Diagnosis Story

My diagnosis story isn't as dramatic as most. I didn't start vomiting uncontrollably or go into a coma. I wasn't on the verge of death. I wasn't even spilling ketones yet. I was diagnosed because of a urinary tract infection. I went to my doctor on a Friday just before lunch, and that night around 10 pm he called to tell me that my urine culture had come back from the lab showing a lot of sugar. He wanted me to go to the emergency room immediately, so I went. I didn't really understand how I could have diabetes as a slim 26-year-old, so I assumed something else was wrong with me. I wasn't having a very good year (really, a good decade) so I wasn't surprised by that. There was always something wrong with me, or I'd done something wrong, but either way, the end result was bad.


The doctor at the emergency room wasn't even completely clear that I had diabetes at first. He kept telling me that the symptoms might disappear once my UTI resolved, but I didn't see how that was possible when my blood sugar was 28.4 and normal levels were around 5.0. It was just too big of a difference, even if I wasn't spilling ketones. Regardless, I wasn't sick enough to stay overnight. After a few hours of being connected to an IV, blood tests, an insulin shot, a couple of new prescriptions, a referral to the Diabetes Education Centre, and a doctor's note to get me out of a final exam the next morning, I was released around 3 am.

Fifteen minutes after my insulin shot, things got interesting. I was standing outside in the early July morning, waiting for my mother to come pick me up. The first thing that I noticed was the quiet rustle of the nearby trees as the slight breeze brought the scent of their leaves to my nose and drifted across my skin. I inhaled deeply as I looked up at the clear sky above me, first struck by its beauty and then by the clarity of my vision and other senses. I had gotten used to living in a mental fog that was... lifting. I could see the stars, hear the birds, and appreciate my surroundings. I was standing outside the doors of an emergency room in London, Ontario, and I was having the most profound experience of my life. For the first time in months, I wasn't overwhelmed by stress and constantly aggravated by everything around me. I felt like I could stand up straight because the world wasn't weighing me down anymore.

I try to look back on those moments as often as possible because it's easy to forget that the reason we fight so hard to keep our blood glucose in the appropriate range is because high and low blood sugar levels affect every aspect of our lives. Complications can seem like this nebulous, far-off concept, and our bodies can somewhat adjust to being high - we stop feeling quite as tired and thirsty. But mood... nothing seems to temper the effects that high blood sugar has on my mood. In the weeks before my diagnosis, I overlooked symptoms like fatigue and irritability because I thought that they were the result of a depressive episode. Once my blood sugar started to drop, I stopped feeling like I would welcome being hit by a wayward bus.



That change in my outlook meant that in some ways, being diagnosed with diabetes was a relief. I knew what was causing my terrible moods and exhaustion, and I knew that there was a route to getting better - maintaining good control. Keeping up with things has still been a difficult journey, but it's important to remember that taking care of diabetes doesn't feel as thankless and overwhelming when it's actually under control. It can just be... normal.