How diabetes changed my life

FOR those of us who have never been diabetic, it’s probably hard to understand the type of life that 20-year-old Renisha Wilson and others like her lead daily. Everyday begins the same way it ends, with a meal and a needle stuck in her arm or leg to replace the insulin her body has been rendered incapable of making.

She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was nine years old.

“I was always feeling weak, I was always hot inside, I was always thirsty and going to the bathroom frequently. As soon as I drank something, I passed it out,” she said. Added to that she started losing weight rapidly, had no appetite for food and was always looking for the coldest place in her house to lie down.

After many misdiagnoses for her varying symptoms, which included being told by a skin specialist that she was allergic to mosquitoes because a skin condition took long to heal, she was finally diagnosed as being diabetic.

As many like Wilson observed Diabetes Awareness Week last week, she sat down with All Woman to share her story about how diabetes has changed her life.

Health

Wilson spent her first two months after her diagnosis in a hospital ward and was injected with insulin twice daily. This was to become the first of many admissions to the hospital and her official induction into an insulin- dependent life. “Every morning before breakfast I have to take it and every evening before super,” she said. Apart from the insulin, she takes two Metformin tablets twice daily after eating. Since her diagnosis, she has been going to the clinic to do her check-ups every two weeks, during which time she does a urine test, blood test, kidney test and eye test. If the results from these tests are bad, her clinic visits are increased to once weekly. “Every minute I am in the hospital, because of uncontrollable diabetes. I am always blacking out, going into a coma or getting hypoglycemic. If I go in a coma, it takes two weeks to [recover from the experience] sometimes,” she said. The doctors usually give her Dextrose to drink to revive her.

Diet

On doctor’s orders, Wilson eats three meals per day and two snacks, preferably a fruit or six whole-wheat crackers. She is not allowed to eat foods like jams, cakes, too much red meat, regular sodas and other sweet beverages. “Sometimes I feel left out, because things that I would like to enjoy I can’t,” she said. She is especially peeved at the fact that she cannot eat cakes or ice cream as she would like. She is also encouraged by her doctor to exercise regularly.

Finances

With her health card, Wilson pays $907 for a pack of 25 strips, which she uses to test her blood-glucose level at home. Although the free health care system has made the treatment of her disease a little bit easier, she still has to visit private doctors sometimes, which comes at a price. So to do a blood test privately for example, she is asked to pay $8,500. “It is very expensive to treat diabetes because you always have to eat the right foods and maintain yourself. Sometimes the hospitals don’t have the medications you want so you have to go to outside pharmacies to buy it,” she said.

Relationships

Fortunately, the diabetes has not affected her relationship with her current boyfriend, although she says it does put a strain on their relationship. He is the one she usually calls to take her to the hospital when she starts to black out. “He has to leave work and take me to the hospital,” she said. She also has to deal with frequent yeast infections, which her doctor says is as a result of her diabetes.

Childbirth

Due to irregular periods, Wilson found out she was pregnant after weeks of taking her diabetic medications. “After I found out, I started going to the clinic where they look after “high risk” people,” she said. As a result of her condition, the doctors told her that her baby wasn’t growing fast enough. “My diabetes wasn’t controlled and it caused me to get hyper (light headed) and I blacked out five times during the course of my pregnancy, so that when the baby was supposed to be developing, I was in a coma.”

In an effort to prevent the baby from becoming diabetic, Wilson said the doctors gave her a stronger dosage of insulin. Although her now six-month-old baby is not diabetic, she has developed Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart disease. “I have to take her to the children’s hospital every week because she gets blue,” Wilson said.