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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018
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Balancing highs and lows Serin Edwards speaks of managing his life as a Type-1 diabetic
Living with diabetes Emily Ireland The idea of “stabbing” yourself with needles multiple times each day can scare many people. But for Masterton’s Serin Edwards, and many others living with diabetes, if he doesn’t do it, “[he] would die”. Serin, a technician at the Masterton TRC Toyota dealership, was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes at the age of 19. Now 31, he has accepted his condition as “normal life”, not letting it get in the way of work or leisure. Thinking back to his diagnosis more than a decade ago, Serin said the main symptom was his relentless fatigue which he would try to counteract by drinking Powerade before he was diagnosed. Little did he know that because of his diabetes, this was making things much worse.
Serin Edwards, of Masterton.
“I first started noticing it at work – I would become quite lethargic and couldn’t do anything.” Before long, his bosses started to notice something was wrong and asked Serin
PHOTO/EMILY IRELAND
what was going on. “But in the end, it was my mother who made me go to the doctor. “I came home from work sick because I was just drinking so much
Powerade, which has a lot of sugar in them – it made things even worse. “I went to the doctor and they said I needed to go to the hospital. “They didn’t take me
up in an ambulance, but I was pretty much admitted straight away, and I was hooked to a machine with an IV that pumped me full of what I needed.” He said his blood sugar
level was “in the 40s – it should be between four and seven, so that was quite high”. Living with diabetes is a big “balancing act”, according to Serin. “Your pancreas is what produces your insulin. “Mine doesn’t work and that’s why I’m a diabetic now. “Lack of insulin makes your blood sugar levels go high, and too much insulin makes it go low.” When Serin’s blood sugar level goes too low, he starts shaking. “The adrenaline kicks in and my body is just trying to keep itself alive. “Essentially if that happens you have to take sugar or carbohydrates that keep your blood sugar level up there. “The other way is you can go hyperglycaemic which is when your blood sugar level is too high. “You end up being quite lethargic and you tend to need to go to the toilet a lot.” Upon diagnosis, Serin began using insulin pen needles and was injecting himself four to five times daily. Continued on page 3
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