Diabetes- My Story

A Bit Of Background.
For those of you who are unaware, Diabetes Type 1 is literally where the pancreas stops producing the insulin which is needed to regulate the blood sugars in the body. Type on is the least common of type 1 and 2, but more commonly seen in children then in adults. It can be regulated by insulin injections, though it has to be closely monitered.

I'm Not Here To Sell You A Sob Story :)
Ok, if you've read any of my other blog you can probably see that I'm usually pretty optimistic. Nowhere in my other blog have I mentioned this, but I have been type one diabetic since I was 4 years old. This is my story, but it isn't a sob story, it's a story more of hope and a laugh with the doctors and hospital staff who I have come to love so much, more than anything else. It's a story that proves that being diabetic isn't the end of life as you know it, and even in teenage years, it shouldn't stop you from doing anything.

Picture This :)
4 years old. Easter holidays. A girl is getting more and more excited, she's going to stay with her nana in that amazing bungalow for a few days, and she's going to have an amazing time. At such a young age she is unaware of how people are worried that she is becoming rather too skinny, all she knows is that she likes the sweets that they give her when she comes out of the school in the afternoon! And she is blissfully unaware that they are worried about the amount that she is drinking and going to the toilet, though she realises herself that she drinks a lot, having found herself on more than one occasion rather agitated because nothing ever seemed to quench her thirst. She doesn't realises, that on occasions she has been blanking her parents and going into sort of trances, which eventually forced her parents into thinking that maybe she was deaf. She knows about the blood that the doctor took from her a week or so beforehand, she was upset with him, her young mind thinking that he had stolen her blood, and without the knowledge to realise that she would actually get it back. She'd cried coming out of the doctors, but now that doesn't matter- she's packed up her bags to stay with nana, and she can't wait. But a call from the hospital who had looked at her blood tests, changes all of her plans. She sits with nana and Mum in the hospital, not really worrying, a bit bewildered maybe, picking up random toys, letting the adults do all the talking. She only really gets upset, when she sees that nana is leaving, and she is still there. Why? She is a day away from a coma, an incredibly high blood sugar and a generally very very lucky girl. But at the moment, she doesn't feel lucky, she resents the nurses for taking her holiday away from her. She cries. Eventually she settles down, she's fed horrible hospital food, and then they teach her how to inject. Mum practices on an orange. The girl, takes an unfilled needle, and is given permission to practice on the leg of her diabetic specialist nurse, it takes her mind off things for a while. A doctor comes in and tries to take more blood, he's making a mess of it and the girl laughs, diverting her attention away from the wheres wally book that a nurse sat next to her on the bed is looking at with her. Despite her upset, she seems to make the best of it. In a way she basks in the attention of the nurses, one nurse in particular she is very fond of, this nurse takes her down to the play room and brings her books, and on one occasion makes up a strange substance which looks like liquid until you play with it and then it becomes more solid, and she loves it whilst looking at it in confusion. She doesn't understand the ins and outs of her condition yet. She doesn't even know the word "pancreas" to know that it isn't working. She doesn't realise at this point, that within three months she will become so learned in diabetes, and that the words "Human Mixtard 30 G E" will become very common in her vocabulary where they probably wont be in other people her age. She certainly doesn't realise, that 12 years down the line, the advancements for people with diabetes will have come on as much as they have, in fact where she is now, newly diagnosed, playing with Beth in the playroom, she doesn't really even know the word "diabetes", though it's going to become a HUGE part of her life.

There's many things I can say about diabetes, many people to thank, I can talk endlessly about the advancements that have happened in my lifetime and the ones that are coming up, I can talk about the benifits of having diabetes aswell as the not so good things. But I'm saving it for other posts, today was just about how I got it, and my first experiences of a hospital. And just to remind everyone that being diabetic, though it might be tedious and sometimes it's normal to just wish you were normal, like all the other kids your age, and that's okay, but having it isn't all that bad. I'll go into that later, when I'm not so tired and it isn't 1:05 am.

Just remember-
Keep Smiling :)
Love, Tutti-Frutti.
xxx