A Special Post – Diabetes Sucks

I decided to write a special post today talking about diabetes. Those who follow me on Facebook know that yesterday I had to call 911 to have my sister taken to hospital by ambulance. She told me Friday that she hadn’t been feeling well for a couple days and that her stomach was quite upset. By Friday night she was vomiting and yesterday she couldn’t keep anything down. I had her start taking her blood glucose and BP every 2 hours and grew even more concerned when they kept going higher especially the glucose levels which should have been low with no food in her system. I contacted the Healthlink hotline to speak with a nurse who went through all her symptoms with me then told me to hang up and call an ambulance. The paramedics were awesome and since my sister vomited several times while they were checking her out they said she needed to go to the hospital. Yes, I am once again at a point were both my siblings are hospitalized and the cause is diabetes.

With my sister I knew what was likely happening as she has been through this twice before with the last one keeping her in the ICU for over 6 weeks. The signs can be hard to see because it often seems like just a stomach bug but it is not, it is diabetic ketoacidosis. This occurs when blood sugars are high over a length of time and they start basically attacking your organs. The symptoms can be frequent urination, extreme thirst, nausea or vomiting, weakness or fatigue, shortness of breath, and confusion. In my sister’s case the likely cause is an allergic reaction to a new diabetic medication that she started taking a few weeks ago.

But diabetes has so many other complications that can be life threatening. These include blindness (due to retinopathy), circulatory issues (like my brother), kidney disease, heart disease, nerve pain (neuropathy) to name a few. If you are someone like my brother (and our Dad) you get the whole gamut.

Diabetes is a major cause of death in North America but people need to be educated. People who are overweight can be at high risk for developing Type 2 diabetes but that is not always the cause. My brother, for example, was not overweight and had a very physical job hence his specialist believes that the disease was inherited from our Dad. A friend recently reached out saying he too had his leg amputated this past year. He had undiagnosed diabetes which I would suspect that if it got to the point of amputation he had diabetes for a long time.

So here’s my suggestion, every year get a physical and insist your doctor checks your glucose levels. I can tell you when I was diagnosed as diabetic I felt absolutely fine. I can also tell you that I have worked extremely hard at keeping my glucose levels within the normal range as much as possible (my most recent A1C was again in the normal range despite no longer taking any medication). If you are diagnosed, do everything you can to keep your glucose levels stable, lose weight (if needed) and get active.

In my perfect world, a cure will be found for both Type 1 and 2 diabetes so that we rid the world of this terrible disease. because diabetes sucks.