Personal Narrative: My Experience With Diabetes

Sometimes I ask myself how I overcame my disease. Many people with lupus experience fatigue, memory loss, loss of appetite. Usually younger African, white, and Asian men and woman develop that disease in their teens. It all started that night when I was laying in my mom bed. At that time I felt like it was my time to leave this earth. When I turn 15 years old I saw so many changes. . I experience so many symptoms while I was in my second semester. All the symptoms that I experience were hallucinations, fever, nausea, and nose bleeds. At that time I seen myself getting really sick. I caught strep throat and it was hard to focus in school because I missed so many days.

Do you know someone who is or was gravely affected by a disease? I do. My brother, Billy, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) when I was 10 years old. When we first realized that he was not feeling okay, we were at school when one of my friends’ mom noticed and told my mom. Before this incident, I was irresponsible and did not pay much attention to anyone other than myself.

I fight for my health every day in ways most people do not understand I lay in bed struggling just to get up in the morning only to get faced with a new day of troubles. All I think about is the day that being a normal eighteen year old ended for me. I was responsible went to work every day, and was trying to figure out my first year of college until everything was flipped upside down.

I've experienced a lot of events which had great impact on me since I was young. Thinking of life changing events, the one I would like to share is when I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. It was a very devastating day for me. A day that changed my life. I never thought Id get through but today I can say that Diabetes has changed me for the better.

The most significant difference between the regular insulin and the rapid acting insulin is the onset. The onset for rapid-acting or lispro is 10-15 minutes, and for the regular it is ½-1 hour.

On July 14th 2010, when I was twelve years old, I was rushed to the hospital because my blood sugar levels were 407. Before my mom had observed that I was rapidly losing weight, drinking a great amount of water, and was continuously tired. My mom was worried that I had type one diabetes because others in my family has diabetes.

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

Diabetes is a very grave and serious disease involving many hardships, but a good diet, exercise, and overall healthy habits can keep your diabetes under control which in-turn makes you feel better and avoid later complications.

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.

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.

Nearly 16 million people in the United States have diabetes, the disease classified as a problem with insulin. The problem could be that your body does not make insulin, does not make enough, or it simply does not know how to use it properly. Diabetes is also known as "diabetes mellitus".

Throughout our lives we are asked the question, “Do you believe in magic?” A majority of people answer no, knowing that bunnies cannot simply appear out of thin air and that people cannot be sawed in half and be put back together without harm. I am part of the minority that would say yes, I do believe in magic. I do not believe in the magic mentioned previously, as I cannot be deceived by sleight of hand tricks and optical illusions. But, I have experienced magic, a rare kind that not many get to experience in their lifetime. It’s the magic of a place, my home away from home, Clara Barton Camp, a camp for young girls with Type 1 Diabetes.

Imagine pricking your fingers with a needle five times a day. As a type 1 diabetic, this is a reality for me. My fingertips are callused and scarred. I was frustrated that after years of having diabetes, there wasn’t an easier way to check my blood sugar. I scoured Google Scholar for alternatives and I found a contact lens technology that would be capable of checking sugar levels using only tears. This would eliminate the need to prick my fingers for blood! If an unassuming tear could simplify diabetes care, what else the eye was capable of? My curiosity led me to volunteer as an optometry intern for blind motivational speaker Nancy Solari. Nancy is based in California and I live in Maryland, so I was a remote intern, communicating with Nancy

The scorching hot sun blinded my eyes as looked up. I suddenly started to think about that Glucose ad that was on T.V. The ad was always amusing, the sun sucking out the energy of the little boy with a straw as he played cricket outside with his friends, his mother gives him a Glucose drink then he gets all charged up. I wish mother had made me a Glucose drink too, the sun was tiring. It was sports day today, I had always come and watched my brother on sports day. He always won something, sometimes first, sometimes second, sometimes third. This was my first time competing.

The American Heritage Dictionary definition of diabetes is "a chronic disease of pancreatic origin, marked by insulin deficiency, excess sugar in the blood and urine, weakness, and emaciation." When you have diabetes, your body cannot use the food that you eat in the proper way. In a person without diabetes, when he or she eats, the food is broken down into blood glucose or blood sugar. After the food is in the form of glucose, the glucose is carried to all the cells of the body for energy. In order for the cells to receive the glucose, a hormone made in the islet or B-cells of the pancreas called insulin acts a receptor on the cell membrane to let the glucose enter inside the cells. In contrast, in people with diabetes, the body does not