It’s been kind of strange since all of this happened. To be quite honest, I’m embarrassed that it happened. I’m embarrassed to be writing this. And only a few sentences into it, I’m not certain I’ll even publish it.
This is my first blog post on TuDiabetes. Normally I blog on my personal site (WhatSomeWouldCallLies), but I’ve decided to make an effort to become more involved in the TuDiabetes community.
Anyway, at the beginning of May I thought I had the flu. Normal symptoms: vomiting, headaches, achy all over, stuck in bed, couldn’t hold any food or liquid down.
I battled it out for 3 days in bed. And then on Sunday I walked downstairs to get some water and I couldn’t get back upstairs. I was out of breath. I was hyperventilating. My boyfriend had done his best at staying away from me (he didn’t want to catch it) and making sure I had everything I needed (did you know they make sugar-free Pedialite?) but when I started hyperventilating he made me go to the hospital.
Some quick back story: I have had health insurance since last Fall, but diabetes was considered a pre-existing condition, and my insurance refused to pay for anything diabetes-related until May 1st. I found a doctor that was stringing me along with insulin samples, which at the time seemed to be very nice of him. In the long run, it was impossible to truly manage my diabetes effectively with samples, because we were frequently changing what I was injecting based on what he had available. And then in earlier this year, I ran out of options and had to start paying cash for my insulin.
To make this long story short, there came a time when I could no longer afford insulin, and I still had about a month until my insurance would cover diabetes-related supplies.
So I stopped injecting.
This was one of the dumbest mistakes I’ve made when it comes to my self-care.
Now back to the story: Turns out that I didn’t have the flu. I was admitted into ICU, and my blood glucose levels were through the roof. I don’t remember exactly what they were because I was so out of it. Kind of like a really drunk feeling…you know when you are aware of everything that is going on, but you have no control over it.
Ketoacidosis.
A new word for my D-vernacular. You’ve heard of it, right? If not, there’s a long complicated explanation of ketoacidosis on wikipedia.
So I ended up staying in the hospital for three days. I had to take a week off from work. It was a really good lesson that I learned: diabetes doesn’t give you a vacation.
On the upside, my health insurance started covering diabetes on May 1st (I went to the hospital May 3rd), and I’m starting to gain better control over my health now that it’s affordable. In the hospital I saw a diabetes educator that explained to me some basics that I never received at the time of diagnosis or anytime afterward. And since my boss had to do without me for a week, he now knows how important good glucose levels are. 
