Inspiring Stories

Misdiagnosis

When I was 13 I got really sick, I kept looking up my symptoms in the book of home remedies and I kept telling my mom that it was saying that everything pointed to diabetes. One day my parents took me to the doctor saying that it was time for me to be tested. They said it was just a stomach virus and gave me a medicine full of sugar and told my dad to give me juice.
I was sleeping on the couch so my parents could watch me but come time to take my medicine when my dad tried to wake me there was nobody home as he likes to say, I was in a coma. They rushed me to the E. R and they had to call in specialist to put a heart monitor in threw an artery in my neck. My blood sugar levels were 1300.
I woke up 3 days later and when the nurses asked me if I knew what was wrong I said, "yeah I have diabetes". This was just one of the many things that I did to shock the hospital staff that day. When they brought my first insulin shot I gave it to myself. I was in the hospital for a total of a week before they let me go home and we have been fighting ever since. That was almost 14 years ago.

Colleen
York Haven, PA

Danielle wolfe

Hey my sister find out she had diabetes when she was seven. Me and my mom was gone and my dad was supposed to watch her. She drink a lot of soda and got her sugar up well we came she told my mom she didnt feel good. My dad had diabetes also. So we got his blood sugar machine and check her sugar all it said was high. So my mom know that it has to be over 500 to do that. So my mom took her to the emergency room and her sugar was like 800 and thats were she got diagnosed with diabetes. If my dad had not had diabetes my mom problem would have not know what to do or look for but we or lucky she did know. Now my sister is a healthy 17 that can do whatever she put here mind to. Love u sis :)

Brittany wolfe
campobello, SC

Type 1, Resilient and managing every day!

A type 1 diagnosis after loosing 120lbs and backpacking through Europe wasn't exactly what I had in mind. However, after being admitted to the ICU with a 860 blood sugar in full blown DKA my diagnosis was clear. I left my week and a half hospital stay terrified wondering how I would ever manage to live with this disease as a young woman in college with her whole life ahead of her. Ten years later full of ups and downs..literally.. and with two healthy pregnancies, I am proudly living as healthy type 1 diabetic. I have days where the extreme fatigue, random mood swings and inopportune lows bother me. I also have those days where looking in the mirror at my black and blues and hard skin spots on my stomach from years of injection sites makes me embarrassed and discouraged. What I try to remember most often is how lucky I am to be alive. I am a resilient wife and mother dealing daily with life responsibilities on top of the added responsibilities as a diabetic. The help of my battery operated pancreas (insulin pump) and contour meter help keep me controlled and I find are less taxing then shot injections. I enjoy educating individuals on diabetes to clear up any confusion and proudly test and pull out my pump in public. Life is short and I am blessed. I live by the quote "Never regret growing older, it's a privilege denied to many."

Emily
Somers, CT

My fight

About 2 1/2 - 3 years ago I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes that's bad enough. I have asthma, migrains, I also have PTSD, anxiety and severe depression with flashbacks. The diabetes came on s so quick that they found out it was from.a drug called prednesoin doctors have been handing out like candy for my asthma. I had troubles keeping the insulin I would throw up right after I had such a hard time finding one that I could tolerate. Finally I did but not before the damage had been done. Hospitalized 6 times in 1 Summer season. I have no insurance so my doctor appointments are once a month and expensive the meds and needles I take as well as testing 2 x´s a day my doctor wants me on for blood tests once a month but can't cause I don't have the money. So I eat right and sometimes that doesn't help always.
I want a cure so bad so I can be okay and live a full happy healthy life. I try my doctor wants me on SSDI for help. The government is taking their own sweet time with helping me. I'm waiting on a court date, I have a lawyer that had to take my case federally. They kicked out back to SSDI. Neurons ifs again hanging onto it and not giving answers. I frustrated and so is my attorney. She is a good one. But the fight huge.
Angelique Anna McClellan - Seattle, Washington.

Angelique Anna McClellan
Seattle, WA

Amanda

I will never forget Father's Day 2007. We had made the 3 hour trip to visit my father for the weekend. Our drive home turned into a 5 hour nightmare when our 8 year old daughter had us stopping every 10 minutes for a restroom break. It was Sunday evening so I told my husband this could be a bladder infection and planned a visit with the FP in the morning. At that visit, the doctor ruled out infection with one question and took a finger prick. He left the room. When he came back a few moments later he appeared "ghostly" to me. The words he said next came out in slow motion. "Your daughter has diabetes". It didn't really register because I didn't know anything about the disease. I just knew by his tone that it was very serious. Amanda asked, "Am I going to die".
The next week the family was bombarded with new information and emotions were everywhere. We will never know how or why this beautiful little girl got this terrible disease but we have learned that it will not stop her from becoming the person that she was meant to become. Amanda still excels in just about everything. She is a top notch lacrosse player and lead her middle school team to the championship last season over an undefeated team. Her coach called her 'liquid chaos' because she appears everywhere and shows up where most needed. She also plays on one of the best club lacrosse teams in the country. She is not letting this disease stop her. I always tell her that God must think she is really special to give her this extra "package". Maybe she is suppose to be a role model to others. She is certainly my hero.

Rebecca Reeves-Tufano
Stewartstown, PA

Never Let it Stop You

Meet Wyatt. He was diagnosed with T1D shortly after his 5th Birthday. It was the end of the summer and he missed the first week of kindergarten while he was in the hospital. Since then he continued to play soccer then eventually started playing football at the age of 7. He's 12 now, in 7th grade. He continues to play sports, wrestling and football. He loves riding dirt bikes and is begging his mother to let him race. He ALWAYS gives his all in sports and never let's his diabetes stop him. Of course he gets down and wishes he could just be normal but he never gives up!!!!!! Playing sports and in all of his activities there's extra caution and preparation involved but he is living life to the fullest.

Regina Jones
Parkersburg, WV

My Dad

My dad, Robert White, has suffered from being a diabetic for 22 years. He is so strong and has a good heart! He suffers from many other health problems, always in pain, and continues to push hard, working and providing for his family. Some days it's very hard to keep his blood sugar levels at a consistent number. I know he gets frustrated with it and having to limit sugar intake or it being sugar free doesn't help. If there was anything I could wish it would be for him to be healthy and diabetic free like he was when I was little.

Jessica White
Rockport, TX

My Dad, Dead At 44

My father, Roger Kriedeman, had juvenile onset at the age of 12. But later they believed he should've been diagnosed at the age of 2. They did not know as much then as they do now, he was not taken care of as diligently as he should've been. Partly because lack of information/help and partly due to his family thinking they knew more than doctors and that they were "quacks." At age 35, my dad had lost one foot and his other leg to the knee. He was mostly blind and actually had dialysis in his home. He became a peritinial diabetic by this time as well. When it got to this point, my dad finally realized that he needed to listen to the doctors to the letter, but by then the damage was already to far gone be controlled. He couldn't leave his house for longer than a few hours at most a day unless it was for doctors appts. He died at the age of 44 on April 9th, 2005. This was one week before his 10 year wedding anniversary with my stepmother and 3 weeks before his 45 birthday. He did live long enough to see his only grandson born.
No matter what stage you are in, no matter what type you have, you must always make sure you know whats going on with your body and how to control and maintain it as much as you can. Dont ever feel alone in this. Many people, even strangers, are here for you as a support team. Dont let pride stop you from asking for help or you might end up like my dad did, realizing his mistakes when it was too late to fix them. This is my dad's and my story, this is one way I help to raise better awareness; by telling others what could happen if you dont take care of yourself or if you dont let others help you when need it.There is no such thing as asking to many questions or getting as much research and information as you can.

Kirstin Kriedeman Buchanan
Janesville, WI

It's life changing for the entire family!

Jan. 29, 2007! I called my sons Dr and said I just needed to get him in sometime in the next week! She asked why, I told her that he'd been extremely thirsty and needing to use the restroom A LOT! (Diabetes was completely foreign to us) her response was "bring him in now, those are signs of diabetes" WHAT? Low and behold they had a bed ready for him at Childrens Hospital San Diego within a couple hours and so OUR journey began! 6 years and I still wake every time I hear him up at night due to low blood sugar, I don't watch his football games, power lifting or track meets, I watch HIM, not just because I'm a proud mom, which I am :-) but rather his actions/reactions. My phone is never off, the school nurse and I text and talk, i ask him daily how his blood sugars were! Sure he's 16 now and I've had people tell me "I need to let him take responsibility for his actions" NO I am his mother, he will always be my baby and while he is very good (usually, he is a teen) about it, he has a life threatening disease and until we find a cure I will ALWAYS be there and look after my child!

Karey Penman-Waelchli
Cleveland, OK

my beginning

Hi. My name is Holly. I'm 24 & I've been diabetic since i was 14. This is my story.

It started in middle school. I started feelin always tired and hungry. i was a high honor student. well, because of my tiredness i would sleep in then be late. this led up to me being in truancy court. In mid year eighth grade i got really sick. i was really pale and couldn't keep anything down. I lost 50lbs in 2 weeks. my mom got nervous and brought me to the local e.r. they told us i just had the flu and to try to keep me hydrated. it didn't get any better and i was worried abput triancy because i had missed so much school from being sick. so one day i woke up on time and dragged myself to school. i walked and it was at the top of a hill. i made it to the top and all i remember is the truancy officer saying my name and sayin are you ok then everything else was a blur. i woke up in a hospital bed with a surgical i.v. and my parents smiling and my dad crying. i had no idea what happened. the doctor came in and told me i am a rough kid. I had been in a coma for 3 days. My blood sugar was above 1500, yes that's fifteen hundred. i didn't understand. they said my body started to shut down and i was so dehydrated they couldn't get a vein for an i.v. so the had to surgicaly get one. I stayed hospitalized for a week and educated on everything. ever since that day its been a roller coaster struggle. I've been hospitalized multiple times for dka and dehydration. I've gone through the denial stage. I have a 4yr old son and ever since i had him i havnt been hospitalized. he's my motivation to get back in control. he needs me. of i can do this, so can you :)

Holly Picchioni
woonsocket, RI