For those who don’t know, I was in the ICU for a couple days earlier this week - diabetes related. ICU selfie! I’m doing better now though not completely out of the woods. Obviously it was awful, but it’s also interesting. Some of you may know I have a tendency to get every rare, weird condition or side-effect that one can experience, but this one takes the cake: they have to contact the FDA and do a case study. Yay, I’m special!
Anyway, long story short, I’m going to be fine, if you’re interested in the weird deets (my diabetic friends especially may want to read on), here they are:

My endocrinologist is always on top of the latest in diabetes treatments and tech. He even tipped me off to trying to get in the Faustman BCG vaccine trials. He is the absolute best endo I’ve ever had. My sugars are consistently just a little too high even with pump and CGM therapy, running between 180-250, with A1Cs between 7-8 mostly. There is a new trend of using type 2 drugs to help control difficult to control (sometimes called “brittle”) type 1, and my endo gave me the type 2 med Invokana to try. The resident he’s training is also type 1 and is on Invokana, and told me how much she loved it. On Friday 1/11 I took my first dose. My sugars instantly dropped to normal levels. The Invokana seemed great; it was keeping my sugars lower, reduced my insulin requirements by about 25-30%, and felt less aggressive than insulin.

Saturday things were still perfect with sugars between 80-135 all day, though I felt slightly fatigued. Fatigue is a known side-effect, though, so I dismissed it.

Sunday I felt a little weaker and more tired, and could smell a small amount of ketones in the back of my throat (ketones smell like a mixture of ammonia and fruit). My sugars were still perfect, hovering in the 120s most of the day. I was feeling somewhat queasy, so only managed to drink a V8 veggie juice. In the early evening I started experiencing more DKA symptoms, still with perfect blood sugars (and no other illness symptoms). In the afternoon I weighed myself and had lost about 4 pounds since the previous day – yikes. I did a keto stick test and was spilling the max amount of ketones, as well as a moderate amount of glucose. My reasoning was that I hadn’t eaten enough and so I was producing ketones. I ate some chili and crackers, felt a little better, asked my roommate (who was AMAZING through all this) to check on my later, and went to sleep.

At 11 my roommate checked on me and found me to be mostly coherent but sluggish and slurring my words. She called her father (who is a doctor, not just a random dude ), who reasoned the same as me: I hadn’t eaten enough, and so was going into ketosis despite normal sugars. He recommended I eat protein and sugar, and if I didn’t feel better go to the ER. After some juice and peanut butter I felt better and my speech was no longer slurred. I went to bed.

At 5am Monday morning I woke up and threw up pretty much everything I’d eaten the previous day. At this point the DKA was undeniable: short, labored breath, intense smell of ketones, and vomiting. My blood sugar was 95. NINETY FIVE! I asked my roommate to take me to the emergency room and was admitted to the ICU a few hours later. Poor, sweet Madison David will now forever have the image of me vomiting neon orange all over the Emergency Room floor imprinted upon her brain. 

Three days, two nights, five IV lines, and a shit ton of blood work (though thank god no catheter) later, I was out of DKA. ALL OF THE DOCTORS came to see me – listening to groups of doctors discuss your condition amongst themselves while you’re lying three feet away is always an experience – my unusual case inspired such phrases as “This is unheard of”, “We need to contact the drug company immediately”, “We have to do a case study on this”, “We’ll have to get in touch with the FDA”, etc.

I saw my endo yesterday (and maybe again today), who was extremely (though unnecessarily) apologetic – but like everyone said, it was unheard of, so there’s no way he could have known. He’s now in touch with the hospital, took more blood, and we’ll go from there. I’m still spilling ketones and glucose, and have lost almost 10 pounds this week – not water weight, either. So…Invokana was an interesting bust, to say the least.

The Islets of Langerhans sound like a disputed realm in a fantasy novel. This has been your diabetes education post of the day.

Pro-tip: don’t give unsolicited health or diet advice. I know you are scared of dying, Piper, and you really want to feel you have some control over your life in this chaotic world, Josh, but telling a diabetic (or fat person, or cancer patient, etc.) about the magic powers of raw vegan paleo organic crystal pH balanced reiki will neither help the diabetic/cancer patient/any other disease sufferer, nor will it do anything to lessen the odds of YOU developing a chronic, debilitating, or fatal disease. You will die, Becky, and all the woo in the world ain’t going to change that, so accept it and leave us alone.

There are many ways misinformation about diabetes affects us, directly and indirectly. The diabetes punchline, exemplified in the divisive L'il Diabetes meme (which I will not post because it is potentially harmful for people with eating disorders) and others like it demonstrate how misinformation about diabetes can be hurtful psychologically, and can contribute to the higher rates of both depression and eating disorder seen in diabetics. But there are other ways in which false stereotypes can be dangerous and damaging, and why I think we should fight them.
Those of you in the United States who are struggling with soaring insulin prices and wondering where the public outrage we saw over Epipen price hikes was when it came to diabetics might want to read this case study on the perfect storm of societal ignorance and manipulation, and the deadly combination of capitalism and healthcare.

1. Our culture falsely equates physical health and morality (I’m looking at you, “clean” eaters).
2. Our culture is scientifically illiterate.
3. Drug and insurance companies have taken advantage of these facts and pushed the false narrative that diabetes is a “lifestyle” condition, leading people to blame diabetics for their condition, and can now collude on prices without fear of public outrage. http://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/how-insulin-became-unaffordable/

I got the shot! Fortunately my state counts type one diabetics in the high risk group for vaccine prioritization. To quote my endo on the CDC recommendation that only type 2s get vaccine priority: “COVID doesn’t care WHY you have diabetes! It can’t tell! What matters is that YOU HAVE DIABETES.”

He’s great. A type one, too! But also seriously— as soon as you can get vaccinated, do!

Hello, type one diabetic with a heart condition here who still wears a mask when running a regular 5k…WEAR A MASK MY DUDES

PSA for diabetic brides

If you wear a pump, beware crepe! Very revealing.

You know when you take out a site and it’s immediately itchy and awful? Yup. That’s me, today. 

PS-stay tuned for a review of my new pump, the Medtronic 670g! Sorry for the lack of updates, both me and the fiance are running for office.

How I know my BF understands that T1 life:

We were watching Game of Thrones and one of the lady characters was walking around, doing her thing, when my bf just randomly goes “oh!”

I asked him what was up. He said he’d been trying to figure out for the last five minutes where she keeps her insulin pump in that outfit.

BOY FORGOT THAT NOT ALL LADIES HAVE TO WEAR INSULIN PUMPS

I mean come on, I want a snazzy Netflix special 

Seriously though, still need my insulin and test strips. 

When you wake up, test, realize you’re high AF, treat, and nap until you’re normal again.

If only I could do it on work days…

Copyright me, your internet diabetic dictionary :P 

Sorry I haven’t posted in so long, guys. I’ve been focusing my efforts on political action and haven’t had a lot of time to write! Anyway, I wanted to share this comment I wrote, which was picked as a top choice by the New York Times in response to the AHCA vote today:

I pay federal income taxes just like you. However, I am also sick. As a child I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition which renders me unable to produce the hormone insulin. Thus, I rely on injections and daily blood testing to keep myself alive. Without insurance, I need to pay over $20,000 per year to survive. I have no other choice. Without insulin, I die. That’s an unreasonable economic burden for a 24-year-old–frankly, for anyone.

The fact is, there is nothing I could have done to stop myself getting sick, just like those with cancer or many other illnesses. I was simply healthy, then I wasn’t. The healthcare market is not a free market because we, the sick, are held captive to our bodies and the medical costs that price us out of living.

A more economic example: I cover my home in case of fire, and I hope I never have to call up the insurance company. Yet, I still pay in to the system to protect my property. Hopefully, I will never have to use that money, and it will be used to pay off some other person’s insured and destroyed home instead. With healthcare, why is it any different? We pay in, hoping never to have to use the benefits, while the money goes to another. You, like me, could wake up one day and find yourself stuck with a pre-existing condition. This is why we have insurance and need the protections of the ACA.

Guys, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. Fight back.

…woke up with a peanut in my bed. Guess I missed my mouth mid 3am blood sugar drop.

Whoops.

Time to push more of my liberal agenda: protect the ACA. Call your lawmakers! Think of how much diabetes costs without insurance–tens of thousands of dollars. Without preexisting condition protection, we don’t get insurance. Without bans against lifetime insurance caps, we don’t get to keep insurance. 

We may be sick, but we are not dead; don’t let your house representatives categorize you otherwise. We deserve to live full lives, regardless of a disease we did nothing to earn and cannot will away. 

So fight. Be sick–there’s nothing we can do about that–but nevertire. 

You can search your representative numbers here:

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

You know, I was trying to actually cook like a successful grown-up. 

Hi, all–sorry I’ve been so long. 

So, do I have news for you! I officially have chronic condition #2, thought to be autoimmune. Now, in addition to attacking my pancreas, my immune system has decided to revolt against my skin. At least I’m special; less than 1% of the population apparently has this condition. Thing is, while rare toys, cards, books, or collectibles may be great, rare diseases are far less so. 

What surprises me is how much more of a toll this diagnosis was taking on my self esteem than has diabetes this past week. For better or for worse, diabetes is an invisible illness. It has far more of an impact on my life than skin changes, but I can hide my pancreas problems if I so choose (though I usually don’t). You can’t hide a skin condition, and it doesn’t make you feel pretty. It makes you feel strange, and it seems harder to reclaim as a positive in the way that I own my “cyborg parts” as a part of my diabetic identity. 

The good news is, with the diagnosis and proper treatment, I’m getting better. 

I like to imagine that my immune system is just so incredibly strong, though it may attack my body, it’s also some sort of superpower–maybe I’d be immune to a zombie contagion or nuclear fallout. Silver linings? 

They’re here! The buttons are here! Donate to get yours before they run out and help me run out diabetes instead: 

http://www2.jdrf.org/site/TR?fr_id=6292&pg=personal&px=10474618

blairdiggory:

Friendly reminder from a type one diabetic to NOT use the “OMG I’M GONNA GET DIABEETUS” jokes as a response to anything (pictures of unhealthy food, favorite fanfictions, etc.) because:
1) It’s pretty offensive. I’m not overly offended personally because this joke doesn’t Target type one diabetes, but type two (and type one) diabetes imposes serious health risks. It’s not ok to make fun of that.
2) It spreads misinformation. Type one and type two diabetes are very different, but you don’t get either type from one unhealthy meal. Furthermore, I don’t need people who only know the diabeetus meme telling me “You can’t eat that! You’re diabetic!”. I promise I understand how my disease works.
3) It’s 2017. The joke has died out, I promise!

I never catch a cold, I immediately catch my death.