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Grandson is diabetic and been in the emergency many times with him.My most frightening time when he was in my care and went into a coma.He was only 6 at the time and he had a ear infection that had caused his blood sugar to go haywire.They could not find any veins and wrapped him up in tin foil.Very frightening.He is 17 now so did survive. Annie
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Oh Dear Janey :-(
Not a good year for you so far. Good luck with the 2x4 doesn't always work but I am sure you will make it.
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Jayney,
I am so sorry to hear of your terrible experience, it must of been a horrible shock.
Sending positive healing thoughts to both of you. If you don't mind I will copy and paste your post and send it in an email to my OH, who has diabetes 2 and maybe this will be his wakeup call.
Take care,
Lindy xx
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Ta Carol - I'm going to sleep with it under my pillow I think, lest I lose my resolve. ;)
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Has anybody here got a diabetic significant other? Or someone with another chronic condition that means they must stick to a strict health regimen ... ?
Not looking for advice. Got some advice to offer.
Have you got one of them who is *not* sticking to that regimen religiously and whole-heartedly?
Take a moment now and find yourself a nice piece of 2x4 and go where your person is, and whack him/her upside the head with it.
Then tell him/her: this is a mere taste of what is going to happen to you if you don't do what you're supposed to, and the worst happens as a result, or even close to the worst.
Because believe me: you do not want to be where I just was, all day and half the night.
I was in the emergency room of my local hospital, about two hours after calling a cab for the trip to the ER, looking at No.1 lying in a bed with tubes and wires attached to numerous bits of his body, listening to the doctor who was gazing solemnly at me as he told me:
"Your No.1 is seriously ill".
You've seen Casualty. You know what it means when the ER doc gazes solemnly at you and says, "Ma'am, your husband/daughter/whatever is seriously ill". It means you're waiting for the next scene, where s/he comes into the room peeling off a surgical gown and says:
"In spite of all our best efforts ...".
Diabetic ketoacidosis.
Who knew that puking and pooping for two days, and having trouble breathing and having neck and back pain, meant that you were in the middle of a full-blown life-threatening diabetic crisis?
Not me. I thought it might mean somebody had swine flu and we were going to be famous.
I didn't think that a couple of hours later I'd be sitting beside a bed, listening to the rapid shallow breathing, watching as monitors flashed things like "tachy at 142" (I've heard that on ER, too), and hearing a doctor say:
"I have seen people whose condition was this bad who lived".
What do you say to the one who might not live then?
Hey there, I know you're having a hard time understanding me and you probably can't put two words together in your head and make them come out your mouth, because you're so confused and in so much pain. But it seems you may only have a couple of hours to live. Anything you'd like to say before you go?
For those who know this stuff: blood sugar reading over 40 ("normal" is 3 to 7), blood Ph about equivalent to sulphuric acid. Heart racing. On intravenous fluid and electrolytes, insulin, and calcium to neutralize the acid, and some drug or other to protect the heart. Still vomiting (not having eaten for 36 hours) ... talk of a breathing tube ... unsuccessful attempts to catheterize for urine ...
So you hold the hand and stroke the hair, and think WTF??
Not too long after that crucial hour ended, he sat up and spoke a sentence, and peed in a bottle (if you've ever peed after having a catheter - I have - let alone two lengthy attempts to insert one, you know how that felt). And the half-hourly blood and Ph readings started coming down. By the time he got to the intensive care unit around 7pm, his Ph was approaching normal and his sugar was below 30. And they continued to improve up to when I came home around 10pm.
It's about 1:30am here now, and I'm going to give the ICU nurse a call before turning in. She has only him to watch over, and she said to call any time. Then I'll check in the morning, and go in for rounds which will be sometime between 9 and 11.
He'll be in ICU for another day or two, mainly because of the constant bloodletting and monitoring he needs, which the wards don't have the staff for. Assuming his condition continues to improve. Then on the ward for another couple of days as they wean him from intravenous insulin back to subcutaneous shots.
Then it's home for a whack upside the head. Yeah, this should be his wake-up call, so you might think he doesn't need the whack. I'm just going to call it payback. And do this to me again, and it won't be so gentle.
And then it's back to the endocrinology dept at the other hospital where he hasn't been in two years, to get the insulin ratio worked out, and get back on track.
You don't want to be where I was. And you're not responsible for your significant other's management of his/her condition -- but you want to let them know they're responsible for it, not just to themselves, but to you. And if they don't live up to it, there will be consequences. Unpleasant ones, and not just from the disease.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetic_ketoacidosis#Symptoms_and_Signs
He had all the "symptoms and signs" (except for a couple of the optional ones like oral thrush; muscle wasting, hard to tell since he's congenitally extremely thin and unmuscled) and "late signs" ("At this point, DKA is life-threatening and medical attention should be sought immediately") except for actual unconsciousness.
And I feel incredibly stupid and guilty for not realizing what was happening, but I'm still going to get out the 2x4.
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