I haven’t fully explained on my blog what happened at the beginning of the month, specifically Sept 3-7. I’ve mentioned on occasion my visit to the hospital. I’ve been meaning to do so but I just haven’t taken the time to sit down and write. It’s slightly more important now that I do so because I’m just realizing how many people were panicked because I strangely (to most of them) disappeared from the net without any notice. That never happens. I’m usually radiating excitement if I’m going on vacation and everyone knows where I’m going and when I’ll be gone. While an unscheduled absence would have been suspicious in and of its own, this one was worse because I decided it would be wise for me to let Jules know that I was dying on Labor Day. It’s not a good move to tell people over IM that you’re dying. Make a note of that.
I’m going to interject some history here so that the people that are reading this that don’t know what I’m talking about will have some kind of clue. I am a diabetic. And what preceeded my “I’m dying” statement was several hours of throwing up, high blood sugars, and severe dehydration. Most people who know what they’re talking about will say that the throwing up was caused by the high blood sugars, and the dehydration was caused by the throwing up. I can’t fight with that except for the fact that I know me. And since I had previously been throwing up approximately once a week because I can’t fricken digest raw greens I ignored the throwing up part of this because I had had a salad the night before for dinner and had also thrown up that night before this day. I also ignored the high blood sugars because anything between 200 and 278 (which is what my sugars were during that dreadful day) wasn’t high for me, those are like high blood sugars that I get from being stressed (which I had been to a very high degree during the week before labor day weekend and I was still stressed). So I ignored signs that I shouldn’t have, I didn’t check for ketones (which is a big no-no for anyone wearing a pump, because when our blood sugar is over 200 we’re supposed to check for ketones. Because the problem could be a pump clog) I didn’t exactly do that either. At least, I didn’t do that until it was too late and my ketones were off the chart. So that’s the history and now back to my story.
So, I told Jules I was dying. And then I called the Endocrinologist on call, who, I’ve never seen myself but many of my friends have him as a doctor. He made me laugh. He said “hello” *all sarcastic*, “you’re on your way into diabetic ketoacidosis, you think you might want to go to the ER so that they can give you something to make you stop vomiting and pump you full of fluids so you’re no longer dehydrated, they won’t keep you there overnight”. I said no problem and went on my way. I told Jules I was going to the hospital which is 5 minutes from where I was living and I was driving myself because my parents were MIA and I couldn’t get ahold of them.
This is where things get muddy. I left my IM on and open because I thought that I was only going to be at the hospital for a few hours. I was talking to Jules for a little bit while I was in the ER but then my phone died. So she had no clue what had happened to me. It didn’t help her that IM was on at home but I wasn’t responded. Jules panicked (that’s my version anyways), especially since I wasn’t saying hello to her in the mornings over IM.
Being nearer to death than anyone thought, I got to spend 4 days in ICU. On the 3rd day, Jules (as she tells me) gathered up the guts (all do to coaxing from Colleen) to call the hospital nearest to the city I live in and locate me. I was impressed and I was shocked to get a phone call (because I do a damn well good job of making sure I wasn’t going to get any visitors and honestly, I think, people rather yell at me for not contacting them or letting them visit me than pick up the phone and call the hospital).
I don’t remember where I was headed with this. The point of this story is…people care, it’s not cool to leave your IM open if you’re going to make a visit to the ER for yourself, it’s even not cooler to tell someone you’re dying (at which point they have to tell you to go to the ER and you go having no way to get in touch with them to let them know that you haven’t died), and I suppose the last point should be that if you have diabetes and your blood sugar is over 200 and you’re on the pump, check your frick’n ketones unless you want to end up in the ER on the edge of life.
And, I have to say thanks to Jules who hunted me down to make sure I was alive. Thanks to Colleen for telling her to pick up the phone and just call the hospital, worse case scenario they wouldn’t know who she was asking about and therefore I wasn’t in the hospital. And thanks to Jules (again) for sharing the news that I was MIA and thus I got nice emails from Amy. And 3 weeks after the event I’m finding out that even more people were concerned, kindof like Lisa (who I was talking with yesterday and is glad I’m okay)
Half the time, when I think North Carolina, I think of a Tour de Cure in the future. Which in 2008 (or last year or in the future years) means 2 days on a bike in June in Raleigh, North Carolina. The other half of the time, I think of the more beautiful part of North Carolina. I think of North Carolina in the fall when the colors are changing. And for as much as I’d love to go ride a Tour de Cure in North Carolina, I’d much rather go in the fall and enjoy the fall colors.
