July 28, 2014 It has been over three and a half years since this day, and I still remember it as if it were yesterday. When I received the dreadful news, my first reaction left me speechless due to the complete world of unknowns to come. Although some parts of the day were a blur of emotions, the facial expressions I received from my mom and doctor when the tests results came back will stick with me forever.
July 28, 2014 was the day of my Type One Diabetes diagnosis (frequently referred to as my "diaversery"). Waking up early on the twenty-eighth I never would have expected how much my life was going to change. I was planning on going to a scheduled doctors appointment to see if we could run some tests for some stomach pain I had been having. Instead, the tests did not lead to results of what was causing me stomach pain, but rather it led to an offhanded diagnoses of Type One Diabetes. My doctor was shocked when she ran a urine to see if I had a Kidney Infection, and instead found an excessive amount of glucose in my urine. She followed up those tests with a simple blood sugar reading which then led to an A1C reading (this test checks what your average blood sugars have been over the past month).
All the tests flooded in with results that led to only one conclusion. I, Rebecca White, was now going to have to live with the disease of Type One Diabetes for the rest of my life (or until they can find a cure). This idea was so hard to comprehend and was almost funny at the time. When the diagnoses was official, my primary care doctor sent me to her husband Dr. Bosthwick who is currently my Diabetes care physician. I spent four hours in his office that day, and nine more total hours over the next two weeks getting educated on how my new life was going to be. I learned an entire new language full medical terminology such as: lancets, hypoglycemia, glycogen, and Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). I became more aware of what food I was eating and how many carbohydrates I was taking in when I had to make detailed food journal entries like the example below.
Through the education I even learned that my diagnosis was a lot better than many other children that are diagnosed. I did not come into the office with any typical symptoms, and fortunately they found my diagnosis prematurely saving me from a possibility of hospitalization or even a coma from DKA. The typical symptoms (shown below) can often be seen as children being tired or even just growing really fast; but in all reality, they are signs that the pancreas has shut down and cut off all insulin supplies.
Even though no one wants to have a diagnosis of a chronic illness such as T1D, I am beyond blessed to be diagnosed when I did. Diabetes has taught me how to face challenges, be brave, and even helped me relate to other people with medical problems. I have overcome my diagnosis, and I am not ashamed to tell people that diabetes is apart of my life.