• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Diabetes and Ketones

A

amandasugarman

Newbie
Messages
1
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi My daughter has type 1 diabetes and was told she has swinw flu. She has the max amount of ketones and was vomiting all of last night.

I have told her to drink lots of water although she is feeling really sick and is scared of being sick again.
Her partner called the emergency doctor at 3.am this morning but was told a dr couldn't come out to her as she was not top priority. (This was before she thought she had swine flu.)She went on NHS direct website and they diagnosed swine flu and gave her partner a code to pick up some Tamiflu.

She constantly feels sick and is struggling to drink water. what should we do if we can't get the ketones down, and how long do we wait?
 
If her blood sugars are also high she needs to get to A&E as soon as possible as this is an emergency !!

This is DKA and irrelevant to also having swine flu !
 
Hi Amanda,

I was in a similar situation a couple of months back. Luckily, I managed to get hold of some anti-sickness tablets (Buccastem) from my local NHS urgent care service. Once I'd stopped the vomiting, I was able to take on glucose, liquids and insulin in order to deal with the high BG and ketones.

If your daughter is unable to stop vomiting, then she will require a trip to A+E. The combination of high ketones and dehydration needs to be treated very seriously.

Good luck,
timo.
 
ignoring the swine flu for a moment, she should get to A&E immediately purely on the DKA front. DKA is a very serious condition that requires immediate treatment, preferably by a hospital with all the backup only it can provide.
 
Hi,

I agree A&E is prob the best option. If she is being sick & can't hold down water, she will get very de-hydrated. When I have been in this situation before, I have gone to the out-of-hours surgery, where they tried the anti-sickness injection. I had to wait there to see if it worked. It didn't, so I was sent to A&E where I was put on a drip with the sliding scale insulin & something that re-hydrated me (can't remember the name). Hope she feels better soon.

Luc
 
Just wanted put a quick note out there regarding ketones.The first time i had DKA,id been poorly for couple of days being sick on and off and not eating,when the first lot of paramedics came to see me,by this time i was up my mums and in agony verging on delirum,they tested my sugars and when thwy saw the reading was 12,they thought i didnt have DKA,luckily my mum wasnt happy and demanded the doctor come out,he took 1 look at me and rang 999,anyway,cut a long story short,if i hadnt been taken in then,i would have died,they said my organs were failing and i had about 2hours left to live!!. Take note,blood sugars do not need to be high to have DKA,if you are sick more thn twice and arnt eating and drinking and are type 1,you are at risk of DKA.I now have ketone testing strips as well as the usual testing strips.when i had it and my sugars were 12 my ketone reading was sky high.so beware of "experts"thinking they always no best,they dont,u no urselves and my mum nos me,and if she hd listened to the first paramedics that came 2 see me,i wouldnt b here now. nicky xx
 
After all the replies I received due to my last question about Diabetes and Ketones I decided to complain to Harmoni ( GP out of hours service) and South Central Ambulance to complain about the lack of knowledge these emergency services have when dealing with diabetes and DKA. I explained that to try and deter my daughter from going to hospital could have cost her her life. Also I pointed out that we expect the emergewncy services to have the knowledge of when a patient needs emergency treatment. The letter I received back from both services admitted further training was needed, however I was still not satisfied so I arranged a meeting with John Bercow ( speaker in the HOC) who is our MP in Buckingham. He has taken my concerns to the secretary of State for Health, along with copies of my letters of complaint and the letter I received.

More of us need to complain and speak up if we are to make any changes!
 
Back
Top