Coma & other things

[Rosiediabetes]

Hi everyone.
I am 25 years old and newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
I was admitted to hospital after going to the doctor thinking I had a 'stomach bug' and having a blood test. I'd been downing fizzy drinks because I was driven to them by my body - I was so thirsty, water and other flat drinks weren't cutting it, so I drank lucozade and other sugary drinks, meaning that when I was tested for blood sugars at hospital I was 55.1 (so high the testing machines couldn't handle it) and I was wondering, how far do you have to go before you go into a coma?

I am also wondering how long it will take before my eye sight goes back to its original prescription?
I had jumped from 2.75 to 3.75 and from 4.75 to 6.0 in my left and right eyes. I am currently in between glasses.

Any advice on diet would be greatly appreciated - I have the carbs and cals book, and a diabetic cooking book.
I am a fish eating vegetarian.

Thank you,

Rosie

 

[amberzak]

Re: Coma & other things

Hi Rosie. I feel for you. I passed out at work and was rushed in. My sugars were as high as yours. I, too, had been drinking all the fizzy drinks. That was about 8 years ago for me.

Not sure about eye sight, but I can help with other things. Firstly, although you are newly diagnosed, try and get on to carb counting as soon as possible. It makes things so much easier because you can eat when you want and what you want (within reason). I have a very carbohydrate rich diet with loads of potato and grain products. I give myself insulin based on what carbs I've eaten (I've got a cool book that tells me, complete with pictures).

It will be trial and error. You may give yourself too Much insulin one day and not enough the next. It's an art, not a science. Don't let anyone tell you how to look after your sugars except you diabetic nurse. Friends and family mean well, but most of them are ill informed and only know about type two.

Test often, especially when you are trial and error and learning about your insulin. Always have some sugar in the house (lucosade) and buy glucose tablets from boots. Get the ones in round tubs. When you are in a hypo you won't be able to fumble around with opening packets). You will go low. You will go high. And then his as you think you've cracked it, the weather will change and your sugars will go out of sync again. That's okay. Just keep testing and you can catch the lows or highs early.


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[Riesenburg]

Hi Rosie,

55.1 wow that must be the highest reading I have ever heard of. Getting into a coma I suspect has a few triggers, one would be diabetic ketoacidosis, and the other would be brain damage caused by the hyperglycaemia (I am sure there are others but those are the ones I can think off right now). We often tend to underestimate just how much damage high sugars do to the brain...

For the eye sight, my sister was recently diagnosed with type 1.5 and she was told that the eye sight takes in between 3-4 weeks to get back to normal and is due to the dehydration of the eyes.

Hope that helps,
Frankie

 

[Rosiediabetes]

Hey Amberzak, how horrible! I hope you are okay now.

With the carb counting, am I supposed to eat the same amount for every meal? I have to have breakfast, lunch, dinner and a bedtime snack. Yeah, I've heard you can give yourself more insulin to combat what you've eaten, so that's good for the occasional treat

Okay, thank you. I keep getting tonnes of advice frm family and friends who are just guessing! I've been told to give myself 16 morning and 8 at night.

Okay, i will get some of those. Does the weather actually make a difference!?

Thank you for all your help!

Hi Riesenburg,

I know! It's pretty **** high. No wonder I felt awful.
You can get brain damage from hyperglemia? (that's really low blood sugar right?)

Right okay, excellent. Just wondering, I've been short sighted all my life and have been living this week with no glasses or lenses, and my eyesight seems a lot better than it used to be - better than my original prescription - is it possible to return to almost perfect eyesight, and that I would have had diabetes type 1 for a long time before I knew about it and that's what made my eyes funny in the first place? Hope that makes sensed

Thank you,

Rosie

 

[Riesenburg]

Hi Rose,

hyperglycaemia is high sugars (sry shouldn't really be using too much medical terminology on here, a bad habit of mine haha), yes with the highs the current scientific evidence suggests cause permanent brain cell death as well as those connector/links in between those cells which help them communicate (neurons). The damage from low blood sugars reverse in about 20-30mins after the hypo unless you go below 1.1 or 1.0 (can't remember the exact number but basically at 1 or below) then it's permanent too.

From what the optician told me last time I saw her was that when your sugars are in the normal range the eyes can repair themselves. When you are newly diagnosed and your sugars are very high your body tries to lower them by flushing them out in the urine. If you are high a lot you urinate a lot which ultimately dehydrates your body, since the eyes are so water-dependant they get into trouble first and vision worsens or gets very blurry. But when you get back to the normal and drink a lot of water they can switch back to normal. Hope that makes sense

Frankie

 

[amberzak]

Re: Coma & other things

Hypoglycaemia is low sugars and hyperglycaemia is high sugars. It's confusing, I know.

I've not known of any permanent damage from a hypo, although until a few days ago I was going hypo a lot (overdosing on insulin without realising it) and I have been told if that happens too much it can damage the liver. This was a daily event for me though, so that's extreme.

Hypos do feel horrible. And if not treated it can be dangerous. But you should feel the signs of a hypo. You get sweaty, shaky and find it hard to concentrate. Also, you may feel hungry or crave sugar. When you go low, you will find it very hard to think, and you will slur your words. My friend said I act drunk when I'm low. While its scary, it's not permanent.

Carb counting: it means that I find out how many carbs are in the foods I eat. There are phone apps that help (carbs and cals is the best for me as it has photos). I inject approximately one unit of insulin for every 10 grams of carbs I eat. This is about normal. This means I can give myself less or more insulin depending on what I eat. I've had much better control now.

The weather makes a huge difference to me. Some people it affects less. Hot weather makes my insulin absorb better, so I need less insulin, or I go hypo.

The key is testing. If you test you can catch lows and highs before they get too sever. If you start going high, you can give yourself a correction dose (I take one unit of insulin to bring my sugars down by one level, but if you decide to do this, be careful. That might be too much for you and you might be one unit of insulin brings you down by two levels). Basically, I don't want to overwhelm you, do ignore all this if its too much for you. You have a lot of learning to do, and everyone takes it in differently. I, for example, wanted to know everything there and then.

What are the names of the insulin you are taking? I'm on levimer at night and novo rapid for my meals.

It's all about finding out what's right for you. I learnt the hard way how important testing is.

Don't be discouraged if things dont quite go as planned. And expect the unexpected - sometimes you will go high or low with no real reason why. If you can work out why, great. But sometimes there is no explanation.


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[amberzak]

Re: Coma & other things

The damage from low blood sugars reverse in about 20-30mins after the hypo unless you go below 1.1 or 1.0 (can't remember the exact number but basically at 1 or below) then it's permanent too.

I have gone lower than 1. I've had readings of 0.9 and 0.8 with no permanent damage. Although I wouldn't advise you to allow sugars to go that low.


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[spaceman]

WELL IVE STARTED DOING IT ALONE,IVE NEVER TURNED UP FOR A FEW NURSE APPOINTMENTS, I WONT BE ATTENDING ANY FOOT OR EYE TESTS,WHY SHOULD I, AS LONG AS THERE SUPPLY THE INSULIN ! WHAT I CANT UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE DOCTORS,THERE DONT WANT TO HELP US,UNTIL WE REACH A CERTAIN AGE GROUP AND WHEN WE REACH THAT AGE GROUP THEVE GOT US THERE EVERY OTHER WEEK,OK IM IN MY 60s but why should i jump every time a GP or NURSE SAY BOO.

 

[Rosiediabetes]

Thank you all for your help I'm feeling a lot more confident about this now.

I take novo mix 30 before breakfast (16) and dinner (8) and do testings before each meal (I do four testings as I am told I need a bed time snack - I feel like a child!)

Doctors are telling me cos I am responding well to the insulin that I might actually be a type 2? ***?
They are still waiting for results on type 1.5 but it's only been about a week since I came out of hospital.

I know it sounds a bit funny, but I would prefer to be a type 1 as I don't have to rely to diet alone to stabilise myself, and I often hear type 2 you bring upon yourself?

Rosie

 

[xAoifex]

WELL IVE STARTED DOING IT ALONE,IVE NEVER TURNED UP FOR A FEW NURSE APPOINTMENTS, I WONT BE ATTENDING ANY FOOT OR EYE TESTS,WHY SHOULD I, AS LONG AS THERE SUPPLY THE INSULIN ! WHAT I CANT UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE DOCTORS,THERE DONT WANT TO HELP US,UNTIL WE REACH A CERTAIN AGE GROUP AND WHEN WE REACH THAT AGE GROUP THEVE GOT US THERE EVERY OTHER WEEK,OK IM IN MY 60s but why should i jump every time a GP or NURSE SAY BOO.

Why should you? Well prevention is better than cure that's why! If complications get caught early then they can be far easier and quicker (and cheaper) to treat as well as lowering the risk of long term disability.

That being said it's your choice and your health. If everything is well controlled then there should be no reason for you to see someone every couple of weeks

 

[Optom]

"IVE NEVER TURNED UP FOR A FEW NURSE APPOINTMENTS, I WONT BE ATTENDING ANY FOOT OR EYE TESTS,WHY SHOULD I, AS LONG AS THERE SUPPLY THE INSULIN "

Spaceman - please ask your eye screener to show you some photos of problem eyes ... it can be a wake up call. In my experience people can develop significant retinal disease and retain good vision up until they almost reach a point of no return. Early intervention is key to not losing vision permanently.

 

[diondom12]

I can tell you im not long out ofhosp after dka and it doesnt take long in all i was ill for 2 days and next thing i wakened out of a coma 4 days later all my organs started too shut down i have had type 1 for over 28 yrs and never experienced dka before and pray i never do my blood sugars are usually quite good apart from when i fell ill so please everyone make sure you make a sick plan with your nurse or doctor it can happen too anyone

 

[SPARKLE4]

I had been a diabetic for 10yrs before I had my first ( apart from when first diagnosed) and only DKA experience so far, it was brought on through illness but it still happened so fast, spent a week in hospital and was unconscious for roughly 2 days, never want to go through that or put my family through that ever again. On a positive note (if there is one!) I did learn from the experience - guess its just another diabetic learning curve!

 

[spaceman]

well i eat fish and chips, chineses currys,fried rice,noodles, i eat chrisps and biscuits all the things people say i suddent eat, my diabetic nurse says you can eat anything you like,from time to time, im a type 1. my bs reading s have never been over 10.0 my eyes are back to normal now.

 

[Riesenburg]

WELL IVE STARTED DOING IT ALONE,IVE NEVER TURNED UP FOR A FEW NURSE APPOINTMENTS, I WONT BE ATTENDING ANY FOOT OR EYE TESTS,WHY SHOULD I, AS LONG AS THERE SUPPLY THE INSULIN ! WHAT I CANT UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE DOCTORS,THERE DONT WANT TO HELP US,UNTIL WE REACH A CERTAIN AGE GROUP AND WHEN WE REACH THAT AGE GROUP THEVE GOT US THERE EVERY OTHER WEEK,OK IM IN MY 60s but why should i jump every time a GP or NURSE SAY BOO.

I've been controlling my diabetes alone since my teen years, but still do for the yearly checkups and have regular blood checks. It's important because the complications are a nightmare. And honestly why would you want to have them? when you can get a good view of how you are doing and adjust if need be and avoid them? You certainly don't need to jump everytime a gp or nurse says so, but you can do the checkups for your own peace of mind. Well that's how I look at things.

I have gone lower than 1. I've had readings of 0.9 and 0.8 with no permanent damage. Although I wouldn't advise you to allow sugars to go that low.

Sry I should have been more to the point, I was talking about brain damage. I don't think we would notice them until it hits something serious, other than maybe our thinking slowing down or memory starting to get slightly worst....