Be the Best Version of You and Beat Diabetes
Total years in practice: 10
The story of Diabetes is not new. These days at least one individual in your close circle of family or friends will have Type I or II and most of us will have heard various health organizations worldwide warning against the rising counts of Obesity and Diabetes Type II.
My story is a little different. I was around nine years old and my family and I were going to take a trip overseas, somewhere in Africa as far as I can recollect, so we needed to take various vaccines to ensure we didn’t pick up any bugs while abroad.
Midway through the trip I became increasingly thirsty and started urinating frequently especially during the night. My appetite didn’t increase, neither did I drop much weight but I became increasingly fatigued. I was a pretty active child with boundless energy so the constant fatigue was a worrying factor for my mother. As far as we know Type I Diabetes is not hereditary but my first cousin on my father’s side had picked it up on her 9th or 10th birthday as well.
My parents cut the trip short and upon our return I was taken to see my pediatrician. My mother asked him whether i could have Diabetes like my cousin and he said it was extremely unlikely...but he did the relevant test anyway as my mother would not let up.
We found out a few days later that I did indeed have it, the physician mentioned the vaccine I had taken might have “gone off” i.e. preservative had malfunctioned and my immune system had attacked the infection including my pancreas. The first diabetic specialist I saw misdiagnosed the Diabetes - he put me on a regimen of 2 shots a day morning and evening. I was continually sick for a year, glucose levels were sky high and i had a few hospital episodes. My mother decided to change physicians and the next one said i had been using the wrong type of insulin. To my family’s immense sadness and heartache the 2-shots a day became 4 because of the damage that had been done. 3 short-acting and 1 long-acting shot per day every day for the rest of my life.
I now control the program I’m on where if i eat anything with carbs I will take some insulin.
