From my Blog Don’t Fear Diabetes
So I thought this would be the week (I thought the weekend even!) Would be when I caught up on all my travel writing/blogging. Then,
friday afternoon, a little nagging pain started in my abdomen, growing
over the night such that I could barely sleep. Saturday, after
unsuccessfully trying gas x and laxatives, I went to urgent care (an
overly generous name for what is provided there in my experience. I
think the care suffers in the name of urgency, and it is anything but
urgent) and left with an anti-spasmodic for my gut and a confident
opinion that whatever it was would work itself out. I was also told that
if that didn’t work to think about going to the er. Now, as I type this
monday morning, I am one inflamed, ruptured appendix lighter than I was
yesterday. It was an AWESOME weekend.
“Plan of Care: Blood Sugar, Ambulate & MD Visit”
Time warp to thursday night, and I’m home, and hopefully on my way to healed. I will make another (hopefully not hollow) promise to gather my
thoughts now not only about my travels, but about the way my diabetes
was treated in the hospital (very inconsistent, very interesting) and
maybe, just maybe, go on a micro-rant about the problems with a
healthcare system that allows for $600 injections of 6u on Lantus.
Happy Weekend!
File a complaint against urgent care. You could of died because of the ruptured appendix.
Some time ago I was hospitalized with the a bleeding ulcer. I was in the hospital over night. I had all of my stuff with me and they wouldn’t let me use it. They were giving me a mixed insulin that I had no experience with and my sugars were in the 200s. It made me mad that they were a hospital and I could take better care of my chronic condition than they could. It wasn’t like I was unable to do this for myself. I was glad when they let me out so I could get back to normal. I was really taken aback by their treatment of my diabetes like they knew better than I did. They didn’t ask what my regimen was, they didn’t ask me what kinds of insulins I was on, they just came in an gave me a shot in some amount I didn’t know and I didn’t know how my body was going to react. I was a bit horrified and annoyed that they were as unconcerned as they were.
SFPete- That’s a topic for a subsequent post. Yes, hospitals are not in any way equipped to deal with insulin-dependent diabetics, nor are they legally able to allow us to treat ourselves. Of all the things I had been worried about going into surgery, it had never occurred to me that I would be relying on a chart to determine my insulin doses, and would not have any ability to correct/change those doses based on how they affected me. My time in the hospital was the worst my sugars have been, on a 2-3 day average, probably since I went on insulin.
Michelle- I think I’ll write a letter, but right now am too tired to think about much else.
I don’t understand why there is any prohibition against insulin-dependent diabetics handling their own care in the hospital. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Particularly when you are conscious, not under the influence of anesthesia, etc.
When I’ve been hospitalized I let them know I would be responsible for my D (I use a pump). The only time I let the hospital or particular doctor be responsible for my D is if I was having an operation or procedure and would be unconscious and not able to monitor. But I was still attached to my pump. I don’t know about where others live but I’m not willing to be an experiement for others to find out how my D works. I’ve lived with my D for 51 years and am not relinquishing my management to anyone else unless I’m not able. Demand to be in control of your D.
I guess I am lucky…the hospital where I usually end up always lets me take care of myself. The Diabetic Educators usually come down just to check on me, and the nursing staff does take my blood sugars, but other than that, I am usually left alone with my OmniPod. If fact, I have actually been taken into the OR with my PDM in my hand. I let the anesthesologist know what to do if it goes off, then that is it.
Oh man…were your BG through the roof with the ruptured appendix. I’ve traveled there!! Was in hosp. for nearly a month, and was told that if I’d waited another day I wouldn’t have survived. (like I was planning this !!)
Oh, ugh. I am an old pro at appendicitis. Never had it myself, but in grad school I used to play a game that was used to teach diagnosis to med students, and because of that game I spotted it in my stepdaughter when she was eight (hers ruptured en route to the ER) and in my husband two years later. Last April, a coworker came to me complaining of a stomachache and when I gave her a gentle poke in the place that’s become eerily familiar (lower right quadrant of the abdomen), she said, “Oh my GOD, that hurts,” and I said, “Go to the ER, you have appendicitis.” Sure enough… they said that if she’d come in even an hour later, she’d have ruptured, too. I can spot it at 100 yards now!
PS you’d think that if I could diagnose appendicitis so easily, the ER staff would be able to as well… what in the hell DO they teach in med school nowadays??
PPS If my son ever arrives in the ER with appendicitis and they refuse to let me manage his D while he’s in there, someone is going to die. And it’s not going to be my son!
