I'm 63 and have weighed around 80 kg for the last 30 or so years. A bit of a beer gut and at 5ft 10 on the high side of normal weight but not really overweight.
My wife and I retired to France in 2004 and until last month we didn't even know the name of the local doctor - much to the surprise of our neighbours who found it hard to believe we could spend six years without seeing him half a dozen times.
Then last month my brother and his wife decided to come and visit us for a week. That meant that I had to pick them up from the station - about 1 hour's drive away. Of course, that day, a Monday I felt a bit under the weather but after the wife encouraged me to drink some re-hydrating fluid, I recovered enough to go get them.
We got home, and had a cup of tea, then bed. The following morning dawned but I didn't.
Under the weather didn't begin to describe how I felt and after a while the wife decided I needed help. She doesn't drive (nor does my brother), so she went round to a neighbour for help. Our neighbour immediately offered to run us to the hospital which is about 20 miles away and we went into the casualty unit where after a few minutes waiting I was examined and found to have a kidney infection and a blood sugar level off the scale. I was heading for a DKA coma.
Whilst all this was happening to me, the poor wife and our neighbour were sitting waiting for me. Finally at about 10pm, Judy the wife got in to have a word with me. Poor Christine, our neighbour had also waited with her for over 5 hours. I chased them both home on the basis that I'd get a taxi back myself when the casualty unit had finished with me and took the drip off my arm. Home that night? Some hope :lol:
Half an hour later I was up in the main hospital with a saline drip, an insulin pump and a course of antibiotics running into my left arm. That was me for two days.
The day after I arrived, the doctor asked me (in French of course) the same question that I'd been asked in Casualty - "when was I first diagnoised as diabetic?" - "Never" said I. Family history of diabetes? - None. I'm still convinced she thought I was lying or that my French wasn't up to understanding the questions :?
After the two days, off came the drip and I went onto tablet form antibiotics and insulin injections morning and evening. The doctor also took pity on me and agreed that I could go home on the Saturday to entertain my brother and his wife who had been driving the wife insane over the week despite the help of our French friends who took them round the country sites for us.
Saturday came and with the help of a lift from another friend I came home and after a nice dinner (preceded by my insulin injection as instructed) I did my household chore of washing up before going hypo at 3.2 mmol/L. We sorted that easily enough and it was then that the penny dropped. The French don't believe in reduced carbohydrate diets!
Anyway, Monday morning came and after saying "bye, bye" to the brother back I went to the hospital armed with a list of my diet over the weekend broken down into fats, proteins and carbs and my blood sugar figures.
The breakdown impressed the doctor but she wasn't terribly happy about the low starch content of the diet. Anyway she trotted off with the information and when she came back that afternoon she told me that she was changing my treatment. Now I was on Prandin before meals and basal insulin (Levemir) at night. After a couple of days, home I came with a prescription for this. The blood sugar figures in the hospital bounced around like this thanks to their healthy low fat diet:
6.98 13.2 5 4.3 6.8
After I came home the wife took charge and low carb became the order of the day. Approximately 80 grams of carb per day. A week later these are the figures I got.
4.76 5.1 4.76 6.9 5 6
They weren't quite as good as I now get, six weeks on but gone is the crazy post-prandial spike after breakfast. By the way, the Prandin is still in its original packaging un-used
Now my question was "what type of diabetic..?" . According to the initial treatment and the fact that insulin was the only medication prescribed - it's type 1. However I think it's more like type 2.
Any other votes? Answers on a postcard please
My wife and I retired to France in 2004 and until last month we didn't even know the name of the local doctor - much to the surprise of our neighbours who found it hard to believe we could spend six years without seeing him half a dozen times.
Then last month my brother and his wife decided to come and visit us for a week. That meant that I had to pick them up from the station - about 1 hour's drive away. Of course, that day, a Monday I felt a bit under the weather but after the wife encouraged me to drink some re-hydrating fluid, I recovered enough to go get them.
We got home, and had a cup of tea, then bed. The following morning dawned but I didn't.
Under the weather didn't begin to describe how I felt and after a while the wife decided I needed help. She doesn't drive (nor does my brother), so she went round to a neighbour for help. Our neighbour immediately offered to run us to the hospital which is about 20 miles away and we went into the casualty unit where after a few minutes waiting I was examined and found to have a kidney infection and a blood sugar level off the scale. I was heading for a DKA coma.
Whilst all this was happening to me, the poor wife and our neighbour were sitting waiting for me. Finally at about 10pm, Judy the wife got in to have a word with me. Poor Christine, our neighbour had also waited with her for over 5 hours. I chased them both home on the basis that I'd get a taxi back myself when the casualty unit had finished with me and took the drip off my arm. Home that night? Some hope :lol:
Half an hour later I was up in the main hospital with a saline drip, an insulin pump and a course of antibiotics running into my left arm. That was me for two days.
The day after I arrived, the doctor asked me (in French of course) the same question that I'd been asked in Casualty - "when was I first diagnoised as diabetic?" - "Never" said I. Family history of diabetes? - None. I'm still convinced she thought I was lying or that my French wasn't up to understanding the questions :?
After the two days, off came the drip and I went onto tablet form antibiotics and insulin injections morning and evening. The doctor also took pity on me and agreed that I could go home on the Saturday to entertain my brother and his wife who had been driving the wife insane over the week despite the help of our French friends who took them round the country sites for us.
Saturday came and with the help of a lift from another friend I came home and after a nice dinner (preceded by my insulin injection as instructed) I did my household chore of washing up before going hypo at 3.2 mmol/L. We sorted that easily enough and it was then that the penny dropped. The French don't believe in reduced carbohydrate diets!
Anyway, Monday morning came and after saying "bye, bye" to the brother back I went to the hospital armed with a list of my diet over the weekend broken down into fats, proteins and carbs and my blood sugar figures.
The breakdown impressed the doctor but she wasn't terribly happy about the low starch content of the diet. Anyway she trotted off with the information and when she came back that afternoon she told me that she was changing my treatment. Now I was on Prandin before meals and basal insulin (Levemir) at night. After a couple of days, home I came with a prescription for this. The blood sugar figures in the hospital bounced around like this thanks to their healthy low fat diet:
6.98 13.2 5 4.3 6.8
After I came home the wife took charge and low carb became the order of the day. Approximately 80 grams of carb per day. A week later these are the figures I got.
4.76 5.1 4.76 6.9 5 6
They weren't quite as good as I now get, six weeks on but gone is the crazy post-prandial spike after breakfast. By the way, the Prandin is still in its original packaging un-used
Now my question was "what type of diabetic..?" . According to the initial treatment and the fact that insulin was the only medication prescribed - it's type 1. However I think it's more like type 2.
Any other votes? Answers on a postcard please
