A+Day+in+a+Life...

= A Day in a Life... =

On this page I will documenting what I feel it is like to find out that you have Type 2 Diabetes and someones personal perspective on it.

So I am a 26 year old female, who is resently gotten married and I have my whole life ahead of me. However in the past few weeks I have been feeling very tired. I don't know if it is just because the wedding is over but I let it go for a bit because evently I will get caught up in my sleep. Now a few more weeks have pasted and I am just as tired and now I am have problems with my vision and this week I have been extreme thirsty. My husband convince me to go to the doctor, where she send me for blood work and a week later we have the answer. I have type to diabetes. My first thought is that I am too young to have this, this is only for older adults who don't take care of themselves. The doctor calls me back in to the office so that we can discuss treatments for this. She starts me on some medication and refers me to the diabetes clinic in the hospital. Once all the training has been complete for how to test my blood and my visit with the dietitian is done-- I am now on my own.
 * __Finding out I have Type Two Diabetes__ **

Over the next few months I have some high and some lows. I find it hard to adjust my lifestyle to my new disease. Sometime I think that it is not fair---why did I have to get this. My husband is trying to be supportive, but there are times where he just doesn't understand that I can't just go-go-go. He sometimes get upset that we can't just do things we use to do, like go to the bars or have long hike or just stop for take-out. I find a self-help group in my area which meet once a month. The people in this group know what I am going though, they have been in my shoes and have some great advice on how to make the lifestyle changes. I bring home some information which helps explains type two diabetes better to my husband and I find as the weeks go on he is my biggest supporter. Yes, taking the medication is never going to end, and Yes I am going to have to continue to test my blood sugars---but my life is going to go on and with the help of my family and doctors I plan to live a long healthy life.


 * My question to Daryl was "How it has in packed your life and lifestyle including going to work and maybe a change that you might have had to make to cope with type 2? " **

Type 2 Diabetes didn't seem like a big deal to me at first, my Dad and his brother and sister had it, and my grandfather as well so it just seemed like a family thing, no big deal. However, it wasn't long before I realized carbohydrates were a problem. It's almost like an addiction for me. I crave them and suddenly I had to stop. I have an active lifestyle so I never had to worry about the calories from the carbs but now they were a deadly addiction. Like most Type 2 s I managed it well at first with watching my eating, going to clinic every 3 months and testing my sugars several times a day. But the motivation fades and you test less and eat more. I had high sugars and was tired and running to the washroom all the time but I still ate a ton of carbs. Then I started with some pills and things were back under control but I experienced by first low sugar... I was trembling and dim witted and found it hard to even do my blood sugars. Once I realized, a little sugar and I was fine. Later I heard of a new approach for Type 2 Diabetics to take a long lasting insulin to give their pancreas a break. I started that, just 16 units (very little) at bed time and my sugars seemed even more controlled. However I was still having high sugars if I ate too much carbohydrate. I tried counting carbs (a way diabetics keep track of their carbohydrate intake) and it actually scared me. Sometimes I was having a days worth of carbs in one meal and not giving it a second thought.

I have my heart checked every year because of some changes from the diabetes, so far only minor issues but they are there and I know I have to be careful. I can't just go out and eat what I want, I know the consequences. By my age my Dad and his brother both had lost their legs to diabetes and my Dad had 4 heart attacks.

I love an active lifestyle and I don't want diabetes to change that. I walk or run 3-5 times per week. Snowshoe in winter, hike in summer and try to hit the weights a few times a week if I can. It's frustrating that even with an active lifestyle I have a potbelly, probably related to my insulin. But with the help of a good medical team things have been well controlled and I hope to lead a perfectly normal life into my old age.