I have been at ER here a couple of times for extended periods, when I broke my wrist badly and also had some major back issues and they didn’t touch or say anything about my BG or insulin and pump. I remember them saying to me at least one of the times, you self monitor your BG level and take care of it and me saying yes. They never even asked what I was at during my stay except to test my BG level when I was first admitted.
I do know the ER here 1-2 years ago sent a guy in his twenties home telling him he was a type 2 to make an appointment asap with his doctor when he went there because he was feeling so sick. Only to call him the next day telling him he was a type 1 and get back to the hospital he needed to be hospitalized. A plus they tested him, a minus they sent him home.
I can see if someone isn’t lucid them wanting to pull off a pump as they have no idea what someone is getting insulin wise or if it is even working. But to throw it away is a real breach. They could have been throwing away a $2,000 item for all they knew if they thought it was a pump. Usually that kind of stuff would be bagged with your belongings.
I just spent a month between ER, Hospital, and Rehab. Each and every nurse either wanted to add insulin to my G6 or out right remove it. I actually had one knowledgeable person ask why it was on my stomach and not my arm.
Yesterday I learned about a very sad story. A friend of my wife, a T1D, was in a local hosptial to try to cure an infection that was not responding to medication.
The hospital claimed they did not have humalog and allowed her BG to soar to 500. This is a real hospital.
Yesterday, my wife learned from the patient’s sister that the lady had just passed away. I do not know the cause, but I do know that high blood glucose levels can make it very difficult to deal with infections.
I doubt if the sister will sue that hospital, but from this distance, it seems like questionable care.
Nearly impossible to believe a hospital wouldn’t have the most commonly used insulin
I was recently in the ER and they didn’t even ask about it, only asked if I was experiencing any low blood sugars.
In 1987 When I was showed up at the urgent care with diabetes symptoms, I was told to go home and don’t have any sugar and wait for my blood tests.
The next day I was so sick I walked into the hospital ER and I was admitted for DKA
I was 21 and back then even though I was underweight, they assumed I was type 2 and not till the saw my bs was 600 and I had high level of ketones, but I don’t know what that level was. So they diagnosed me as type 1. There were no antibody tests back then.
Finger stick machine weighed 3 lbs. so I never carried it. Just tested at home. I really had no idea what I was doing back then.
And it’s seems the average nurse also had no idea.
I find that is still the case for the most part
I’ll tell you though that first injection of regular insulin made me feel so much better, I figured I was cured. Not so fast said the endo.
Medical “people” are ~not~ well trained in all dimensions of T1. Also, I have heard some ER professionals say that they do not even read Medic Alert bracelets. That was, indeed, disturbing. It’s true that the etched information on the back of a medic-alert is very hard to read; almost need a magnifier.
So sorry to hear about your nightmarish hospital experience for your brother. I would think the hospital is the one you need to go after for replacement of sensor and transmitter. They can take stuff off if the patient comes in unconscious but everything goes into a back and is locked you with purse/wallet. Nothing should go in the trash! I mean what if that item was needed for further testing about current problem. It is not their place to throw things out.
When I went in thinking I was having a heart attack, the ER doctor wanted to remove my pump. And I said absolutely not. She kept pushing so I told them either they call the endo on call or I go home. So they called the endo and sent a CDE down and I had to sign and fill out some very outdated forms but got to keep all my tech on.
ER personnel doesn’t know everything about diabetes, but most hospitals have an endo on call.
Hope you brothers rehab goes well and go after the hospital for his supplies.
If I had it to do over, I would have asked them where I could have taken the trash can in my brother’s er room, so I could have gone through it to retrieve the transmitter. I have to choose my battles with this hospital, so I’m not going to get into it with them on this. I just want other people to be aware of this possibly happening to them.
@Timothy Sharps are for things that can poke or stab you, for safety in a more solid container. I don’t think the sensor canula would qualify!!!
Lol, Just a couple of weeks ago I was getting an MRI and right before I pulled off my pod and dumped it in the trash. As I’m going through the MRI I am thinking the whole time I didn’t turn it off and it is going to start screeching and they are going to think a bomb is in the trash. As soon as I came out of the MRI, I told the MRI tech, I told the waiting room escort and I told the maintenance people that were there. The trash had already been replaced so there was no looking for it. But I was envisioning causing an upheaval at the whole hospital!!!
I had a series of out patient procedures and major surgery at Baylor-St. Luke’s in the Houston Medical Center. I was allowed to keep my pump and Dexcom G6 while under general aesthetic.
During my 5 day hospital stay my pump was on me, I changed infusion set. They still did finger sticks at least 4 times in 24 hours logging that and my CGM.
The odd thing is every time I was under it was like pump (Tandem X2) and G6 we’re turned off. I think there must be some electrical interference in the OR.
I hope one doesn’t have to go to the Houston Med Center to be treated like a person with brains.
I had all my oral meds with me, but had to take their pills, not always the same as mine.
@Luis3 Every time I have been in the outpatient surgery area, colonscopy, cataract for hubby, and wrist surgery my Dexcom goes awry. It starts functioning again when I leave, but the 4 times I’ve been in that specific area it misreads by a lot. I have always thought something has interfered with it’s program or reading ability. My pod though has worked fine, but they don’t communicate with each other.
Great to have verification. My pump showed no basal delivery or BG, but it must’ve been delivering because I was 85 to 95mg/dl when I woke. I guess the pump turned of C-IQ delivering my set basal rate. Too bad it meant the anesthesiologist couldn’t look at the pump for BG.
I saw that there’s a CGM that measures venous blood (true BG) that displays on the anesthesiologist’s vitals screen.
@spdif Since I don’t have bluetooth headphones I will never know!!! But I am due back there in a couple of weeks to have the hardware in my wrist removed!
I was actually really impressed with the anesthesiologist, I had guessed wrong at reducing my basal and started going higher during surgery and she actually gave me some insulin when I hit 200. I came out of surgery somewhere between 130-150. I was going to see if I can request her again!
And expensive too! I made a suggestion to Useless Pancreas they that come up with a patch that sttes “medical device - do not discard”. They liked the idea so let’s hope…
In Sept. I broke the head of my femur and fractured my pelvis. My G6 was on the same side.
They wanted to remove it on top of that they started to take blood from the arm I have Fistula in. Had to stop that. Prior to the accident my glucose had been in range with no lows and a couple highs.
Then 4 days later my glucose jumped from a steady 150 range to 275-350. It stayed that way until I got home. They put me on Humalog vice them knowing I took Novalog … it wasn’t to I got home and did some research and that the high doses of Tylenol they had me on for pain is looked at by Dexcom as a sugar. The intent of all of this. Not all medical professionals know how to treat diabetics and basically don’t listen when we tell them different.
Breaking your bones like that will definitely cause your sugars to spike for real, they can still give you Tylenol just don’t trust your Dexcom. Although we can dose with our dexcom, in the hospital they can’t use that to dose you. The need lab tests or finger sticks. There is an intravenous sensor that they can use but it’s a big deal to have installed and usually used in intensive care.
Anyway, it wouldn’t matter if they remove it for their perspective.
But I’m sure patients prefer to keep it. Also fast acting insulin is exchangeable in their eyes. So humalog or novolog is the same to them. You need in your chart that you can’t have humalog if it’s a problem. That’s on your doctor to do that.
We need to advocate for ourselves. Last time I was in ER for a car accident in 2019 they wanted to give me dextrose, and I just told them saline is better and they complied.
No one said a word about my dexcom, but took finger sticks because they are required to.
When we advocate for ourselves esp with our docs getting our charts right, we will do better in emergencies
Great idea - Ive been a pumper since 2000, and I made a label to tape onto my pump saying, "INSULIN PUMP - DO NOT REMOVE!!! I dont have one on my present pump, but I guess I should again!
