November is National Diabetes Awareness Month and I realize that raising awareness DOES require honesty and this comes from the heart and what brings me to this message.❤️
I have been living with type 1 Diabetes for almost 10 years now.
My story leading up my diagnosis:
A broken arm after a low blood sugar blackout while running...months later, losing my eyesight (only seeing blurred colors) in the meantime dropping over 20 pounds and becoming rail thin. The blindness made me rush to a Dr. friend to get checked. After seeing a general doctor, he assumed I had type 2 diabetes and gave me a week of pills to try. A few days later, a friend called to check on me and told Donnie to go grab a ketone test from CVS. The stick showed the darkest color which meant I was in trouble and had an extreme amount of ketones in my urine. Donnie rushes me to Shands and they give me insulin and fluids. My blood sugar was over 800. And the whole time I was thinking that my marathon training was the cause for the quick weight loss and excessive thirst, hunger, fatigue and sweating...little did I know what was really causing my thinness and as you can imagine, as a health nut, I NEVER IMAGINED it could be diabetes of all things.
A broken arm after a low blood sugar blackout while running...months later, losing my eyesight (only seeing blurred colors) in the meantime dropping over 20 pounds and becoming rail thin. The blindness made me rush to a Dr. friend to get checked. After seeing a general doctor, he assumed I had type 2 diabetes and gave me a week of pills to try. A few days later, a friend called to check on me and told Donnie to go grab a ketone test from CVS. The stick showed the darkest color which meant I was in trouble and had an extreme amount of ketones in my urine. Donnie rushes me to Shands and they give me insulin and fluids. My blood sugar was over 800. And the whole time I was thinking that my marathon training was the cause for the quick weight loss and excessive thirst, hunger, fatigue and sweating...little did I know what was really causing my thinness and as you can imagine, as a health nut, I NEVER IMAGINED it could be diabetes of all things.
This month, JDRF promotes raising awareness of our incurable disease. I won't downplay what we go through and I won't forget about all my successes along the way to take control of my disease. To those of you wondering-there is NO CURE for us type 1’s as of today.
A PERSON WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES MUST TAKE INSULIN EVERY DAY OR THEY WILL DIE. NO AMOUNT OF HEALTHY EATING, EXERCISE OR CAREFULLY CONCOCTED HERBAL REMEDY WILL EVER ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR INSULIN.
I try not to hide how hard my bad days are, as well as to still have hope in spite of those hard days. People may look at me and think I have my life together but I am not perfect. I am moody some days. Some days I feel like a brain fogged space cadet. I am apathetic some days. I am mad/depressed on others. This ride has had more ups and downs that any roller coaster at any theme park that i've ever ridden and that's the truth.
Having T1D is not a cookie cutter scenario either. There is a broad spectrum that we fall under from well managed to Brittle Diabetes where some are constantly in and out of the hospital. As of today, I am still not fully managed.
Some days I may post about how we should be brave, resilient and be positively optimistic about this disease. That's not me being dishonest about how I feel but showing others to make the best of the hand we are dealt with. I do know that things could be worse. This is something I can live with and handle and for that, I am so thankful. But to say we do not struggle every single day with this monster disease would be a lie.
As we all know, with #T1D bringing in so many billions of dollars a year, there’s a lot of money to be made by keeping us sick so I just want to say THANK YOU for those TRULY working to find a cure for T1D. ❤ I also would like to thank my hubby and my family for their endless love and understanding. You know who you are. I love you guys.