Quote:
Originally Posted by prydey
My daughter was diagnosed with T1 when she was 5. Nearly lost her. ICU for 3 days. Still makes me cry today whenever i remember it. Tough times for any parent watching their kid cling to life. It was misdiagnosed by local doc initially as just a gastro bug, which is why she ended up quite bad as we thought it was just a bug. Thankfully that parental 6th sense kicked in.
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This is could be a carbon copy of my story!
I was diagnosed at age 6, now 30, so neigh on 24 years with type 1 diabetes.
After being urine tested for the disease the GP choose to ignore the problem and sent me on my way. I was too young at the time to remember why that happened but ended up in hospital for weeks. I remember complaining to teachers at school during lunch of feeling ill but was told to simply go and sit down. I also remember, vividly, as the paediatrician walking into the ward saying ".....I can smell him from here!!!......." referring to the aroma of ketone's in my system.
The early times must have been tuff for my parents. My father used to have to hold me down so as to allow my mother to give me injections. This was in the days before insulin pumps, with medication administered from old fashioned syringes. Blood glucose metres were huge and the lancing devises brutal. I also found that outside of the home, in other words school, teachers didn't want a bar of it, I suspect to shoulder themselves from blame if something went wrong. In some ways I think the diabetes held me back to some degree, I suppose I used it as an excuse for many things, still do.
Its very easy to let the disease get the better of you. Hypos suck the energy from you as dose high glucose and there are many long term complications that way on the mind. I have found its the emotional burden of diabetes that is the hardest part. And doctors, specialist's in particular, don't understand and very few actually care. Wrapping a patient over the knuckles for the odd hyper or hypo or a less the perfect HBa1C sends waves of guilt through you at every bad reading. Everyday, every meal, every situation has to micro managed. What will I eat. When will I eat. How much insulin. How much exercise. Will there be somewhere to take my needle without the world thinking I'm a druggie. On and on and on. And then there are the times when you have done everything right only to have a massive hypo/hyper.
Having said all that I am, and generally always have been, well managed with reasonably good BGLS and HBa1C results. And after complaining about my lot in life its worthwhile reflecting that it could be worse. My condition is treatable.
Sorry for the long winded story but its something that I tend to keep to myself and this thread has prompted a bit of a vent.