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SquirmingSusan
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If it's not one thing, it's another thing!

Post by SquirmingSusan »

My daughter came to me this morning and woke me up to a) ask for lunch money and b) tell me that her left hand was numb and had been for a couple hours. When this has happened before, she has expressed concern that she has diabetes, because she has several symptoms.

So, I called the nurse who evaluated the symptoms and said that it was not an emergency, but if things changed or certain other things happened, then we should call back. We were to get in and see an urgent care doctor.

Then I thought, huh, why don't I just test her blood sugar with my meter that I keep around for my hypoglycemia episodes? People, her blood sugar was 304! So I called the nurse back, and she hand delivered that information to the doctor, who is making an urgent early morning appointment for my daughter tomorrow. It's pretty clear that she has diabetes, the only question is Type 1 or Type 2? Likely Type 2, except that daughter had ulcerative colitis several years ago, and was treated with high doses of steroids, etc. (and eventually had her colon removed). So she's had major autoimmune disorders before.

DOES IT EVER END???? This poor kid had ulcerative colitis, and was in and out of the hospital for 2 years, and finally had to have her entire colon removed and a huge surgery to reconstruct her innards. This is enough for any young person to have to endure, but... She also has been having neurological issues recently that put her on the autistic spectrum - sensory integration disorder - and has to have ongoing therapy for that, and suffers so much when she's in a loud environment or god forbid, if someone whistles. We're seriously worried about whether she'll ever be able to have a job or live independently. Isn't that enough to worry about?

And now, diabetes? The doctor has had her on metformin (diabetes drug) for her PCOS, but it gives her pouchitis and gastric distress. And her diet is already severely limited by her guts having been rearranged. She's only 19 years old.

Wow. Just wow. And that's only HER medical issues... We're about ready to change our name to "the Job family." It's a good thing I have faith in an afterlife that's better than this one, 'cuz this one is turning out to be getting more and more difficult. I'm reading a book by medium George Anderson called "Walking in the Garden of Souls." It's one of the most hopeful books I've ever read, and I sure do need that right about now.

OTOH, we watched Slumdog Millionaire today - now there's a movie to watch if you think that you're having a hard life!

OK, well I'm done venting. Just so you know that if I answer people's posts with one liners and just can't put a lot of thought into things, this is where my head is at!
Susan

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Post by ViewsAskew »

That is really tough. It seems like some kids just really get a lot to have to deal with. Totally not fair.

To any of you. It's all so much to deal with. Again, no fair. One of these days, I'll stop thinking life should be fair...until then, I will keep hoping that everything gets better for all of you.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

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woodsie357
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Post by woodsie357 »

I'm so sorry to hear this Susan. I hope they get her meds taken care of asap and that she be able to get stable quickly.

You will be in my thoughts and prayers as well as your daughter.
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Post by Polar Bear »

Best wishes for your daughter, it is so hard when we care and love.
Hope doc's visit is productive.
Betty
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Neco
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Post by Neco »

I have been so paranoid of becoming diabetic for years now.. Though every time I test my sugar its always in the normal range.. I've had plenty of incidents where I know my sugar has to have dropped drastically because I know I need to eat and sometimes by the time I am in the kitchen getting my limbs are starting to shake, etc.. I had a real nasty episodes back in 2000 or so when I was around 18 I Think.. Was waiting for my GF's brother to get to her house as I was working for him at the time.. I stood up and BAM light headed, tired, couldn't stop shaking..

Ate a plate full of rice with sugar, took a handful of mini-hersheys for the car, at them all, was practically dosing off... He kept asking me if I needed to go to the hospital but I shook it off and said I'd be fine in a minute.. We stopped at a gas station once we got into D.C or just outside of the city or something and I bought a king size hershey bar, a bottle of Yohoo and a bottle of Orange Juice.. He watched in astonishment as the candy bar dissapeared, then the OJ and Yoohoo dissapeared all in a span of 10 or 15 minutes.

My adult life has been littered with incidents similar to this which have always left me paranoid for years, although I never seem to teeter over the edge and display classic chronic symptoms, always isolated incidents. My dad got it in his late 20's I think (so now I'm super paranoid) is type2 and has to take insulin and has had a few close calls himself.. My uncle got it when he was a kid, and when I was 14 he was taken to the hospital in the middle of the night because my aunt found him in my little cousins room, having a nasty reaction (he was gone and just twitching, luckily the noise of whatever he was banging against woke her or someone up and they found him).. When he woke up he thought it was still the 80's, didn't know my cousins, didn't know his wife and the only person he recognized was my dad. But it was only temporary and he got his memory back pretty fast, like the same day I guess..

Then when my cousin was around 11 or 12 I think, he was taken to the hospital from a birthday party he was out because he had a reaction.. My aunt was so upset, because they completely missed the warning signs, he had been very cranky lately and was always hungry, going to the bathroom, etc..

I don't know how I would live like that.. I cannot imagine sticking myself with a needle every day, multiple times.. When someone else does it it's ok, but I can't stand needles otherwise.. Sometimes I'm too much of a wuss to even prick my own finger with the lancet with I want to test my blood sugar :oops:

My doctor has suggested I may simply suffer from occasional low blood sugar episodes and I don't necessarily have to be diabetic to have them; it's apparently not unusual in some people.

SquirmingSusan
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Post by SquirmingSusan »

Thanks, everybody, for the good thoughts and prayers and support. And wow Zach, with a family history like that, you might want to be careful. What's weird about my daughter's case is that there is no diabetes anywhere in the relatives, at least that we know of. But maybe it was the huge steroid doses she was on for so long, or the fact that she has had one serious autoimmune disorder.

She had her appointment this morning, and they ran a slew of blood tests. The doctor isn't calling it diabetes yet, but she didn't say what else could be causing such high blood sugar readings. She didn't tell the daughter to watch what she eats either, so the kid devoured a bunch of pizza this evening. Then, a little while ago, she got all freaked out because her face was turning numb. I had her check her sugar and it was 386. Not good. I think she's going to have to learn the hard way about cause and effect. It's just so hard to modify eating habits. But the doctor told her not to freak out unless her blood sugar is over 400 for over a few hours. So, I guess now we wait for the test results.

She's really having a hard time with the finger sticking. It's funny because I used to poke myself with a pin all the time so I could put blood under the microscope and look at it. I don't find using the lancets that hard, 'cuz you just "****" them and then push the button and it sticks your finger. I must not have many nerve endings in my fingers.
Susan

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Post by ViewsAskew »

Huh, that's weird (but seems optimistic and at least not reactionary) to not have her do anything different. I can imagine how freaky it must be to have body parts going numb....
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

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Neco
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Post by Neco »

It's gonna be a hard adjustment for her, and if she can't get serious about changing the diet, then ultimately she has to hit a point where she has an incident that really badly frightens her.. Otherwise its going to be very hard to adjust her diet. I know my dad just doesn't seem to care sometimes and he'll eat a load of chocolate or cookies or whatever (and he has ample supply, being a Pepperidge Farm vendor working out of a dilvery truck all day).

Lancets have actually come a long way.. I remember when he used to prick our fingers when we were kids, using the first unit he got, that roundish-square piece of junk, that you **** back and push a button.. Talk about psychological damage, heh... These days he has several different pens, and they make a world of difference. They don't hurt nearly as much and you can also adjust the tip to change the penetration depth.. It usually takes me a bit to get psyched up to do it, but then you just hit the button and its over and almost painless.

When I was first diagnosed with IBS a year after RLS, I was so miserable.. Although I was relieved when I isolated my primary trigger as lactose intolerance and religiously take dairy pills with nearly everything I eat, even if its only the slightest bit of dairy product in it.. But when I went through the change to developing a Fat content trigger, I was miserable again and it was much worse.. I would routinely shut down and not eat anything and actually lost enough weight in a short period of time that the doctor noticed.

So now I live off an extremely low fat diet.. even when it comes to low fat foods, I have to be extremely picky about what I buy based on how much I know I will eat at once.. it really sucks sometimes - because I still have a bit of a stomach :roll: I almost never eat more than 14grams per meal and then wait at least an hour before eating more again... Then there are some foods that I can eat a lot more of even tho they do have high fat content, and as long as its not pigging out for a couple days, I end up fine..

It's very confusing sometimes knowing what you can and can't eat, and going through periods where sometimes it just doesn't matter... When my gut cramps, it is the most horrible thing in the world. The pain can be so intense you just want to die.. But it was also the best incentive I had to stay serious about my diet and I've really developed a backbone now about what I will let other people feed me.. If I don't think I should eat it, I'll just say no or refuse to discuss it anymore if they keep bringing it up.

I would hope that having random parts of her body go numb would freak her out enough to get serious.. and I don't know what the doctors are so hesitant to give a diagnosis for, if they haven't even mentioned other possible ailments it could be.. Especially with the evidence on hand..

My dad counts carbs now.. I know there can be some tricky math to it, cause you have to count the carbs listed on stuff (if it is) and then also the sugar content as well (since sugars are carbs).

Do your best to find some good diet information for her needs, and try to make recommendations to her and get her to read stuff over. There are a lot of good resources out there, so hopefully she can make some changes soon and stop eating so much of the junk food, etc.. Definitely explain the virtues of sugar free stuff to her, as a lot of it does taste good these days.. A diabetic diet is healthy even for non diabetics, so it shouldn't be too hard to adjust..

SquirmingSusan
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Post by SquirmingSusan »

It's official. She's diabetic. The doctor was just waiting for the test results, I guess. Now she has an appointment with the endocrinologist next week. I do hope we can get her glucose levels under control quickly, and get her used to eating the right kinds of foods in the right amounts. Her blood sugar has stayed above 300 today, and she's been eating the right stuff, so it's a bit worrisome. But then she did sit around in her pajamas and mope all day. I guess she has a right to be bummed out, but she's going to have to get out and get exercise again to get things under control.

Diabetic eating doesn't seem all that drastic to me. It's about proportions of carbs to proteins to fats, and eating low glycemic foods. I already do that most of the time, and there are so many good, tasty sugar-free foods available that you really don't have to give up a lot.

It's still depressing though.
Susan

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Post by ViewsAskew »

Definitely depressing....but definitely doable.

Did he say if it's Type I or II?
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Neco
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Post by Neco »

If she ends up requiring insulin, you are gonna have to extra vigilant with her when she starts taking it.. It seems like it is the most dangerous times as they are adjusting to the routine and learning how to work out the right amount to take.. Even going through major dosing adjustments can cause issues as my dad had a bad reaction after a change a couple years ago..

I think the worse part about insulin dependence is until you know what it feels like to be introuble, at the first sign, no one around you is really going to notice which can lead to incidents where someone may appear to pass out for no reason, etc.. I imagine that could be nerve wracking.

When I was a kid, we had someone go into a coma on the bus ride to school.. It was literally instant and all he had time to get out was that he was in trouble.. But the bus driver knew about it and was on top of things but I was like "hmm whats going on here?". I think my little cousin had the same thing happen to him when he was first diagnosed and starting insulin too.. He was playing with his nephew and just slumped over or something, and the poor guy had no idea what happened to him and thought he just fell asleep, until someone happened to come along.

SquirmingSusan
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Post by SquirmingSusan »

The doctor put her on insulin, since her guts are in no shape to be taking oral meds. So yeah, I'm going to be a wreck worrying about her. But he is starting her on low doses and working up to more effective doses over time. The scariest thing is that she takes 15 units of long-acting insulin at bedtime, but 4-8 units of regular insulin at meals. I worry that she'll get the pens mixed up and accidentally give herself 15 units of the regular stuff, which could put her into insulin shock in a hurry. So I set up a system for her - use the before-meal insulin at the table, and use the bedtime insulin somewhere else. And I wrote on the pens with a sharpie, and crossed off the 15 unit mark on the regular insulin pen...

Gads, I need Valium or something so I don't become a total nut job. She did have a hypoglycemia episode about a week ago when she wasn't on any meds at all, and she does know what it feels like. I'm making her carry sugar tablets with her, too.
Susan

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Post by ViewsAskew »

It's hard to be a mom and not worry yourself to death. You're doing everything you can to keep her safe - and teaching her how to keep herself safe.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

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