Did you really drive yourself here? Your BG is 540 and your A1C is 15.8! This was on Monday 2/2/2015 and I had little to understanding of what Diabetes was or what it meant. All I knew was that I didn’t feel good and the growing list of symptoms scared me.
I had hernia surgery Sept 2014. The surgery was uneventful and recovery was going well. But within a week, I began to notice some odd things. Balance and equilibrium issues (couldn’t walk a straight line) and increased appetite. Then I began losing weight…but I was chugging quarts of juice at a time and eating more (especially carbs). I have to admit, I didn’t mind the weight loss but it didn’t make sense. Things progressed to drinking gallons of water to quench my the constant, infuriating thirst (I kept them in my car, on the bedside table and in my desk at work). This inevitably led to waking up 7-8 times a night to go to the bathroom (and having to stop twice on my 20 minute drive to/from work). And what was up with my skin, hair and nails… with all the water I was drinking, I didn’t understand why it was this dry and dehydrated?
The two things that made me realize this was something serious:
- My vision changed quickly and pretty drastically (to the point that my glasses were useless and I had trouble reading almost eveything).
- I developed what I though was a limp. I could raise my left leg when walking but had less control of the downward motion of each step, so my foot would “flop” down with each step. Walking through the Chicago area snow was difficult at this point.
By Feb 2, 2015, 5 months later, I had lost 60 lbs and was feeling generally pretty crappy (for a 54 year old). I knew it was time to see my Dr. (the family practitioner I’d been seeing for 25 years). He ran a number of tests and with only the BG test results that day declared “it’s definitely Diabetes”. He said he wanted to see the rest of the lab results but said he thought it was Type 2 and sent me home with an RX for Metformin and Onglyza. Before I started the taking either of the medications he called and asked me to come back in as soon as possible to go over the lab results. Two days later he said in a calm and very matter of fact way “Well, you’re a T1. You’re not producing any insulin (in fact yours was negligible when we tested it)”. He handed me an insulin pen and had give myself a shot of short acting insulin, walked me through basic carb counting, gave me a preliminary MDI plan and said to read up on T1 as much as possible.
What happened next set the stage for how I would approach the next few months/ years after diagnosis. My Dr. spent the next 30 - 45 minutes talking to me about what to expect, what to look for, what to avoid and what not to stress about. And i asked what questions I could think of but I was mostly numb. I didn’t know any Diabetics or anything about Diabetes. Before he wrote up the first round of prescriptions, he took the time to run all of them through my insurance to determine the cost of each RX. As I left his office, he said “I still don’t understand how you walked in here…most of my patients would be in the hospital if they had BG and A1C numbers like yours. I know you can do this”. I walked out with a bag full of samples (insulin pens, needles, etc.) and a lot of questions.
My diabetes journey started there. Today I realize now that the invaluable insight and shared experiences of this diverse FUD community - from the strong, caring diabetics to all the parents of young diabetics who are the epitome of dedication, unconditional love and ferocious advocacy - will be what helps this Diabetic live a life Unlimited!
Lisa (Millz)
