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This is one of the contributions to:DIABETES ESSAY AND POEM COMPETITION 2009
“Thousands of people all around the world have diabetes. Each individual have to deal with injections or tablets while maintaining healthy diet in order to survive from day to day, it becomes an essential part of their lives. Diabetes type 1 and type 2 are two different types of diabetes, type 1 is found amongst children and younger kids more frequently, due to their pancreas not producing enough or none insulin, due to this they need to use injections four times a day before each meals to keep their glucose level constant. It is yet to be discovered why the body’s immune system attacks the beta cells in pancreas which produces insulin."
I wish I had known this before, I know my family feel the same too. It was around December at Christmas Eve despite my Hindu background we still celebrated the day, with wine, presents and lots of chocolates. As we were a big family, everyone was busy in their own little world; all my sisters are teenagers who looked forward to meeting their friends and having wonderful dinners together, lots of joy and laughter. It was not long before it silenced. I was feeling drowsy and weak day after day; I couldn’t understand why I had such a strong craving for water, and constantly going to toilet. After having fun in our house we were invited in my aunt house for dinner, one of my sisters was ever so excited and I remember with a grin she said “double the fun” as we got ready. I was not in the mood or the right state but I was persuaded to go anyways.
My aunt watched me drink bottles and bottles of water in between each bite, she felt that I was becoming healthy and my family also congratulated me on my weight loss, they felt that I was becoming fitter. Even though they were aware I had caught flu, they treated me causally as it happened to me often, I had slow movements that annoyed my sister they would shout at me and say that I needed to stop acting disabled, it annoyed them. My uncle stared at me for a long time until he felt that there was something wrong, my mum felt the same, my eyes had dug deep inside my sockets with dark circles and my shoulder blade would stick out, it looked disturbing.
Soon I took an appointment to see what was wrong with me, my sister came along with me, she stated all the symptoms besides weight loss and thirst for water because she felt that I was a growing kid and it happens to everyone and that it wasn’t a problem, instead she told my gp the flu-like symptoms. I was given paracetamol, lots of them, now I look back and wonder couldn’t my gp see that something was wrong with me even physically because I was in a poor state but then again he might have thought I had severe case of flu.
I dealt with my illness for relentless weeks, until the point when I could just lie in bed and ask for water-barely! I got angry with my family so quick and suddenly, my sisters felt that I was being attention seeking, I did that when I was little but this time I needed attention immediately! Not paracetamol. Soon I wasn’t even able to stand up; I tossed and turned when I was asleep, it felt like insomnia had consumed me. I ate chocolate biscuits in the morning and rice with chicken for lunch and dinner hoping I would gain weight again, hoping I could at least feel a bit better. My parents called up the hospital the moment they realised that I had started to give very little response to them.
Soon I was admission in the hospital for having blood high blood glucose levels, it was hard to get any blood from me, it as too thick. My family were allowed to visit me soon, but the needles that penetrated my skin remained that way, I still needed more insulin and water to become in good shape again. My mother sobbed at my state in the corner, I could hear her, my dad stayed firm, giving me encouragements, my biggest sister stayed the night with my mum to ensure I was comfortable and to see that I was making progress. Later my other sisters arrived in the morning to pay me a visit, they seemed full of regret and with teary eyes they smiled at me and tried to make me laugh because I seemed angry at them and at that moment I was. Eventually my sisters and my dad left the hospital, but my mum refused to go wanted to stay in the hospital for the night. I told her she should go home and sleep but I knew that telling her to go wasn’t going to make any difference.
In the hospital all the nurses and doctors were very friendly and polite. They usually came to visit me 4 times a day to check my blood sugars and the first time I saw them, it was around 20. I had to stay in bed for 1 and a half day and eventually, I had permission to walk around the ward and go into the entertainment room even at midnight. Days passed on, and more and more I started looking back and realising how dangerous it was to be unaware of the symptoms of diabetes. And it would have been way too serious and maybe even too late if my family hadn’t taken me to the hospital that day and I wish that others would be more aware of this silent killer which now days has merged itself to many people’s lives.
As a Diabetic person I would really advise others to take this disease seriously and believe you can beat it, live a normal enough life with it. No one in my family had a history of diabetes and it was hard for us to change a lot of what we do to adjust with a diabetic person at home, I have a big family and they are sugar loving bunch but they avoid eating sugary things in font of me. There are lots of people to turn to who support and give advice to you when you have diabetes, no one is alone. I’m just looking forwards to the day when Diabetes becomes as common as flu and can be cured just as easily!