My original diabetes diagnosis story
Thank you for reading my blog! I hope to inspire and encourage people who are facing challenges, not just diabetes. It is also a way for me to process the emotions of dealing with Type 1 diabetes 365 days a year. It is not easy, but I do what I have to and I realize that I am a very lucky person.
I was living in Chestertown, Maryland when I was originally diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic in the summer of 1999. Yes, my original diagnosis was NOT Type 1. I was a sports information director at a small college, living in one room in someone's house with just a microwave and a small refrigerator. I thought at the time that diabetes was all about sugar and that I could eat all the "sugar free" stuff that I wanted to. I tested my blood sugar, took my pills, and for a while I thought I was doing OK.
I moved to Ashland, Virginia in the summer of 2000, to work at another small college. This school had a football team, so the job would be much more demanding and the hours longer. For one year I lived in a very nice house with two football coaches, and for the next five years I lived in a small one-bedroom apartment by myself. I continued to do "OK" with the diabetes for the first year, or so I thought. Honestly, I really had no clue what I was doing. I got no education about carbohydrates and the complications of diabetes. My last five years in Virginia, I did NOTHING to take care of myself. Oh, yeah, I was also a chain smoker. I had started smoking cigarettes my senior year of college. And living alone, I drank way too much beer. My nutrition was horrible. I was a train wreck. How I wasn't found dead in my apartment, I will never know. I was slowly destroying my body.
When my time in Virginia came to an end in the summer of 2006, I had nowhere to go but home to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to live with my parents in their apartment. I was so lucky to have them. After searching for fulltime work, I landed a position as an assistant manager of a sporting goods store. My parents and I lost our apartment in a fire in our building in April 2007. My mom's health started to deteriorate more and more. And I continued to ignore my health. All of that changed January 20th, 2008. More to come in my next entry . . .
I was living in Chestertown, Maryland when I was originally diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic in the summer of 1999. Yes, my original diagnosis was NOT Type 1. I was a sports information director at a small college, living in one room in someone's house with just a microwave and a small refrigerator. I thought at the time that diabetes was all about sugar and that I could eat all the "sugar free" stuff that I wanted to. I tested my blood sugar, took my pills, and for a while I thought I was doing OK.
I moved to Ashland, Virginia in the summer of 2000, to work at another small college. This school had a football team, so the job would be much more demanding and the hours longer. For one year I lived in a very nice house with two football coaches, and for the next five years I lived in a small one-bedroom apartment by myself. I continued to do "OK" with the diabetes for the first year, or so I thought. Honestly, I really had no clue what I was doing. I got no education about carbohydrates and the complications of diabetes. My last five years in Virginia, I did NOTHING to take care of myself. Oh, yeah, I was also a chain smoker. I had started smoking cigarettes my senior year of college. And living alone, I drank way too much beer. My nutrition was horrible. I was a train wreck. How I wasn't found dead in my apartment, I will never know. I was slowly destroying my body.
When my time in Virginia came to an end in the summer of 2006, I had nowhere to go but home to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to live with my parents in their apartment. I was so lucky to have them. After searching for fulltime work, I landed a position as an assistant manager of a sporting goods store. My parents and I lost our apartment in a fire in our building in April 2007. My mom's health started to deteriorate more and more. And I continued to ignore my health. All of that changed January 20th, 2008. More to come in my next entry . . .
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