My Diagnosis

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on January 10, 2019. It was the beginning of the year, a year I really thought was going to be "my year!" Little did I know what was in store for me! Days, even months before my diagnoses, I had symptoms of diabetes but at the time, I had no clue what the symptoms of diabetes were! Which is part of the reason I want to spread awareness about diabetes and its' symptoms so that others who may be experiencing the symptoms can get medical treatment before the problem becomes a serious health complication.

__

Back in November of 2018, I began to realize how much water I was drinking. I mean, sure I do drink a lot of water but at some point I started to think, "woah, I have been drinking lots of water and I am STILL thirsty." I didn't think twice about it, I just kept drinking water until I quenched my thirst. Another thing was my appetite. I am pretty petite and have been my entire life, so I have never had a big appetite. I would always eat half of a meal and get full so I'd save the rest for my next meal. In November, I had also noticed how my appetite changed. I was eating so much all the time! Instead of eating only half of my meals, I was eating the entire thing and THEN SOME! I got a little excited because I thought it would help me to gain some weight. Instead, it was doing the opposite. Every week I seemed to be losing a couple of pounds, which wasn't okay because I am already petite as it is! This is when I began to sense a problem. I made an appointment with my primary doctor just to make sure everything was functioning properly and to get some blood work done.

On January 7, 2019 I had my first day as a graduate student! I was really nervous but really excited at the same time! On that Monday I woke up feeling strange. I blamed it on being anxious for my first day of grad school. I had absolutely no appetite and I did not want to get out of bed. Any time I stood up I would get super light headed, and within a minute of standing my chest would feel super tight and it would become hard for me to breathe. Now, I have anxiety for a lot of things and I have had a couple of anxiety attacks in the past and they felt nothing like what I was feeling that day. I almost did not even want to go to school that day. I forced myself to get ready. I did my make up laying down because standing or sitting would make me feel faint, like I was going to pass out. I would stand up put on my shirt, then lay back down to catch my breath, stand up put on my pants, then lay back down until I caught my breath again. It was a really horrible feeling but then again, I just blamed it on my anxiety. I told myself that after class I would feel better because at that point I wanted to believe it was my anxiety making me feel this way more than anything. After my class that night, I felt a little bit better. I thought that once I slept, I would feel much better the next day.

__

The next day, I woke up and I STILL felt the same way! Only this day I felt extremely fatigued, which is another symptom! I slept probably the entire day. And again, I had no appetite so I didn't eat. By this day I was losing weight like CRAZY! My face started to change, and it really scared me. I ignored the symptoms and just slept it off because that was the only time I felt "okay". I told myself once again, just sleep some more and by tomorrow you should feel better. Wednesday came and went and I felt the same as I did before.

__

On Thursday, January 10, 2019 I woke up feeling worse than ever. I decided to call a 24/7 nurse hotline to get advice on what I should do. After telling the nurse the symptoms I had been experiencing she told me to rush to the emergency room as soon as possible. This really scared me. I had never been to the ER before. So many things were running through my head at this point. I was not well enough to drive myself there and nobody was home. Everyone was working but my boyfriend works close enough to my house, and was able to leave work to take me. We got to the ER and within 5 minutes of being there they took me in. I was extremely nervous about being there already, I felt my heart racing, faster than I have ever before. I guess it was a combination of the diabetes symptoms and just being really nervous. The nurse took my vitals and my heart rate was at 170 beats per minute. He said my heart was racing as if I had just ran a marathon...but I didn't. I just remember after he read my vitals he yelled for another person and he rushed in with this heart machine. At this point I was scared of what was going on inside my body. I had no clue what was going on. After this, everything is such a blur because everything happened SO FAST. They put me in room where I was bombarded with a bunch of doctors and nurses. They had to give me medication to relax because my anxiety was through the roof at this point. They began running tests and within 10 minutes of being in the ER, one of the nurses who had ran my test pops her head into my room and asks, "have you ever been diagnosed with diabetes?" My mom and I answer, "No?" and she says, "Okay well it looks like you have diabetes." At this point I was so loopy on the medication they gave me, I didn't really process the news.

__

Next thing I know, they are keeping me overnight in the ICU so they can monitor me and bring my sugar level down. My sugar level was 400 something (normal range for people without diabetes is 60-90). My blood sugar was so high that I was in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which is when your body's pH levels become acidic. When your body is in this state for a long period of time your organs work twice as hard to keep you alive and too much of this can lead to organ failure, coma, or even death. It's really scary to think that I was in that situation but I am forever grateful for the nurses and doctors who took great care of me! That night I had slept in the ICU and I was there until the next morning until they moved me to a regular room. I was at the hospital for a total of 3 days! Looking back now, when I was in the hospital I didn't realize how serious diabetes is. In my head, I thought I wouldn't need to inject myself with insulin before every meal and ALWAYS check my blood sugar, and worry about so many other things. My train of thought was, once I leave the hospital my life will go back to normal. Little did I know how different my life would be after this and I would never have my "normal" life back ever again.

__

Since being released from the hospital I have had tremendous support from my family, friends, doctors, and even professors. I know that with their help and support we can get me to live the most normal life I can while managing my diabetes!

Thanks for reading!

Stay sweet.

Xo,

Isabel