Sarah Howard
Sarah Howard has worked in the diabetes research field ever since she was diagnosed with T1D while in college in May 2013. Since then, she has worked for various diabetes organizations, focusing on research, advocacy, and community-building efforts for people with T1D and their loved ones. Sarah is currently the Senior Marketing Manager at T1D Exchange.
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Were you experiencing DKA (diabetes-related ketoacidosis) when you were diagnosed with T1D? Cancel reply
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I don’t know as I had just barely turned 4. I remember the Drs visit and the hospital but not the nature of my condition upon being admitted.
Being only 4, I cannot remember a thing. In the subsequent 70years, however, I have only been symptomatic once or twice. ლ( ͡◣ ͜ʖ ͡◢)ლ
I don’t know. Perhaps I did. It was Nov/Dec 1962 and I was 8 years old. I remember being very sick “with something” causing nausea, vomiting, malaise, weight loss and extreme thirst with constant peeing.
Originally diagnosed TYPE 2 and yes at that time.
If I was, it making me sick. My A1C at diagnosis was 14.1, so maybe. My first diagnosis was also Type 2. By the time I went to an endo, I was starving myself down to 8.3. At that time, my endo said it would be interesting to know if I had been experiencing DKA previously.
In 1967, at the age of 12, I was finally hospitalized for my symptoms. I had not kept down any food for nearly a week. Since I was already a skinny kid, that brought my weight down even further; I looked like a skeleton. Don’t know what my blood sugar was, but I am sure it was very high. My vision was very blurry so I had to wear glasses for a month or so until my body adjusted to normal blood sugars. I think I was in the hospital for four days.
Sixty years ago. I was 12. My dad (t1d) himself) diagnosed me and took me to his doctor at Palo Alto Clinic. Home same day.
Wow, how wonderful your dad recognized what was going on and took you to an endo right away.
I was experiencing DIHD syndrome however.
Dammit I hate diabetes syndrome
what is DIHD syndrome?
I don’t know as when I was initially diagnosed I knew virtually nothing of diabetes … even though I had a brother who had already been diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic. (Many years ago, type 1 diabetics were sent away to ‘special’ diabetic schools. My brother was more than a 100 miles from me, and the rest of my family.)
What I do know is that when my doctor tested my urine, which was the way to test for diabetes, i.e. it was years before blood glucose meters became available for even doctor’s surgeries, I took my first insulin injection within about 1.5 – 2 hours. (I was admitted to hospital for about 1 week and was constantly bombarded with information of what to expect; what life was going to be like for me, etc. and was given no written information that I could refer back to.)
The ketones weren’t tested, but they had to dilute my blood 50/50 to get a reading. Even then it was 800, so 1600 without.
Found out due to a college class assignment that included a health screening.
I was certainly feeling sick, but not tipped over into DKA yet. Dr told my wife (I was 28) “If you hadn’t come in, you probably wouldn’t have been able to wake your husband up tomorrow morning.” So DKA adjacent, anyway!
I was told over the telephone to my husband’s endo Dr. office to go buy a ketone test kit at the drugstore which I did. It showed ketones and the meter showed HIGH. I was 49 years old and later learned the term LADA which is what I have 23 years later.
Was forty nine. Spent 4 days in the ICU and almost died. Was horrid. That was march of 2020 when pandemic started. Am so thankful to all of you for sharing on here. Has been a rough year and a half. Without this site would have little to no information from people who live with this daily. Your all awesome.
The lack of good information from medical “professionals” is unreal. Like you, finding online forums with other patients sharing stories and info saved my life as well.
My doctor sent me for a five-hour fasting blood sugar test. The lab stoped it when it ranged 350-35. They said they don’t want to kill me. It was 1986 and this was my 40 birthday present. My GP treated it as Type 2 and had a dietician design a Draconian diet of 800 calories to lose 25 lbs. she agreed to 1100 but no more. I kept the diet and the weight off for five years. When my annual A1C was 12, I was placed in 70/30 insulin. He had no idea what to do with. A specialist at OHSU saved my life.
I was 18 months old and had severe, chronic , diaper rash.
No, but I certainly didn’t feel well. It was 1955, I was 8 yrs. old. At no time during the whole month I was hospitalized did anyone say a word to me about diabetes, insulin injections or a specific diet. I’ll never understand why. All of the MD’s only spoke with my parents, just left me to wonder what was wrong.
I don’t know for sure but I doubt it. I Summit feel bad, just peeing and drinking and losing weight.
Yes, I was in DKA and lapsed into a coma at the hospital. Total time in the hospital was about 7 days. That was in 1973 and I was 9yrs. old at the time.
After feeling run down for a few weeks and then starting to feel really bad, unsable to do anything but drink and pee, I finally saw a doctor. He asked me to pee in a cup and then looked really scared. He told me to go to the ER immediately, don’t stop to go home for anything. He wrote a note asking them to take me right away. I still had to wait at least half an hour in the waiting room!
In the ER the doctor there said she couldn’t believe that I was still conscious. She told my mother I should be dead. I got moved to a room very quickly where I was hooked up several IVs and monitors. Nobody really explained anything to me. I was begging them for a drink but wasn’t allowed anything. After 4 days they finally started to get everything in range and I was allowed to eat & drink. I spent 8 days in the hospital.
Don’t know for sure but wasn’t really sick when insulin was begun at home.
Father was LADA T1, I was Dxed in 1964, age 15. Surprised both Parents didn’t notice the 27 lb. weight loss, probably DKA caused.
Went to my Dr concerned that I might have type 2 diabetes. He brushed it off without any testing because I was a fit runner. Two months later I was found DKA, non responsive at home. Well he was right I’m not a type 2 diabetic…. This was 2020 at age 50.
Stores like these frustrate me so much. A simple finger stick would have provided the information needed. I wish this became as standard as the blood pressure test.
I was diagnosed in 1963, after a long series of mishaps that prevented me from going to my doctor. By the time he saw me, there was no doubt I was diabetic. He did a Benedict’s test, which of course was 4+. I was admitted to the hospital that evening and became unconscious during the night because of DKA that had existed for quite a while.
I don’t know, it was over 40 years ago. My mom brought me to the doctor because I was drinking a lot of water, peeing a lot and super thin. She saved my life! but I don’t remember hearing the term DKA until I was in my 20’s
I was 2 1/2 years old, so I really don’t know if I was showing DKA symptoms.
No DKA for me. I was diagnosed as type 2 during my annual check up at the age of 30. I don’t remember feeling any symptoms. The medications didn’t affect my BG and a around a month later the diagnosis was changed and spent a few days in the hospital getting adjusted to insulin.
Yes with symptoms spanning over 2 months. Stopped eating, lost 40 lbs and barely walked upright into the ER that day with 500+ bg and zero potassium reserves. I had just moved into this city and had no PCP yet nor the ability to get into see a doc beyond the ER. I saw the look on that nurse’s face in the ER once my results started coming back as I got wheeled into the ICU. Apparently I was hours away from a coma. Misdiagnosed as T2, put on wrong amounts of insulin/meds and sent home. Retooling my diet, insulin amounts/types, and reading copious amount of information online is what has kept me alive!