Lets see. In May of 2005, I got sick with the flu, and was out of action for about 3 days. About 10 days later, I felt like I had it again, only this time it was worse and lasted about a week. My boss even said at the time that I looked like the walking dead. As the summer progressed, I noticed I was drinking a lot more water and going to the bathroom more often, but it was a gradual increase, not a sudden change. I never had dry mouth or a scratchy throat that I can remember.
One night, around July I think, I went grocery shopping, and when I came home to my second floor condo, from the underground parking garage, I had to put the two bags of groceries down in the entryway and go lie down on the couch, because I didn’t have enough energy to walk the 12 feet into the kitchen with the bags. In August, I woke up one morning and my glasses didn’t work anymore. When I saw the optometrist a day or two later to get a new prescription, she seemed puzzled by my sudden change in eyesight, but didn’t pursue the issue.
In September, I again came down with the “no energy” feelings, and then one weekend I was having the worst flu of my life. I was supposed to have dinner with my sister, brother-in-law and their daughter, my parents, and my grandmother that Sunday, but thinking I was sick and not wanting to spread it around, I canceled. That night, my “flu” got worse. I wasn’t able to keep anything down, including water, yet I was feeling compelled to keep drinking and eating. I recognized I was very ill, but my brain wasn’t working properly. I didn’t want to disturb anyone, as it was getting later and later, and told myself I’d call for help once it was 7 or 8 in the morning. I didn’t get that far, the last thing I remember was Al Roker giving the first weather report on the Today show early Monday morning. Then, as far as I was concerned, the next thing that happened was coming to in the ICU, not seeing any thing, but being talked to by an uncle about celebrity gossip. This was on Thursday, a little later a nurse, then a number of doctors told me I was a diabetic, that I was recovering from something called Diabetic Ketoacidosis (which I had never heard of before), and that I very easily could have died. My BG when admitted was around 800, and my A1c was over 13 (again, these numbers really didn’t mean much to me at the time). By the time I was discharged from the hospital Sunday afternoon, my eyesight had reverted back to what it was before this all started (and kept improving, there was about a month when I didn’t wear glasses), and I’d lost about 30 or 40 pounds while in DKA.
I’m much better now.
