Getting hit by a train

- figuratively, of course.

I've read stories from other Type 1 Diabetics where they go from feeling fine to DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis) just from being mildly sick with something that wouldn't typically phase "normal" people - but I had never experienced it myself.

...until Tueday.

Oh my gosh I was so sick. There are only 2 other times in my life I can recall being so sick:

1st time: The week leading up to my diagnosis as Type 1 Diabetic.

2nd time: being a stupid teenager and not taking care of myself I wound up in serious DKA that landed me in the ICU for several days, unconscious and a dozen wires hooked up to me.

This time - it hit me like a train.

My husband was out of town for a few days starting Monday. A few hours after dinner I realized I felt funny - checked my blood sugar and saw "HI" (blood sugar over 600mg/dl). "CRAP!" My infusion site had failed on me so I changed it out, had a new one going and took a ton of insulin. I put our daughter to bed and decided to sleep on the couch - I don't like sleeping alone in the bed - it's too lonely.

I woke up around 2am and wondering why the heck I'm awake if my daughter is still asleep - that shouldn't happen - I casually checked my phone, and my email - then it hit me: "I'm going to puke!" From the point on Tuesday was spent in agony.

SO thankful to be living with parents that day - my mother-in-law took Rylee and took care of her, while I continued to puke every hour or more. She brought me water and toast - none of which I could keep down for more than an 30 minutes (and the dang dog kept eating the toast!).

At one point I considered having my Mother-in-law take me into the doctor but I thought if I could just get my blood sugar under 300mg/dl I'd be okay. It was 2pm by that time and I hadn't been able to see a number under 300 despite taking tons of insulin. An hour later it finally broke and I got down to 209,  then a little later 126mg/dl - but I still felt like dying.

My husband came home a day earlier because they got the jobs they were working on done quickly. He came home and saw me sprawled out on the floor - it was cooler there and my back didn't hurt as bad on the floor either.

I told him I thought we needed to go to the ER, I hadn't been able to keep anything down all day, my blood sugar was 84mg/dl and I was afraid of then having a nasty low blood sugar reaction due to the serious lack of food and hydration. He called a nurse - packed me up and away we went.

After getting to the ER they got me into a bed quickly. I almost (mind you - *almost*) felt guilty - they got me in ahead of every one else sitting in there except a little infant - she got to go ahead of me just by minutes.

They got an IV started, gave me an IV line of anti-nausea meds AND some Morphine. I started feeling better once that Morphine kicked in. I've never had the stuff before and let me tell you - it was the strangest sensation as it hit my body. But it took away my back pain, the raging migraine I'd had all day and all the other aches and pains - because everything hurt. I was able to relax finally - no longer feeling the intense need to throw-up and getting rid of all the bodily aches.

After some blood-work they determined I had some sort of infection, possibly from food poisoning or some other bug. They gave me another IV bag of antibiotics, another full bag of fluids, and a prescription for antibiotics for the next couple days to make sure whatever was getting me would be gone.

The attending doctor was a neat guy, he gave me a prescription for anti-nausea meds too - for "in the future" if I do get a stomach bug again I can take those and hopefully avoid another ER trip.

Looking back I don't think this trip was avoidable at all, like I said: it hit me like a train. I came home from a full, but good day out helping my dad and running errands. I was hungry so had some left-overs in the fridge, since Kenny wasn't going to be home I didn't need to worry about making dinner. I had a snack later - realized my infusion site was bad - fixed that - went to bed - woke up ILL. No signs. No warnings - nothing.

No, this one hit me hard. Hard enough that the next day I spent napping - except for having my mother-in-law take me to the store. Today I *still* felt weak. It's frustrating not being up to my normal self! I'm a "go go go" person, not having the energy or strength to do it is strange.

So now I guess I do understand a little better how something so simple as a stomach bug can hit us diabetics harder than normal. It just might change the way I think about being around sick people too - I certainly would like to avoid a repeat of the last few days!!!