Newly Diagnosed Diabetic

Hello, my name is Bobbi and I am a newly diagnosed Type II Diabetic. Believe me, this came as a total shock to me, even though I am a retired Registered Nurse. In all seriousness, I think the warning signs had been showing for a long time, but I kept myself in denial until I had a scare with heart palpitations.

I work from home, so I was busy knitting in front of the television until it was time for my phone operator shift to begin. I suddenly had a racing heartbeat and I could feel it pounding in my ears. I am prone to anxiety attacks due to my bi-polar disease, so at first, I thought this was the problem. But I had never felt the palpitations with an anxiety attack. My husband had a cardiac episode 11 months ago and ended up with six stents in his heart, so I became concerned. I called the doctor’s office and they referred me to the Emergency Room of the local hospital.

I hesitated about five minutes thinking maybe I was imagining my problems, then I decided to not take any chances. I drove five miles to the hospital and was taken right into the ER and worked up as a chest pain patient. I had four nurses descend on me and start the work-up, which promptly caused an anxiety attack. When all my labs had finally been drawn, IV started, EKG taken and was hooked up to every monitor possible, I finally started to calm down.

I was showing no heart palpitations, but my racing heart was finally dropping below the 100 beats per minute rate. I started to feel foolish that I had come to the hospital at all – with the exception of an elevated blood pressure, my vital signs were good and I was feeling better…

… Feeling better until I found out my blood sugar levels were 385 (normal is 70-120). I was expecting heart problems not blood sugar problems, but my cardiac labs and EKG were normal. I was immediately given 10 units of regular insulin to bring my blood sugar down – after one hour, my sugar was down to 278. This was still too high, so I was admitted to the hospital for overnight observation.

I was sent home the next day with all my new diabetic material to read (I was a labor and delivery nurse, so I didn’t know very much about diabetes) and prescriptions for oral medication for my blood sugar and high blood pressure and a glucometer with test strips. I have to test my blood sugar four times a day for the next week. I have a doctor’s appointment for Thursday, February 9th, so the plan is to keep a log of my sugars and start working on my diet and exercise plan.

I wanted to start this blog to help me keep track of my progress, but also to help other diabetics, especially newly diagnosed diabetics, with the knowledge I will be learning. This may be a bumping ride, after all, I am 49 years old and sometimes it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

So follow along with me as I start this new journey in my life …