My Journey With Diabetes

We live in an era of rapid technological change, and this environment, undoubtfully changes the human health. Diabetes is one of the most widespread diseases, unfortunately. Therefore, there is a pressing need to inform people about healthy ways of living and a caring approach to their health. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is one of the organizations that try, to prevent diabetes and raise awareness on the disease in the US and around the world. Unfortunately, it has a set of weaknesses, which influence not only the work of the organization, but the general public’s opinion of it as well.

I know that you are trying to help, but I need you to know that my life is much more complicated than the aspects that I let you see. Diabetes can be a very degenerative disease. Insulin helps us survive, but it doesn’t cure us. If we don’t live the textbook (nearly impossible, saintly) life of a diabetic, the consequences can be devastating. One-third of our lives could be cut-off. We can lose circulation in our feet and hands. Our organs can slowly corrode, and blindness is an imminent dread for 1 in 10 diabetics who don’t keep their blood-sugar under constant control.

When I was five years old, I was diagnosed with type one diabetes. It was 11 years ago on New Year’s Eve, and I was celebrating the holiday by consuming an immense amount of sugar. My mother, who already had two other young children with diabetes, immediately recognized that I was suffering from the symptoms of hyperglycemia. After I was diagnosed, I was given a book and a bear. The book was about how the other kids would react to my diagnosis, and the bear was covered in colourful patches that corresponded to the areas on my own body that I could give my insulin injections.

Diabetes is a disease that causes the human body to not create or not use insulin effectively. The body needs insulin to take the energy or sugars and turn it into energy. The human body needs energy to survive. Diabetes can be broken into three main categories. Type 1 diabetes is where the body makes no insulin at all. Type 2 diabetes is where the body does not produce enough insulin or it does not use it correctly. Gestational diabetes is more of a type 2 diabetes for pregnant women, which usually returns to normal after birth (Ruder 7-8).

Did you know diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States? (Fukunaga, 2011). Many are unaware approximately 25.8 million American’s, 8.3% of the population suffer from diabetes. Type II Diabetes Mellitus (DM II) is by far the most prevalent and accounts for 90-95 percent of the 25.8 million diabetic patients. The long term complications of DM II make it a devastating disease. It is the leading cause of adult blindness, end-stage kidney disease, and non-traumatic lower limb amputation (Lewis, Dirksen, Heitkemper, & Bucher 2014, p. 1154). Not only is diabetes debilitating to patients but also the health and employment costs are substantial. According to Fukunaga (2011), “The estimated national cost of diabetes exceeds

When an individual is asked whether or not they would rather be HIV positive or have diabetes, the obvious response is that they would prefer to be diagnosed with diabetes. Even though, diabetes is a complicated endocrine disease that most often results in patients having multi-organ dysfunction, such as: blindness, lower extremity amputation, kidney dysfunction and pancreas malfunction. Most people associate diabetes with bad food, bad genetics and a lack of exercise, which are definite risk factors (Polonsky, 2014). According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), diabetes cost $174 billion in health care cost in 2007. This health disparity is what leads to formation of the

Around the end of January I began to feel ill. I was becoming weaker, I couldn’t even stand in the shower by myself. I lost around 10 pounds too. In the beginning of February, I went to the doctor with my mom. The doctor said we shouldn’t worry about it and it was probably just the flu. She also took a couple blood tests just in case it was something else. My mom took me to work with her, because she didn’t want to leave me alone at home. Later on that day, the doctor called my mom and told her to bring me into the hospital as soon as possible. At the time I had no idea what diabetes was. I was only 8 years old. It was February 9, 2007, and I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes. I ended up staying in the hospital for that whole week, and stayed

Very true. What was my little jolt? Yes, I know I’m 56 and it has me take a while to figure things out also appreciate them. The depression likes to take over, however I’ve made a decision to change for good. I’ve lost from my family so much that enough is enough. Not be able to assist to my granddaughter’s baptism, it has been the little jolt I need. I’m not at the family picture from that special day. I broke into tears.

For the past day and a half of (January 4 to January mid of the 5th) I kept having to rush to the restroom. My mouth was very very dry and I kept feeling like I had to keep drinking a whole bunch of water. Later that day (The 5th) my mom took me to the doctor. After explaining the problems I had been having the doctor told me that I need to be taken to an endocrinologist in Des Moines because there is no endocrinologists in Carroll and that I had Diabetes. I remember being very worried and confused. I didn’t know what it was at the time and I never even heard about it before then. Next thing I remember was that I was in an ambulance going to Des Moines.

When most people look at me, they probably don't realize that every day I deal with type one diabetes. Which, is rather ironic considering that diabetes is a vast part of my life. Not a day goes by where I can just stop caring about my blood sugars or the carbohydrates in the foods I eat, even though doing so would be much easier.

For me, the most difficult part of having the disease is accepting the fact that my body will never be perfect; I will always have bad days, and worse days, and there is no way for me to “win.” Like everyone with diabetes, I will have to keep it—every second, minute, hour, day, until a cure is found. Over the past 14 years I’ve learned to control my diabetes without allowing it to control me, and to not let the attack on my pancreas become an emotional attack on myself. As I begin to mature, so does my understanding of my diabetes. For now, instead of focusing on what I don’t have, I focus on what I do have.Also, of course, I dream of a day where I can once again think of food as simple

Diabetes has become a prevalent disease, due to its drastic increase in diagnosis since the turn of the 21st century. People of all skin color, social class, or ethnicity can fall prey to this lifelong illness. Individuals that do not have diabetes believe that that they know all the basics and precautions of diabetes, but in all reality many people know very little about what diabetes really is. Understanding what diabetes is, can lead to the knowledge of diabetes association with other diseases, the treatments for diabetes, and the hereditary links that diabetes has in ethnicity.

When I was twelve I was diagnosed with diabetes, the transition was made easy from the support of my father and the rest of my family. That is until my teenaged years rose and brought up denial of my sickness. I had become irresponsible and was warned many times that my actions would backfire on me. One day, it had; I was hospitalized for 1 week in the intensive care unit and when I had woken up I looked to the right and saw a tear rolling down the face of my dad. My father was always the strong male figure that when he was faced with conflict would treat it with assertiveness and sometimes aggression, so I had never seen this side of him. When I was finally released from the hospital my father and I had a talk on the way home that changed

On November 15, 2017, I attended a professional meeting called “Think Like A Pancreas: A Practical Guide to Managing Diabetes with Insulin.” The sponsors for this meeting were SNDA and CVD. The speaker who presented at the meeting was Gary Scheiner Ms, CDE. He is an author of the book “Think Like A Pancreas: A Practical Guide to Managing Diabetes with Insulin.” The general objective for this meeting helped people gain more knowledge about diabetes, and learned more from author personal experiences with type I diabetes. After I attended this meeting, I become more knowledgeable about diabetes. I have a chance to learn more about diabetes nutrition, different type of medications, and many tools that are available for diabetes patients to keep track on the blood glucose.

Diabetes has been out for thousands of years and still no cure. researchers and scientist have been searching and searching for ways to overcome this disease but nothing yet. Everyone goals are to either improve, prevent, or cure this disease. Diabetes became very known around the seventeenth century because of a high percentage of people was found with sugar in their urine and blood. Diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases that affects our society worldwide. The average person in this world does not know anything about this disease. The diabetes association said “In 2013 the estimate of 328 million people had diabetes throughout the world”. Society today need to be aware of what we are up against with this disease.