by Kim Arcar
Includes photo: Caption: Kim Arcari
Although it's been 27 years since I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, I remember
it as if it were yesterday. Night after night I would awake with severe muscle
spasms in my calves, my mouth feeling as if it were glued shut from dehydration.
And, I was falling asleep in school almost daily.
I had just turned 13, and I was very active in sports -- especially swimming and skateboarding. But it was getting harder for me to do all the things I loved so much. My body was trying to alert me that something was out of sync, but I was too young to realize it.
Finally, on Easter Sunday, 1975, I was diagnosed. My mother's side of our family arrived at our house as usual, and promptly noticed how thin I had become since we had last seen each other. That is when my mother recognized all the familiar symptoms of diabetes, as her own mother had the disease (and had died a few years previous to my being diagnosed).
Denial is our first reaction to anything that is hard for us to handle. Even though diabetes runs rampant on both sides of my family, no one even considered I could have the condition.
My mother and I headed straight to the emergency room that evening. I was admitted, and stayed there for eight days. While there, I met a dietitian who, coincidentally, is a type 1 diabetic also. To this day I am grateful she was my dietitian, because I had thought, up til meeting her, that I'd been given a death sentence.
Louise looked healthy; she was not blind, had both legs ... and was so upbeat she inspired me. In the past well-meaning people have said things to me like ..."my grandmother had both her legs cut off," or "my cousin lost his vision," or "my sister has these attacks," or "should you be eating that?" It is important for a newly diagnosed diabetic to have positive influences in their life -- for had I believed all the negativity I heard back then, and still hear today, I would not have believed I was capable of controlling my disease.
Unfortunately, I stayed in denial for 14 years, eating what I wanted. I did not feel any different when my glucose levels were up. I never exposed the fact I was a diabetic; it was easy to hide back then. I did, however, feel the effects of the low blood sugars, the sweating and shaking that always alerted me of an impending reaction. It was easy to deny my disease -- I could combat the lows with a quick snack and get right back to what I was doing. It was no big deal, no problem. I was just like all the other kids, I thought.
Until the day my husband couldn't wake me up. We had been to a party the previous night, and I'd had a couple of drinks. My liver was so busy processing the alcohol that it couldn't let out the reservoir of sugar to help combat my low blood sugar reaction. That was the beginning of a downward spiral.
There seemed no rhyme or reason as to why my BGs would fall. Many times since then I have awoken from severe insulin reactions with no inkling why it had dropped so low. Lately I have had only one severe reaction in 13 months, compared to having them every few months, like before, so I would say I'm doing quite well! The only thing I can attribute this to is I've had less stress in my life this past year. Utilization of insulin is different in all of us, I know from experience that stress definitely triggers my low blood sugars.
Diabetes is a full time job with no vacations. It is tedious and jam-packed with road blocks, but I wouldn't trade it for another disease I can't control.
As you see I am no longer in denial. I love to share my experiences with other diabetics in the hope I can inspire them in a positive way. My HbA1c is usually between 6-7, I'm very active now, and I live my life with a positive attitude.