Interview Section : YouthHealthtalk

Interview 20

Age at Interview: 18

Sex: Female

Age at Diagnosis: 6

Background: Lives with partner, no children; works full-time in a pharmacy. Her advice to young people experiencing high blood sugar levels is to go straight to Accident and Emergency. 'It's better to be safe than sorry'.

Brief outline:Since the age of six and until recently her insulin regimen consisted of Humulin I and Humulin S twice a day. Recently, she changed to Lantus and NovoRapid because she likes the idea of having more flexibility over mealtimes. One week after she changed her insulin regimen she was rushed into hospital with DKA (diabetes ketoacidosis) and spent one week in intensive care, the same occurred again two weeks later. In all she has been in intensive care six times with DKA. Afterwards, she has tried different types of insulin but none seems to have worked. Four months ago she was put back onto her original insulin but on four injections a day instead of two. No more incidents of DKA have occurred but she worries about the long-term effects of ketoacidosis. Anyone changing their insulin regimen has to do regular blood sugar tests.

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Her insulin was changed to give her greater flexibility but she reacted badly to the new insulin and ended up on the original insulin but with more frequent doses.
Print I was there for a couple of months and then they decided to change my insulin, after 13 years. And after that, within 4 weeks, I was rushed into intensive care with DKA (diabetes ketocidosis). When my blood sugars just went totally off the scale. All my blood turned to acid and I was very, very ill with it. I was in hospital for about a week trying to get over that. I was in and out for two weeks and went back in with exactly the same thing. Blood sugars went off the scale, really, really ill. Since then I've been in five times with the same thing. They've tried changing all my insulins about but it just didn't work. Nothing really worked with it. The last time I went in they put me back on my old insulin but they put me on it four times a day so I was originally on two times a day. They put me on four times and since then I've stayed out of hospital for the last four months. Which has been really good. But it's just taken its affect on me It's like I've been down with viruses. I find it very difficult to get over them. I'm left very weak and not being able to do much, really. So it's had that knock on effect. They don't know what caused it at the moment. They keep saying it's viruses. They can't put their finger on it. All they can think of was the insulin I wasn't reacting well to. But apart from that, my blood sugars have, are stabling now but they did go up and down because I have been so ill. And that they have gone up a couple of times but not to a level where I've ended up back in hospital. So… Which insulin were you originally…? I was on Humulin I and Humulin S, cot, no vials I was on and the actual injections. They then changed me over to the NovoRapid and Lantus which, that didn't work. They put me on pen four times a day with that one but that didn't work so when I went into hospital… Why did they change it, did they explain it to you? They thought it was better because I was on twice a day. I had to have them at the set times. They didn't, they wanted, the, me to run the diabetes rather than the other way round. They said, on four injections a day I could, if I wanted to lay in I could have my injection a bit later and eat a bit later whereas before I had to have my injection at 7 o'clock in the morning and then eat within half an hour. I had no flexibility. At night time I had to have my insulin at 5 o'clock and eat my dinner. So if I wanted to go out with friends and eat at 8 o'clock at night it was very difficult to do that. Whereas they said on the four times a day, if I wanted to eat at 8 rather than 5 then I could have a little injection at 5 o'clock with a small sandwich, then have my main meal at 8 o'clock with my main injection. So they said, it just, it helped me to control it more.

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