Everyones diagnosis with Type 1 Diabetes is different.
This is why I started my blog - to share my story and this post was the very beginning.
This is my story…
Every person diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes may have similar symptoms but not everybody's diagnosis is the same. This story is from my account but parts within my memory are hazy. I don't know whether It is because i was so ill or that It was a sensitive time so I've blocked it out.
It all started when I was in year 7 around the summer term. Everyone who took part in the stage production of Oliver at my high school was taken down to London to see Hairspray the musical as a reward. All I can remember was being incredibly thirsty. Within a few hours of my journey I had drunk nearly all 3 bottles of my water. So as you can imagine after drinking all that water I started to need the toilet. Realising myself that id drunk a lot on the way there, but just putting it down to the fact that it was a novelty to be allowed flavoured water, on the way back I tried not to drink any. However after falling asleep I woke up to find my mouth incredibly dry, resulting in me drinking another bottle. Its just the hot weather making you drink a lot I thought to myself.
Later in the term I was becoming incredibly tired. By the end of the term I was exhausted. I was still drinking lots and during the end of year exams I started to annoy one or two of my teachers constantly asking to fill up my bottle and asking to go to the toilet. Standing outside my form room, I remember this like yesterday, I fiddled with my skirt and it very nearly fell to the floor. That night we had to buy a new skirt from the school shop before speech day at the end of the week. My mum and dad put it down to a growth spurt and I thought nothing of it.
The summer holidays rolled around. At the beginning of the holidays my cousins, sister and myself went to Filey for a week with my grandparents, something we did nearly ever year since being little. I continued drinking lots and going to the toilet a lot. My gran always tells me how she remembers I was drinking so much Robinsons fruit squash - looking back I agree. Constantly needing the toilet when you are at the beach leads to many difficulties - mainly the lack of toilet! Dragging my gran to the sailing club many times a day she knew something was wrong.
‘Promise me you will go to the Doctors when you get back from Spain’ - Gran the Pan (as we call my Gran haha)
I dismissed it - I didn't think anything was wrong.
Our holiday in Filey ended and we headed straight for our friends villa in Spain. This time with my parents, sister, cousins, auntie and uncle. This is where I became ill quickly. I was eating constantly (I developed a love for ham toasties) and loosing dramatic weight. Every night I would get up around 5 times and every morning Id have drunk around 4 litres of water (Its hard to hide how much you have drunk when the water is in a bottle abroad!) Every morning when Id wake up I was as tired as I had been that night when I had gone to bed. But everybody is sleepy and lazy on holiday - thats what I thought my tiredness was down too! My dad and uncle tried to throw me in the pool, ‘don’t snap her she's like a twig!’ my dad joked (unknowingly of course!)
When we arrived home my mum took me to the doctors, I tried to persuade her not to go but it was no use. This is a TMI warning - so they wanted me to wee in a bottle and as a 12 year old girl I refused. We took the bottle home and was told to bring it back the next morning. Finally after sleeping on the idea I reluctantly did. The doctors then ran some tests and told my mum the results should be there later that day and they would ring us. But an hour later there was a phone call…
It was Doctor Brophy my godparent and GP. He told my mum and dad that I urgently needed to go to hospital because I had extremely high blood sugar and ketone readings. We rushed all the way to the hospital and I had some more tests. They weighed me and took some blood samples. My mum and dad were both really nervous but I didn't really understand. They told me that I was Type 1 Diabetic and that my bloods were 38! They explained to me that a non diabetics blood sugar is between 4 and 7. I weighed around 4.3 stone and my condition at the time was severe. They told us that I was very lucky and that if we had not gone to the doctors on that day I would have been in a coma (shortly followed by death from DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis))
5th August 2009 - The date I was diagnosed.
It was really hard being diagnosed with a ‘disease’ (ergh I hate that term!) that you have never heard of and there is no cure for. It hit my parents especially hard. I remember being sat in a room and my dad having to leave - I know it was because he was trying to process it and didn't want me to see him upset. My mum with soft Northern Irish heart just cried. (Ive just cried writing this). I refused to stay in hospital that night. I just wanted to go home. I was told I was allowed if I did my own injection at home and came straight back the next morning. ‘ (From what I recall - my dad may have a different version) What would you like?’ My dad asked when we were sat in the hospital. Instant laugher from the nurses and my dad when they found out it was going to cost my parents an iPhone 3. Every cloud and all that ;) haha!
The rest of the summer is just a blur to me - I remember going to Clumber Park in our caravan, we always go to Clumber when a big event happens in our life. But apart from that all I remember from the rest of the summer is my parents helping me (mostly them) carb counting my dinner, scales, carb ratios and insulin injections.I did my own injections from the start - I refused to let anyone else inject me.
September rolled around and with all my new diabetic supplies I headed off to my first day of year 8. I was lucky enough for my mum to work at school so she let all the staff know that I had Type 1 - however I was petrified of telling my friends. Our first lesson was Biology and I think all the stress got to me because I felt really strange. From what I remember id only had this feeling once before. I checked my blood sugars and they were low. I remember being really embarrassed having to tell my teacher I was low but she was lovely. Some of the symptoms of low blood sugars are lack of concentration, dizziness and shakiness. I had two plain digestive biscuits to bring me back up as my eyes were welled up with tears. My friends on my table asked what was wrong. Newly diagnosed I didn't know how everyone would react. Only knowing about Type 2 before I was diagnosed and how it was portrayed in the media I thought they'd think it was because of my weight (which to be honest) you must have been able to tell it wasn’t!
I wrote it on my wrist - ‘I have Type 1 Diabetes’ - That took so much of my courage.
Being Diagnosed with Type 1 wasn't the be all and end all. It was the beginning and the start of a long journey but not a bad one - its a roller coaster. It was a learning process, it still is and it always will be. I hope by sharing my story it will be relatable to other Type 1’s - the unknown, the confusion and the symptoms. If you didn’t know what it was like to be diagnosed with Type 1 i hope its given you more of an understanding (and well done for reading to the end!)
Lots of love The Backpacker and the Pod xxx
Abbott, in partnership with AirStrip, have created ‘LibreLink’ which is an app on Android smartphones allowing you to see your glucose data on your phone straight from the Libre sensor. For me this sounds brilliant allowing me to carry less diabetes equipment and easily being able to access my levels from my phone which, quite simply, never leaves my hand!
