An Eye for an Eye or I didn't see that one coming
So, the whirlwind before the eye:
My daughter took DH to his preop appointment a week before his intended surgery date. They did routine blood work and an EKG and all of that stuff. So, Wed. of this week, the day before the transplant, we get a call from the transplant doctor. He said, we had to give the eye to another recipient because your husband cannot have surgery until he gets his blood sugar under control. I said, what blood sugar. He said, didn't they call. I said, nope. He said, his sugar was 498. He said, you were supposed to take him to the ER. I said, no one called. He said, please take him to the ER. I called our PCP and he met us at the ER, hubby was somewhat sluggish and has complained of feeling so tired. They did blood sugar levels and couldn't believe he wasn't in a diabetic comma. Long story short: IV insulin drip, ER visit that lasted over two days, and now he is on insulin, blood sugar checks every three hours, and other medications. The really crappy thing is that the pharmacy has screwed us over on his insulin by forgetting to give us the needle caps, meaning the first night home, he had no way to recieve his insulin. I had to call the hospital and they had me come there and they gave me three loaded syringes. Then, when phramacy opened…well, it was a mess.
Good news: transplant doctor called last night at like ten PM. We have another eye, he said. If we can get the PCP to release your hubby for suregery, we will transplant him in two weeks. Eye is in freezer waiting PCP's clearance. PCP called this morning to check on DH and I loaded the glucose machine into my iphone and sent it to him and he said, while 296 isn't an ideal blood sugar, it beats the hell out of 500 and says we will increase the insulin to drop it a little more. And, PCP talked to the transplant doc and he will release DH Wed of next week, so he can have the surgery the following week.
Nothing is ever easy, but thankfully we found DH's diabetes before he had a stroke or ended up with kidney damage.
The really bad news is I am leaving on Wed for a conference and DH is legally blind and cannot see to administer his insulin, so I am teaching my daughter how to inject him for the three days that I will be gone. I wish I wasn't going to the conference but it is already paid for and I am preenting two papers and doing a live blog for those members who are not going to make it. So, crap.
Anyway, we are still moving forward with the eye transplant but had to take side trip.
OMG!!!!!! Well the good news is he is getting under control and DIDN'T go into coma or die from it!!! AND he IS getting another eye VERY soon!!!!! Maybe its God's way of telling him that eye wasn't good for him? Hope everything goes ok this time around and he will see soon!!! Prayers and Good Thoughts for you all!!!
HUGS
Karen C
In 2000 we were in Okinawa visiting our son and his family. My DH had 2 strange episodes. One when we returned to the apartment after an outing, our son reached over to unhook his Dad's seatbelt after my DH just sat there. My DH asked where we were and what was going on. Another incident when we were out, he sat on a bench cause we had been walking quite abit. We went on to another store, we came back to get him and he was confused about where he was.
Once we got home we went to our PCP and his glucose reading was
495.
PCP's should be doing regular blood tests for this on normal visits.
Grammylew in Jax
