Scary morning!

[mariannas]

Well, I woke up this morning to seven paramedics in my room and my arm on fire.  Evidently my blood sugar bottomed out overnight and my boyfriend found my unresponsive around 11 am this morning.  He thought I had been asleep, but when the dialysis supply man came by and I wouldn't wake up he called 911. 

I have no idea what happened.  I was diagnosed with a strange combo of Type I and Type II diabetes (basically my body produces a wee bit of insulin, but is resistant to it so I do have to supplement with lantus here and there) about three years ago.  The doctors think it's because I have been on prednisone for 22 years or so.  Anyways, I ate a nice dinner last night...roast chicken, potatoes, and corn and even got up around 3 am and had a little snack.  When I went to bed I had been on the low side so I skipped my insulin and just took my glipizide.  Evidently that was enough to make me crash. 

Anyways, I went straight to my neph and he ordered labs which all came back "normal" (for me anyways!) and I have an appointment with the endocronologist early tomorrow morning. 

I can only thank god that my boyfriend decided to work from home this morning.  If he had gone to work as usual this might have been a very different outcome.   

[Aldente]

My goodness!  Scary seems like an understatement for what you went through.  I'm glad to hear that your boyfriend was able to make the right calls and get help in time.  I hope all turns out well for you.

[goofynina]

OH, thank God for your boyfriend    I am so glad you are ok my friend, 

[donnia]

Oh my goodness!!!!  How scary.  Thank God for your boyfriend stayed home to work.  God was with you mariannas.  Prayers that you will not go through anything like this again!!!

[MyssAnne]

Oh my!!! I am so glad you are here and talking to us! It could have been a different story if your boyfriend  had not been there. I tell ya. The exciting thing we get ourselves into!

[okarol]

So glad to hear you are ok!

[Black]

... I can only thank god that my boyfriend decided to work from home this morning.  If he had gone to work as usual this might have been a very different outcome.   

Thank God you're alright!  That was a scary morning!  I can't imagine waking to paramedics. 

[goofynina]

Oh man, i just had a thought, if something like this were to happen to me, those poor paramedics (i sleep nude) LMFFAO  with my luck they will all need psychological help and sue me for it 

[mariannas]

Oh man, i just had a thought, if something like this were to happen to me, those poor paramedics (i sleep nude) LMFFAO  with my luck they will all need psychological help and sue me for it 

Well I was wearing a fairly skimpy tank top and my fugly pj bottoms and I'm fairly certain they saw some boob.  I'm hoping my boyfriend had the foresight to cover me up...I'll have to ask about that!

I'm feeling much better, much less freaked out.  I'm exhausted though and terrified of falling asleep.  Thank you everyone for your well-wishes!!!

[stauffenberg]

I was diagnosed with extremely labile, unstable, type 1 (completely insulin dependant) diabetes when I was fourteen.  The effort to keep the blood sugar values within normal range, when they spontaneously vary so dramatically, is like trying to fly a plane in the dark with no instruments at tree-top level without ever crashing.  The result is that I have had during the ensuing 41 years, by my count, about 10,000 low blood sugar episodes, most of which could be overcome simply enough by taking some sugar and enduring ten minutes or so of not functioning normally.  But of these 10,000 episodes, 100 were so severe that I became unconscious before I could react quickly enough to consume enough sugar to stop them getting out of control.  I usually woke up spontaneously after a few hours, but with an unpleasant headache, and was then able to restore the situation by eating something sweet.  But out of these 100 severe episodes, 10 were so extreme that I could only be rescued by medical intervention, usually in the emergency ward of the hospital, where I would wake up with a glucose intravenous drip in my arm and the faces of six or seven worried ER physicians peering into mine, saying my name over and over again to test my level of consciousness.

This seems to be the normal Bell curve distribution of hypoglycemic episodes, at least among the other type 1 diabetics I know.  Some have been unlucky and died, mainly because of stroke induced by severe hypoglycemia or because of some trauma -- like falling down stairs or stepping in front of car -- during hypoglycemic unconsciousness.  But the terrible dilemma of type 1 diabetes is to risk losing your life from hypoglcyemia; to certainly lose your life by staying home all day doing nothing but testing blood sugar, weighing food, counting calories, and injecting repeated micro-doses of insulin to become nothing more than a human pancreas; or to lose your life by letting the blood sugar run high, thus avoiding the dangers of hypogylcemia, but dying young from the complications that result from high blood sugar.  You are simply trapped, and all you can do is pick your poison.

[angela515]

  So glad your boyfriend was there.

[Sluff]

I'm glad you are back to normal. Don't do that again ok? 

[paris]

Wow! I am so glad this had a good ending.  I am sure you are scared to close your eyes!  Have that hero/boyfriend to watch over you tonight!   

[paddbear0000]

Oh man, i just had a thought, if something like this were to happen to me, those poor paramedics (i sleep nude) LMFFAO  with my luck they will all need psychological help and sue me for it 

Well I was wearing a fairly skimpy tank top and my fugly pj bottoms and I'm fairly certain they saw some boob.  I'm hoping my boyfriend had the foresight to cover me up...I'll have to ask about that!

I'm feeling much better, much less freaked out.  I'm exhausted though and terrified of falling asleep.  Thank you everyone for your well-wishes!!!

I know how scary that is! I'm diabetic and my husband has had to call 911 several times. I've woken up to find paramedics standing over me myself. And one of those times, he did not have the foresight to cover me! I awoke to find myself in nothing but my bra and panties with an audience! Yikes!! I'm sure it's not the first time they'd encountered that tho. He definitely knows better now after I ripped him a new one!     I'm glad you're doing better.

[Krisna]

I'm so glad your boyfriend was there and called 9-1-1! 

That actually happened to me once and I'm not diabetic.  I was staying at my dad's recovering from major surgery and my dad awoke to hear me gasping for breath.  The medics said my blood sugar was 16!  I was on my way out!  No doubt abt that!  Mine was from not eating because I was on some pretty heavy pain killers!

[Adam_W]

I have had a couple hypoglycemic episodes, and I'm not diabetic. Fortunately, neither of them were bad enough to make me completely lose consciousness (although I think I came pretty close). The first one was at the evening service at my church, and I ended up collapsing completely on the floor. 911 was called, and I was taken to the ER.  My pastor got in his car and followed my ambulance, and he got there right as they were taking me into the hospital. One of the EMTs asked who he was, and he told them that he's my pastor, and the EMTs looked at each other and said something like "Uh oh, it's not a good sign when the patient is followed in by a pastor". We laughed and explained where I was when it happened. It turned out my blood sugar had dropped to less than 50. The second episode wasn't quite as bad, but it happened during my last monthly clinic visit at the dialysis centre. I was getting ready to leave, and I was talking to my nurse and a couple other people in the employee conference room when it happened. I did collapse again, but the episode wasn't as bad, and I didn't have to go to the ER. It's not uncommon for patients to collapse at dialysis centres, but I was probably the first one to collapse in the employee conference room. Well, anyway, I'm glad your boyfriend was there, mariannas, and I hope you feel better.

Adam

[Bajanne]

I can tell you, you scared me!  But I am so glad that everything worked out.  You are a survivor, girl!  Please take care of yourself.  And give your boyfriend a hug from all of us. 

[Joe Paul]

So glad you are OK 

[boxman55]

I was driving to work one morning and started getting low. I got to where I was suppose to turn right to go up the hill to our building but couldn't do it. I kept going straight for how long I don't know. I woke up in the back of an ambulance and the the first thing I said was where is my jeep and did I wreck it. Some how I managed to stop  without any damage and they pulled me out of the vehicle and I had no clue...Boxman

[skyedogrocks]

Oh my gosh!  That is so scary, but soooo glad you are ok!!!  Thank God for your boyfriend!

I have been on the other side of that.  Rob went into sugar so low that I couldn't get it back up no matter what I did.  He was down to 30, very dangerous!  I called 911 and then managed to get him into the living room and sitting up (he was in bed).  I made him keep repeating to me who I was, who he was, where he lived so that he wouldn't slip into unconsiousness.  The paramedics gave him this super shot of sugar and it immediately brought him back up.  He doesn't remember anything but the paramedics.  It was the scariest night of my life!!!

We now have 2 emergency epi pens full of the sugar (i can't remember the name of it right now) in case it ever happens again.  I suggest that ALL diabetics get these pens just in case.  Rob carries one with him in his truck and I have one at home. 

The best was, I was having a glass of wine in the living room right before I noticed him.  I knocked it down and all you could smell was red wine!  Rob was in his tightie whities.  After he was fine, I thought back and was mortified at what the paramedics thought!   

[lola]

OMG give your boyfriend a big hug and little something else hehehe. Hope all turns around for the better

[paddbear0000]

We now have 2 emergency epi pens full of the sugar (i can't remember the name of it right now) in case it ever happens again. 

Glucagon. It's my best friend!   

[willieandwinnie]

mariannas,

I'm so glad you are okay.Your boyfriend deserves a special dinner or something  

willieandwinnie

[KR Cincy]

While I know firefighters and EMT's are professional life savers, I'm guessing the occasional flash of boob or naked chick is like a bonus personal day...a great benefit!!

[mariannas]

Well, I went and saw my endocrinologist today and we did some med adjustments.  He said that since I started PD it's amazing that this hasn't happened earlier.  I only do two (8 hour total) exchanges during the day and I am empty at night.  Unfortunately, at night is when I would normally take my insulin and glipizide, but by then I was done eating and exchanging so the sugars that need to be more controlled are during the day.  Now he's having me take my lantus and glipizide only in the morning and getting up in the middle of the night to do an additional 3 am blood sugar test. 

I am feeling totally fine today and was even able to sleep last night.  I was nervous, but being that my blood sugar was 300 when I went to bed I knew I had enough sugar to sustain me through the night.  Hopefully I'll only have a couple of weeks of having unstable numbers...I don't like feeling so out of control.