Initial Reaction, Diagnosed as a Diabetic

I called this doctor that my girlfriend recommended, a specialist in women hormones. When I called they ask me to come in on November 18, 2005 to get a complete blood panel.

Reason for my visit with this doctor was that I could not get rid of my yeast infection that I had for about four months. But before making this appointment I had gone to see my gynecologist twice for the same reason. She prescribes the medication that women are prescribe when they have yeast infection, Monistat.

What still amazes me is that most doctors do not bother to trouble shoot the problem, they just shoot from the hip, easy buck, call it a hard days work. After no success with this doctor, I made my appointment with this doctor trying to search for the solution to my problem. I had to fast for 12 hour, which was very difficult for me. The day of the testing I thought I had to go to the office in Walnut, but when I arrived I was told to go to Arcadia. By then, I was not feeling good and what made it worse I had no GPS, I always get lost.

I received the results on December 5th of 2005. To my complete surprise my doctor ask me, if I were a diabetic. I replied no, he then proceeded to tell me that my blood glucose level was 283 after a 12 hours fast. He then stated that is definitely the reason for me feeling tired and having the chronic yeast infection. He suggested for me to make an appointment to see an endocrinologist.

I was shock, upset and most of all afraid of what would change in my life. I started searching on the web what the disease entail and with so much information all at once, I felt overwhelm, afraid and alone. My loving brother helped me on trying to make sense on what the disease was and how drastic of a change I had to make. I went to buy a glucose meter and started testing myself.

I went to see endocrinologist in Anaheim Hills. He explained the process and it downfalls. To this day, I strongly feel that is the doctors responsibility to educate their patients on the disease, none of which I received. Therefore it is our responsibility to ask questions and seek answers.

For about a good year I was angry, upset and emotional. Was the most difficult year of my life. I had always eaten right, never over indulge and exercised on a daily basis. I really had a difficult time finding something to eat at restaurants. When I would go out and eat I would look at my surroundings and would see people eating drinking and having fun with their families and so forth. I would be hypnotized by the amount of people that find so much pleasure in food, but mostly in the amounts of food that they would consume in one sitting. This was repulsive and offending to be sitting with people that take their health for granted. I would have to leave the restaurant immediately.

I am over that phase in my life now, but I will NEVER be over the fact when I see a mother use food for their absence in a child’s life. This should be a crime and should be punishable. Parents should take responsibility for their child well being in all avenues of life; is this not why we are called parents, to raise and nurture. Yup, maybe they omit the raise and give double portions of nurture. I can go on and on, but will not; my desire is to see children have a fair chance in life; life has enough challenges and we as parents should not add more to them.

After that long dreadful year, I began to make peace with myself, I began living again and was able to concentrate on what matters the most in my life, that being my two beautiful daughters, Vanessa and Rebecca. I sometimes barely wake up from an episode in need of medical attention and my daughter is there helping through my most difficult times of my life. Go figure.......I once took care of her, now she takes care of me!

Most people in general wake up and go to sleep without having to do much of anything beside brush and wash; for us diabetics, life is a constant reminder of our organ that decided to shut down for whatever reason. I knew that in order to have any type positive attitude in my new life, I would have to embrace the fact that I am a diabetic and I would make the best of it!

This is the reason I started this blog to be able to reach out to people that fall in the same medical dilema as myself. To support one another, share thoughts and pertinent information. For us, living a day at a time takes effort, determination and planning.
Hilda