DKA

[AnnafromOregon]

My daughter who is now 30 is having trouble with DKA. She has ben hospitalized 4 times now. The hospital can correct it temporarily but no one seems to be able to help us figure out the underlying cause. Any ideas?
Thanks
Anna

 

[Melgar]

Hi there @AnnafromOregon and welcome to the forum. I just wanted to say hello. Sorry to hear your daughter is having problems with her blood sugars and is suffering DKA’s. I’m not on insulin so I am not able to help you. We do have a lot of knowledgeable members here who are only too willing to answer any question you may have. We are not able to diagnose here on the forum but we can talk from our own experiences.

Most of our members are in the UK, so it’s the early hours there, but I’m on the West coast of Canada. Do we share the same time zone.

Again welcome to the forum.

 

[EllieM]

Hi @AnnafromOregon and welcome.

Speaking as a long term T1 (54 years on insulin) a few possibilities come to mind.

I'm assuming she's T1, ignore the rest if she isn't.

Some questions/thoughts.

Is she on a pump or a basal/bolus regime? I know DKA can happen quickly on a pump because you only have fast acting insulin in your system which runs out in about 5 hours.

Does she wear a cgm so she is alerted to high blood sugars? Does she have access to ketone blood testing strips so she can check if she is going into DKA when her bgs are high? For that matter, given you are in the US, can she afford sufficient insulin and testing equipment? (I appreciate that diabetic supplies can be expensive if you are not in a country with free public healthcare.)

Are the doctors who aren't helping specialist endocrinologists at the hospital or just GPs or the people on duty in the ER?

Sorry for the barrage of questions, I do hope she gets help to sort this out.