On the 23rd of October 1990 at 10.10am I was finger pricked at an emergency appointment with my GP following a week of school due to feeling crap – constant weakness and constant thirst and constant visits to the loo.
2 minutes later, and yes that’s how long it took in those halcyon days a result of 13.6 mmol had a swift letter being hand written by my GP and an instruction to the mother to take me to A&E immediately as he thought I might have diabetes.
Now my mother being my mother did insist I couldn’t go to hospital looking like I did, so I had to go home for a wash and change of clothes.
Anyhows we gets to hospital at around 12 present letter at reception and for the first time in my life I didn’t have to queue or wait for triage, it was straight to cubicles…can I just say at this point in time I was prodding myself to keep awake, I sooooo wanted to sleep.
Another finger prick – oh how I’ve grown to love that procedure, and a result of 23.6, worried looks and off for phone calls, apparently I was being admitted to hospital, excuse me????? Just give me a tablet or something and let me home, oh how foolish you can be.
Ward 4 was apparently where I should be, but there were no beds, so I was stuck in A&E while a bed could be found and given a jug of water to drink, which was grand, but it wouldn’t bloody cure this thirst I had.
Eventually I was admitted to Ward 11, private room, apparently diabetes is a scary condition??? It was in Ward 11 of the Ulster Hospital that I got to meet 2 of the most important people in my life with diabetes – Sister Campbell and Dr Nelson – my education and introduction were quick, nothing was couched to make it seem that what I now knew I had, DIABETES, was an easy condition to be diagnosed with, they quickly made it clear my life was changed forever.
3.30pm on the 23rd of October 1990, the time that I class myself as fully becoming someone with diabetes, my first injection of what I was told was rapid acting insulin, something to help bring my blood glucose to a normal level – apparently this was between 5 and 8 mmol and the blood test before I took my first injection of insulin? It was 30.8 mmol.
So that makes today the 25th anniversary of my life with diabetes, my SILVER, roll on the next 25, I want my gold, or do I? Maybe in that 25 years a cure will be found, maybe not, but you can live in hope or die in despair, and trust me, diabetes will help with the dying if you don’t live with hope, a calculator, a food label and a lot of blood tests.
Diabetes isn’t a death sentence and you can still live your life well; you just can’t live a well life – you are ill and your body never stops giving you little reminders – but I’ve had a decent 25 years so far, diabetes has made me who I am, no matter how much I ignore it, it has changed me, it has thrown me into things I would never have done otherwise and its given me friends I would never have had, so all in all its not been too bad a thing to live with.
