Max Corkins in Lewistown Hospital

[rockne10]

Admitted last week with blood sugar of 1762; pretty disoriented. He's stable now with numbers well below 400 and has lost 20 pounds. A few more hours and he wouldn't have made it. His sister saved his life.

Room 5130
Lewistown Hospital
400 Highland Avenue
Lewistown, Pa. 17044

[jclary]

Thanks for letting us know. I get worried when my blood sugar goes to 168.

He will be added to my prayer list.

[Jim B PEI]

Wheh! That was dangerously high!! A bit of a shock to me because I didn't realize the US system had such completely different units. I had to look it up For Canadians (and maybe others using the metric system) the conversion factor is 18.018, so his high reading was in the 90s, and now he is down near 20 (and a 168 is a 9.3)

All the best to Max; get better soon.

[ralt12]

Both my boys have Type 1, and 1762 is almost unfathomable as a reading. A miracle he made it. FYI, "normal" is 70-130 as a blood glucose measurement.

[Bob Andrews]

Wow. Prayers to a great guy. Always love wandering around his shop. Best wishes, Max!

[Bob Bryant]

A blood glucose of 1726 is about 1,000 above anything I have heard of. My wife was diagnosed in 1960 with a blood sugar in the 600-700 range and the doctors in the hospital said she could have been in a coma. Max is where he belongs to get the treatment and stabilization he needs. A good endocrinologist is very valuable to a diabetic. In the end the patient has to take ownership of the condition, as the proper maintenance is so very important.

[raprice]

Thank God Max is still with us. A blood sugar of 1762 is about 1662 higher than it should be (fasting) I'm sure he's getting good care, I hope from a good endocrinologist.
Good luck Max.
Rog

[55champion]

He is in our prayers...

[JRoberts]

I have been a type 1 diabetic for 60 years and have never heard of a reading even close to that high. Like John said I get worried when mine goes up to 170. I don't even think my meter would read that high. I certainly am glad Max is doing that much better that soon. He certainly is in my prayers.

[bondobilly]

The nurses taking care of me are surprised he survived.
I'm glad he is still around & Ellen & I will keep him in our
Prayers. Ellen & Bill

[Rerun]

I was going to pay Max a visit at the hospital this evening, and found that he was discharged yesterday. Apparently, they must have gotten things under control. Good news!

[raoul5788]

The nurses taking care of me are surprised he survived.
I'm glad he is still around & Ellen & I will keep him in our
Prayers. Ellen & Bill

Great to see you posting again, Bill! I hope you are doing well!

[jclary]

Years before I was diagnosed with type II diabetes, I worked in vocational Rehabilitation. My speciality was in working with the blind and visually impaired. Many of you may know that diabetes is a leading cause of blindness and therefore I was exposed to many clients that were suffering from both.

One thing I learned was that it takes a lot of effort, not just from the person affected, but the entire family and close friends to encourage and assist in providing a control environment. If family members do not take the situation seriously and provide good alternatives to junk food and cheap sweets, along with good hygiene, serious problems are more likely to follow.

I had one client who had not only lost his sight, but eventually lost both feet to amputation. Sad to say, but if his wife had prepared proper meals and assistance, this could have been prevented. Both carried an equal amount of responsibility, but without the support of the household, it is much more difficult.

I am fortunate enough to be married to a registered nurse, and when it comes to these matters, no drill sergeant I ever saw was tougher.

I do not make these comments to suggest that Max has any of these support problems, or bad habits. There are other health conditions that can cause some serious out of control situations. Rather, I know that as large as this group is, I know I am not the only diabetic in the audience. In fact, I go for my regular three month visit to my family doctor tomorrow and will have my A1C checked. It will show my blood sugar average for the last three months. I have been doing so well (only taking oral meds) that I have not been checking my sugar daily as recommended (after my preachy comments above). If I get a bad report, like every other patient, I'll make excuses like blaming it on having to be vegetative while healing from this shoulder surgery.

If I get a good report...I'll celebrate with the works at waffle House and break all the rules for one meal!

My prayers and best wishes to Max Corkins and all fellow diabetics dealing with this malady.

[PlainBrownR2]

I was going to pay Max a visit at the hospital this evening, and found that he was discharged yesterday. Apparently, they must have gotten things under control. Good news!

That's good on two fronts. He's in great health to recover fairly quick from a high glucose such as this, these treatments are fortunately and unfortunately fairly routine, and that no other apparent near death or immediate organ damage was done to warrant additional observation. I know because I've had a couple of very rare lows to only warrant a couple of hours in the emergency room(I recovered usually during the ambulance ride )

I'm a Type 1 diabetic of about 27 years now, had it since I was two. They found me at 600, which also had me practically kissing the Grim Reaper on the lips as well. I have a great endocrinologist, and an opthamologist that we've known as a co worker and friend since before I was born. I am on Altace because of an incident like this back in 2004. I woke up in the dorm to go to the bathroom at 3am(which always told me what the morning glucose would be like, yuck), and I could barely stay standing. I came back, did my glucose, the meter wasn't even reading. This warranted a call to my parents, where they picked me up, and over the next day we, brought the glucose back to normal. The insuline I had was replaced with Lantis, which was supposed to be 10X what my 60's technology insulin was supposed to be. It didn't work, either then, or when I incrementally maxed the syringe out because the glucose would not come under 200. So I went back. Well, this also brought on another issue where my microalbumen was slowly rising from this whole ordeal, so I and my endocrinologist pondered what to do about it, until she came up with Altace, which was a beta blocker. After getting on that, it brought my kidneys and my eyes back under control. It's not a be all end all, but it does buffer from the ill effects of future organ damage.

I cannot fathom a number like that either. Heck, I hate anything past 250. But when something gets this bad, that usually tells me that something wrong or really wrong happened earlier, like with the Lantis. The changeover to the newer stuff didn't work, so I went back to the older insulin. I know there's folks who love it, but I'm not one of those people . I would also advise to watch for any eye, kidney, or other problems as this incident can also lead to future unforseen effects.

[ralt12]

Try the pump with Novolog instead of Lantis.