DIAG N O S IS
k
A DAY TO REMEMBER
D-DAY memories We asked readers to send in their recollections of diagnosis day. Here Sandy Garman and Gabriele Abeltshauser recall the moment they found out they had diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes, Sandy Garman, 62, Warkworth I was 17 years old. On my first holiday back home from teacher’s college I had yet another urine infection and another dose of thrush. I had lost a lot of weight and developed an obsession for sweet things. I wondered why I was constantly lethargic. I almost failed a compulsory fitness test and swimming test we were required to pass in those first few weeks at college. No one could tell me why I was feeling this way. My parents were visibly shocked at my appearance when I arrived home and so it was yet another trip to our family doctor, who was enjoying an afternoon cup of tea and two chocolate biscuits as I was ushered in for my appointment. This time he too was shocked by my altered state and ordered a urine test there and then. The test tube came back bright orange. “There’ll be no more of these for you,” he said as he took another bite of biscuit. “You have diabetes and you will need to be admitted to hospital immediately. You will have to give yourself an insulin injection
14
DIABETES | Winter 2015
for the rest of your life”. But he did add that if I was careful I might live until I was 50. It was all delivered in a very blunt manner, or so it felt.
I was told very little in those early days and I didn’t really ask. I was young. I just wanted to get on and live a normal life. My mother was in a state of shock but I was overjoyed and relieved to find out that at last I had a reason for why I was finding life such a struggle. It didn’t seem too bad. At least I was going to live until I was 50 and that seemed like an age away anyway. And giving myself an injection every day and not eating chocolate biscuits – well I was sure I could manage that, although the injection bit did seem a bit scary. But I wasn’t going to die.
I spent the time going home on the bus comforting my mother who cried. She was much more upset than I was. I just knew I would have to get on with it the best way I could. By next morning I was learning to inject a lemon and then I was injecting myself, which I dreaded at first. Soon it became as easy as cleaning my teeth! I had juvenile diabetes – now known of course as type one. I followed the diet sheet religiously. I soon felt so much better I didn’t want to eat all that sweet stuff. I was told very little in those early days and I didn’t really ask. I was young. I just wanted to get on and live a normal life. I have been lucky. I am 62 now. My last set of blood test results was excellent and I have no other complications. I have learned so much living with diabetes. It hasn’t been easy at times, but I’ve lived my life every day in the best way I can and I’m a great believer that what you do every day counts. And best of all I have made it well past 50. Every year is a bonus and I mean to keep beating the odds!