The Diagnosis

I started feeling kind of crappy around September. Nothing big - just overly tired, mostly. And a little bit nauseous sometimes. My husband and I were trying to get pregnant with baby #3, so I just figured "Yay! I'm pregnant -that was fast." But I wasn't.

October rolled around, and I was still really tired all the time, and having a hard time getting things done (like cleaning the bathrooms or getting the mail). Still not pregnant, so I figured I was tired because I was working too much (I own a small business, and fall is our busiest time of year) and nauseous from a stomach bug or something.

By the time November hit, I was EXHUASTED all the time, and would wake up in the morning and just lay in bed wondering how I was going to get through my day (typical sometimes, but not every.single.day). And on top of that, I was really thirsty all the time, and peeing a lot. This time I thought, "Okay, I have GOT to be pregnant - was I this thirsty with my other babies?" I was so surprised (and sad) when I was not pregnant. At some point, in some part of my brain, I did remember a Baby Sitters Club book about Stacy getting diagnosed with diabetes and being really thirsty before she passes out on a train or something. Haha - how that has stayed with me for 20 years but two years of french classes left me with exactly 5 french words in my vocabulary, I have no idea. But AGAIN, I just chalked the symptoms up to being really overworked (long hours and two kids under 5! That is enough to tire anyone out, right?) And I got used to drinking so much water. After a while, it didn't seem out of the ordinary to wake up in the middle of the night to pee. So I didn't go to the doctor.

Around the first week of December, I put on the glasses I occasionally wear to watch a movie or something. My vision was blurry. This was weird, because my prescription hadn't changed in over 5 years and two pregnancies, and they were fine a week before. At that point, things went down hill fast for me. I started losing weight no matter what I ate (hey, not complaining, just saying), my vision was getting worse every day, and I was so very tired no matter how much I slept or how little I accomplished during the day. One night I was making dinner and freaked out at my husband over some tiny thing and just thought "What the crap is wrong with me?!" And at that point I realized that something was really wrong. Typing it makes me feel like Duh - what took you so long?! But life got in the way, I didn't want to admit anything was wrong, and you know how it is - you get used to drinking like 20 glasses of water a day and waking up to pee twice a night if you live with it for long enough. It had somehow become my new normal.

I went to see a family practice doc in the small town I live in and told him about my symptoms. I also told him I had googled them and was afraid I had Diabetes. I am sure doctors just LOVE people coming in and saying "But webMD said...", so he probably ended up dismissing some of what I said. Since I'm in my late 20's and have no family history, he didn't think I had Type 1 Diabetes. I am not overweight, so he said it was unlikely I had Type 2 either. He talked about Mono and being overworked and overly stressed, and some other possibilities. I felt dumb for being a little bit of a hypochondriac, but was relieved. He sent me to the hospital to get some labs done the next day (Saturday), and said he would give me a call by Tuesday.

I went to a family get together on Sunday, and my husband's aunt (who just happens to be a diabetic and a nurse) was there. She heard about my symptoms and was concerned, so she decided to prick my finger and check my glucose level on her meter right then and there. Just as I had loaded up my dessert plate (With Costco truffles, among other things. COSTCO FREAKING TRUFFLES people.) she pricked me and squeezed my little drop of blood onto the test strip. 5...4...3...2...1... and a number pops up. I don't know anything about blood sugar levels at this point, but her nine-year-old daughter (who is also a diabetic) saw the reading over her shoulder and said "HOLY CRAP!" It was 547. His aunt looked at me and said "I'm so sorry - you have diabetes". Goodbye, beautiful dessert plate.

Even though I had wondered if it was diabetes, I was not prepared for how it would feel to actually be diagnosed with it. It just didn't seem real. One minute I am just me, and then all the sudden I have this new label - I am a diabetic. I thought of all the things I knew about diabetes (which was not much)- Stacy, Steel Magnolias, and beeper-looking things hooked onto your belt all flashed through my mind. Could I have more kids? Could I ever eat Costco Truffles again? These were some of my first thoughts. The Aunt went over some things with me, and despite meaning well, pretty much scared the crap out of me even worse. Finding out while being surrounded by a whole family of in-laws was not the most fun thing either. My husband and I went into a back bedroom and he hugged me while I cried. We stopped by my parents house on the way home and told them the news. I had a sister die from complications of Leukemia, so they are more stressed out than normal about any health issues. I felt so bad having to tell them.


After a little bit of time and a lot of prayer, I started to feel like "Okay, I can do this. My life is not over." I believe we can learn things from the challenges in our lives. I strongly felt like there are things I can learn from this, and I don't have to let this ruin the rest of my life. And so far, I have been able to keep that attitude most of the time. There are days and moments where I am so sick of diabetes and everything that comes with it, but most of the time I am okay with it. I am grateful for that. I am also so amazed and grateful that some person has figured out a way to give my body insulin so that I can eat carbs and not die! Seriously, how amazing is medical technology? Anyway, that is how my whole diabetic-journey got started. If you are still reading at this point, a gold star for you! That was a seriously long post.