A Diabetic High

Two weeks ago, I shared what it felt like when my blood sugar was low. The opposite of low, is high, which is what I will be covering this week.

On the contrary to low blood sugar, the symptoms of high blood sugar do not make me feel like the world is ending (most of the time). Symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath, stomach pain, fruity breath odor, a very dry mouth, rapid heartbeat, and blurred vision. If these symptoms and high blood sugar last for too long, it could result in a diabetic coma. A diabetic coma is a life-threatening diabetes complication that causes unconsciousness. If you have diabetes, dangerously high blood sugar or dangerously low blood sugar can lead to a diabetic coma. If you go into a diabetic coma, you're alive — but you can't awaken or respond purposefully to sights, sounds or other types of stimulation. Left untreated, a diabetic coma can be fatal.

You get high blood sugar when you do not receive enough insulin to be distributed into your bloodstream. Insulin contains the sugar in your blood allowing you to have stable blood sugars. If you do not give yourself enough insulin the sugar out weighs the insulin and as a result, you have high blood sugar. This can even happen when you are sick. It can be extremely unsafe to have high blood sugar for too long. To correct a high, you have to give yourself insulin to bring your sugar levels down and drink a lot of water. Sometimes it takes a while for you to go back to normal levels, but if you don’t see that you are dropping within about an hour, I would suggest changing your insulin pump site or giving more of a correction if you are on injections.

It is important to remember that although it may feel better to have higher levels in different situations, they cannot stay high for too long because it could result in a serious problem later on. Drink water, take more insulin, change your sites, and if worse comes to worst, call your doctor for guidance!