Diabetes and the Adjustment

On the last blog page "The Challenge of Diabetes" we ended with the fact that I had gone to the fire station because I could not get my glucometer to work right, well neither could the gentleman that was helping me. When he decided to use the glucometer they keep in the office.

The reading that he got was 484.

I couldn't believe my eyes looking at a 484 reading. The man suggested that I go to the hospital right away to get that blood sugar lowered. I still really didn't want to go to the hospital, but decided to go because I didn't want to have a stroke or maybe something worse. I ended up going to Florida Hospital Altamonte and checking in in the emergency department.

I found that my blood pressure was also slightly elevated, but my blood sugar had come down a little. After about a 1/2 hour they called me to go back to a room and hooked me u with saline and proceeded to check my blood sugar again which had dropped from 484 to about 467. The saline was finished then the nurse came in and stated that they are going to give me 9 units of Humalog fast acting insulin which she did. After approx an hour and 20 min, after having spoken to the Dr. about me staying overnight for observation I was moved upstairs to a room. A nurse came in and introduced himself and took my blood sugar which was still in the high 200. He then said that he would wait the rest of the 2 hours to see where we where. He came back almost on the nose of 40 minutes and checked my blood sugar again which had dropped to 125. I didn't have to take a shot and was happy about that.

The next day Sunday the 12th, 2015, after much diabetic information being given to me I was discharged approximately 1:30 pm. I went and picked up my medications and new glucometer and went home and began researching all I could about diabetes. My fears about not being able to eat all the foods that I had gotten accustomed to where now somehow bad.

Now I had to watch my sugars, carbohydrates and even fruit. My mind was spinning with all the changes that I would have to make. With these thoughts in mind I set out to beat this disease and not be overcome with a poor me attitude. I found the following video in my research.

The Challenge of Diabetes

It was sunny day on April 10th 2015 and I was on my way to get a physical. I had been feeling pretty healthy and had not gone to my primary for approximately 4 or more years. I had been working out fairly regularly and for the most part felt pretty good. I always drank a lot of water and so urinating at night was par for the course, I did however notice that I would get up a little more than usual to urinate but, not really enough to take notice seriously.

I got to the doctors office and it seems that they where not suppose to be open, however there was a lady inside that opened the door and stated to me that prior to her knowing that they where supposed to be closed, she had already scheduled myself and another patient and that they wanted to honor their commitment to us. I was handed a clipboard and asked to fill it out. I completed the paper work and in a few I was called back.

We had some small talk and my blood pressure was taken. Then I was asked could I give a urine sample, which I did. Mean while I was sitting in the room waiting for the Dr. to come in when the nurse came back and said that she wanted to check my blood sugar, which she did with a glucometer. The nurse looked at the reading with surprise, I asked what was the number she said 435, I said what should it read, she said between 80 and 110, then I asked what does that mean, she said that the doctor would be coming in and talk to me. Needless to say my head was spinning.

The Doctor came in a few minutes later and asked me some questions like did I have breakfast this morning? What did I eat? etc. We spoke about some of my daily activities and exercise as well as my eating and drinking habits. Finally he looked at me seriously and stated that my blood sugar level was high and that it is typically representative of Diabetes. I said Diabetes? I've never been told that I had Diabetes before.

I was in shock! Images came to mind of amputations and blindness due to Diabetes. I was numb! The Dr. then said that in many cases the safe thing to do would be to go to the emergency room and get checked out and that they may want to give me some insulin to bring my blood sugar down.

I have to say that over the next couple of hours, my mind was processing everything I thought I knew about Diabetes. Most of what I knew was about the aftermath, what happens to people with diabetes. Not how you get it or manage it. I ended up leaving the doctors office and going back home, not doing anything about it that night, just thinking about my future. The next day I got up with this diabetes thing on my mind.

I had breakfast and set out to start my day. I ended up having lunch at Golden Corral restaurant and decided to get a glucometer to test my blood sugar. I couldn't seem to get the glucometer to work so I went to a fire station. A gentleman assisted me to see if he could get it to work. He couldn't get it to work either. He did say that they keep a glucometer on site an that he would go get it.

He got back and tested my blood sugar! Surprise! Surprise!

I'll let you know what happened on the nex post stay tuned!