[stu8910]

How long could you survive... if you were marooned on an island?

Abit strange for my first post I know, but while watching Lost I was curious as to how long someone like myself with Type2 would be able to survive without insulin or measuring equipment.

I was thinking I could last quite a while by eating 1 banana in the morning, 1 at lunch, 1 late afternoon and 1 at night, aswell as eating plenty of fish. That way BS wouldn't be very high due to not eating many carbs.

Anyone got any thoughts?

[stu8910]

sorry that should say Type 1 diabetes!

[Geoff]

From what I have been told by my endo the av type-1 could last for about three (3) days without going into coma, death!!

[stu8910]

I don't get it... surely it would take months of high BS before you'd be in trouble. Just so long as you don't go too low?

[xMenace]

Originally Posted by stu8910

How long could you survive... if you were marooned on an island?

Abit strange for my first post I know, but while watching Lost I was curious as to how long someone like myself with Type2 would be able to survive without insulin or measuring equipment.

I was thinking I could last quite a while by eating 1 banana in the morning, 1 at lunch, 1 late afternoon and 1 at night, aswell as eating plenty of fish. That way BS wouldn't be very high due to not eating many carbs.

Anyone got any thoughts?

I think it would depend on what she looked like

[DeusXM]

Originally Posted by stu8910

I don't get it... surely it would take months of high BS before you'd be in trouble. Just so long as you don't go too low?

No. If you're have T1 and don't get any insulin, your body changes its metabolic method to something called diabetic ketoacidosis. This turns your blood to acid which eats away at your body and will put you in a coma in a matter of days. It depends on the individual - for some people, DKA can put them in a lot of trouble within just hours, for others, maybe a week or so. But you certainly wouldn't last a month - in fact I'd be amazed if you survived more than 10 days, and that'd be really pushing it.

DKA happens when your body simply doesn't have enough insulin to function properly full stop. Under normal circumstances, high BG would take time to kill you but this is because under normal circumstances, you would probably still be receiving some insulin.

[stu8910]

wow i had no idea.

it makes me wonder about when i was diagnosed i felt terrible for about 3 months before i got checked and when i was diagnosed the docs said they'd never seen blood fat/sugar levels so high... could i of been close to a coma?

[EazyE77]

Originally Posted by stu8910

wow i had no idea.

it makes me wonder about when i was diagnosed i felt terrible for about 3 months before i got checked and when i was diagnosed the docs said they'd never seen blood fat/sugar levels so high... could i of been close to a coma?

It's possible but I don't think a doc would have withheld information if you were in the state of diabetic ketoacidosis. I know myself I was in a very bad state of diabetic ketoacidosis and was hours away from possibly going in to a diabetic coma. But to answer the other question, deus pretty much nailed it on the head. We'd all be gone in a matter of a week.

[stu8910]

i always used to laugh at movies that made a big deal of diabetics going like 1 day without insulin, and how they would die etc. most notably con air!

i dont think i've ever missed a single shot in the 2 years i have been diagnosed so i was not going on experience i just suppose i got my head wrapped around the idea that controlling BS would enable me to survive on bananas and fish!

[EazyE77]

Originally Posted by stu8910

i always used to laugh at movies that made a big deal of diabetics going like 1 day without insulin, and how they would die etc. most notably con air!

i dont think i've ever missed a single shot in the 2 years i have been diagnosed so i was not going on experience i just suppose i got my head wrapped around the idea that controlling BS would enable me to survive on bananas and fish!

Nah it's not silly to think of things like this. We've had a few threads along the same idea as this started for kicks and people popped in and answered . As for the movies go I believe a good deal of people don't really understand the whole thing behind diabetics and they sometimes have to play those situations off without much detail. But if my memory serves me right the movie Con Air they were in the air for a day or at least two before the fella started feeling ill over the lack of no insulin, couple that with the fact that I believe he was due for his shot almost as soon as they boarded so if it was his long acting (12 hours or more) then he had been without it for that much longer too. So I guess it wouldn't be uncommon for that to be set in "realistic" down hill time for an actual diabetic going without insulin and getting sick etc. But as far as other movies go yea I know what you're trying to say lol didn't mean to deboggle your example of movie choice there.

[DeusXM]

it makes me wonder about when i was diagnosed i felt terrible for about 3 months before i got checked and when i was diagnosed the docs said they'd never seen blood fat/sugar levels so high... could i of been close to a coma?

Very probably. What you have to remember is that developing T1 is a gradiated (if speedy) process. Before you were dxed, you still had insulin around, which was just about staving off DKA but being less and less able to do that every day.

Apparently it is just about possible to survive without insulin under very controlled conditions - one way they used to treat diabetes prior to the discovery of insulin was by putting sufferers on a no-carb diet with loads of water. All it did though was stave things off for a bit longer - there was still the catastrophic weight loss and other symptoms - bit like putting a plaster on an amputated leg, if you like.

[stu8910]

before i was diagnosed (during the 3 months of terrible-ness) i was craving kitkat chunkies and other chocolates. i was never a big eater of sweets so i found that strange. and no doubt that made me worse

[DeusXM]

I was the same. I was always thirsty all the time, so I took up drinking Lucozade by the gallon.

[EazyE77]

Originally Posted by DeusXM

I was the same. I was always thirsty all the time, so I took up drinking Lucozade by the gallon.

Yea I was the same way. I drank sprite *at first then sprite zero* by mass consumption amounts it was insane. I think before i finally took myself *or had myself taken in by my family rather* I was drinking gallons upon gallons of water/sprite and probably using the bathroom roughly 20+ times a day. I didn't get any cravings for food oddly enough I had completely lost my appetite by the time I went in to the ER.

[Lorna]

From experience I can only go for about 3h with absolutely no insulin before been really ill with ketones.