Bountyman
10-23-2009, 10:39 PM
Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 3 months ago. Been searching the web for information about it every day. Here's my story/intro...
For the months of April, May and June my strength had been waning. I thought maybe drinking 3 gallons of whiskey a month was finally getting to me; nope, wasn't that. I thought maybe my diet was a little too much on the pleasing side and started eating healthier; nope, wasn't that. Then it came to the point that everything started tasting funny; milk tasted like pancake batter; water tasted like it had copper or iron it; nothing tasted the same...or even worth eating. A few things I tried to eat came back up when they felt like it. No nausea or anything...more like a fart when you squat sometimes. I had a waste paper basket handy at all times.
The two weeks before the 4th of July I was down to a diet of ice-cold green grapes and Michelob Ultra long necks. I'd eat a hand full of grapes, drink a beer then lay down and sleep for 90 minutes; wake up and take a leak...then start all over again. Never sick a day in my life! Never been to the hospital other than to get gravel dug out of me from mototrcycle accidents - and the last time for the wreck that retired me from riding. Yeah, I know, "Why didn't you go to the hospital, dude?" My only defense...I thought it would pass. My body's pretty good about healing itself. I was waiting for it to turn the corner...it didn't.
On the afternoon of Independence Day I barely got up from bed and decided to grab the phone instead of a beer and called 911. They trucked me to the ER and the pit crew there set about plugging all kinds of hoses that drained me from one side and filled me from the other. After 5 hours in the ER they'd had enough of me and wheeled me to the Maximum Care unit. Upon which they started sticking leads to me and hooking me to a machine that gave all my vital signs...that they rarely came and looked at.
They hung a bag of saline solution; a bag of potassium; hooked me up to oxygen and an insulin drip; brought me a cup of ice cubes, "....and then merrily skipped off down the corridor. From then on it was the Vampire Team at me 24/7,. stabbing my fingers on the hour taking a blood glucose count and poking for a vein every 3 hours. "You're gonna feel a little pinch here now...", then they'd say, "My! You're veins are flat, sorry I have to try this so many times!" One guy was taking my blood and I told him not to stand so close to the window or he'd burst into flames! He didn't find that funny at all and I think he took a quart too much just to screw with me. That Monday was also chest x-ray day; abdominal ultrasound and heart ultra sound. The tech asked me if that huge bump in the middle of my abdomen was a hernia. I asked him if he'd seen the movie "Alien"...he hadn't, and didn't appreciate me dodging the question. So serious these guys!
By that Tuesday they'd had enough of my sordid humor and wheeled my upstairs to Unit 1, a bustling community of bed-ridden old people in the throws of dying. Life monitors constantly going off in beeps of code. Constantly, day and night, "beep-beep-boop" "beep-boop-beep" "boop-de-boop-de-boop"! I asked one of the nurses what the codes meant, the curious person I am, and she said the machines were a bad batch and they all did that; 99% of the time nothing was wrong...they'd just reset the meter.
Then the food game started. They'd bring me a meal, I'd eat it all, they'd come back two hours later test my blood glucose (which was like still 400+) then give me an insulin shot, then come back two hours later and check my blood glucose again. This went on for two more days. Then a doctor came in early that Thursday morning with the results of all the tests. First off she said I no longer produced insulin and will have to inject it from now on...and then two big gay nurses promptly dressed me and tossed me out. I was diagnosed with:
Diabetic Ketoacidosis
New-onset Diabetes
Hypertension
Hyperlipidemia
Since leaving the hospital on July 9th I've changed from syringes and the vial to the Lantus® SoloSTAR (nice little device, with BD 5mm 31G needles), titrated up from 15 units to 20, to 22, and leveled off at 25 units at bedtime. My FBG in the morning is usually between 95 and 115, depending (I think) on how my Breeze2 meter is feeling* that morning. With breakfast I take a Centrum Silver vitamin, Lipitor 20MG, Lisinopril 10MG, and an aspirin (81 MG EC, yellow with a little heart on it). I have an appointment the 29th of this month with a nutritionist (wonder what they wanted me to eat for the last 4 months) to teach me about diabetic nutrition.
*I'm on my third Bayer BG meter. I told my caregiver the Contour meter the pharmacy gave me was too "fumbly" with the test strips and all and he changed me to the Breeze2. Nice, with the 10-disc cartridge, but erratic in tests, in my opinion. In fact I tested one morning two hours after breakfast and it came back 182 mg/dL. No way was I 182 mg/dL so I pricked the next finger and tested it. 136 mg/dL; next finger, 168 mg/dL; next finger, 157 mg/dL. I did all 10 fingers and got a different reading on each finger. Got another Breeze2 test meter. I got my suspicions this "test meter" thing ain't all that accurate - no matter who makes it.
So, that's my story --- and I'm stickin' to it!
For the months of April, May and June my strength had been waning. I thought maybe drinking 3 gallons of whiskey a month was finally getting to me; nope, wasn't that. I thought maybe my diet was a little too much on the pleasing side and started eating healthier; nope, wasn't that. Then it came to the point that everything started tasting funny; milk tasted like pancake batter; water tasted like it had copper or iron it; nothing tasted the same...or even worth eating. A few things I tried to eat came back up when they felt like it. No nausea or anything...more like a fart when you squat sometimes. I had a waste paper basket handy at all times.
The two weeks before the 4th of July I was down to a diet of ice-cold green grapes and Michelob Ultra long necks. I'd eat a hand full of grapes, drink a beer then lay down and sleep for 90 minutes; wake up and take a leak...then start all over again. Never sick a day in my life! Never been to the hospital other than to get gravel dug out of me from mototrcycle accidents - and the last time for the wreck that retired me from riding. Yeah, I know, "Why didn't you go to the hospital, dude?" My only defense...I thought it would pass. My body's pretty good about healing itself. I was waiting for it to turn the corner...it didn't.
On the afternoon of Independence Day I barely got up from bed and decided to grab the phone instead of a beer and called 911. They trucked me to the ER and the pit crew there set about plugging all kinds of hoses that drained me from one side and filled me from the other. After 5 hours in the ER they'd had enough of me and wheeled me to the Maximum Care unit. Upon which they started sticking leads to me and hooking me to a machine that gave all my vital signs...that they rarely came and looked at.
They hung a bag of saline solution; a bag of potassium; hooked me up to oxygen and an insulin drip; brought me a cup of ice cubes, "....and then merrily skipped off down the corridor. From then on it was the Vampire Team at me 24/7,. stabbing my fingers on the hour taking a blood glucose count and poking for a vein every 3 hours. "You're gonna feel a little pinch here now...", then they'd say, "My! You're veins are flat, sorry I have to try this so many times!" One guy was taking my blood and I told him not to stand so close to the window or he'd burst into flames! He didn't find that funny at all and I think he took a quart too much just to screw with me. That Monday was also chest x-ray day; abdominal ultrasound and heart ultra sound. The tech asked me if that huge bump in the middle of my abdomen was a hernia. I asked him if he'd seen the movie "Alien"...he hadn't, and didn't appreciate me dodging the question. So serious these guys!
By that Tuesday they'd had enough of my sordid humor and wheeled my upstairs to Unit 1, a bustling community of bed-ridden old people in the throws of dying. Life monitors constantly going off in beeps of code. Constantly, day and night, "beep-beep-boop" "beep-boop-beep" "boop-de-boop-de-boop"! I asked one of the nurses what the codes meant, the curious person I am, and she said the machines were a bad batch and they all did that; 99% of the time nothing was wrong...they'd just reset the meter.
Then the food game started. They'd bring me a meal, I'd eat it all, they'd come back two hours later test my blood glucose (which was like still 400+) then give me an insulin shot, then come back two hours later and check my blood glucose again. This went on for two more days. Then a doctor came in early that Thursday morning with the results of all the tests. First off she said I no longer produced insulin and will have to inject it from now on...and then two big gay nurses promptly dressed me and tossed me out. I was diagnosed with:
Diabetic Ketoacidosis
New-onset Diabetes
Hypertension
Hyperlipidemia
Since leaving the hospital on July 9th I've changed from syringes and the vial to the Lantus® SoloSTAR (nice little device, with BD 5mm 31G needles), titrated up from 15 units to 20, to 22, and leveled off at 25 units at bedtime. My FBG in the morning is usually between 95 and 115, depending (I think) on how my Breeze2 meter is feeling* that morning. With breakfast I take a Centrum Silver vitamin, Lipitor 20MG, Lisinopril 10MG, and an aspirin (81 MG EC, yellow with a little heart on it). I have an appointment the 29th of this month with a nutritionist (wonder what they wanted me to eat for the last 4 months) to teach me about diabetic nutrition.
*I'm on my third Bayer BG meter. I told my caregiver the Contour meter the pharmacy gave me was too "fumbly" with the test strips and all and he changed me to the Breeze2. Nice, with the 10-disc cartridge, but erratic in tests, in my opinion. In fact I tested one morning two hours after breakfast and it came back 182 mg/dL. No way was I 182 mg/dL so I pricked the next finger and tested it. 136 mg/dL; next finger, 168 mg/dL; next finger, 157 mg/dL. I did all 10 fingers and got a different reading on each finger. Got another Breeze2 test meter. I got my suspicions this "test meter" thing ain't all that accurate - no matter who makes it.
So, that's my story --- and I'm stickin' to it!