it suddenly hit me the other day that college is now completely finished.... I've known that for a few weeks but it hadn't hit me till recently just how final that was. time has passed in a strange way these last 2 years, partially cos a lot has happened, and partially cos my life changed an awful lot just before i started college and adapting to it has been tough.....
2yrs ago my life was 'normal'..... I've seen a lot of peoples prom pics going up on facebook and remembering that 2yrs ago i went to my own prom feels extremely strange. it was around that time that i was getting alot of the symptoms of diabetes and looking back i don't know why i didn't get myself checked out sooner. you see, i didn't have a typical diagnosis.....
it all started about May/June in 2010, i was doing my GCSE's and had study leave. being at home meant that i was snacking more and i started being REALLY tired in the afternoon, it was so bad that i was having naps every single afternoon for a few hours but i was still tired when i woke up.... i was also drinking alot more.... typical signs of high sugar levels.... i didn't notice it really and just put the tiredness down to the stress of GCSE's and the thirst due to it being summer. i carried on as normal and when my dad came to visit at the end of June he told us that he had just been diagnosed as being diabetic.
me being me, i wanted to know more about it and the symptoms etc. i was showing several of the symptoms... my first inkling to the possibility of me being diabetic..... i asked my mum whether she thought i should get myself checked and she disagreed, she said that i couldn't possibly be diabetic... (ignorance or just plain hopefulness?)
the next few months carried on.... we were moving house so i was packing things into boxes and preparing for my 3 week trip to Tanzania with my school. i was still thirsty and drinking constantly, I'm not talking like a normal kind of thirst either, its the thirst that makes me wanna just drink straight from the tap cos no amount of fluid can quench it.... i was still tired and sleeping more.... and now i was getting infections too... yet another sign of diabetes. but diabetes didn't cross my mind again, after all, parents know best right? if my mum said that i cant be diabetic then I'm not... simple as that.
well life goes on and i spent an amazing 3 weeks in Tanzania... definitely the best 3 weeks of my life so far.... but being out there meant we were eating their typical diet... a mix of loads of fresh fruit (high in sugar), carbs (more food to raise the sugar levels) and veg... i dread to think what my sugar levels were like when i was out there.... but it was while i was here that yet more side effects were starting to show... weight loss, i must have lost about 2 stone while i was out there and it was noticeable... i mean we all lost weight, but i had definitely lost the most by a fair amount.
i had also been bitten A LOT more than all of my friends (I'm talking a good 30 bites on each leg, then a load more on my stomach, back and arms.... well over 80 in total) but they simply weren't healing like they should (yep, another sign of the dreaded diabetes) and i also had a load more infections, put that one down to being in a country with strange bugs and germs, but looking back it was definitely diabetes.
we got back a week before results day (and house move day for me too!) on top of that my mum had broken her foot so i couldn't get my bites and infections checked at the GP cos you had to drive to get there and packing the remainder of the house kinda took priority. so i just carried on drinking, sleeping and waiting for the infections to disappear.....
at this point we are about 3 weeks before i was finally diagnosed.... alot happened in those three weeks and the time went by very quickly.... we got my GCSE results, had my college enrolment, settled into our new house and finally registered with our new GP. i booked an emergency appointment with them for before our new patient check cos i still had infections from my trip to Tanzania.
it was with this appointment that i really lost confidence with doctors. looking back i am shocked by his ignorance, lack of questions and simple answer to a problem which was actually quite serious. so i went in and explained about the infections on my feet and how they just weren't shifting.... and his reply? his diagnosis? i was getting infections cos i wasn't moisturising my feet..... his explanation was that dirt was getting into dry skin in my feet and causing infections. no other questions asked. no other tests done. i was simply told that and told to leave.....
luckily, 2 days later i had my new patient check with the nurse.... its all the basics, height, weight, family history of illnesses, urine test..... that's where i was caught. a simple urine test showed up sugar... and some ketones too.... it was this day, the 8th Sept 2010, that my life changed forever. i was scared, i was upset and i didn't know what this would mean for me. i was then told to do a glucose tolerance test the next day, and with a sugar level of 14 after it, i was diagnosed diabetic..... it wasn't till i saw the consultant a few days after that i was given a glucose monitor and told that i had type 2 diabetes, given a load of tablets and left to deal with it myself..... this was a week before i started college. not exactly the best of all starts for me.
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