How I learned I had Type 1 Diabetes

I thought I would share my story of when I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

In the early spring of 1999 I noticed that I was starting to get more thirsty little by little. My legs started cramping at night and I just generally felt like crap all the time. Now, I thought this was just from exhaustion as I had recently become a father and my daughter had colic really bad and I basically had not really slept in almost 3 months.

About this same time I had developed a yeast infection down in my private area and so I went to the doctor, got treatment and it went away. Well, 2 weeks later it was back. Went back to the doctor a second time. This is when I realized I had a not so good doctor. He accused my wife and I of cheating on each other as his diagnoses of why I got another yeast infection. Round 2 of drugs and it went away.

During this time I kept getting worse and worse. I noticed my clothes were not fitting anymore and I was having to cinch my belts tighter and tighter. Night after night I was up going to bathroom what seemed like every 30 minutes having to pee. During the day I was drinking whatever I could find as I was always thirsty. Back then gatorade made a 64oz bottle and I was drinking that at least twice a day. I remember standing at the sink in our apartment filling up a cup, downing it and doing it again and again until I was almost sick from the amount of water I was drinking.

This started some time in March and now its May. I had a really really bad night where I was jumping out of bed because my legs were cramping so bad I was almost in tears. That next morning my wife who had a glucometer because she has hypoglycemia checked my sugar because she thought it might be high. Sure enough, the meter just said 'HI'. She made an appointment for that day.

Now, we did go back to the same doctors office but saw a new doctor (she was much much better). Two minutes after reading my chart and hearing my symptoms she said the words I will never forget, 'I think you have diabetes'. They drew blood for blood work, gave me glucophage and sent me home. They called the next day and confirmed that I was diabetic and that my sugar was 660 at the time they took my blood. They wanted me to go to the hospital but I refused. I said unless its absolutely necessary, I wasn't going.

A week later I saw my first endocrinologist and started taking shots.

Memorial Day weekend 1999, my life changed in a way I never imagined.