As you may have noticed if you actually read my dribble religiously, you will have noticed that I didn't post any blogs for a few days. That was due to the fact that my oldest daughter was in the hospital fighting a bout of ketoacidosis, one of the scariest things a parent has to face.
For any of you who are not diabetic or do not have any knowledge of what ketoacidosis is and what happens to a diabetics body when they have it, I wrote an article about this subject on AC. You can find it here.
I have 3 children ages 22, 19 and 18. My two oldest children, a boy and a girl have had type 1 diabetes since they were 8 years old. My husband has type 2 diabetes and had to have his toe taken off last year due to neuropathy. Thankfully, myself and our youngest daughter don't have diabetes....yet. Keeping my fingers crossed we never do because it's stressful enough having three diabetics living in the same house.
Yes, it's true that when diabetics blood sugar is running high they are very emotional. They yell, they pout, they cry. Sometimes there's fists going through walls....I kid you not. We've been lucky that all three of them haven't felt that way at the same time. But I digress.
Ketoacidosis is a very scary and dangerous condition. Something we can't seem to get across to our daughter, even though she's been very sick both times she's been in the hospital with this. I really don't know what to do to get her to understand how crucial it is for her to take care of her blood sugar. Even though her ketoacidosis was due to a combination of her blood sugar running high and a respiratory tract infection, she chose to concentrate on the "infection" word.
I have fought with her about taking her insulin which only makes her more stubborn. I have tried to sit back and hope that she would take the insulin if I didn't bother her. Sometimes, it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have prayed about this constantly and am grateful that the Good Lord has been watching out for her but still I worry.
I'm hoping that the doctor's lecture will get through to her. In the meantime, thank you for letting me rant and hopefully I will not miss posting something every day.
Thanks for reading.
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1 comment:
Cathy,
I am a T1 since the age of 4. I am now 27. I went through a time in my life when I was in college. i.e. late teens early 20's. During this time I would often not take my novolog or skip my lantus. I was lucky if I checked my blood sugar once a month. I went on like this for a while until my doctor refused to refill my insulin prescription until I'd come in to the office to have blood work and see him. My A1c was 12.1.
He looked at me and said, "Well, don't bother finishing college. You're gonna die anyway."
That was my wake up. I think he knew that's what I needed. I immediately broke down and started crying. He asked me if I was ready to fix it and when I said yes, he promptly sent me to an endo who was instrumental in getting me back on track. I didn't, however, take on super and complete control of this disease until about 4 years ago.
I know you love your daughter. I'm hoping she will be fine and get her head on straight. But, if she is anything like me, a lecture won't cut it. Someone "slapping" her in the face will be what she needs.
I will be praying for you and the situation. It's so frustrating to have to deal with this disease every day, but I think about it in the sense of, when there's a cure, I don't want to be so riddled with complications that I can't enjoy it.
Have you suggested things like Kerri's blog to her? There are many blogs out there that helped me and supported me. Also, communities like TuDiabetes.com and diabetes daily. They are great places when you are needing help and support.
My biggest issue was not wanting to feel "different". And by skipping my insulin and just eating whatever, I thought I was being "normal". I have since taken on the motto of: "Normal? Who says I'm normal? It's overrated."
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