REWIND

Let me rewind for you, here is my story.....

One day out of the blue I was feeling as if I just couldn't get enough water, like I was completely dehydrated.  I was drinking a  bottle of water every hour; then I became really hungry and just couldn't seem to fill myself up.  I thought it was quite strange but I just figured my hormones were running rampant.  I blew it off thinking it will go away.  How many times do we do that?  Often, we hope it will just work itself out.  After about a week of going through this process my vision went blurry.  Now I know something is really wrong!  My friends were telling me, "you know, you are almost 40, everyone's eye sights starts to go".  I knew that wasn't the case, I know my body.  

I remember my friend having the same symptom of constantly being thirsty and it turned out she was diabetic.  So I began to investigate, good old Google.  I looked up the symptoms for diabetes and sure enough I had ALL the classic symptoms.  I made an appointment with an Internalist, it was scheduled for a Tuesday.  But I ended up going to a walk-in clinic the Friday before because of what had transpired that morning....

My client had an 8:30am appointment and when she arrived she had informed me she was recently diagnosed with diabetes.  I told her I think I have diabetes and have an appointment scheduled for Tuesday.  She offered to check my sugars with her glucose meter and I said sure.  I had my usual on the go breakfast- Coffee w/sugar and milk and 2 toaster strudels with icing on top (boy do I miss those days).  The glucose meter read HIGH.  My client didn't know what that meant because she always got a number.  So I wrote down the company number from the meter so I could call them later to find out what that meant.  On my way to pick up my daughter from school I decided to make that phone call. They told me my sugars were OVER 600 mg/dL and I said, "WHAT"?  The representative informed me that a normal level is 70-99 and I said, "WHAT"?  I couldn't believe it, they were way off the charts.  I was starting to really worry now but didn't want my daughter know, so I picked her up and took her to dance without letting her know anything.  After dropping her off at dance I spoke with a friend who is a nurse and told her the whole story.  She freaked on me, she told me I needed to go get help right away; that if I wait till Tuesday I could end up in a diabetic coma.  Now I am freaked out!  I battled with myself about going that night but I did.  When I walked into the clinic to tell them that I thought I had diabetes, they looked at me as if I had no idea what I was talking about.  I shared with them the whole story of what happened in the morning but I could still see doubt in their eyes.  After doing a pee test and blood test, they said, "You are diabetic".  It had been about 5 hours since I had eaten lunch and my sugars were still almost to the 400's.  I told the staff at the clinic that I had a doctors appointment scheduled for Tuesday.  In the mean time they put me on a couple of time release pills to try and help bring my sugars down.

Over the weekend I spoke to friends who were Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic; I spoke with a couple of nurses as well trying to gather as much information as I needed to overcome this disease.  I saw the internalist on Tuesday, he gave me some new meds and a little more information about the disease and I was on my way.  I had no insurance at the time and I started to really worry because I knew this disease was going to be lifelong and expensive.  I got on my husbands insurance during the enrollment period but was put on probation for 1 year because the diabetes part of it was considered pre-existing.  

Friends kept telling me over and over, I couldn't possibly have diabetes, I was the healthiest person they knew.  I was active and for the most part ate healthy compared to todays standards (breakfast was my junkiest time).  I checked with all my family members as far back as great aunts and uncles and nobody had the disease.  I was diagnosed with Type 2- over 50, overweight,  and there is a family history.  I was 39, 120 lbs at 5' 5" with no family history.  So how could this be?

I got my sugars pretty well under control by diet, exercise and a small dosage of medications (pills).  But friends still insisted I couldn't be diabetic.  I asked the internalist what he thought and he said the medicine seems to be working so I don't really see a need to go to an endocrinologist.  But I wasn't convinced I was diabetic.  In January of 2011 I saw an endocrinologist and he did further blood work indicating I was Type 1 not not Type 2 diabetic.  My body was in the "honeymoon" phase and eventually my pancreas will quit and I will need to go on insulin.  
I took myself off all medicines around March of 2011 and said I was going to heal myself.  I managed to keep my sugars under control with a strict diet and exercise daily.  I tried all kinds of diets to see which one was best for me.  The raw food diet, which consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains (meat, dairy and eggs are not included) seems to have been the best diet for me and my body.  This diet is hard to maintain if you don't have some of the equipment for making some of the foods and it is costly to buy organic healthy foods.  Needless to say, I didn't stay on that diet.  

Come March of 2012 my pancreas finally quit and I was put on  insulin.  The endocrinologist and diabetes educator were surprised at how long I managed without insulin or any other meds for that matter.