words: It was the 8th of January 2004, the start of the day was pretty normal; I got up, dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. Mum was sitting at the breakfast bar with her pharmacy uniform on, all ready to go to work. I poured myself a huge glass of orange juice and drank it in one gulp. I was always thirsty, and the drink didn't really seem to satisfy me. Suddenly my knees felt weak. I felt as if my bladder was going to burst, it was one of the strangest feelings I've ever had. I ran up the stairs to the toilet! It couldn't have been the orange juice; it wouldn't have gone down that fast? I came running back downstairs. "Are you okay?" mum asked, "You look a bit tired!" "Do I?" I answered back. I went to the mirror, leaned over the coffee table and had a look. My eyes were drooping bags of horror, they looked as if they were filled with concrete. My face was an unusual white, like snow, and the smile on my face had turned upside down. I was unhappy about the way I was looking, and because I would have to go to school looking like that!

I was still in primary school. Miss M. was my teacher. She was my favourite teacher, always helping, and always understood, what you felt. At school I was feeling sick and ill all day. I wouldn't complain because that feeling wasn't brand new to me, it had been going on for quite some time, but it had just recently then been acting up. Miss M. even said I didn't look too great.

Lunch was my favourite time of the day. I loved going home for lunch, because as soon as I would walk in that door my gran would have my little sandwiches, (pieces she calls them), and a juice sitting out on the table ready for me! There would always be a bite out of my sandwiches. That sneaky grandpa of mine! For some reason today I was so hungry but I felt that if I ate anything I would be sick.
"What's wrong flower?" Grandpa asked. I didn't answer. I put my head on the table.

After school the first thing mum did was go and prepare the steak pie for dinner. I lay down in the living room on the couch. I felt as if I was going to faint. Then a prickly thing brushed against my legs. It was my cat, Novo, and I looked down at him. He seemed to know something was wrong! He clawed at the carpet and was making strange noises.
"Stop it!" I demanded! His little ginger and white face looked up at me and I stared into his big golden eyes. The walls seemed to spin, then blackout!

Mum, Dad, and my brother Alan were hovering above me. I was only out for a few minutes, dad said. He handed me a glass of water. I felt the icy cold water trickling down the back of my throat. It did help, a little. I sat up and went through for dinner. I didn't eat it, only a couple of peas. Mum looked at Dad and Dad looked back. It was half past six. Mum took me up to the bathroom. She wanted me to wee in a cup! I looked at her disgusted, but eventually I just played along. She dipped a little paper stick in it and we waited. After a wee while she pulled it out. A tear ran down her face.
"Get you coat and shoes on honey, we're going out." She walked out the room. I automatically knew something was wrong.

We arrived at Hospital. We walked up to the reception desk. "Appointment for Rachel." What? I was confused; mum must have made an appointment early in the day. The lady had long brown hair and her glasses were a pale blue and were extremely thick. She looked me up, and then down. I think she was one of those people who would form an opinion of someone by the way they dressed. Her lipstick was smeared. She chewed her bright pink bubble gum very loudly. And sighed. "Aye doll, take a seat right oer there." Mum looked at me. We walked to the seats all in a row. We were the only ones there. Dad hadn't said very much, I think he was nervous. But what for?

So much for being the only people there! We waited ages. A man came out in his white uniform. "Rachel, right in here please!" We walked into his office. A large needle sat on the desk, stethoscopes hung on the walls. He had a slight smidge of red stuff on his lower jaw. I was getting a very bad feeling about this. He sat me down and had a conversation to mum about how I was feeling? Was I doing the toilet a lot? And lots of other things like that. Then he asked me if he could take some blood? I wanted to say no, of course no one would want to have blood taken, but I couldn't say no, so I nodded. I was terrified. He took a little while preparing everything but eventually got everything in order. "OUCH!" I yelped as he jabbed the needle into me. Mum held my hand and reassured me as the blood flowed through the tubes and into a tiny container. Once we were done we were told to sit in the waiting room and wait for then samples coming back from the lab.

"Mrs C., may I have a word?" Oh no, this didn't sound good. I can remember the man putting his hand on mum's shoulder and showing her in. I knew something was up straight away, because if everything is ok they tell you altogether. If not, it's a separate thing. Dad and I had a conversation about what happened at school, probably to take my mind off it all. Mum eventually came out. Tears were streaming down her face. Dad banged the back of his head off the wall and his eyes started to water. "Lets go home baby!" mum said.

On the way home I finally got to know what was going on. Mum held my hand and said "The news is, well you aren't very well," I looked at her puzzled "You have a thing called, well, diabetes," "Oh" I replied, "Err what's that?" I had no idea what it was but I knew I was just about to find out. "I'm not too sure but we will find out at the hospital tomorrow. I think you're going to have a little break of school!"

When we arrived home everyone was sitting in the living room, gran, grandpa, and Alan. They were waiting to hear the verdict. I was first in and sat on the couch in between gran and grandpa facing Alan. Mum sat on the chair with Dad on the armrest. There was a couple of minute's silence. I broke the awkwardness. "Sorry Mum" She looked at me and lunged herself at me over the living room and gave me a huge hug and said, "Don't you dare say sorry it's absolutely not your fault at all!" Everyone hearing that I was diabetic broke into tears. Even The manliest character of the family was crying. I had never seen dad cry before! I felt confused thinking it wasn't real, was it a dream. I was really finding it hard to come to terms with all this information in the one night.

The hospital was the hardest bit. Mums face was pale, very pale, her lipstick matched her nose and her mascara was smudged. "Hi Rachel" said a young lady, "I'm Nicky I'm going to be your nurse for today." The first thing she did was take me to a bed and told me to take a seat. Gran had come along too to find out all about it. Unfortunately dad couldn't make it because work was extremely frantic but he promised to come see me after work! Nicky was lovely. Mum knew her because she was the nurse that looked after me as a baby when I had whooping cough. She gave me this book to read for children to help me understand it better while she talked to mum and gran. I held the book in my hands scared to open it in case diabetes was a really bad thing. The front cover said "Diabetes made simple!" I opened it and read. There were two types of diabetes type 1 and type 2. Type one was my one, when the pancreas stops working and I need to take an injection to lower my blood sugar to stop me feeling unwell. I thought that it would be simple one injection today and that's me for life, until I read on. I was to take the injection two times a day forever! Also to put the cherry on top I was to monitor my blood eight times a day if I wanted to stay healthy. I wasn't up for this.

I was finished my "diabetes mad simple" Book and asked what to do next. They took my height, and weight and said I was free to play in the play area for now until they came back with my results. I walked into the play area; kids everywhere around me of all ages stared. I went to the painting table. The lady handed me a mask and said "You paint whatever you like!" The mask was black and I was to use illuminating colours to paint it. When I was done Nicky came back and handed me an orange. I thought I was to paint the orange. She handed me a pen well at least I thought it was a pen, it was an injection in the shape of a pen. She taught me how to inject the orange. Mum and Gran had a shot too, mostly because they would be doing most of the injecting. "That's you all in tip top shape for your diabetes! Later we will come and give you your first injection and take your blood measure." Nicky went away and I burst into tears, probably because I didn't want to have to take an injection.

Dad was finally home from work and came to see me. He gave me a kiss and got explained everything. He was just in time to see me get my first injection. I fought against them pushing the pen away. It took them all to hold me down. She pulled the curtain round because I was causing a bit of a hassle and could be disturbing the rest of the patients. She jabbed it in and pushed it down! "Was that it?" I asked, I didn't even find it sore!

Sunday 11th November 2007. I am now in second year at high school. Living life to the full, Diabetes has not stopped me doing anything. I am now taking 5 injections a day and not worrying about it. I now take the injections myself without my mums help. I do tons of hobbies like basket ball, and horse riding but these will never make me forget those two days of my life which were the scariest! I have the best family in the world, that support me through thick and thin. And as life goes on everyday I remember the saying my family made up to help me get on with it.
"I control Diabetes, Diabetes does not control me!"