Hi. I’m Aurora. I posted this note in another place on this site and someone kindly suggested I put it here as well, as an introduction. I am newly diagnosed, and was initially told I had a mild case and not to worry. I just saw my diabetes counselor two days ago and started testing, and am realizing my sugar is much higher than I thought, (one post-meal level of 192 so far, fasting at 147,) and that the neuropathy and leg cramps that were being attributed to other causes are most likely from diabetes instead.
I posted the following in response to the very warm welcome I got.
Wow! What a warm welcome! I’m feeling very overwhelmed right now. I
think I’ve been diabetic for quite some time and it was missed. I’m
having a lot of neuropathy and leg cramps, and my post-meal sugar is
spiking up to 192. If this were the only thing on my plate it’d be a
lot, but I have epilepsy, am post-stroke, have had multiple head
injuries, have had chronic fatigue syndrome for 30 years and was just
diagnosed with Lyme disease. I also have chemical injury/environmental
illness. A bunch of my liver enzymes are genetically defective and I
don’t handle environmental toxins well. Exposure to perfumes, scented
laundry products, pesticides, cigarette smoke, new carpets, etc., can
bring on severe neurological and immune system reactions, so I have to
work pretty hard to prevent that, and it makes most public spaces pretty
dicey for me.
I’m 56, single, my daughter is in the 22 year old phase of wanting a lot of
space from me and my beloved parents, who are 80, are dealing with my
mother’s multiple myeloma recurrence after thinking she was in complete
remission earlier this year. My mother is my best friend. We talk at
least once a week. My father and I are also very close. They live 3000
miles away. My brothers are also far away. We’re close, but emotional
support is not their strength. I do have friends who have been
supportive through the series of catastrophic health challenges of the
last ten years, but they’re all pretty much at capacity, and I do
co-counseling, a form of peer counseling, on a regular basis, but I’m
really feeling the need for family.
So starting to test (two days ago) and discovering that my sugar is much
higher than I thought, and much more of the time, and that I have
another complicated challenge to manage on top of all the rest,
is…well, overwhelming.
I’m grateful to find an online community like this. Thanks for the welcome.
I just wanted to welcome you Aurora, to our community. You will find it very helpful to talk to other people with the disease. I just got retyped to a Type1. I have been a diabetic for 4 years now and I find this website very helpful.
AGAIN WELCOME!!!
Jody
Welcome! Having a counselor can be helpful I don’t know if that is equivalent to a CDE (Certified Diabetes Educator) but I hope so. To live well with this disease education is the key. Learn all you can about your Diabetes because no mater what Type you have Diabetes is unique to each individual. Learning about Diabetes and how it reacts to your body will help with your management. Eventually because of highs you might have to take medication but if it helps whatever it takes to manage, do it.