As a hospitalist, I see patients with diabetes everyday. Including those who are diagnosed for the first time in the emergency room.
She was brought to the ER by her husband who said she has been sleeping from early the previous evening and by noon time the next day, she was still lying in bed and hard to wake up. He became concerned and brought her to the ER.
In the ER, her blood sugar was more than a thousand and she was in diabetic ketoacidosis. I admitted her in the ICU and proceeded to treat her. Once we knew what her problem was, it is easy to address the other metabolic problems that went along with it.
After a few hours, she started waking up and she was able to tell me the timeline that led to this moment. She said she has always been tired because she has a big extended family that she is taking care of. But over the past two weeks, She has noticed that she became tired more easily while doing things that she normally does.
She takes care of her diabetic mother and she has a newly diagnosed diabetic grandson. And yet she never thought that she could be a diabetic herself.
She has noticed that she was thirsty a lot. Even though she has always made it a point to drink and hydrate well.
She was urinating more often. She just thought she was it was because she was drinking a lot.
She was hungry more than usual even though she ate snacks as she prepared meals in the kitchen.
In retrospect, the signs were there but because of her busy schedule, diabetes snuck up on her and it presented itself in a dramatic fashion … She almost died.
These warning signs may be common but should never be ignored. I believe I cannot emphasize them enough and so I have them here to explain them and maybe inspire you to Be aware of them and discuss it with your family.
Hunger and Fatigue
In diabetes, the pancreas does not produce any or not enough insulin to let blood sugar inside the cells. Even if we eat, the cells are starving. Insulin is needed to open the gates for the blood sugar to enter the cells and nourish them.
So if we notice that we are hungry earlier than usual or that you're hungry again and you just ate, then you must be aware of your body enough to know that something might be wrong.
The signs and symptoms of diabetes are very common. but you are the best person to know what when something is out of whack or does not feel right. There are a lot of diagnoses that can mimic diabetes. But if we are aware and we get checked out by the doctor, the blood sugar is one of the first things the doctor will check.
Increased Thirst And Urination
I get to ask a lot why when our blood sugar is out of control, we get thirsty a lot and we urinate a lot. The reason is when the blood sugar molecules does not go inside the cells, they stay in the bloodstream. and they attract the water molecules outside of the blood vessels inside the blood vessels and this gets filtered through the kidneys and so there's more volume to our urine. This, in turn, activates the thirst center and causes us to be thirsty so we can drink more and our body system balances out by diluting the blood and then it can eliminate the excess solutes that are in the blood. And so one of the tests that we do to test for diabetes is to test the urine . Because diabetic spill out sugar in their urine.
Recurrent Infections
Uncontrolled blood sugar decreases are immunity. The body is in a state of stress and cannot cope with infections. They may have frequent urinary tract infections or upper respiratory infections. Often times people want to stock up on antibiotics to prepare for these infections. But that's not the way to address a problem. Diabetics need to know that the root cause should be addressed. And that is basically to control your blood sugar by living life as a healthy person.
In my program, the Diagnosis Shift For Diabetes, I am excited about discussing the major aspects diabetics need to be aware of, like the symptoms discussed above, to empower them to live healthy lives and go for their fondest fitness goals.
