I was diagnosed when i was two years old. I remember a little bit about being in the hospital. Tell me when and how you felt when you were diagnosed!!
Peace
Anna <3
Weird enough that I should be able to remember more about it, but I don't really. So focused on the now, I guess.
I remember my Dad crying. That was probably hardest of all, putting my family through it with me and not being able to do a thing about it. I also remember feeling mad, naturally, for having gone to the doctor's in the first place. Scared, sad, confused, lost, probably a little pessimistic. Pretty much your standard diagnosis-emotions :)
I was 8 years old. I just remember my mom and dad taking the call from the doctor's office and starting to cry. It didn't scare me at the time (oh the wonders of childhood). The hospital was almost like a field trip and pretty awesome from an 8-year old perspective for the following reasons:
- Game room was down the hall. Hello video games!
- Menu for every meal and mandated snack time. AWESOME!
- A bed that I can control with a REMOTE? Can this get better?
- Playing outside was mandated and no school (although my homework was delivered)
- A bunch of people showed up with gifts.
- My parish priest came by to give me a special blessing (Anointing of the sick)
When I came home from the hospital, my little sister was having a pool party. All in all, it really was a pleasant experience and I'm glad I went through it when I was younger. I could see how difficult it would have been later in life.
I was diagnosed two days before my tenth birthday, which may sound really horrible but I did get a lot of extra presents that year. My blood sugars were in the 300s, and I spent 8 days in the hospital learning how to manage my diabetes. I didn't find out until years later, but my parents definitely had a much harder time with my diagnosis than I did.
It's really strange, but I don't really remember being freaked out about having to give myself shots everyday (looking back, I can't believe that I didn't at least cry when I found out that I would have to give myself shots). The thing I remember the most is the first time I had to give myself a shot. I was holding the needle, and I just sat there for a couple of minutes not able to move the needle any closer than a couple of inches from where I was going to give myself the shot. The nurse who was there supervising me just took my hand and gently pushed it down until I gave myself a shot.
Christie
I was diagnosed Sept. 4, 2007 at the age of 23. I had known something was wrong for quite a while, but did not do anything about it because if it was Type I diabetes, I would lose my job. When I went to the doctor, my blood sugar was around 700. I was pretty bitter for quite a while because the job I had worked so hard for was taken away from me Now it has more or less just become part of my life and I deal with it. I am back in graduate school working on my MBA and somewhat bitter again. I can't find an internship for the coming summer partly due to the economy and partly due to the fact that my past job provides no background for most of the MBA internships. I guess everything happens for a reason.
I was 18 months old, 32 years ago. All I know is Diabeties. Glad of that now, looking back.
I was diagnosed at 13! i felt sad, scared, and shocked! i was at urgent care and i stayed at two different hospitals(St.Mary's and CHOC(childrens hospital of Orannge County) it was really hectic it seemed when i was diagnosed!
~Kaylie~
i was diagnosed four years and five months ago, when i was eleven. i remember being really feisty with the doctors, i hated them so much & the questions that they would ask me. i also remember telling my mother that i was never going to check by myself & i was always going to make her do it because the meter that they gave us at first to learn with was very tempermental.
but obviously i made it past that, lmao. i remember my diagnosis really distinctly, down to almost every detail of the five days i spent in the hospital. it was interesting..
You sound a lot like I did when I was first diagnosed, Christie. For that first year, I was treated like a princess. And I didn't find this out until much later, but eventually my mom told me that even before I was diabetic, she would go hide in the car and cry her eyes out so that I didn't see. She could tell before I was diagnosed that I had diabetes, since my health was deteriorating pretty rapidly. Also because my aunt got diabetes at the same age I was at the time: 13. And I do have a lot in common with her.
I, too, did not take my diabetes as hard as my mother. When I first found out I had it, I wasn't shocked, I wasn't really sad...I was just blank. I went along with everything okay. The only thing that was scary for me were the shots. I was very afraid of needles back then, and just like you, I would sit there for like 15 minutes before I finally worked up the bravery to stick the needle in.
The first time I ever checked my blood sugar and found out I was diabetic, it was at my aunt's house. Her husband had Type 2 diabetes, so he already had a meter and stuff. I checked it early in the morning after eating what I thought would be my last carby, sugary meal the previous night. My number was either in the 300s or 400s. I don't remember. It was a dark morning, and the main thing I remember was my mother crying...
At least things are better now. And I'm certainly not very afraid of needles anymore. :P
~Kelley~
I went to the doctor for a sinus infection because i had it for a while and my doctor gave me meds for it and told me to come back in two weeks for a physical. I had lost a lot of weight and I was feeling sick a long time. So figured what the hell. OK.
two weeks passed and i went for my physical. they took blood work and a urine sample. My sister was with me as well because she had a sore throat. She went in right after me and the nurse called me back in I thought oh great there is something wrong with my sister. They took me into a room again and The doctor came in and told me we have to do a finger stick on you? A what? You have diabetes? What? Are you serious. He checked my blood sugar and it was 360. There was nothing wrong with her obviously it was me.
I was diagnosed when I was 25. Nov. 25, 2000. The day that changed my life forever. I was scared, and felt helpless. Here I am 8 yrs later and sometimes I still feel scared and helpless.
Wow Booth - 18 months old. I'm like you tho' - diagnosed at age of 7 - and all I know is life with diabetes - and it hasn't been bad up to this point in time even with the way things were managed back then (feel like an old fart here <lol> - heck - I am - but refuse to grow old).
I just remember my parents hiding all the candies (I'm from England - so we love our sweets) - in spots that I always managed to find - then they'd get moved again. I became quite the Harriet the Detective.
Oh and Gina - I hear you on the carbs - I LOVE THEM TOO! Probably the reason why I can't shed weight (I'm about 20 lbs overweight - my doctor is always telling me off - but my excuse is - I can't afford new clothing <lol>). Now with the insulin pump (a year now), it's too easy to have that extra few chips - bing, bang, boom - bolus of insulin - and I'm all set. Don't feel scared and hopeless tho' - if you do - you've got us here to help you!!!
i was diagnosed a couple of weeks after my 4th birthday. i remember that day like it was yesterday. diabetes runs in my family. the day we found out that i had diabetes, barney (the dinasaur) was going to be in town. they made me check my sugar before they would let me go to see him. i then was in the hospital for a week as my parents and me learned how to take care of it. exactly 2 months after my diagnosis. my brother was diagnosed.. but at that age what i didn't understand is why he did not have to be in the hospital at all...
i hope for a cures someday! april will be my 15 year aniverary of my diagnosis. i am planning on getting a tattoo for it. it will be a memorial tattoo for my uncle (who passed away before i was born .. diabetes complications) and a tattoo of hope.. for a cure!
Hmm, for those of us diagnosed later in life we truly are fortunate in the sense of things. This april will be my 2yr anniversary (now 31yrs old). I guess it was my April fools joke. All in all, I hate it. The only good that has come out of it are forums where people actually open up and share with each other as this one does. When I was first diagnosed I was feeling quite terrible. I was consuming more water than a fish! My diagnosis was brought about by my 860 BG at the time of my admission to the hospital. Then and even now I still feel (secretely) hopeless and different than everyone else. When I was admitted to the hospital the doctor said that me being so healthy (being a Triathlete at the time) is what saved my life and kept me out of going into a coma. I never realized what a daily struggle some people have to go through just to stay alive, for example Type 1s.
Sometime in 1973, I think. I'm pretty sure I was five years old, but my brother claims I was four. This makes no sense to me, as I clearly remember being in kindergarten when I was diagnosed and I'm quite certain I didn't start kindergarten until I was five.
All I know is that I was really sick for what seemed like a very long time. I was thirsty all the time and my mother kept taking water away from me because it was making me go to the bathroom so much. She refused to believe I was sick. My dad finally decided one day that enough was enough, and he overruled my mother. He picked me up off the couch (where I was lying, refusing to move because I was so tired), bundled me into the car and drove me to the hospital.
A week later, I was home with a public health nurse coming in to show my mother how to give me shots, and suddenly being told I wasn't allowed to eat any of the foods I wanted to eat.
I was diagnosed 5 years ago right before my thirteenth birthday, so I got to spend my birthday in the hospital. I had been feeling sick for a few weeks, and my doctors and family thought I just had the flu or a bladder infection. Diabetes doesn't run in my family, so nobody really knew much about it, or figured I'd have it. I finally got a blood test and then went to the doctor, who sent me to the hospital. They tried to test my blood sugar when I was there, but it was too high so the meters couldn't read it. They told my mom it could've been anywhere between 800-900. I spent the next 5 days there, and learned everything I needed to know. About 3 months later, they put me on a medtronic pump, and I just recently switched to the omnipod in August of '08. I didn't really think much of it when I was diagnosed because I was really out of it anyway. I think they could've told me anything at that point and I would've just nodded and said "okay". When I started feeling normal again, the initial shock of them telling me I had diabetes was over, so I just began to accept the fact that I was going to have more things to do than what I had before. Every once in a while I get angry though, especially when I'm with my friends and we are all going out to do something because I know I'm not going to be able to go out and eat a huge dinner with tons of carbs and then go and get an ice cream sundae right afterwards. I always have to make sure I have my meter and all my supplies, which can be annoying because I'd like to just be able to go out and not worry about taking a million things with me. I try my best to look at the bright side though because it could be a lot worse.
I'm a 46 year old professional (attorney) white male, married for 20 years (in 2009) with three kids (ages 11, 13, 16 in 2009). I was diagnosed with type I diabetes just before I turned 43, which I understand is relatively rare for someone my age. I had a fasting glucose level of 313 when diagnosed and a HbA1c of 14.4. Within 3 months, I'd brought my A1c down to 5.9 and it's been between that and 6.9 every quarter since then. As a Christian, I don't know why I've been challenged with this disease, but I use it as a witness for God to others on how to live with it... not just to live with it but to thrive with it and to excel in life despite having it. Like I'm sure everyone else with this disease, there are days that I ask "why me" and I get tired of the shots, the testing, and always having to make sure I have all of my diabetic stuff with me... but I have an awesome wife and 3 brilliant and beautiful kids to live for, which gives me the drive and purpose to make the best out of what God has given me. Thanks, David
I have kind of a weird story about how I found out...
I am in the Chemical Engineering co-op program at U of Alberta so I go out for 4 and 8 month work terms. I was out on my very first work term when I started showing all the classic signs and symptoms. I was living in a village of 19 houses in the middle of nowhere for this work term and all by myself. There is no history in my family so I had no idea what it was. I kept making excuses for it all because I am one of those people that never likes to believe they are sick. My mom bought the first season of the TV show Brothers and Sisters for Christmas and lent it to me because I didn't have cable or internet (or anything to do up there in the middle of winter...) And in the show the little girl Paige gets really thirsty all the time and is in the bathroom all the time and sleeping and stuff and she ends up in the hospital and I was like oh man I wonder what that girl has because whatever she has I totally have that. And they said she had diabetes! I was like oh no way, I don't have that. So the next day at work (where I DID have internet...) I looked it up, and I was showing all the signs and symptoms. I waited the rest of the week (knowing everything I knew now that was dumb...) and made the 5 hour drive home to go to the hospital. I figured I would be gone for the weekend, so wrong! When I was first diagnosed, the doctor was just like well with this blood sugar and your body type, it can't be anything but Type 1 Diabetes. I started bawling and he just started looking real awkward. He goes to me "I bet you're sad, aren't you?" Umm no? I feel great! Haha. Then he goes I will go get you some Kleenex. And never came back!! How awful is that!!