I recently had 3 infusion sets fail in a row. And because I’m on a pump, I know DKA can happen fast. This time I started feeling it after my third failure and by failure I mean the cannula was bent.
And I got up and injected with a syringe and used my varisoft cannula which I can see if it’s in right.
And went back to bed but that horrible feeling already set in.
It got me thinking does everyone feel that DKA horrible, there is nothing like it feeling?
Feeling of excessive thirst and tired and every cell in your body feels like pure crap. Headache and muscle pain.
I never really thought that much about it, and I know I can correct it if I’m fast enough before I would need to go to the ER.
I wondered if it is common for people to feel DKA coming on.
I know that people on long acting insulin rarely go into DKA
Hs anyone been dx with DKA and not feel it.? Even when I was first diagnosed, I knew I was horribly sick, I just didn’t know what it was.
I don’t bother testing ketones because i can feel it so strong, I don’t need confirmation
DKA feels HORRIBLE. The paramedics used to describe it as, “Your blood is turning into soup.”
I had an insulin vial failure and started going DKA after changing the pod out a couple times (and waiting 4 hours for the correction to kick in).
For some reason, I thought I had the flu (DKA feels like that). I got so sick, so fast that I couldn’t move or breathe without throwing up. I just became almost too physically incapacitated to deal with the failure properly. It happened fast. Two pod changes and waiting for each correction to kick in was 8 hours and I was done for.
The new Twiist pump will supposedly have the best occlusion detection out there. It would help people like me who are on low doses. The less you use, the longer it takes for the pump to know you’re not getting what you need. That said, when I do get way out of control I get muscle aches and chills. But I can go over 400 and get no signs at all. It just depends.
For me, the early sign is feeling nauseated combined with a high finger-prick blood glucose (over 180 mg/dL or 10.0 mmol/L). My last DKA threat came after waking in the morning feeling nauseated. I did a blood ketone test and found it about 4.0+, higher than normal, yet still in a safe range.
Feeling nauseated with no other obvious cause is the early tipoff for me. That starts an aggressive investigation and preemptive action. I take correction insulin with a syringe, change my insulin pump infusion site, and start drinking extra water.
Symptoms can also mimic those of GI infections such as norovirus. It can be a chicken-or-egg question which one is manifesting first, the infection or DKA. When I was younger I used to get norovirus every winter. High BGs, high ketones, and nausea/vomiting – all indications of DKA – were what made me go to the hospital, only to be told I actually had a GI virus first and DKA as a consequence of it.
DKA feels a lot like the flu to me. The aches, fatigue, nausea, and general misery. It’s actually pretty hard for me to tell then apart, at least in the early stages. I still keep urinalysis strips around the this reason, and will test if I’m feeling crappy without explanation. Usually, though, there’s a reasonable explanation,like my partner is sick too, and I don’t test. I found it was better to pay more for the individually wrapped ones, though, because I don’t use them often enough before they absorb moisture from the air and go bad.
I haven’t been hospitalized for it since I was a pre-teen, since we were taught how to self-manage DKA back in the day. (I actually think it’s dangerous and irresponsible that they don’t teach this stuff anymore. “Just go to the hospital” is a dangerous mentality when it’s so expensive and many will wait until their on their deathbed to make that choice.) I really struggled with DKA during the puberty years. I learned my point-of-no-return, where I needed clinical help, really fast. Mostly it’s actual vomiting instead of just nausea. Every 15 minutes, like clockwork. Once I reach that point, then the stabbing pain in the lungs comes next. Apparently ketones like to accumulate in the lungs. If we didn’t get to the hospital fast enough, I used to hold my breath until I passed out in utter fear of taking a breath because it hurt so bad. But that’s really the only thing that feels different than flu symptoms, and I hope I never experience that ever again.
I’ve never encountered DKA, so I don’t know what I would feel.
I was diagnosed on a pre-college physical (in 1967) due to glucose in my urine, not symptoms. So I never had the onset symptoms, and didn’t have to deal with it through puberty and adolescence. And was on SDI of NPH for 20 years.
I take only 4 units/day of Lantus for my long-acting. I don’t know if that’s enough to prevent DKA. It’s very close to enough to keep my bg stable when I’m exercising and not eating. (Which is why I don’t take any more.) But that combination never lasts very long, since hunger intervenes. And in any case, controlling bg and controlling ketosis aren’t the same thing.
