Not sure why I'm posting this other than the need to get it off my chest.
TL;DR - I am stupid, I let my diabetes get uncontrolled, and had a seizure (I guess, it was never confirmed).
So I was initially diagnosed as Type 2 back in February of 2015, then diagnosed with Celiac disease a few months later. After some conversation with this group about a possible link between the two, I went back to the doctors and get re-evaluated. Turns out after some more blood tests that I was Type 1.5 or LADA or however it should be said.
Based on that I got my shit together, lost almost 100lbs, and was able to manage with just oral meds. After a bit I stopped taking them and found that I didn't fluctuate too badly. So I made sure to eat right, exercise properly, and just kinda forget about it. That was the beginning of the stupidity chain.
Item one, I shouldn't have gone off the meds at all, maybe adjusted dosages, but kept up with it. That would have at least kept it top-of-mind. But, no, I knew better.
Item two turned out to be a misdiagnosed cardiac scare. I had gotten really into cycling and had been training hard for a century ride, when I started having chest pains. So I went to the doctor again, they did an EKG that showed massive problems with my heart. Told me no more exercise, keep nitro handy, and just generally scared the shit out of me. Once I got the nuclear stress test done, they showed that nothing was in fact wrong with me. Turns out that there had been a faulty lead on the first EKG. The pain was due to pushing myself too hard when training. But the damage had been done. I had fallen off the wagon in the time between getting the tests done and waiting on results and talking to the docs.
Item three hit me hard and completed the downfall. I had troubles at home with my rebellious teenage daughter. It got so bad that I ended up on Paxil for the anxiety and depression that I was experiencing. It did it's job a little too well. I no longer cared about taking care of myself or resisting temptation in the form of carbs and candy (damn you McD Mocha Frappe).
So, I ended up putting all the weight back on. Except, I didn't think to worry about the whole diabetes thing. I was more concerned with the Celiac disease and eating properly for that. Meanwhile, my blood glucose was slowly getting ever more out of whack.
Time passed, a few years in fact, changed jobs, moved to a different state, all the while slowly feeling worse, but not thinking anything of it. "Must be the stress", "I didn't sleep well last night", etc.
Fast forward to earlier this week. I wake up one morning not feeling well. I had a sore throat and headache. No biggie, I'll just take the day off and rest up. I go grab some coffee and a snack bar for breakfast and sit down the watch the news. Suddenly I can barely keep my eyes open, so I decide that going back to bed is in order. I lay down for probably 10 minutes or so and the next thing I know, my wife is shaking me and I can barely control my arms and legs. I'm on the verge of throwing up in bed, I'm covered in sweat but still freezing to death. My chest hurts and I'm pretty freaked. So off the the ER we go. As we're headed out the door, I suddenly have this epiphany. Hey, I'm diabetic, maybe I should check my blood sugar. Yeah, it was four hundred.
The part that I didn't mention was that I'd been having to get up several times every night to go pee for the last several months, and ya know, my pee kinda smelled funny, and I always seemed to have cotton mouth. To the point where my kidneys hurt most mornings until I drank a bottle of water. You'd think that would have clued me in, but it seems like I'm exceptionally dense.
Anyhow, we finally get to the ER and I'm shaking so badly that I almost couldn't walk, so they had to wheel me in. Of course, the only thing that the docs key in on when I'm going over my symptoms is the chest pain part, so they hook me up to an EKG and my heart is flipping out. So off to the cardiac unit I go. It isn't until I get there that I make an issue of them not checking my blood sugar again. So they check it, and guess what, it's still the same.
I went to the hospital in the morning, but even though I told them repeatedly as the day progressed that I had celiac disease, when they brought me both lunch and dinner, it was primarily gluten, so no food for me. Not a big deal since I didn't feel like eating anyway. Around 10pm they checked my glucose level again, and I'm still almost the same. Here's where it gets funky, since I was due to have a stress test the next morning, I can't eat anything until after the test. So they didn't want to give me insulin in case I went low during the night. I was tested several times through the night and before my stress test the next morning and it actually went up a few points to just over 400. Thankfully they had me on an IV and I had a pee jug handy during the night.
I finished the stress test the next morning, but missed breakfast. At this point, I kinda wished that I would die. It's been almost 24 hours without food and little sleep. Apparently my stress test went okay, that was the last time I saw that doc anyway. But when I get back to my room they brought me some food that I could actually eat, and they pumped in several units of insulin. And what happens? My blood glucose drops down to below 200 for the first time since I checked it the morning before, and I start feeling better.
The best guess by the docs was that the combination of the following all added up to the point of my body telling me to fuck off and deciding to go on vacation without taking my dimwit brain along:
-
Eating terrible the night before (seriously, WTF was I thinking, I ate most of an apple cobbler by myself)
-
Fighting off a cold
-
Lacking sleep from being up every hour peeing
-
The dehydration that came with the peeing and not drinking anything to replenish the lost fluids
-
And then the sudden addition of sugar and caffeine that morning
-
Long term high blood glucose numbers
So I learned that just not eating will not lower blood sugar. I didn't know that before. That was a valuable lesson. Also, now I get to figure out this whole insulin thing since it looks like pills won't cut it any longer. Time to get my ass back in gear. Lose the weight again. And maybe not kill myself by being stupid.
If you've read this far, you're amazing. If you've been able to keep track, you're even more amazing. Sorry for the disjointed rambling.
If you've just been diagnosed, learn from my moronic self and stay on top of your condition. If you don't, it'll bite you in the ass.
Social Plugin