A lot of people know the difficulty of diabetes by the complications often associated with type 2 diabetes. Of course, these things happen with type 1 diabetes as well.
They think I’ve probably had diabetes since I was about 3 years old, so that means I had about 13 years with it being undiagnosed. When I was in third grade, I went to the doctor to see if I needed glasses. I had told my parents that there were times that things got blurry and I couldn’t see everything super clearly. This was the first time out of many for the next 13 years that the doctor couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but prescribed me glasses with their best guess prescription.
A few weeks before my diagnosis, I went to the eye doctor because I was sure my vision had changed. I was scared to drive and found myself squinting, hoping what I saw was what was really happening. My depth perception was off and I could tell there was an object, probably a car, but I couldn’t make the clear outline or read the license plates. My doctor gave me contacts to try but by the next week, the same problems were happening. I went back and tried new contacts, and this happened 3-4 times before the diagnosis.
I was always told that there was some muscular problem with my eyes, but no one could put a word or description or understanding to it. But then when we found out about my diabetes, it made SOME sense! My blood sugars being so high and fluctuating uncontrollably weakened the muscles in my eyes.
I’m really blessed that this was the only outcome I have (from what we know at least) from living with undiagnosed diabetes for so long. I still wear glasses when I feel my eyes getting tired, but it’s not a problem.
However, it’s important to know that I was VERY blessed. There are many people who start to lose their vision and eventually lose all their vision. Neuropathy is the most common diabetic complication that I’ve worked with. Typically people will complain about not feeling their feet. When this is not treated or controlled, then it’s easy for the patient to get a cut in the foot and because they can’t feel the pain in their foot, the wound gets infected and creates an entire list of problems. Uncontrolled diabetes can also lead to ketoacidosis which makes your body break itself down for energy. Diabetic ketoacidosis can ultimately lead to a diabetic coma or death.
More acute complications can be fatigue, lack of concentration, weakness, irritation, having to go to the bathroom frequently, throwing up, and many more.
As a diabetic, it really is your choice what kind of life you want to live. Of course there are things you can’t control and no one will ever be a perfect type 1 diabetic, but putting in the effort to be a good diabetic can mean that your life is as close to a life without diabetes as possible.
Please let me know if you have any questions and if you’d like to donate to JDRF!!!
Talk to you later,
HP