Hello everyone, I have not really been on this site too often, but I have just gone through the most traumatic diabetic experience so far. Being Type 1 Diabetic since age 2, I do not remember being diagnosed and have managed to stay out of the hospital for the last 25 yrs. I was admitted for 4 days and now have been sent home with 3 IV puncture wounds in my arms + feel (and look) like a train wreck. To top it all off, I experienced this at a county hospital that was not up to sanitation standards (although they did save my life!). I fear that I will go back into the hospital again if I do not handle myself properly. I am worried about the IV wounds getting infected. If you have gone through DKA hospitalization, please tell me about your experience and give me hope as to when I will feel healthy and normal again. I look forward to hearing from you. This is the pits!!!
I went thru that but it was awhile ago and I don’t remember how long it took to feel normal again. If the puncture wounds start to look the least bit red, make sure you get to a doctor - you don’t want to take any chances. Are you putting something on them? Neosporin is a good OTC if they did not give you anything else to use.
Been there, done that. Twice within first year of being D’xd.
Drink lots of water, don’t push yourself too hard. Consider blood tests to check for depletion of sodium, magnesium.
I felt better in a few days, back to “normal” (haven’t felt normal since d’xd) within a week.
My son is T1… and when I read twitter I see people w/D say “normal” and things like “I am real people sick”… my heart breaks for you all… and my son. He has been feeling more “normal” now though than he has in a long time…but is getting comfortable at much higher numbers than I would want for him…but hasn’t gone low in ages. They say to keep him a bit higher than the “normal” for D people since he is a growing active teen. He hasn’t been DKA…but came somewhat close to it once when he took his pod off in the middle of the night and didn’t put a new one on for 4 hrs. He has though… had a low once that caused him to go to the er… totally went unconsious and injured his head and knee upon falling. His knee might never be “normal” again from that.
keep an eye on the IV sites for redness, pain, inflammation, swelling. If they feel warm or you have red streaks down your arms, that is a bad sign and you should make an appointment for a follow-up visit. After my first DKA, my veins were trashed. They got hard in several places and stayed that way for months. I still have little scars on the back of my hands from it. I looked like a junkie when I got out of the hospital for a couple of weeks with all of the puncture marks and bruising.
Most importantly, after a bout with DKA, you have to figure out what happened to get you in that predicament. Being healthier with better BG control is the first step toward really feeling better. You have to take the good in with the bad and realize that you are not always going to be perfect in your management of this disease. There are a lot of good resources out there, in terms of education and financial help, that may be of great value to you. A lot of my problems with DKA/bg management stemmed from my inability to accept that I had a chronic illness that needed full-time treatment. For some, therapy is helpful too, as diabetes takes its toll on the emotions as well.
Good luck!
Well, I am still weak, so today I have been waking up only to check my blood sugar and eat. I am taking the bandages off and cleaning the sites in a few minutes. I will definitely put antibiotic ointment on them and some band-aids. Thanks for your advice!
Yeah really, what is “normal”? All I know is that my body is more sensitive to high and low blood sugars now. From having diabetes for so long, it developed a non-sensitivity to changing sugars. Now I’m having headaches, nausea and even numbness in my extremities if my glucose is only slightly off. And I’m supposed to start training for a new job tomorrow! How long have you, GinaY and your son, Katsz, been Diabetic for at this point? I thought I had everything figured out…
Yikes, sorry to hear you are having a hard time of it lately! I believe the train wreck business!! One time after a hypohospitalization I was walking home from the ER and the IV site sprung a leak, all over the sleeve of my sweater. When I rinsed it out in the sink it smelled eerily like steak and put me off meat for a couple of years.
I completely agree with you about accepting full time management of diabetes and figuring out how I got to this point in the first place! I am feeling the pain and bruising you went through right now. I am depressed from it too. I almost refused the ambulance ride and hospital treatment because of no medical insurance and an inability to pay. I am lucky that I chose to go because I was considered one of the DKA ward’s most critical cases for the 4 days I was there. I will pay attention to the signs that you specified when it comes to watching for infection.
I am planning on talking to a counselor too. This experience has rattled my cage and I am not the same. And the worst thing is, I thought I was doing everything right! I was exercising too much and not eating enough calories, so my body dumped glucose and by the time I was admitted to the hospital, my insulin was not working anymore. I was also taking energy supplements, which messed up my electrolyte count. All of the muscle I gained, gone! I now have to start from square one and am not happy about it. But hey, I’m just complaining at this point and I am very grateful to be alive! Now all I have to work on is the quality…
OMG! What an awful story, I’m so sorry that happened to you. And not having a ride home from the hospital either! I will make sure to use so much soap when I clean the area that I won’t be able to smell it. Love my steak every once in a while…
It’s not as horrible as it sounds, I only lived like 4 or 5 blocks away from the hospital and probably had a house full of beer and other “party favors” waiting for me! Still, it was sort of eeew.
I’m sorry, hunnybunny.
I went into dka once, 11 years ago. It totally sucked, and it happened during a 2 week period between when I graduated from law school and started my first job – so I had no insurance and had to start my job several days late. I also had terrible and painful punctures all over my arms.
For me, the reason it happened was that I had food poisoning and had been throwing up for days. My blood sugar was holding steady at 410, for like days, even though I was doing gigantic shots of insulin periodically. And at some point my husband decided it was time to go. When I got to the hospital, they were shocked I was conscious given my stats (or maybe they give everybody that line?).
Good news is, I feel pretty confident that it will not happen again. My problem was that I had no idea what to watch for (and I swear that in all my diabetes education – which was worthless for the most part – nobody ever told me I had to be careful about puking), and no I know too well. But it’s been 11 years and I’ve never had anything close happen since. I know now that it’s really about whether your body is able to use insulin, not about what your blood sugar is. I would venture to say, that I would only be worried if my blood sugar stayed high and level, without responding to insulin at all, or if it just kept going higher and higher. I swear mine was at 410 for at least two solid days before I went to the hospital. Yikes!
Went through one back in 2008. Was in the ICU for 3 days, total stay 5 days hooked to every machine in site. My arms took awhile to heal from all the IVs I had going on. I had some issues with the IVs while in the hospital, they had to keep moving them around, I had 5 different spots. Like I said it took awhile but I healed just fine. Keep the areas clean/ dry and you should be ok. It gets scary but remember you already survived the hard part.
At dx, I was in DKA–ICU for 5 days, total hospital stay, 8 days. They didn’t let me eat (or drink) for the first three days because I couldn’t keep it down. Before I woke up in ICU, they had stuck 2 IVs in my arms (one on the inside of each elbow) but because the one on my right arm was probably done by EMS (I’m just guessing there) it was never used and was terribly ugly. I got it out the third night, and they put in a new one on the back of my hand. Three years later, I can still see the IV scars. My arms were bruised up and down–I don’t think I had an inch of unbruised skin. The adhesive they used for the leds for all the machines ate away my skin so I had these odd patches all over my chest. And they itched after a while.
It took me a long time–probably two or three months–before I finally recovered from the hospital. I know that it took at least until October (dx 24 July) before I started being in range for my fasting glucose readings. My feet were puffy for about three weeks. I tired easily, was snappish, and kept on wasting test strips because my hands shook so much that I couldn’t hold the blasted meter. But with insulin and patience, every day was better.
I promise, you will recover, eventually. It may take some time–your body has been through a lot. Your sleep rhythms are probably totally messed up because of the hospital. I don’t know what to say about the IVs, but I do know that keeping your sugars stable will help recover from any infection that you get. Good luck.
Oh dear. 3 puncture wounds is not excessive in my experience! I was diagnosed as Type 2 at the age of 41 - simply because of my age and put on tablets. In a way it was a relief because I had been ill for many years and in retrospect I would say that I was DKA many times in the 10 years that I had symptoms but was not diagnosed.
However, the tablets did not work and I was admitted twice with DKA within a year and on the second occassion I was told off for not taking my insulin - er, I was never given insulin because I was Type 2. The doctor then said, no, you are Type 1! They gave me human insulin and I spent most of my time in the hospital severely hypo! I remember going hypo about 1 1/2 hours before lunch and being told to wait for a lunch!
The doctors were juniors and I remember one time they were trying to get blood out of me and two doctors were on each side and challenging each other as to who got get blood out first - from my hands which is extremely painful - and I had, at the end of it 18 puncture wounds from that alone - not counting the three in my groin, the drip ones …
Keep your wounds clean and covered and they should not be a problem.
I cannot tell how long it will take better from this last experience. It depends a bit on why you were DKA - infection??? Just keep drinking plenty, keep testing every two hours and eating when you need to and keep taking the insulin even if you cannot eat.
Hmmm, maybe it was all the beer that didn’t help out the situation in the first place! Since I’m trying to be more healthy than ever, if I drink 2 to 4 beers (depends which kind), then I don’t get any carbs for dinner. Not healthy at all! Mmmm I miss beer…
Wow, the beginning of your story sounds eerily similar to mine! I couldnt keep any food or water down for 3 days and then while in the hospital i was not allowed to eat or drink for 2 more days! I also had a nurse who rolled her eyes at me when I’d cry from the pain. She put a Potassium flow into me without warning. Talk about excruciating! I went through the hospital visit from hell and was let out 2 days before starting my new marketing job. I had to be all smiles and wear a long sleeved shirt in the summer to hide the bruising from the IV sites and the nurses taking 10 blood samples from 1 arm in 1 day. I still look like a junkie, but i don’t feel bad anymore. My blood sugars have still been alarmingly high, though. I am doing my insulin, eating well and exercising responsibly. There’s not too much more I can do. Since I’ve had Type1 basically my entire life, insulin has a difficult time working for me. My sugars will stay between 400 and 800 for a few days and then drop down to a catastrophic low (Yes, I said 800 because a glucometer is able to read glucose up to 700 and if it’s higher, will say “HI” instead). I am happy to hear you have not been back in the hospital and I wish you luck + future health.
Thank you so much for the advice Rye! Yes, I’ve already survived the hard part and hope to stay out of the hospital. Although, with the way my blood sugars have looked this past week, my doctor would tell me to admit myself right back in. It has been 1 week today since i was released. I feel like my sugar levels will never be in control, unless I am on an extremely restricted diet and in a hospital environment. So many factors adversely affect glucose levels. Food, exercise, hormones, emotions, illness, injection site scar tissue… I just need to stay calm and keep doing what the doctors told me. And when I start to feel like all hope is lost, I will remember what you said…
HunnyBunny, I completely understand the excruciating pain. When I was DKA I felt like my entire body was being crushed by an elephant. Also had horrible experiences with paramedics and a few “Nurse Rachets”. Lost my muscles too. I think it will take much longer for your emotional scars to heal than your IV puncture wounds and the physical effects of DKA. Add to all that the stress of you trying to start a new job…feel bad about even bringing that up. Of course you feel “rattled.” (my head was all F___ed-up!). But try to remember the saying “When you are going through hell, KEEP GOING!” I can tell you are one tough chick! Glad to be friends.
Well wishes from me to you. Gina
Our teen was diagnosed at 8 and was in DKA at diagnosis and in the hospital 11 days. Blood sugars were in the mid 200s to 300 for three weeks then went down when we found a good endo who put her on Lantus and Novolog MDI. I would imagine it would take a while to feel up to par because DKA is a near death experience. At eight, she was walking around (albiet with blood sugars they could not get down) within three days. Just allow yourself time to recouperate. She had three or four IV punctures as well and a lot of nurses are not that good putting in an IV so many tries… But no infection from IV. Bacitracin, wash well with Phisoderm, keep an eye out for infection. How did you go into DKA? Were you ill or did the site come out overnight? Very scary, I know. But you are okay now. I am glad you are out of the hospital. Adults probably do not heal as fast as children so give yourself some time and don’t overdo.