I was ten years old. It was July. I had spent the summer being thirsty, carrying around a gallon water jug and drinking about 4 refills of it a day. I had the fruity breath, had been wetting the bed, was lethargic, had lost weight, etc. My parents should have seen the warning signs - I think they just attributed it all to a hot summer and too much activity.
Leading up to the fourth of July weekend, I spent 3 days not eating and couldn’t get out of bed. They thought I had the flu because I’d been exposed recently. The morning of the third, my mom and brother found me nearly unconscious in the kitchen having crawled there to find water. I was diagnosed DKA that morning as soon as the ER doc saw me. My BG was over 1000 and by that point I was in and out of a diabetic coma. Very dramatic, but that’s always been my way.
I woke up at one point to be told by my parents that I had “diabetes” and passed out again. I didn’t know what it was and frankly didn’t care. Just wanted more water and to go back to sleep. In about three days, I was conscious again and feeling more like myself. Over the next week, I learned what it was all about and had fun being pampered by the hospital staff. I honestly enjoyed the extra attention and thought it was cool that I had a special disease. laughs Um… I think it’s considerably less cool now.
I was 10 at the time. I was a tag-a-long to my sister’s doc appt. Mom mentioned to Doc that I wasn’t myself, and he did a test for just about everything except diabetes. He ruled that out before he even got started. Then after all the tests came back normal, he decided to do a pee test and one last round of labs. We waited in the room for what seemed like days. He finally called us back to his office - that’s when we knew something was wrong. As he told us all I could do was sit and stare wide eyed, not knowing what this was about. My mom broke down in tears, blaming it all on herself, as she called my dad. We had no family history, nor did we know anyone with Type 1. I was admitted to the hospital within the hour and stayed there almost a week (I earned the name "lil trooper, b/c of how I handled it!!!). Of course, my 3 older sisters though the “baby” was playing “diabetes” for attention. If only they knew! (btw: they are much more educated now =])
you can read my mom’s point of view in my blog.
No one really told me. I got rejected for life insurance and had to figure it out from the lab results they sent me. It took me a month to work up the courage to go to the dr for confirmation and then started down the oh so familar type 2, but actually type 1 road. I felt frustrated that I had had blood and urine tests for annual obgyn exams, but they don’t screen for blood sugar? Apparently not! I had symptoms too - I just didn’t put it together. Or maybe I didn’t want to.
i was sicker than a dog for a while. i went from 162 lbs (you could have set a scale by me) down to close to 100 lbs. all the while i knew that it was diabetes because my father and brother (and a brother that died) all were t1. i went to a doctor who dismissed it out of hand. i ended up going over to the joslin (at the time i lived in south boston) and they tested for antibodies, that showed up negative, so they just said, nope. all of that time i was going nuts. i had all of the classic symptoms, loss of weight, thirsty, peeing alot ect. i was a textbook diabetic, but all of the usual tests (except bg, which no one bothered to do) showed that i was clean. i think that it went so long that i was over my honeymoon and all of the antibodies were gone. i finally called friend that had just finished his residency at boston city hospital. he spent about 5 minutes with me and said “if your not a diabetic, than i am a bear in the woods!” he told me to go to the er at bch where he had called ahead and relayed the emergency. i lost consciousness in the waiting room and woke up 3 days later in icu… never had a honey period after that… i have since made my peace with the joslin and my children all go there… have a doctor there that we love.
I was walking down the street when this lady on the other sidewalk started yelling at me. “You! Hey, you! Yeah, you! You have diabetes! Everyone! That guy has diabetes!”
No, seriously . . .
I had the three “P’s” (polyuria-frequent urination, polydypsia-frequent drinking and polyphagia-frequent eating) for a couple of months. My wife, a pharmacist, said that those were symptoms of diabetes “but you don’t have it.”
I went to the doctor, by BG was over 500 and doctor say, “Yep, you have it. That lady on the street was right.” (I made up that last part.)
I was 48 years old. They said Type II, but changed it to Type I after I was an endo.
I was oficially diagnosed when I was 25. In January 1995, I had gone to the free clinic for birth control pills. When there they did all the exams and blood work. Until all the results were in they gave me only one pack to be sure I would come back again in a month for more. When I returned in February they told me the possible diagnosis and requested I do another test with fasting, and for me to come back next month. Once all was said and done in April, I recieved a phone call from the nurse telling me I was offically a diabetic. From there I was severly angry. I was not at all happy. But then I should have known. For years when I was a teenager, my grandmother who was diabetic, insisted that I was also, so my stepmom would take me to local diabetic screenings. For years the tests came back negative. Once I finally got into a doctors office the doctor stated that my history was unique but that I wasnt the first. Apparently there is some kind of correlation with teenagers who show signs of diabetes but unable to be detected until early to mid twenties. He said that the hormones and chemicals related to puberty often put up a smoke screen preventing diagnosis. I dont know if this is true but thats what I was told!!!
I was 19 and a sophmore away at college (1982). I had been suffering from bronchitis for a while and after a while realized that I was always thirsty and always peeing, waking up 2-3 times a night to go. I also could not sit through a one hour class without getting uncomfortable, or walk back home after class, without the incredible need to go. Of course, not knowing any better, I was slaking my thirst with Coke. I went to the campus health clinic and they told me I had a kidney infection and put me on antibiotics.
When I went home for spring break, my parents noticed I had lost a lot of weight (almost a quarter of my body weight), and I told them what my symptoms were. Late the next day, I was at their doctor’s office. He did a urine sugar test and said “You’re 4+ urine sugar.” When I asked what that meant, he said I was diabetic. He then started calling around to find me a specialist (he found one on his fourth call), and sent me over, where my parents joined me and I learned about injections, got a stack of papers and prescriptions (as he was writing them out for me, my mother reached into her purse and pulled out an empty bottle of valium and asked if he could do something for her, too) and instructions, and was sent home to begin my new life.
I was back to see him a couple of days later and then a week after that, and then sent back to school to cope with this new phase of life. Took a long time to really begin to understand things (not that I do now, 27 years later).
It was last 6 months ago. I’m 17. I had been drinking insane amounts of water for about 1-2 months. And, eventually, I was losing a few lbs a week without trying. So, my mom (who’s a former nurse) said it sounded like diabetes. I told her I felt fine… and that the only reason i was drinking so much water (a couple of gallons a day), was because i loved water (ha.ha). well, we know 1 person with type 1. we asked him to bring his testing kit to church the next day. he did, and he tested me right as the music was starting at church. it said 511. i was like… “is that high?”. he’s like… “oh, yes.” so, my mom called the doctor, and the doctor told us to go to the ER.
I basically knew as soon as I heard the 511 was high… that i had diabetes. but, seriously… i wasn’t that scared, cause i was like “well, Nick Jonas has it! and he’s doing good!”. i guess i didn’t know how hard it was. oh, how i’ve learned.
It was about a month before i left for my freshman year of college…i work in a nursing home on the night shift and me and my coworkers were board so we started measing with a meter at the hospitals expense… i came out at 285 and then my friend tested it again and it was 290… walked into my doctor a week later and said “hey guess what i have diabetes!” she looked at me all crazy like and said ummm no you dont you are so healthy and show no signs!!! after a little argument (my doctor is like my best friend) i said then prove me wrong im fasting test me now… got a phone call several hours later telling me to come back to my doctors office… i walked in with a big smile and said “SEE I WAS RIGHT!!”
gotta find a little humor in life and having this disease!
Wow, All that I remember was going to my doctor for a physical to enter first grade. I must have been 6 years old. The next thing I know, I am in the hospital because I am a diabetic. The term changed over the years to be more socially correct. Anyway, I was there for a week or two, getting neat gifts and getting shots every day until it was time to go home and continue getting shots but not so many cool gifts.(gifts were not “cool” back then) My mother was a nurse and our family had always eaten a good diet so things did not change a whole lot. Learned to sweeten my cereal with Sucaryle(sp) and Mom quit making a lot of the really good sugar stuff, but I was always well fed and never not given a taste of the sweet stuff when holidays came around. I remember wanting to sit on my Dad’s lap while Mom gave me my shot. It was always in the leg as my arms were too darn skinny. I was 11 years old before I had the courage to shoot myself. The diagnosis was about 51 years ago. A1C 2 weeks ago was 5.5. Thank You very much.
My GP saw me first and like some sort of mental deficient, put me on Type 2 drugs for a few days to see if it would help. Keep in mind I was in full-fledged ketoacidosis, gaunt as hell, pale, acetone-breath, you know, all the unmistakable signs of Type 1.
The endocrinologist I saw next immediately gave me a urine ketone test strip to take to the bathroom. It went from that very pale flesh color to a deep purple immediately. I surmised this meant there was a problem.
My first question upon hearing I was diabetic?
“Do I need to take shots?”
Hahahah, if I had only known at the time that injections would be the least of my worries.
My grandma was a type 2, so one day when I was visiting and watching her take her blood glucose I asked if she would take mine. She took my blood glucose in the morning (technically a fasting glucose reading) and it was something like 260 mg/dL. So for the whole week I stayed with her she monitored my diet, and brought me to swim everyday at the jcc where she worked as a swim instructor. She pretty much was trying to lower my levels by doing what she did for herself as a type 2. My blood glucose levels were still sky high…and I was 11 yrs old and was terrified.
So when I get home from my grandma’s house I see my internist who says “yea you have diabetes”, and they recommend me to an endo. Mind you I was always a chubby kid (we are italian and know how to eat) he automatically assumed I was a type 2. He neglected to acknowledge the fact that although I was overweight I had recently lost a whole bunch (about 20 lbs), especially since this was the time when type 2 was starting to occur more in kids. He put me on glucovance, and I took it for the five years I saw him. Not once in a five year period did I have a meter reading of below 200 mg/dL, and I continued to drop weight. Finally my endo gets hired by some pharm comp to work as a research dr and I have to find a new endo.
My new endo is confused why I have such high levels. First off my mom went like insane when she found out I had diabetes and I had no refined sugar for five years and my carb intakes were pretty much all whole grains, from fruit, or veggies (worst five years of my life). Second in another act of motherly action I was swimming four times a week for an hour and a half every time. All this and my glucose levels were still totally obscene. So this new endo puts me on lantus, and does the islet antibody test. I found out at my next 3 month that I make no insulin at all, and that I am a type 1 (suprise). So then I started taking insulin and low and behold my levels went to a place of normalcy. Then I got used to taking insulin for whatever and cheated all the time, and my A1c was at 13.9 a year ago. So here we go:( now Im lowering it but realized I can’t be a dummy.
I spent a Thursday night throwing up uncontrollably… That Friday we got an emergency visit to the Teamsters clinic. They took blood and asked me if I had been playing with kerosene, they were really sure that I had been playing with kerosene. So, they sent me home. I spent Friday night throwing up more. Saturday morning, the phone rang, it was the clinic, they had made arrangements for me to be admitted to children’s hospital. Of course, my dad was unreachable at work with the car. So, we took the bus downtown. When we got there the Milwaukee Xmas parade was going on. So, the east west bus to take us the last 25 blocks was shutdown for the parade. So, we walked.
