Friday, Part I
Jun 30, 2007 12:36 PM Filed in: Diabetes
I have diabetes.
Found out on Friday afternoon, June 29 (iPhone launch day). I went in to get blood taken Friday morning for testing. Melissa drove, because I typically don't do well with people sticking things in my arm, and draining stuff out of me. When I went in, they stuck the needle in my arm and the next thing I remember were two nice lab technicians holding my arms to make sure I did not fall out of my chair when I had passed out. Sadly, they did not get any blood that time around. After laying down, they tried again with my left arm, but did not manage to get anything out of me. The third time was the charm, thy were able to get what they needed from the top of my left hand. I should state for the record that the medical people did their job very well, I am just a big wuss when it comes to needles. I was told that they would probably have the results no earlier than Monday.
On Friday, around 4 PM, I got a call from a person from Kaiser. They said I had extremely high blood sugar levels (about 300, normal is 60-110) and they wanted me to come in right away because I was going to get insulin and some electrolyte solution via I.V. drip to bring my levels down and flush the sugar out of my system (remember that, it comes up later). So I grabbed my stuff, told my boss I was leaving, and then ran out the door to go home. I was pretty sure I was not going to get much work done after that anyway. That was my first confirmation of the diabetes.
A little back-story on the diagnosis. Two weeks ago, I went to the doctor because I noticed my vision was blurry sometimes. My glasses are 3 or so years old, and my contact lens prescription is a little over a year old. It was blurry wearing either one. I have had prescription changes before, but they have never come on that suddenly, at least as I recalled, so it seemed a little odd to me. The doctor said my eyes looked fine, and I was just resigned to getting new glasses/contacts. But there were some other odd signs. I was drinking a lot more water, which I had initially thought was OK because it was summer, and getting much warmer. Hot temps = more water. The other odd sign was I was losing weight. I was trying to loose weight, so that was not a big deal, but when my weekly loss went from around 2 pounds a week (the safe range) to 4-5 pounds per week, that was cause for concern. Taken all together, and with a dollop of WebMD thrown in, I thought it might be a good idea to get things checked out. A quick email to my doctor, and I was authorized to go to the lab to get blood drawn.
Now we can fast forward to Friday afternoon. I had just arrived home from work, and the doctor called. She confirmed the diabetes diagnosis, but did not know if it was type I or type II at this point and confirmed I needed to go to get my IV and insulin later today, and I had an appointment set up for 8:30 PM at Kaiser's Urgent Care facility (which is the only one open after-hours and weekends). At this point I was still in shock, so I did not have a lot of questions. To be more precise, I had about a million questions, but I was not able to articulate them. We discussed something, I don't really recall what, I think maybe steps to take from here, what the process was going to be, but I am not 100% sure what she said.
I called my parents, Melissa called her parents, I spent some time being upset about it and then took a deep breath and calmed down a little, Melissa, of course, was a tremendous help, just being there as a shoulder to cry on, asking questions, making sure we thought of questions to ask the doctor when we went in that night, and just generally being helpful. That is one of the many reasons why I love her so much.
In part II of our Friday adventure, we explore Kaiser (good) and the workings of the Holy Cross Emergency Center (not good).
Found out on Friday afternoon, June 29 (iPhone launch day). I went in to get blood taken Friday morning for testing. Melissa drove, because I typically don't do well with people sticking things in my arm, and draining stuff out of me. When I went in, they stuck the needle in my arm and the next thing I remember were two nice lab technicians holding my arms to make sure I did not fall out of my chair when I had passed out. Sadly, they did not get any blood that time around. After laying down, they tried again with my left arm, but did not manage to get anything out of me. The third time was the charm, thy were able to get what they needed from the top of my left hand. I should state for the record that the medical people did their job very well, I am just a big wuss when it comes to needles. I was told that they would probably have the results no earlier than Monday.
On Friday, around 4 PM, I got a call from a person from Kaiser. They said I had extremely high blood sugar levels (about 300, normal is 60-110) and they wanted me to come in right away because I was going to get insulin and some electrolyte solution via I.V. drip to bring my levels down and flush the sugar out of my system (remember that, it comes up later). So I grabbed my stuff, told my boss I was leaving, and then ran out the door to go home. I was pretty sure I was not going to get much work done after that anyway. That was my first confirmation of the diabetes.
A little back-story on the diagnosis. Two weeks ago, I went to the doctor because I noticed my vision was blurry sometimes. My glasses are 3 or so years old, and my contact lens prescription is a little over a year old. It was blurry wearing either one. I have had prescription changes before, but they have never come on that suddenly, at least as I recalled, so it seemed a little odd to me. The doctor said my eyes looked fine, and I was just resigned to getting new glasses/contacts. But there were some other odd signs. I was drinking a lot more water, which I had initially thought was OK because it was summer, and getting much warmer. Hot temps = more water. The other odd sign was I was losing weight. I was trying to loose weight, so that was not a big deal, but when my weekly loss went from around 2 pounds a week (the safe range) to 4-5 pounds per week, that was cause for concern. Taken all together, and with a dollop of WebMD thrown in, I thought it might be a good idea to get things checked out. A quick email to my doctor, and I was authorized to go to the lab to get blood drawn.
Now we can fast forward to Friday afternoon. I had just arrived home from work, and the doctor called. She confirmed the diabetes diagnosis, but did not know if it was type I or type II at this point and confirmed I needed to go to get my IV and insulin later today, and I had an appointment set up for 8:30 PM at Kaiser's Urgent Care facility (which is the only one open after-hours and weekends). At this point I was still in shock, so I did not have a lot of questions. To be more precise, I had about a million questions, but I was not able to articulate them. We discussed something, I don't really recall what, I think maybe steps to take from here, what the process was going to be, but I am not 100% sure what she said.
I called my parents, Melissa called her parents, I spent some time being upset about it and then took a deep breath and calmed down a little, Melissa, of course, was a tremendous help, just being there as a shoulder to cry on, asking questions, making sure we thought of questions to ask the doctor when we went in that night, and just generally being helpful. That is one of the many reasons why I love her so much.
In part II of our Friday adventure, we explore Kaiser (good) and the workings of the Holy Cross Emergency Center (not good).