Becoming a Type 1 Diabetic

“You’ve got diabetes, my dear”. In a single statement my fate was to be decided there and then. It was a regular evening like any other, sitting on my sofa drinking a cup of coffee watching some mindless TV as you do. Only until, I got that one phone call, a call from my doctor which I had hoped wouldn’t happen. Thinking back, it was strange how calm and unusually normal that call felt. But then again it was because I was in denial. I was looking for an answer to something else. This wasn’t what I had in mind. This hit me like a freight truck. So when your doctor calls you in the middle of the evening to tell you you’ve got a lifelong disease, you’d probably think they’re exaggerating or scaring you, right?

“Diabetes? Me? Erm…okay?” Confusion ran around my mind that whole night. But I agreed to meet the very next morning as my doctor wanted a sit down with me to talk through the blood test results. I still remember that call, she felt so assured yet tranquil in her tone of voice that it made me wonder how many of these phone calls she has done with her other patients. Her professionalism was to be admired for sure. After that brief call ended, naturally I informed my family about it. In an oddly humorous way, my mother had the same reaction as I did. Dazed and confused, not really knowing what to think, but at the same time feeling rather laidback about the whole situation; “Oh! Well, let’s see what happens tomorrow”.

The next morning arrives and I’m eager to get into the doctor’s office despite not really knowing what our conversation would be. Remember I was still in denial. I walk in, sit down and bam! “Sameer, we’ve done two blood tests on you and the results show that you have diabetes”. I wish someone took a photograph of my face because I must’ve had the most blank look of expression on my face. Even then, still in denial! I’m thinking to myself “meh, so I’ll eat better it’ll be alright”. Oh, how wrong I was.

To put into perspective, let’s throw some real-life numbers here to show you how badly I was in the red. For testing your blood sugars, there are usually two different tests performed. The first is what’s called a HbA1c test (glycated haemoglobin) which generates the result of the average blood sugar level over several weeks. The second is simply a blood glucose test done which pinpoints what the level is at that very specific point in time.

For HbA1c, normally your level should be around 42mmol/mol. Mine was 120mmol/mol.

For blood sugars, usually it should be 4.0-7.0mmol/L (range varies on whether you’ve eaten). Mine was 31.6mmol/L.

Yeah. High. Dangerously high. So high that the results were literally off the charts! It became rather amusing just to see the look of shock on people’s faces when they’d see the results. I mean, I must’ve been breaking world records here surely. Inevitably, after that meeting finished I was to be jetted off immediately to the hospital; having to seek treatment for my dangerously elevated levels. Here’s the thing, I wasn’t admitted into the A&E for diabetes per se. Because my two blood test results showed a consistent pattern of high blood sugars, I actually ended up developing a short-term condition called Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA).

DKA is familiar territory for diabetics, especially Type 1’s like myself.  In short, if the body has insufficient insulin for the glucose to enter the blood cells, then the body results in burning fatty acids for energy, resulting in producing acidic ketones in your body. Essentially those ketones become like poison floating around in your body.

Now you may be wondering, “Sameer you dingbat! Didn’t you recognise the symptoms?”. Well that’s the interesting part. I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes back in November ’17, but when I think back to when the symptoms began, it must’ve been around mid-August; 3 months prior. The common symptoms were all there like extreme thirst (polydipsia) and passing lots of urine (polyuria). That began in August, but gradually became worse and worse up to the point of being diagnosed 3 months later. Remember earlier I said I was looking for answers to something else? Well this was how I managed to ignore the warning signs.

A short-day trip outside of London was planned by myself and a few others. What was meant to be a lovely day out turned into a nightmare for me. To cut it short, I must’ve done a solid mile of uphill walking really fast as I needed to pick up my car from the garage. I picked up my car, started driving, when suddenly, I get the feeling that I might get leg cramps. Ever had a leg cramp? Or a foot cramp? Hurts like hell doesn’t it? Imagine getting cramps on BOTH legs and feet, at the same damn time. Plus, for that to happen whilst driving! That pain was so intense and indescribable that I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Amazingly, I managed to get back home, riding on my adrenaline which helped blocked the pain.

So, the aftermath of that was me trying to figure out why this happened, and why the pain wasn’t going away. The physiotherapist said I’ve got P.T.T.D. (Posterior tibial tendon dysfunction). “Great!” I thought, now I know what caused it. Except that treatment didn’t help. At all. So here’s me going through physical pain day-and-night, not being able to walk properly, thinking what the hell is going on. This carried on for the next 3 months when, belatedly, I sought the help of my GP who I recently changed to. The initial meeting was your usual registration of patient details, but what struck me was when they checked my weight. To my disbelief, I somehow lost 10kg (22 lbs). Oh yeah, I didn’t mention, another symptom of diabetes is unexpected weight loss. Can you imagine how blind I was to all the symptoms! Yet here I was justifying that huge weight loss by saying it was down to stress, pain, and lack of sleep due to my tendonitis. Thank God that they pre-arranged a blood test as part of patient registration as that led to the path of my discovery.

But those results were not to come straight away, I went back home telling myself that I need to eat, a lot. So what’s the worst thing an undiscovered diabetic can do? Eat tons of carbohydrates, and that’s exactly what I did to put on weight. Now those lucky few who have had the pleasure of getting to know me on a personal level know that I’m not one to exaggerate things. I tend to tell things as it is. DKA is very serious and it is deadly if left untreated. I’ve read stories of people unfortunately passing away from diabetes and DKA because of being undiagnosed or left untreated. Yet somehow, I lived through 3 months of this blissfully unaware. I was deteriorating badly, and by gorging on carbs, I was literally killing myself.

Call it fate, an act of God, or whatever you believe in, but the universe decided that I’d make it through. It’s amazing how after all that I didn’t get any serious complications. I didn’t go into coma, didn’t get pancreatic cancer, didn’t lose my limbs, didn’t damage my eyesight, or get a heart attack. Yes, the only issue to deal with was the tendonitis, which at the point of being admitted into A&E, left me in such a state that I was virtually immobilised.

When those results had finally come in at the end and I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, the GP acted fast to get me admitted. Arriving at the A&E I was surprised to see how fast and diligently all the nurses, doctors, and specialists worked together to provide the best care that I needed for treatment. Especially considering how strained this A&E were with staffing. Regardless of which, after a few days of treatment for DKA at the AMU (Acute Medical Unit) and many, many needles being injected into my body, I was discharged from the hospital, ready to get back to normal life. From there on the healthcare team has provided follow-up support for any issues I may have encountered when dealing with my newfound disease. That ongoing support has continued by the team where six months later since being diagnosed, I can say that my health has vastly improved and that I’m able to be mobile, whereas before I could barely walk down the road.

The past six months has been a journey indeed, it’s been a useful lesson too in that if I feel ‘off’ it’s worth having myself checked out. After all, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and that is a lesson I hope everyone can learn from, especially from taking my example. Being diagnosed with Type 1 at the young age of 25 was surprising to me, naturally you wouldn’t think it could happen to you. But sometimes life tends to throw curveballs at you, sometimes two curveballs at you! In any case, the progress for P.T.T.D. has been great and working with diabetes has been difficult. There’s still a long way to go, a path that is covered with obstacles and challenges, but it’s one I’ll take head on.