Personal Narrative: How Type 2 Diabetes Changed My Life

An experience that really changed my life was when my grandfather was on the verge of death in the hospital. I remember seeing my family crying and my heart ached. I visited him every day and came home to study for my exams. I would sleep late every night to study and cry. In that moment, I realized how precious life was and how much of an impact we as individuals have other people. Ever since, I have tried to enjoy every single moment of life, whether a simple walk to school or spending time with my family.

When I was five, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Even though this was a truly terrible event in my life, there were people who were extremely helpful to me. Obviously, my parents, other family, and friends helped me through the situation, but I am eternally grateful to the nurses. They made me feel like everything was going to be ok as it was happening in the moment. They were the reason I made it through the ordeal. Since then, I could always picture myself going into nursing so that one day, I can be that same trusted support system for someone else.

Everyone has an event in their life that helped changed them in some way or stood out to them in some type of way in their life. Rather if it is, something like a birth of a child, a death of a family member or even receiving a job. A significant event in my life and helped me grow as a person was when I decided to pack up and move to Houston, Texas. My move to Texas may have been short but in that short period it helped me to grow to be more independent and to provide for myself and much more. When I made the moved to Texas, I moved with family members that I knew but I was not close with it.

If, these signs and symptoms go undetected, for a long period of time, they will result in chronic dehydration and cause several other medical issues. (Vasey, 2002) One of the results of chronic dehydration is fatigue or energy loss which resembles depression. (Vasey, 2002) Constipation is another result chronic dehydration, by removing too much excess liquid from stool making it hard to expel. (Vasey, 2002) Chronic dehydration also contributes to digestive disorders such as: poor digestion, gas, bloating, pain, nausea, ingestion, and loss of appetite. (Vasey, 2002) The average body produces 7 liters of digestive juices daily; but a dehydrated individual will secrete less, thereby causing improper digestion. (Vasey, 2002) Chronic dehydration causes high blood pressure due to low blood volume and the vessels sharply contracting. (Vasey, 2002) It can also cause low blood pressure in individuals, with weak vasoconstriction, who again, have a low blood volume. (Vasey, 2002) Chronic dehydration is also the culprit of gastritis and

Just thinking about dehydration can make someone just chug gallons of water non stop but it is also dangerous to drink too much water. Overhydration too much or excess water in the body.(mayo) Overhydration can cause nausea and vomiting.(mayo) But that's not it overhydration can also cause headaches, confusion, muscle cramps or spasms ,irritability, loss of energy, seizures, and even a coma. (Mayo) That's a lot of side effects to worry about so try not to get overhydrated.

Day by day my eyesight got worse, all the doctor I went to see told me they didn't know from what I was suffering, today since two years I'm completly blind, when I could still see, I would read novels, play videogames. You may say it was because of that, but my vision deteriorated way earlier than that.

Hurriedly my mom packed me into the car and dashed to the hospital. Nobody knew what was going on, one day I was a sweet seven year old boy and the next I was as rancid as a rotten egg and grumpier than a cat. I don’t quite remember what happened when I got to the hospital because on my way there I lost consciousness. A few hours later I awoke and once again master of my senses. At that moment the doctor came in and told me the bad news. I had a lifelong and challenging disease, known as Type 1 Diabetes.

During that hospital stay, besides my illness and blood sugar, there were the other complications of my illness to be concerned about, as well. There was concern for my heart, kidneys and liver, and my low blood pressure and potassium were also cause for concern. Because my pre-admittance EKGs had been abnormal, I needed cardiology care and each day a new cardiologist came to see me. They also had me get another EKG and an echocardiogram, right in my hospital room.

Water overdose occurs when a person drinks too much fluids and the kidneys cannot “flush them out”. This results in the excess water entering the cells and causing them to swell. That’s when something as vital as water can quickly turn lethal, according to the guidelines published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine.

Along with the above, there are many other symptoms that can result from hypoglycemia. These symptoms include amnesia, anxiety, antisocial behavior, breathing difficulties, confusion, constant worry, crying jags, depression, digestive disorders, drowsiness, emotional instability, exhaustion, headaches, heart palpitations, impatience, inability to cope, insomnia, intense hunger, internal trembling, irritability, lack of concentration, nervousness, dizziness, seizures, severe sweating, fainting, tingling, and tremors.

We’d seen it happen to the others, of course. But he really was so thirsty. It was all we could think about. We were drinking whatever we could once the bottled stuff ran out. He spent a whole evening taking apart the sanitation tank so that we could filter out whatever was left. The others hadn’t thought of that. Only he was that smart. My Yuri.

I have family members that struggle with diabetes because of their unhealthy eating. They don’t get enough exercise and they are suffering everyday simply because they don’t know what to do. They got there because they didn’t believe that eating healthy would improve anything. I know that what and how much you put in your body is something that should be taken seriously. I don’t want people to go through what my family members are going through.

The life changing event, along with the acquiring of a life changing disease, namely my diagnosis of Myasthenia Gravis a month before my mother had passed, rightly made me improve my relations with loved ones towards the better,

Diabetes symptoms start off with, urges to urinate, and increasing thirst and hunger. But when diabetes is not treated carfully and properly it can damage vital organs and lead to

When my family and I found out that I am diabetic, it has changed my life. Now I have to figure out how many carbs I am going to eat and I also have to watch on what I drink. When we found this out, I thought this was going be the journey of my life. I was just hoping that things weren’t going to get any worst than it was. The first day of arriving to the hospital it was just about sunrise and the streets were crowded and it was also very cold. I got my bags in the room and laid back and watched tv about every hour a new person came in and checked up on me. So I was getting pretty bored just sitting there watching tv, because there weren’t really any good shows. I just stared and kept on turning the channels so I decided to set up my Xbox. It was just about the afternoon so we ordered food and it was alright not the greatest though. There were just endless amounts of blood being drawn from my I.V.Even though it was getting pretty annoying I am not going to lie. So I watched a movie then fell asleep counting; it was practically ten o’clock.