Friday, December 22, 2017

The Unexpected Challenges Of Living With Chronic Illness

Hello there,
welcome to INSPIRE.

Today my post is
inspiring (hopefully) to anyone
living with any form of chronic illness,
and the challenges that ensue.


To begin, I want
to share a brief glimpse, of where
this battle began in my life.

In February of 1997,
my husband & I were celebrating
our second year of marriage.
The truth is, I hadn't been feeling very
well, in the weeks leading up to this
momentous time, and had
scheduled an appointment
with a doctor, which just
happend to be the morning 
after our anniversary outing.

We had dinner with my sister in-law, and her husband.
And we then went to catch the theater
re-release of The Empire Strikes Back.
Being kids in the early 80's, this 
was really kind of exciting to get 
to see it again on the big screen.

My body however, didn't feel the same.

I kept passing out, and we had to make
an early exit from the movie.
My brother in-law made the
suggestion of taking me to the
nearest Urgent Care, so that is what we did.

Upon arriving, they handed me a cup for a urine specimen, and then sent Del & I
into an exam room. A brief
few moments later, the doctor came in and these
were his words:
"You have a dead woman on your hands.
EVERYTHING we should find in urine, is absent. All that is there is SUGAR".

He then stated he had called the local hospital, and the ER was on stand by, awaiting my arrival.

What a dark day that 
anniversary celebration 
had become.

Diagnosis? Type 1 Diabetes,
Adult Onset.
Meaning?
 Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune condition. It's caused by the body attacking its own pancreas with antibodies. In people with Type 1 Diabetes, the damaged pancreas doesn't make insulin.

So, for the last 20 years, my life
has been encompassed by insulin injections, insulin pump, and more recently back
to injections again.

All trial & error.

Twelve days ago I made
a HUGE error in my insulin dose.
I over estimated my carb intake, and took
way to much insulin.

An hour or so after dinner,
I had encountered a very
serious blood sugar low.
As I watch each glucose reading
fall first into the 60's, then the 50's, until
the critical 30's, I knew I was in
big trouble.

Insulin overdose.

I hadn't had this happen
in 20 years of dealing
with Type 1 Diabetes.

This error, was a life threatening
error, and one I am going to try my level best
to never, EVER do again.

So for the last couple of weeks
I have essentially been in a recovery mode.
Once again trying to find
a healthy balance between
my food intake & insulin doses.

Feeling much stronger day by day.

The struggle is real.
And being responsible for miscalculations
is not a mistake I plan to do again.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Many blessings to you
& yours this Holiday Season!

Merry Christmas!