So, as the title of this post suggests its a journey through my diabetic life, why? because sharing my experiences may help other people in their life.
I have always thought through growing up that I may be diabetic, having the normal symptoms. Thirst, sweating, pee'ing and being tired alot but when I would ask the GP I was told no, you do not fit the type for it, or nope your to young and I would simply accept that, silly eh? even considering my dad and grandad are both diabetic.
Well in March 2010 I had a bad Asthma attack and my employer decided they wanted me to see their Occupational Health team to make sure I was ok to continue with my job after my Asthma attack.
When I arrived for my appointment I was asked if they could perform a random finger prick test to see what my blood glucose was, I agreed, I had no problem with this. They took the blood and the result came back something silly like 22mmol/l (high) and I hadn't eaten, so even worse, they then asked to check my urine to see if that was ok, no problem again, well that showed Ketones in it (we will come to that later) they gave me a letter to hand to my doctor to insist they done some actual blood tests.
I made an appointment with my GP (I had actually changed GP as I had moved home) and they agreed to check my blood sugars with an Hb1Ac (a blood test which measures your blood glucose level average over 3 months) this came back slightly high 7.5 normal a non diabetic persons would be 5 or under.
So, I was diabetic, it wasnt so bad, well it didnt seem to be anyway, I was given Metformin and told to take 1 a day and come back the following week to see how I was getting on.
Things went from bad to worse, I was pouring water down my throat as much as I could but it just didnt seem to stay in me, I was up in the night a few times every night having to use the toilet, it just wasnt right.
I returned to the GP just under a week and she upped my dose of tablets to the highest possible and said to give it 2 weeks to see if it would make any difference. Also she made an appointment for me to see the nurse at the GP surgery to go through diabetic things.
I saw the nurse later that week and she went through information on food, checked my feet and that was it really, no advice, nothing really just dont eat sugar. She gave me a blood glucose meter to keep an eye on my blood sugar levels so i could show them to her on my next visit. This was still no problem, I was on a drug which would fix me and all I had to worry about was cutting out the sugar in my coffee, no problem!
I returned the following week to see the nurse and the GP. They looked through my record book and questioned it alot, it had readings of 19-33 mmol/l I didnt know what this meant, I just new I was taking my pill and not having sugar in my coffee, I would get better right? Nope!
The metformin was not working for me, my sugars were getting higher and higher. I was told they would be starting me on Insulin that day, oh god! Needles! I was a little worried about having to shove a needle in myself and the nurse could see that.
She told me to lift up my top and close my eyes, she said she would count to 3 and place a needle in me, I wouldn't have to watch and she said I would hardly feel it, hmm sure, but ok! starting to sweat some here now, I lifted my top up and closed my eyes. I waited and waited, she started to count ...1... open your eyes, she didn't get to 2 or 3, I opened my eyes and there was a needle sticking in me! WOW no pain! I was shocked, that eased my worries a little!
The nurse taught me how to place a needle on a pre-filled insulin pen of Lantus, she told me to start taking 10 units once a day and come back in a week with my readings so we could work out the dose.
The following week I returned, only thinking I would be adjusting the dose, not adding a further 3 injections, bringing my daily injections up to 4 a day!
MORE TO COME....
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