so I switched to eating just pineapple - it seemed to stay down longer than anything else.
Wednesday, January 25th
I had some soup for lunch but it only stayed down for a few hours. At this point the vomiting wasn't just once, it was 3 or 4 in a row until I was cleaned right out. I started to wonder if maybe my flu was just advanced because it's been 7 years since my last shot. I felt dizzy when not lying down and stopped using the computer. I stopped doing anything, really. I knew that I had to keep drinking water no matter what, because I was always told dry heaves are very dangerous. This was going to be tough and ugly, but I just had to wait it out... right?
Thursday, January 26th
Dad brought home a case of ginger ale. It's always been used to settle upset stomachs in my family, being a lot more palatable than ginger root. I had established a sleeping spot next to the toilet, and I alternated between water and ginger ale. The only food I was eating at this point was pineapple slices. I started to get very painful, back-to-front headaches as soon as I would stand up, so I kept my movement to a minimum. I spent a lot of the day switching spots to lie down, going between the bathroom floor and the couch nearby.
Friday January 27th
Saturday January 28th
This is where the memory cuts out. The following details were told to me by my parents.
When they came to check on me in the morning, I was on the floor in a pool of my own vomit. I was asked how I was feeling and didn't respond. I didn't get up on my own, so they dragged me up and I was able to stand hunched over but couldn't get the energy or stability to walk. I vomited several times while standing still, and then fell over. This is when the two of them decided it was time. I had to be carried into the car and taken to the emergency ward at the local hospital. The ER staff asked me questions I wasn't able to answer correctly. I gave them my weight when they asked my name. I talked in a deep, gargled voice that was apparently an octave lower and barely comprehensible - so strange that the doctors asked my family if I normally sounded this way.
Apparently, I was extremely disruptive and confused. I was talking to the doctors about ordering car parts. I would pull out anything they tried attaching to me - the pads, the tubes, everything - and I would say "my bad" after each one, apologizing but repeatedly pulling them out anyway. The one memory I have, actually, was a brief burning pain when I yanked out my catheter and saw blood start to trickle down my leg. I heard a person saying "why'd you do that?" and I said "I don't know, I'm sorry".
My mother showed me a picture that has the EKG in it. My resting heart rate was 140bpm.
Sunday January 29th
Monday January 30th
I was told early in the morning that I'd likely be released by dinner, since my condition had improved so much. I was super happy to discover that my saliva was back, and my mouth felt so refreshingly wet. Later in the afternoon I was given a rundown on how to use my pens, some printouts on glucose and diet management, and then that was it. I was out, and into a new unknown world without anyone to talk to until the appointments started happening. There's no history of diabetes in my family and the closest link I have to a diabetic is a friend of a friend, and I still don't have anyone outside of clinic staff to confide in and share experiences with. I opened my cupboard, and everything looked like a box of poison.
The week after I got discharged was rough. Only two days after I left hospital, I went back - on the advice of this community, since my very first forum post was complaining that my glucose was above 30 all day. I got hooked up to a drip for a few hours and got told about the sliding scale for insulin. I was so weak that I couldn't even go up the stairs without feeling exhausted. I was stressed over the cost of the supplies and insulin - I had to spend $300 of my savings to get my first batch of everything, and I won't have any coverage until June. I was more stressed that I couldn't eat the things I used to but didn't know what I could eat safely. My vision also got pretty blurry for a week but that's mostly resolved itself - now my biggest challenges are getting my diet right and understanding my insulin. My family physician said my A1C was 12.4, so I must have had this going for a while under the hood, and it only came to peak when I started to go into DKA.
It's late, and for the first time since I left the hospital on Jan 30th, I'm taking a look back at how bad things really were. I managed to get treated just in time.
The timeline starts around the second week of January.
I noticed that I was pretty thirsty all the time. I had a bad dry mouth, to the point I could go over half an hour without needing to swallow. I thought my saliva glands had stopped working. I ended up buying some Biotene spray just to soak my mouth before I went to bed. It made my days at work pretty annoying because not only was I chugging water like mad, but I was going to the bathroom every 20 minutes to pee. If I didn't have water, my mouth got so parched that my tongue stuck to my teeth and I couldn't talk to customers.
I wasn't getting any sleep from all the pee breaks either, waking a minimum of once per hour to go. I tried reducing my water intake, but found my thirst insatiable - I was easily drinking between 2 and 3 liters per day. Every morning when I woke up, my feet and calves immediately cramped up really tight, and to get out of the pain I had to get up quickly and walk around a bit. This had never happened before, and I wasn't sure what to think about it. I started writing down the thirst and the cramps as symptoms of something, but didn't have a lead on what it might be. The real trouble started on..
Sunday, January 22nd
After a normal day at work, I went and got a burger and large milkshake at McDonalds. It came back out about two hours later - I very rarely get nauseous, so I assumed that I simply had too much to eat at once, lesson learned.
Monday, January 23rd
In the morning, I found that I was just not feeling well at all, and called in sick. I spent the day doing what I normally do, still drinking water constantly, but didn't think anything of it. I threw up after dinner, and affirmed to myself that I was going to stay home again.Tuesday, January 24th
I still wasn't feeling better, threw up my wonderful breakfast, and called in again apologizing for what I thought was a contagious flu that I picked up from someone else. It made sense, given that I'd avoided getting the flu all winter so far. At this point, I was frustrated at wasting good meals, so I switched to eating just pineapple - it seemed to stay down longer than anything else.
Wednesday, January 25th
I had some soup for lunch but it only stayed down for a few hours. At this point the vomiting wasn't just once, it was 3 or 4 in a row until I was cleaned right out. I started to wonder if maybe my flu was just advanced because it's been 7 years since my last shot. I felt dizzy when not lying down and stopped using the computer. I stopped doing anything, really. I knew that I had to keep drinking water no matter what, because I was always told dry heaves are very dangerous. This was going to be tough and ugly, but I just had to wait it out... right?
Thursday, January 26th
Dad brought home a case of ginger ale. It's always been used to settle upset stomachs in my family, being a lot more palatable than ginger root. I had established a sleeping spot next to the toilet, and I alternated between water and ginger ale. The only food I was eating at this point was pineapple slices. I started to get very painful, back-to-front headaches as soon as I would stand up, so I kept my movement to a minimum. I spent a lot of the day switching spots to lie down, going between the bathroom floor and the couch nearby.
Friday January 27th
I continued the pineapple and ginger ale diet. The headaches were keeping me on the floor until I had to eat, and my breathing had become rather rushed, as if I had just finished a marathon - but all the time. I now know this to be a pattern called Kussmaul breathing, seen only in serious problems. My family were very concerned for me at this point. I don't blame them one bit for holding off on taking action, because they were just as convinced as I was that it had to be an awful flu and I'd just have to wait until it got better. Their minds were changed the next morning.Saturday January 28th
This is where the memory cuts out. The following details were told to me by my parents.
When they came to check on me in the morning, I was on the floor in a pool of my own vomit. I was asked how I was feeling and didn't respond. I didn't get up on my own, so they dragged me up and I was able to stand hunched over but couldn't get the energy or stability to walk. I vomited several times while standing still, and then fell over. This is when the two of them decided it was time. I had to be carried into the car and taken to the emergency ward at the local hospital. The ER staff asked me questions I wasn't able to answer correctly. I gave them my weight when they asked my name. I talked in a deep, gargled voice that was apparently an octave lower and barely comprehensible - so strange that the doctors asked my family if I normally sounded this way.
Apparently, I was extremely disruptive and confused. I was talking to the doctors about ordering car parts. I would pull out anything they tried attaching to me - the pads, the tubes, everything - and I would say "my bad" after each one, apologizing but repeatedly pulling them out anyway. The one memory I have, actually, was a brief burning pain when I yanked out my catheter and saw blood start to trickle down my leg. I heard a person saying "why'd you do that?" and I said "I don't know, I'm sorry".
My mother showed me a picture that has the EKG in it. My resting heart rate was 140bpm.
Sunday January 29th
My memory picks back up again on Sunday at about 4 am. I was asked some questions as soon as I stirred. I was asked what my name was, and I got that one correct. Then I was asked what hospital I was in, which was a bit unfair because I didn't know most of their names to begin with. I looked around me - I was in a room with two tubes in my arm, a bunch of pads on my chest and legs, and a ton of red marks on my inner elbows from all the blood samples. From here I was alternating between sleep and then trying to understand my situation. I talked to the nurse and she said I have diabetes - more specifically, I had diabetic ketoacidosis from untreated type 1 diabetes. I asked her if she was really sure about it, desperate in my own mind for someone to say 'oops, misdiagnosis'.
The nurse shuffled through papers, and said that when I was admitted, my glucose level was 800 mg/dl and I was severely dehydrated. I told her about the thirst problems and she nodded. The whole day was just lying in my bed, eating bland hospital food when it was given to me. I began to accept my reality, as impossible as it seemed. I didn't quite know what it entailed, just that I'd have to make a lot of changes in my life. I just wanted to go back to work.
The nurse shuffled through papers, and said that when I was admitted, my glucose level was 800 mg/dl and I was severely dehydrated. I told her about the thirst problems and she nodded. The whole day was just lying in my bed, eating bland hospital food when it was given to me. I began to accept my reality, as impossible as it seemed. I didn't quite know what it entailed, just that I'd have to make a lot of changes in my life. I just wanted to go back to work.
Monday January 30th
I was told early in the morning that I'd likely be released by dinner, since my condition had improved so much. I was super happy to discover that my saliva was back, and my mouth felt so refreshingly wet. Later in the afternoon I was given a rundown on how to use my pens, some printouts on glucose and diet management, and then that was it. I was out, and into a new unknown world without anyone to talk to until the appointments started happening. There's no history of diabetes in my family and the closest link I have to a diabetic is a friend of a friend, and I still don't have anyone outside of clinic staff to confide in and share experiences with. I opened my cupboard, and everything looked like a box of poison.
----
The week after I got discharged was rough. Only two days after I left hospital, I went back - on the advice of this community, since my very first forum post was complaining that my glucose was above 30 all day. I got hooked up to a drip for a few hours and got told about the sliding scale for insulin. I was so weak that I couldn't even go up the stairs without feeling exhausted. I was stressed over the cost of the supplies and insulin - I had to spend $300 of my savings to get my first batch of everything, and I won't have any coverage until June. I was more stressed that I couldn't eat the things I used to but didn't know what I could eat safely. My vision also got pretty blurry for a week but that's mostly resolved itself - now my biggest challenges are getting my diet right and understanding my insulin. My family physician said my A1C was 12.4, so I must have had this going for a while under the hood, and it only came to peak when I started to go into DKA.
