I just had a brush with death

[eris]

I have type 1 diabetes and I must take insulin to live.

I actually take 2 kinds - an insulin that slowly works over 24 hours and an instant insulin that is supposed to drop your sugar right away.

I was getting ready to take my long acting insulin, and right before I injected it I noticed it was clear and not cloudy.

This means I almost took a huge dose of instant insulin.

If I were to take 95 units of instant insulin I would be dead in 20 minutes.

With instant insulin I usually take 2-6 units. 95 units of instant insulin would rapidly drop your sugar by about 900 points. My blood sugar was 184.

I'm still shaking. I'm really freaking out here. (but I'll get over it)

But mostly I realized just how happy I am to be alive.

__________________________________________________________

Have any of you came close to death ?

Maybe you were almost hit by a car, or maybe you had a serious illness.

how did you feel afterwards ?

 

[VanillaCreme]

People have to be super careful with insulin. One time I gave my mom what her doctor said to give her. But, her sugar was more controlled, and I didn't think to drop the dose. So I gave her the normal 5 units. Let's just say it wasn't good. I was giving her juice and sugar for about 10 minutes. And I had to keep watching her. I dropped the dose down to 2 units. Scary stuff.

 

[eris]

^^^ Yes, youre right. Even 5 units too much is very dangerous. 95 units is instant death.

There have been times I downed a real mountain dew in 2 minutes just to stay conscious.

One time I passed out at the mall, but my sugar was only 45


for the uninitiated, blood sugar should be about 70-130 normally. Under 55 and you pass out. Over 600 and youre in a coma.

 

[evanescencefan91]

*phew* man I'm glad you're alright eris, I didn't know there were two types of insulin

make sure you have them labeled clearly with like a sharpie or something if you haven't already


*yay for being alive hugs*

um I acidently drove an atv of a 6ft cliff into a creek, I was okay though

and ya that's pretty much about it

 

[eris]

awww, thank you


I know that must have been really really scary, especially while you were in the air before you landed.

i'm glad youre ok, that could have easily killed you

((hugs)))

 

[Brian]

Actually that's not true in all cases regarding normal blood sugar...some people's bodies adapt to being at the extremes of the normal ranges, and sometimes you get called to diabetics above 900 or below 30 and still talking to you, which is really weird

Be more careful with your meds though, I guess is the lesson. I know sometimes I've not been paying attention to what I'm doing (Though not nearly as serious as your incident) and almost messed up big time. One time I was filling a chainsaw, which has two tanks: one for fuel, and the other for bar oil which lubricates the chain. And wouldn't you know, I dumped bar oil in to the fuel tank Boss was having a shitfit over why it was smoking so bad and took it to the shop haha.


I've had a few brushes with death myself. I used to clear brush and one of our main tools was a high powered weed whacker. The biggest difference besides power? Instead of string on the end, we had a circular saw blade to cut underbrush. Well from time to time whatever the sawyer was cutting would catch the blade and bind it, which caused it to kick out to the right uncontrollably. A few times I wandered too far ahead on the right side while I was piling for the sawyer and came within inches of having my head sawed in half. Oi. More embarassing than anything else....

Another time I was in taking a flight somewhere. A larger plane had taken off infront of ours and we took off immediately behind it before the wake turbulence could clear. About 300' off the ground the plane fell down/backwards about a third of our altitude...luckily Southwest hires some really good pilots, he was able to get out of it. That wouldn't have ended well

 

[dead]

i am just glad all of you are still alive.

*crawls back into woodwork*

 

[eris]

from brian

Actually that's not true in all cases regarding normal blood sugar...some people's bodies adapt to being at the extremes of the normal ranges, and sometimes you get called to diabetics above 900 or below 30 and still talking to you, which is really weird

Yes, that is very true. I was just generalizing to give peole an idea of what usually goes on.

When they caught my diabetes I was often over 600 for a few months before it could be totally controlled. And I still get over 200 sometimes for apparantly no reason (that I understand) . A nurse once told me of a patient that was over 1000 and was walking around, but my uncles brother was in a coma at 550.

After your incidents....did you feel more alive ? I mean, how can I put this, did you feel lucky and appreciative? I do.

 

[QuietGuy]

Wow, that was a scary post to read, eris. A split-second observation saved your life. I don't want to think about it. No wonder you're shaking.

A few weeks ago, I was about to cross a busy road in London. The lights were green, but the traffic had backed up in a long queue. There was a bus in front of me, and it was stationary, so I assumed I could cross safely. I didn't think there was enough room for a car to pass the bus on the other side.

I was wrong. There was enough room, and a car was speeding alongside the bus. It missed me by a frighteningly small distance. If I had stepped out a couple of seconds later, it would've hit me.

That really scared the fresia out of me. I couldn't believe how stupid I'd been. I thought of what would've happened if I'd died. My funeral. All my family, friends and office colleagues, grieving because I'd been killed in a road accident. That taught me a good lesson:

Always make 100% sure it's safe to cross. Never assume anything.

After your incidents....did you feel more alive ? I mean, how can I put this, did you feel lucky and appreciative? I do.

I thought about we how take it completely for granted, that we're alive, and we automatically assume we'll continue living until we die of old age. We never think that we might experience a brush with death ourselves.

 

[VanillaCreme]

My mom's sugar has been in the 1000's before. She went to her doctors and it was so high once, it couldn't register on the machine there. So she sent my mom to the hospital. Her sugar was around 1400. It's also been as low as 30. She can still talk to you when it's high, but when it dropped to 30, she was out of it. She's been at 100 lately, and I want it to stay that way.

 

[eris]

quiet guy - Im so glad youre ok !!! things like that DOES make someone more careful about things.

vanilla creme - OMG 1400!!!!!!!!! I thought hearing about the woman who had 1000 was a super extreme case !!!! Did she feel ill ? Or was it like me where I feel nothing.

 

[Chancy]

Oh wow. That's really scary. It's amazing how close we are to death sometimes.

I remember one time when I was driving my car and I was stopped at a red light. I was in the right lane and there was a big, black SUV in the left lane blocking my view of the oncoming traffic from the left. Well, our light turned green and we both started to go. Then the black SUV stopped. I stopped too, not really sure of why he stopped. Two seconds later a truck went flying through the light from the left direction. From the direction I couldn't see because of the SUV.

My mom had always told me not to go if a car is blocking your view of traffic. And I was just dumbfounded. If I had gone, it is likely that I would have been hit by that truck running the red light. Who knows what would have happened.

Am I glad that I listened to my mom's advice.

 

[Brian]

After your incidents....did you feel more alive ? I mean, how can I put this, did you feel lucky and appreciative? I do.

I mostly just felt dumb for getting too close on that side.

Over the past few years though, after having safety concepts hammered in to my brain by every work-related publication or training conference I go to, I definitely have general safety higher on my list of concerns and priorities than I used to.

Just like my ambulance or fire rig, my car doesn't move unless everybody is buckled in and seated properly, and if someone ('someone' being my little sister) tries to rest their leg up on the dashboard, I pull over and just sit there until they realize what they did wrong

I'm also notorious for ragging on people's unsafe pastimes, such as my little sister's habit of climbing around the ceiling supports (my parents have a log home and there's a lot of surprisingly-easy-to-climb-to beams) and standing up on them.

...I guess I'm more thankful that she's alive

 

[EveWasFramed]

lol, mine gets below 90 and I get light-headed. Anything below 75 and I'll pass the fresia out. I have no idea why either - I'm not diabetic. That's just "normal" for me.

My mother is diabetic. I've seen hers go into the mid-600's. It's not pretty. When hers gets to about 50, she'll pass out if she doesn't get an influx of something sweet in a hurry. I make her keep juice on hand, as well as soda. Jelly does the trick sometimes too. I tried to make her keep Pixie Sticks in the house, but her grandson kept eating them. The liquid sugar gets into your system a lot faster, from what I can tell.

I knew someone once...he was diabetic, an older gentleman. He didn't take his meds like he was suppose to, his blood sugar dropped and he passed out and hit his head. When he did wake up, in the hospital three days later, he couldn't even feed himself. He died a few months later.
NOT an illness to play around with.

 

[Just_Some_Dude]

no brushes with death come to mind

 

[Nina]

Eris--Very close call there. So glad you, as well as everyone else, made it through such scary experiences. I've only had one car accident. It was the first winter after we moved way north of NYC. First big storm with a LOT of snow and ice. I was stopped at a red light and a truck came flying up behind me and hit me so that I went spinning around. A truck was coming from the other way but managed to stop. It wasn't a brush with death, but it scared me just the same. I hate to drive in bad weather now....

 

[Badjedidude]

My blood sugar's fine, so I've never had any problems as far as my health, really. Well, I did have a case of the mumps that nearly killed me when I was 5, but I hardly remember that, so I guess it shouldn't count. ^_^

Throughout my life I've had several moments when I really should have died... and none of them really gave me a moment of EPIPHANY (for men) or anything... but I guess I have sort of built up a certain view of the world as I've gone through my little accidents and whathaveye. Seriously, if I were a die-hard Christian, I would claim that the Hand of Provenance is upon me, because there have been times when I felt "protected" during an accident or during a tense, dangerous situation... maybe by fate or karma, God, or even just sheer luck.

I guess I've learned (slowly ) to be appreciative of my life; both the good and the bad. Like I said, I never had one single moment of clarity, but over the years I've come to have an attitude that every moment is worth savoring for what it is. I'm a human being living a very human life, and I love the depth of my feelings, I love getting into trouble accidentally and scrambling to find a way out, I love being hurt and having to recouperate, I love winning and feeling like I'm on top of the world...

In short, I just like life in general and I see it as a bunch of experiences to explore, and this is partly due to the various ways in which I may have ended up dead. lol

 

[SophiaGrace]

One time I was on my way to a doctors appointment. It was raining. I had the radio blaring and I was speeding because I was late. Speeding on country roads. Speeding on windy back country roads. I spun out on a turn...spun over the double yellow line, 180 degrees and hit the dirt embankment on the other side of the road.

I about peed myself.

Then I realized my mom's back tire was flat. I pulled into a local driveway.

It was pouring down rain. I didn't have my cell phone with me. I got out of the car and went up to the house, knocked on the door. I went to the neighbors house, knocked on the door.

I felt so embarassed that I decided to walk back home, miles in the rain.

So I start walking alongside the road and this truck pulls up alongside me. "Do you need a ride?" the driver asked. I stared at him a while realizing he was a stranger and thinking up bad scenarios that could happen if I accepted a ride from him.

Long story short he ended up being a good fellow and took me back home. Then I biked over to my aunts house and asked her to help me. She did.

I got the car back home just as my mom got there. I never did go to the doctors appointment.

---

Oh and when I was born, the doctors told my parents I had a 2% chance of living. I had my last rites read to me. I died 3x medically (flatlined) before I was intubated with a tracheostomy. No one believed I would survive the night.

 

[eris]

to everyone.

i read all of your replies and I am really happy youre all ok !!! and thank you for your kinds words

SophiaGrace- I know how scary something like that can be. Thanksgiving 2008 I was driving and my tire litterally flew off ! No one was behind me and I was only doing about 35 so there was no accident. The 5 seconds it took me to pull over totally destroyed the axl, but it think it would have been destroyed anyway. I had to walk like 5 miles because I was on a country road. I had to get a new car but now I have a Z28 and I like the power behind the 8 cylinder. vroooooom.

 

[Guitarstryker]

I woke up in iHop the other day with a paramedic beside me and a bloodsugar of 27... I had blacked out, thank god I wasn't driving or anything. I was with my girlfriend and her mom got scared and called 911... I had lost like 3 hours of my life... I was functional the whole time, just not conscious. Scary wake up call, my sugar had been dropping significantly in the mornings, and that morning I just had never fully woken up even though I had gotten dressed and ready to go and everything on my own. Scary stuff.