CaptainSensible
Member
- Messages
- 5
Hi everyone,
This forum was recommended to me as a valuable resource by two different diabetic nurses and a consultant over the past few days so I thought i'd drop by, register and say hello.
Without wishing to bore anybody I thought I'd explain how I got to this point.
Back in early february I'd just turned 40, and suddenly started to feel thirsty at night so I just started to take a drink to bed at night. This carried on for a couple of weeks and gradually I started to get thirstier and thirstier, drinking more and more and consequently finding myself spending more and more time in the bathroom!
This continued for another couple of weeks until it got to the point where my thirst was unquenchable, i was drinking about 5-7 litres of water/squash/sweet tea per day/night. I was also having to go to the bathroom about once an hour in the day and once every two hours at night. I also felt constantly light headed and unable to concentrate. So I made an appointment to see a GP.
The GP listened to my complaints and said he suspected type 1 diabetes, he told me to book an appointment to have a fasting blood test, then make another appointment with a GP for when the results would be back (7-10 days after the blood test). I thought he might measure my BG but he didn't, so I booked a fasting bloodtest which was in 5 days time, then booked an appointment with a GP for 10 days after that.
The fasting blood test was a nightmare, my symptoms were getting worse and worse and after not eating for 12 hours I felt like death warmed up. By this time the thought of waiting another 10 days to see my GP seemed an eternity away but I just tried to carry on as normal.
After about a week after the fasting blood test I received a letter from the doctors surgery telling me to book an 'urgent' appointment to see the nurse at the surgery, which I did, and a couple of days later I was sat with the nurse at the doctors surgery explaining what was going on. She also said she suspected type 1 diabetes and that there were ketones in my sample, so for the first time I had a finger prick BG reading taken. Unfortunately the machine only said 'high' and wouldn't give a reading so I was told to go home, have no sugar or sugary things then go back to the nurse the following morning to try and get a reading.
When I got back to the nurse I felt truly horrible, she took my BG which was 30.2 and tested my sample and found the ketones had increased so I was packed off to A&E.
In hospital I was seen by a doctor, given fluids, then seen by a diabetic nurse (both of whom were amazing) and eventually after giving what felt like my own body weight in blood, and having my finger pricked relentlessly they confirmed I had type 1 diabetes and I was educated in the dark art of injecting insulin, and taking my own blood glucose readings. After what seemed like an age I was shipped off home, thankfully avoiding an overnight stay in hospital.
I attended my first Diabetic Clinic the next morning (this morning), saw the consultant who upped my dose, the diabetic nurse and the dietician, again all of which were fantastic and helped me feel less overwhelmed by it all.
So here I am, still a little overwhelmed, but starting to feel human again, and more than anything else determined to get this under control.
Thanks for reading.
This forum was recommended to me as a valuable resource by two different diabetic nurses and a consultant over the past few days so I thought i'd drop by, register and say hello.
Without wishing to bore anybody I thought I'd explain how I got to this point.
Back in early february I'd just turned 40, and suddenly started to feel thirsty at night so I just started to take a drink to bed at night. This carried on for a couple of weeks and gradually I started to get thirstier and thirstier, drinking more and more and consequently finding myself spending more and more time in the bathroom!
This continued for another couple of weeks until it got to the point where my thirst was unquenchable, i was drinking about 5-7 litres of water/squash/sweet tea per day/night. I was also having to go to the bathroom about once an hour in the day and once every two hours at night. I also felt constantly light headed and unable to concentrate. So I made an appointment to see a GP.
The GP listened to my complaints and said he suspected type 1 diabetes, he told me to book an appointment to have a fasting blood test, then make another appointment with a GP for when the results would be back (7-10 days after the blood test). I thought he might measure my BG but he didn't, so I booked a fasting bloodtest which was in 5 days time, then booked an appointment with a GP for 10 days after that.
The fasting blood test was a nightmare, my symptoms were getting worse and worse and after not eating for 12 hours I felt like death warmed up. By this time the thought of waiting another 10 days to see my GP seemed an eternity away but I just tried to carry on as normal.
After about a week after the fasting blood test I received a letter from the doctors surgery telling me to book an 'urgent' appointment to see the nurse at the surgery, which I did, and a couple of days later I was sat with the nurse at the doctors surgery explaining what was going on. She also said she suspected type 1 diabetes and that there were ketones in my sample, so for the first time I had a finger prick BG reading taken. Unfortunately the machine only said 'high' and wouldn't give a reading so I was told to go home, have no sugar or sugary things then go back to the nurse the following morning to try and get a reading.
When I got back to the nurse I felt truly horrible, she took my BG which was 30.2 and tested my sample and found the ketones had increased so I was packed off to A&E.
In hospital I was seen by a doctor, given fluids, then seen by a diabetic nurse (both of whom were amazing) and eventually after giving what felt like my own body weight in blood, and having my finger pricked relentlessly they confirmed I had type 1 diabetes and I was educated in the dark art of injecting insulin, and taking my own blood glucose readings. After what seemed like an age I was shipped off home, thankfully avoiding an overnight stay in hospital.
I attended my first Diabetic Clinic the next morning (this morning), saw the consultant who upped my dose, the diabetic nurse and the dietician, again all of which were fantastic and helped me feel less overwhelmed by it all.
So here I am, still a little overwhelmed, but starting to feel human again, and more than anything else determined to get this under control.
Thanks for reading.
