I was 15 and it was mother-take-your-daughter-to-work day. I went with my mom to work (she's a nurse and was in home health back then) and I was eating almost nothing but guzzling 2 liters of Pepsi. Before this, my parents thought I was on drugs because I was losing weight fast, always tired, eating nothing, and always going to the bathroom. By the way, diabetes runs on my dads' side of the family. So my mom decided to check my blood sugar, and all the meter said was "high". So she called my doctor to tell her what was going on, and of course she was out to lunch with her daughter. When we got to the ER, they hooked up an IV and took blood work; my blood sugar was 1300! That's all I remember because I went into a coma and when I woke up, my doctor, mom, and grandma were in a hospital room with me and they gave me the lovely news that I am diabetic.
Of course I hate needles, so getting diabetes worked out perfectly. I hated the fact that I had to give myself insulin and couldn't eat what all of my friends were eating; it was very depressing. On top of that, my blood sugars were all over the place, so I went on an insulin pump. I loved it! So I had that until I was 26 when I lost my parents' insurance and didn't have any of my own at the time and the darn things aren't cheap. So I went back onto injections and back onto the roller coaster of blood sugars. I decided to be defiant and eat whatever the heck I wanted, whenever the heck I wanted. That didn't go so well of course.
I recently got health insurance again so as soon as that happened, I got my pump back. I am back to feeling great and love educating people on diabetes because people tend to not know the real story and just assume they know everything and they truly don't.
Kansas City, KS
