Insulin Shock!

(in this blog, the * is what I remember. The rest is what I heard happened. There are huge gaps in my knowledge/memory of what happened.) As I mentioned in my "Babies" blog, I've been in insulin shock before, without even knowing exactly what it was! I thought it only happened when it did because I was 4 months pregnant and my hormones + diabetes just freaked out on me. Then...I had my ovaries taken out. (due to cancer risk, etc.) Not too long after my surgery, I started going into shock during the night. Even when I checked my blood sugar before bed, I'd still end up in shock. I immediately thought of the hormones again. That had to be the culprit! I was taking hormones, kind of, but my body was just trying to get used to not having ovaries, and was going nuts-o. Nine months after my surgery, Labor Day weekend, my husband, kids, dogs and youth group went camping/kayaking on a lake not far from our house. I was exhausted Sunday afternoon when we got home! It's hard being responsible for all those things at once! I checked my blood sugar before bed. I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't low. The next morning, my sweet husband let me sleep in. He sent our oldest to wake me up at 10am. She told him that I just stared at her when she went in our room, and I didn't answer her. *I don't remember her coming in* Brian came in and realized my blood sugar was low. When he checked it, it was 65. Being that we just got back from a trip, we didn't have juice in the house. He made me chocolate milk and put a straw in it. He tried to get me to drink it. I would just take a small sip here and there. *I heard him saying "Jamie, your blood sugar's low. Drink your milk." It was all like a dream.* He started getting concerned, because I wasn't coming out of shock. He called my parents, and they came over. *In my "dream" I was sitting up in bed, and they would say something inaudible, and I would laugh. I just kept laughing wierd, over and over* My dad said that I was really acting strange, laughing a lot, but not in response to anything. My mom tried to get me to sit up, and in doing so noticed that I had urinated. My husband called my doctor who told him that if I didn't come out of it soon, he'd need to call 911. Brian and my mom grabbed some sugar-yup, granulated sugar, and started trying to get me to eat that. *I remember the sugar, and the phone call to the doc. I wanted to come out of it, but I couldn't stay "with it" long enough.* My blood sugar came up. It was over 200, and I must have settled down enough that everyone thought I was ok. Brian came and told me that I should take a shower because I wet the bed, and helped me get in the shower. *I remember him getting me out of bed* After about 30 minutes, Brian checked on me. I was standing in the shower, I hadn't washed or anything yet. He asked me what I was doing, and I said "freezing", so he helped me get out and dried off. *I kept having this dream that I was naked and standing in the shower, but the water was cold, and I was shivering. It played over and over. I even remember praying to God, "please wake me up from this nightmare, so I can go to sleep without it playing in my dreams!".* When I got dressed, I asked him to help me, because I couldn't put the clothes on by myself. He helped me get dressed, and I went into the living room and sat on the couch. *I needed help getting dressed, because I couldn't stay with it long enough to complete the simplist task, like putting my pant leg on.* I sat on the couch snoozing for a long time. My parents left after my shower, and came back around 5. For an hour before that, I had a major headache. *I was still out of it. I couldn't stay "awake"! I asked for medicine for my headache, but couldn't stay awake long enough to take the medicine. I finally had to force myself to WAKE UP! I decided to get up and walk around. Finally, I was alert, awake, coherent, etc.!* It was the worst experience I've ever had! No one knew I was still "out of it". They thought that before my shower, I came to reality and was fine. However, it wasn't until 4-6 hours later, that I finally was back. My friend, whose daughter has type 1, heard that while you're in insulin shock, you body starts sugar from your organs-one by one. Your brain is the last organ that goes. It takes the body 5-6 hours to shut completely down. We think that I was close to the end of the shut down period. We also think that because sugar was depleted in my brain, I got a headache from the sugar rushing back into my brain. My doctor said that insulin shock happens when your blood sugar drops rapidly. I've only had a couple of small episode of waking up in insulin shock and one episode of driving when my blood sugar dropped (and I had to pull over and wait for someone to help me), since the "big one". To my care taker peeps out there....if you can't carry on a normal conversation with your diabetic, they're in trouble. Make sure you always have a Glucagon Kit, and your doctor's phone number nearby. My doc said that a box of fruit juice is the best way to bring up your blood sugar. It has the right kind of sugars, and will be a smoother recovery. I also, don't know if going to the hospital would have helped me come out of it sooner or not. My blood sugar came back up, but my brain was still "gone". I'm not sure if the docs would have figured that out or not. What have your insulin shock experiences been??

Mental Blocks

Anything I share on my blog is purely MY experience. I'm not a doctor! Someone was telling me about their 12 year old with Type 1, and how she didn't seem to care about checking her blood sugars sometimes. The mom thought that was strange, but I thought--"I do that all the time"! Obviously, I'm not the poster child for a perfect Type 1 Diabetes patient-and my doctor would totally agree. However, I do believe that Type 1's have this mental block about their illness sometimes. I KNOW what I need to do and how to do it, but I don't always WANT to do it. It's like that song "Some Beach, Somewhere". I don't want to deal with the hassle of "taking care of myself" or checking my blood sugar-so I...don't. I'd rather be anywhere else-with a working pancreas, instead of-here. It usually doesn't last long, but it happens. Don't judge me. I mean, I'm human, I make mistakes. We all do in one way or another. I wish I could be the perfect patient and do everything I'm told to. Something keeps me from it though. It doesn't hurt to check my blood sugar. It just feels annoying! Tell me about your "mental blocks"...I'm curious. :)

What about BaBiEs?

The first thing my mom said to me when I wanted to start trying to have a baby was, "I don't want 'Steel Magnolias' to happen to you!". When I went to my GYN to find out what I needed to do to prepare to get pregnant, I asked about the risk of dying like "Shelby" did. (sorry if I spoiled it for you!) The doc said with the technology today and my overall health, that I would be fine. My HBA1C was 11, tho, and she discouraged me from getting pregnant until it was a 5 or 6. I spent the afternoon crying. I wanted a baby so bad! I'm not known for having patience. I'd only been married for 7 months, I was only 20, what's the rush? I decided, on my own to stop taking birth control pills. We'll see what God wants. If we get pregnant, then great!! My husband, Brian and I went skiing/snowboarding a few weeks later. When I was younger, I was a speed demon on the slopes. I had no fear! This time, however, I was really nervous once I was on the trails. I was terrified of falling or crashing! My husband went down a blue run, and I opted for a green run about half way through the day. In the middle of the run, I felt the low blood sugar symptoms of sweating, shaky/wobbly, no energy, emotional and panicky! NO ONE else was in sight!! I took off my skis and started walking down the run. Amazingly, my sweet husband came around a turn towards me. He knew something was wrong when I wasn't showing up at the bottom of the hill! He carried my skis down and got me what I needed to bring my blood sugar back up. The following week, I was having a whole lot of low blood sugars, which for me wasn't normal! (Which was obvious from my 11 HBA1C. I was also easily irritated with Brian (poor thing). I decided to take a pregnancy test, and sure enough, I was pregnant! 4 weeks along!! We were so excited!! I was working part time at the credit union, so I worked from 10-3 everyday. One morning around my 4 month mark, I had a dream that I called my husband at work and said funny things to him. A little bit later I woke up and started getting ready for work. My blood sugar was low, so I fixed that when I got up. My husband called me and said that I called him and said weird stuff. (Now that I've been through it a few times, I know that I was in insulin shock). That happened one more time in my 4th month. My daughter, Ashleigh was born perfectly healthy after being induced at 38 1/2 weeks. She weighed 9 lbs 3 oz. Eight months later, I was pregnant with our second child. I didn't plan on it, and wasn't wanting to have to be so careful again so soon! So basically, I didn't take care of my blood sugars! (Read more about mental blocks on another blog) This pregnancy was hard for me mentally partly because I had to go to a perinatologist group due to insurance changes. I went often. At four months, one day Brian brought Ashleigh who was 10 months now, to me in bed at 8 am before he left for work. Then I had another "dream". I was on the beach eating a delicious fruit. The ocean breeze was blowing through my hair. It was so peaceful! Then shortly after that, I "woke up". It was 1 pm! I had been in insulin shock for 5 hours!! My poor baby was hungry, and while I was in shock I got an apple out of the refrigerator and ate it, then gave the core to my daughter. I totally freaked out!! My poor baby! The doctor told me that at 4 months along, hormones are going really crazy and your body is working hard! In the early mornings its the worst! So, my blood sugar would drop rapidly in the morning before I woke up, and send me into shock. My big belly was all you could see! It was HUGE!! In my 9th month, I was desperate to have him. I was so uncomfortable! I had heartburn, my lower back was hurting, and the tendons (or something) was hurting under my belly. At my 37 week ultrasound, I asked if I could be induced. The doctor did an amnio to see if his lungs were developed enough to be born. According to the ultrasound he was over 10 lbs already. The amnio results proved he was ready, so we set up for me to be induced the next day. At the hospital, the doc talked me into having a c-section due to the risk of the baby's shoulders being too big to pass through the canal. Hunter weighed 11 lbs 1 oz! He was so fat!! The nurses loved holding him all the time. He too was perfect!
Nine months later on 9/12/2001, I found out I was pregnant again! This time I made 2 decisions: #1. This is the last pregnancy. I'm getting my tubes tied after this one is born! #2. Since this is the last one, and I don't want another HUGE baby, I'll take care of my diabetes better. So, I did take care of myself. My HBA1C was 6 in the middle of my pregnancy! Woohoo!! One thing I love about being high risk is having a whole lot of ultrasounds. I had zero insulin shock episodes! I was scheduled for a c-section at 40 weeks and had my precious Kassie. She weighed 9 lbs 11 oz. (Which I think is weird since I found out I was pregnant with her the day after the 9/11 attacks!)
I successfully nursed her for a year. My kids have no sign of endocrine problems, or any other problems so far! My docs told me that even tho I saw older ladies in the waiting room, it was good that I was having my kids so young. My OB/GYN was glad that I was done having kids because he was worried about me pushing my body too far! What is your type 1 diabetic pregnant story?

My Story

After I graduated from high school, I was working at a credit union as a teller. I did normal 18 year old stuff, hanging out with friends, eating whatever I wanted, etc. Over the summer, however, I lost 30 pounds. I thought it was great! I wasn't overweight, but being 18, the skinnier, the better, right? In August, I started feeling "bad". Its a vague word, but I don't know how else to explain it. I began going to the bathroom a lot, feeling incredibly thirsty, and worn out. I went to my GYN thinking it was something that he could fix. He only knew about the frequent bathroom visits tho and thought it was a communication problem between my brain and bladder. So, I went another 3 weeks feeling worse and worse. Finally, one Sunday evening, my mom said "tell me everything that's going on...all your symptoms". So, I told her about the weight loss, being thirsty, feeling tired, going potty all the time. The weight loss was the light bulb! She has a medical background, and immediately thought of diabetes. The next morning we went straight to my family physician and my fasting blood sugar was 250. He told me that I have diabetes. My parents took me to get blood work, and then we went home. It was a weird feeling...what did this mean? All I knew of diabetes was what the movie "Steel Magnolias" portrayed. By the way, I've always loved that movie! Anyway, we ate lunch at Furr's Cafeteria. I had the chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn. YUM! We got a call from the doctor saying that I needed to go back to get more blood work done because they needed another test. So, I had more blood taken, and went home again. Mom made stir fry for dinner and as the 4 of us were eating, the doctor called. Here's how the conversation went between my mom and him: mom-hello? Dr.-how's Jamie? Mom-she's fine, she's sitting here eating dinner. Dr-ok. Well we got the lab work results and her blood sugar was over 800 and she's very dehydrated! I need you to meet me at the hospital now. So, we packed up and went to the hospital. They immediately admitted me and gave me an IV with saline. Over night, I gained 10 pounds just from the fluid they were pumping into me. During my 4 days in the hospital, I learned what diabetes is, and how to check my own blood sugar. The first endocrineologist
I had said I had type 2 and didn't need to use insulin. Eight months later, I had a new endo who said I had type 1 and went on insulin shots. (There's more to my life w/diabetes in other posts)
What is your type 1 diabetes diagnosis story?