When I was 24 I got really sick. I didn't know what was wrong and neither did the doctors. I thought I had food poising from some under-cooked pizza and the doctors couldn't find a reason for me feeling so sick. After I got a little better I noticed that I started losing weight. Like a pound every day for over a month. I was drinking gallons of water a day and peeing constantly. When a coworker told me how sickly I was looking I decided to go to the doctor. After I told the nurse my symptoms she immediately tested my blood sugar which was 324. She said, "yup, you're diabetic." The doctor came in to talk to me and said that I am a Type 2 diabetic and put me on a pill. Needless to say the pill was not enough so he put me on 10 units of insulin a day. This was not enough either. I ended up in the hospital with my first case of DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) before a different doctor tested me for insulin antibodies and officially declared me a type 1 diabetic in need of both long lasting and short acting insulin.
Pretty soon I was taking up to 8 shots a day to control my sugars and they finally set me up with Medtronic where I officially got my insulin pump. Between first diagnosis and my insulin pump I was hospitalized 8 times for DKA. This is because the first doctor to diagnose me said that I couldn't be a Type 1 because I was an adult and only kids can get that form of diabetes. More and more adults are being diagnosed as Type 1, insulin dependent diabetics. Hopefully others wont have to go through this in the future.
Gilbert, AZ
