So, yesterday, my mom woke up with eye floaters, shortness of breath and swollen legs ( she’s got skinny bird legs) and even after my night shift , I rushed her to the ER.
My mom is in heart failure and has diabetes now. She was born with a hole in her heart that they swore was gone by her teens… But no, still there. She’s going through the ringer of tests. I’m hoping she’s going to be ok.
Hugs. I am so sorry to hear this. Give her a bunch of love and hugs. I hope she will be okay.
My thoughts prayers are with you both.
Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts.
Her swelling went down significantly, which is awesome. She’s got iv lasix, so she’s peeing forever right now lol.
Her blood pressure is still iffy , but it’s better than yesterday afaik. Not as high like the 180/89 when she first got to the er.
Her a1c was 9.1% , to me that suggests diabetes not been there that long? Could be worse , so I’m glad she’s not like 14%. I feel it’s going to be easier to bring her down to a 6-7% there vs higher. She had a 45 mgdl low today from the correction around breakfast time, when her blood sugar was like 320 mg/dl, so she’s off humalog for now. She’s still getting lantus. They will put her on metformin at discharge, much to her nightmare because she knows how bad it made me fart 
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I think they’re starting to suspect diabetic retinopathy, but I’m not sure. The floaters and how bad her visual acuity is. The Dr did an acuity test while I was there, and she’s like legally blind. I hope this isn’t permanent, because I am already living and caring for my blind grandma, if she can’t see either , it’s just my fiance and I that can help and that’s hard, we both work nights.I hope that does not sound selfish , but we don’t need my mom being blind too.
Trying to see what meter her insurance covers so I can make her a care package when she gets home. Prolly a meter, a good diabetes book or two, and a blood pressure monitor.
Has she been tested to see what kind of diabetes she has?
When BG is high that alone causes a reversible loss of visual acuity, but a proper exam by an opthalmologist (an eye doctor) — not an optometrist (an eyeglasses doctor) — would find what exactly is going on with her eyes.
A good meter is inexpensive. Essentially all the cost is in test strips. Some people pay out of pocket for Contour One supplies to get the accuracy if the insurance coverage isn’t good (Amazon used to have them, Walmart is another source that gave fair prices. Walmart also has a pretty good house-brand (Relion) meter and supplies that is not too expensive.
This times 1000x, high blood pressure and high glucose both screw with vision. I would hope things get better when she is stabilized.
No, I would like to try to push to see if they can figure that out, but no idea. She’s like 120-ish lbs and 5’4" or 5’5" and doesn’t eat bad, but she’s 67 , so they’re assuming type 2. If I get there when one of her doctors is there, I will ask if they can test her for autoantibodies and her insulin levels.
We plan to go to an opthalmologist asap on discharge, but we’re not sure when that is yet.
I’m aware 
. We think her insurance might cover contour next strips, so I’m going see if I can get her a next one. If I can set it up in her phone, I think she’d love it. She’s not tech inept , uses her phone a lot. Once her vision clears up, she’d love it.
I’m hoping so, but it’s been a challenge so far.
Sigh. And who exactly do they think you inherited your genes from, that let you get type 1? Of course she needs to be tested to check for type 1.
I didn’t think there’s a phone app, just a stand-alone meter. It’s the CGMs that have phone apps.
A bunch of people complain their vision gets a lot worse when they first bring down their BG levels. So hopefully she improves. It’s likely she’s been slowly going up in BG levels over time, as a LADA/type 1 it happens slowly.
Do not let them assume type 2, 35% of us are misdiagnosed as a type 2 at first because that is what most people are. I was. Type 1 is an inherited disease from genes you inherit. She is likely to be the type 1 you inherited it from. If they are going to label her type 2 insist on a blood test, an antibody test and a c-peptide test. Push the fact you are a type 1, so she probably is. There is still a lack of medical knowledge out there. The proper label opens up insurance access to tools that are helpful like CGM’s, plus the proper approach to the right care.
No, the contour next one, accuchek guide, and one touch verio reveal ( I think it’s called that, I have one I got for free somewhere…) Have apps that work with the meter over Bluetooth, so you can like log your sugars. I use mysugr with my accuchek guide. The others have their in own apps. I think it’d be convenient, and she can prolly use that to send logs to the Dr.
I’m aware of the situation with type 1 misdiagnosed as 2. I was misdiagnosed myself, but IDK if they’ll do it in the hospital or when we get her into a primary Dr.
Endos will give out a free meter, I believe they automatically bill your insurance for it. And I don’t know if they still do, but Contour if you called them and you were in the US, they would send you a free meter kit.
@Sensorium139 not sure if it’s pertinent at this point, but there are talking bg meters like the Prodigy meter which is used for visually impaired diabetics.
T2s are usually pushed straight in for eye exams with opthos because most have had underlying T2 for an indeterminate duration. T1s generally they wait 3 - 6 months for your A1c to settle down. They used make T2s wait also, but now they rush them in.
Best of luck with your mom, I’m sure with your help and a little luck everything will be okay 
Good luck- what a challenge for you dealing with all this!
Are the floaters in one eye or both? Floaters may indicate a detached retina which may require urgent treatment. I had a detached retina which I had surgery for, with great results.
Insulin levels can be an indication of type, but not always conclusive. If early type one, but still producing some insulin, the c-peptide could temporarily be normal or even high, in response to the high glucose levels. So definitely antibodies need to be done ASAP. I hope they don’t even consider taking her off all insulin until type is confirmed.
Both eyes. The right is worse, she finds if she covers the right one, she can see a lil bit better on the left. I’m thinking it’s something retina related, but we’ll see. I’m hoping she gets the ophthalmologist appointment ASAP, but no idea when she’ll be discharged yet. They still wanna see if it’s neurological, but I don’t think it is.
They did a stress test today, no idea on the results yet. All I know is I think her blood pressure is better and her legs aren’t as swollen. Her blood sugar was better today, but she didn’t get to eat until dinner, I think she said 145 mg/dl. Not great, but better than the 200-300s she’s been running. I’m hoping they keep her on lantus at least, until they figure out her type. She is scared of insulin for meals now too, because they gave her 10 units of humalog at 320 mg/dl and she dropped to 45 mg/dl. 10 units is a lot to me for a correction, even with a meal, it is a lot. It was with breakfast and I think she just had like toast and eggs. So I’ll have to try to help her with that fear.
The other thing is they heavily tested her thyroid, but haven’t talked about the results. That may play into her heart problems and maybe even that it’s autoimmune and related to type 1. We’ll see.
If it’s both eyes I’m thinking not so likely she’d have bilateral detached retinae.
Other symptoms of detached retina are pain, flashes of light and a shadow or shutter- like effect causing loss of peripheral vision.
Thinking of you and your mum.
That is very scary!! I remember as I was recovering that I felt really low once, shaking and everything, and was 80!! So glad your mum has you on her team.
I had floaters in both eyes until I got on blood pressure medicine. I thought it was “normal”. Thankfully I told a doctor and he assured it wasn’t right. Well it was my normal until the BP meds had been in my system for quite a while.
Mom’s home yay!
She’s on 6 pills a day now. They took her off Lantus. We’ll try relatively low carb and low sodium+ metformin and see , but I’m not sure they should of taken her off the lantus, but who knows. She has Dr appointments like all next week too, fun times
I hope things settle in for your mom. Not an easy adjustment to make. Good thing she has someone like you in her life!
So far I’m really thinking they should of left her on lantus, but she only lets me test her so often, she thinks I’m brutal on her fingers, when she can see she’ll take over . She only let me get one test in yesterday and it was 214 and I debated getting my last unused novolog pen out of the fridge for her and my last basaglar pen for the long acting… But I know, we have to be patient. I know metformin takes a while to kick in , like a few days at least… But if it does not work after weeks like it didn’t for me ? I’m going to give her my back up insulin, I swear to God. Her blood pressure was good though yesterday, I hope that stays good.
I’m going to go to her eye Dr appointment on Monday, and her primary care Dr appointment on Tuesday ( my fiance is taking her to the cardiologist on Thursday, because I forgot my Dr Appointment on Thursday at like the same time). I think I’m going to be adamant that they test her for type 1 at her primary. If they don’t,maybe we’ll go elsewhere or try the closest endocrinologist. My Dr isn’t currently accepting new patients or I would of sent her there.
I don’t really think she’s a type 2, but I’m not a Dr, just someone who has gone through misdiagnosis. Maybe it’s just that making me think so and I’m not thinking it out, but she’s around what weight I was at diagnosis ( upper 120 to low 130 lbs range, I think she’s an inch shorter than me but her bmi is in the low 20s) and she’s not one to add sugar to anything and not a carbaholic. We have a super strong family history of hypertension and cardiovascular disease with very little control through lifestyle and age and her birth defect have a huge part in it, not as much her diet.