At the beginning of January I started feeling a bit under the weather and I started getting leg cramps in my sleep. My vision went really bad; I couldn’t see the tv clearly from the couch, 5 feet away.
By February I couldn’t get warm no matter what I did and the cramps were so bad I was up three or four times a night; everything from the knuckles in my toes up to my knees would seize and I could barely use my legs. I started losing a lot of weight; I went from 135 to 130.
By March I was constantly thirsty no matter what or how much I drank. Nothing appealed to me – food or drink wise – unless it was sweet. I had no energy, the cramps were worse than ever, I was in the bathroom more often than I should have been. On March 15th I officially weighed 112 pounds. I went from wearing juniors sizes 7 and 9 to juniors size 0. As in ZERO. My family told me I looked anorexic.
I saw my doctor April 1st (I’m stubborn, what can I say?) and he ran the standard line of tests, as well as asking about my family’s diabetes history – there is none, by the way. And for the record, I am an otherwise healthy 35-year-old woman who is active and fit. I eat right and exercise too.
The test results came back and showed my fasting blood glucose was more than 500. (for non-diabetics, target blood glucose is between 70 and 130). My A1C was 13. My cholesterol was twice what it should have been. The doc diagnosed me with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and hypothyroidism. My jaw hit the floor.
*A brief note here. There are three main types of diabetes:
- Gestational, which shows up in pregnant women and/or infants
- Type 1, which affect mostly kids and young adults. Type 1 happens when the body does not make enough insulin to process it’s sugar. After a while of this happening, the sugar just builds up in the body and eventually poisons it. Insulin is a lifelong medication for this type.
- Type 2, which typically affects older adults and/or people who are overweight, live sedentary lifestyles, etc. It is the opposite of type 1, wherin the body does not make enough sugar to sustain itself. After a period of time without enough sugar, the body will just shut down. This type can be controlled with diet and exercise.
My doctor was quite adament that I was type 2…basing his diagnosis on my age. (Typically, type 1 diabetes makes up only 5 percent of all newly diagnosed diabetes cases annually, and only 1 percent of those cases happens in adults over the age of 21. So the odds were against me.)
He put me on a regiment of pills for a type 2 diabetic – no insulin – and scheduled me an appointment with a diabetic specialist. The specialist looked at my symptoms and my test results and immediately took me off the meds I was on, replacing them with insulin twice a day and a different oral medication. She told me that I am actually type 1 and the longer I went without insulin the worse I was getting.
I’ve had ups and downs since then. Some days I can’t get my blood sugar down and some days it’s so low I’m shaking and I’m drenched in my own sweat because my body is in shock. I am counting carbs, checking blood sugar often and taking all my meds – even the one that makes my hair fall out – and trying to not let this get me down. When my 6-year-old girl asks my why I have to be sick, I just tell her I’m so sweet I’m diabetic. 
