Anyone had any DKA symptoms .

Hi Anna,

I have had DKA once. Not something that I ever want to go through again!

I had been out drinking when I started to feel unwell. At first I put my symptoms down to having too many vinos. I felt very sick, dehydrated, a bit 'out if it'. I went home and fell asleep for a few hours. I woke up during the night as I felt very, very sick. My stomach was very painful, my breathing felt laboured and I couldn't see straight. I couldn't keep anything down, not even water. It became harder and harder to breath and I was experiencing sever stomach pains. Within a matter of hours I was really struggle to take air and could not stop being sick.

I was taken into hospital where they did an ECG and other tests to rule out various things. Once they confirmed it was DKA they put me on a saline drip and sliding scale. I was kept in for three days.

Friends and family said that my face looked puffy when I had DKA. I also looked generally unwell. I cannot put into words how poorly I felt. It was awful!

It took weeks before I felt normal again and it really did take all my strength out of me.

The tell-tale symptoms to watch for are:
- high blood sugars and ketones
- stomach pain
- nausea and/or diarrhoea
- excess thirst and urination
- sweet smell of breath
- difficulty breathing/short, shallow breaths

If you think you may have DKA go to the hospital ASAP. The symptoms come on fast and it can make you ill very quickly.

Em

I had DKA in 2010 I can say hand on heart it's the worst I've ever felt in my whole life and I don't get ill very often. I had no appetite for 2 days on the 3rd day by lunchtime I was constantly sick every half an hour almost all day I could keep anything down. I saw the dr who diagnosed a virus (as there was quite a bad 1 going round at the time) so I went to bed early as I felt so bad. I couldn't sleep then I had trouble breathing my son called the paramedics and they said it was a panic attack. Told them all the symptoms I had they agreed on a virus but they would call the oncall dr. He came out several hours later and said he could smell pear drops on my breath, this meant nothing to me at all. So he called an ambulance non urgent. I got to hospital at around 6am, admitted and lots of tests done. DKA was diagnosed. I'd never even heard of it or how serious it was. I was in and out of hospital for the next 2 weeks and then it took me about 1-2 months to get over it. This was also my wake up call of being diabetic because as I had no appetite I didn't inject any insulin (was told if your not eating you dont need to inject) which obviously lead to the DKA. So I can't blame anyone but myself, I denied being diabetic and really didn't know a lot about it. I really think that newly diagnosed people who are on insulin should be warned about DKA as I said I'd never heard of it and didn't know that it can kill you!

I had a dka in 2010 I was ill for about 3 months before it happened but the time when i went in to hospital I was being sick until I couldn't throw anything else up I was crawling to the toilet my breathing went weird I was begging my husband to phone an ambulance all night but he didn't know what to do so in the end I got him to get my dad who was a first responder with ambulance service they came and phoned ambulance my bloods were 26 when the paramedics came

At the hospital the doctors told my hubby to prepare for the worse but all I can remember is screaming in pain as my whole body was in spasm and asking for water ( and a midwife I wanted a epidural haha) My speech was like I had a stroke so much so they thought I was asking for a fat coke instead of a diet coke, they put a central line in as my veins had collapsed and got Iv paracetamol I fell asleep after that and woke up day after on mau they were going to send me to itu but I stabilised quicker than they thought I would

It defiantly knocked me off balance even now my short term memory is **** and I have dyslexia now all come on after that it was horrid


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I've had DKA more times than I care to count, I have the usual symptoms of high BG and ketones.
I feel exhausted, struggle to breathe, very thirsty (only ice cold drinks will do), my entire body aches and it's an effort moving, bad vision, black circles around my eyes (this gets worse as I get worse), paler than I normally am, trouble concentrating, loss of appetite, sweet breath, nausea, kidney and back pain and vomiting and obviously a presence of ketones.

When I can't keep down any fluids I have to go to A&E to have fluids put in via a drip. Quicker I'm at A&E the quicker I will be discharged.

It may sound strange, but to me, it feels like my body is shutting down, it's terrifying and physically the worst I've ever felt. I've managed to put myself through it a handful of times, it's definitely not something I'd wish for anyone to experience.


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