Bad News on a Fall Morning.

   

   So thirsty.  Tired all the time.  Frequent urination.  Weight loss.  Blurry vision.  What’s wrong with me?  It was Halloween 2007 when I knew something was was not right.  I literally couldn’t move from the couch.  I was going for my undergrad at the time, and my daily routine for the past few days before diagnosis was: sleep, go to school, sleep, eat dinner, and sleep.  There must be something wrong, this was not like me!  I am a highly energetic, motivated person normally.  Normal: That’s a word I wouldn’t get use to hearing!

    

    November 3, 2007: the day I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.  What prompted me to go to the doctor?  The fact that every half hour during the night...I was going to the bathroom.  I was drinking glasses & glasses of water throughout the night.  November 3rd is also my husband’s birthday.  We had a big night planned, and we figured what I had was just a urinary tract infection.  That morning, I threw on some sweats and an old shirt, and out the door we went to Emergency One, thinking we’d be in and out.  Boy, were we wrong!  

   “I can’t even read your blood sugar from this finger prick!” the doctor said to me.                

    Confusion ran through my mind, “What? What are you talking about?”  

    “Is anyone here with you?”

    “Yes, Kris, my boyfriend.”

    “I will get him and explain this to him.”

    Kris came in the room, I was sitting on the table, still replaying what the doctor had said to me.

    As he was explaining to Kris that I might have Type 1 Diabetes, I sat there, thinking “How?”

    I remember hearing key words--but couldn’t make sense of it.  I couldn’t understand the fact that they couldn’t read my blood sugar on their meter because the highest that the meter can read is 500!  (Later--at the hospital--I found out that my blood sugar was 750!)

    “You need to take her immediately to the hospital.  No stops in between.  Do not even stop for food...you need to get there as soon as possible.  Which hospital are you going to go to?  Benedictine or Kingston?  I will call the hospital and tell them that you are coming so that you get in as soon as you get there.”

    

    When we got to the hospital, I told them my name and that I was sent by the doctor at Emergency One.  Before I knew it, I was lying in the bed in the emergency room with tubes inserted in me and there were people there telling me that they “believe I have Type 1 Diabetes.”  I didn’t even know what this meant!  I mean, I knew that it had something to do with sugar, but I had thought only overweight people got diabetes.  Yes, I thought what everyone else not well-educated about diabetes thought!  

    My mind was going crazy with questions...

    How would this affect my life?

    Would I be able to eat what I want?

    Would I be able to eat when I want?

    Would I be able to do all of the same activities that I have been doing?

    I started crying after I was admitted into the hospital. I didn’t want to spend the night there...I had never even been in a hospital for myself before!  I didn’t want my boyfriend or mom to leave me there alone...in a hospital with people I didn’t know, and things that were happening to my body that I had no control over!  

    That night, I remember dropping so low that I felt completely out of my element.  I was so drenched in sweat that it had felt like I just got out of the pool.  I was trembling and shaking and didn’t know what to do.  Before I knew it, nurses were in the room, injecting some type of medication into me to help.  Not even five minutes later, I was back to myself.  I had dropped down to a blood sugar of 20.  Scary.  

     The following day, the doctor told me my life was going to change.  I would have to count everything I eat and use a sliding scale to figure out how much insulin to give myself.  I am an English major, and I’m not very good at math.  I also don’t do too well with needles.  So, for someone to tell me I had to figure out the correct dosage of insulin, then fill up a syringe, “flick” the air bubbles out, and jab myself with a needle...umm, was a little bit horrifying for me.  The doctor told me I would be able to do pretty much anything, “except maybe run a marathon.”  Which, I found out was not true.  He also said, “This is your life now...so you need to get use to it.”  How’s that for a frightening reality?

      Luckily, the nutritionist that works with the hospital came in and taught me all of the basics that I needed to know.  She showed me how I was supposed to test myself, and how to measure out the syringes.  It was quite embarrassing to go into restaurants and out in public and fill up needles.  This became who I am.  As I mentioned before, I was going for my Bachelors Degree at the time.  I worried about getting back to school and on track with my studies.  My family and doctors encouraged me to take the time I needed and go back when I was ready.  This was a crazy idea to me!  I needed...wanted to go back!  There’s no way I was going to let this disease affect the goals I wanted to reach in my life!  That’s still the way I see it to this day.  I have achieved many goals since being a diabetic.  I received my Bachelors & Masters Degree.  I recently got married to the man that supported me through all of this.  We have traveled across the world together, and I do hard-core cardio on a regular basis.......all while carrying Type 1 Diabetes with me.  This proves to me, and should prove to others that you can do anything you set your mind to...with or without diabetes.