Diabetes diagnosed - a young teenager shares their story

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In this story Umm Alkhayr describes being diagnosed with diabetes type 1...

Hey Readers

well I only had diabetes for 5 days .. but here's my story. I'm telling it so every teen who finds out they have diabetes knows that they're not alone and they're not the only people with diabetes.

My name is Umm Alkhayr. I come from a Somali background. No-one in my family has diabetes, well maybe my mother's side but she really wouldn't know because before she came to Canada she was born in a 3rd world country and if people were sick they didn't really know why they were sick. They probably say "it's just a cold" and get on with their daily lives. For example my uncle, my mom's brother, had diabetes for the longest time but he didn't know. He just found out when he went to the United Emirates.

Well anyhow - about a month or 2 months ago I been starting to get really sick. It didn't really bother me so I just avoided it as much as possible. I started to lose weight and get really thirsty; drinking water. My family nor me didn't really know what the symptoms of diabetes were.

As I just went on with my daily life things became more and more harder for me like staying in class without asking for the bathroom every 20 mins and even paying attention. I just began not going to school for about 2 weeks, not caring about my marks. My mom and family members ask me constantly "are you okay?"

I would hide my sickness however and whenever or wherever I would be till my family saw how I would always be tired because I would sleep half the time I was home. I dropped playing sports because it took up too much energy. I would come back from school around 4 and sleep till 8 without eating.

During school days I would never take lunch or even eat in the morning. I would probably only drink 4000 ml of juice and 4 L of water a day. In my mind I was losing weight and loving at that time I was about 120 pounds. All this time my skin was looking really nasty; always dry even if I put cream on.

Then one day came I ate so much junk, I ate even tho I wasn't hungry. Then I started vomiting, then I went to bed, got up 9times to drink orange juice till I finished the whole 2 L's.

The next morning my mother forced me to go to the doctors so we went together and they totally didn't even know what they were saying (like, come on - I had all they symptoms of diabetes) she said you're problem is facing a serious cold, but still we will have a blood test taken. And this was on Tuesday so she said come back Wednesday. We came back and did the blood test and we called for the test results the next morning. They said wait 7days.

So I just went to school with 3 bottles of juices in my lunchbox and 3 slices of pizza and chicken wings. After I ate all that at lunch I felt kinda high, but I still felt good in my head. I was still trying to hide it.

I was really sick so I asked my religion teacher if I could sleep during his class he said "yes" then right after I asked my gym teacher the same thing she said "yes". Then after few of my teachers spoke to me asking me if I was feeling alright because I didn't look too good I said "oh pssh nothing, I never felt better!" when really I felt so-o bad.

So she told me that I was really behind in her classes and I need to get up a lot from a 40 to at least a 60 because I been sleeping in her classes the past month. So I decided to go to library after school to do some assignments.

So me and my twin sister went to my mother's store to go get some money to eat before we go the library. She gave us money but begged me to go to the hospital before I go to the library. I said "no I'm not going" so she let me go and me and my sister went to get some food. Of course being 14 years old we spent all the money on junk food.

I drank about 2 cans of red bull and 1 chocolate bar thinking it would give me energy to do my work because lately I never had energy to stay up and do my work. So I started my assignment on the computer, printed it out and told my sister "o god, I'm so tired I'm going downstairs to sleep till mom comes pick us up." She said "okay" then, behind my back, she went to go call my mom saying that I went to sleep and I look really sick.

So my mom came 20 mins later and they both forced me in the car to go to the hospital which the whole time I'm like "I don't need to be here." So 2 hours in the emerg I asked my mom for money for food. She gave me 20 $. I used it on energy drinks, vitman water and pizza chips; junk like that.

An hour later I was going on and off to the bathroom then finally the nurse called my name and ask for a pee sample. So I gave it and she found sugar in it. Then she tested my sugar level. It was at 34 and she said I couldn't eat and my sugar was really high. Then she asked for a blood sample, so I gave it.

Then she told me that I have type 1 diabetes and I probably had it for 6 months and I didn't know. And she put me on machines, you know how it goes. The whole time it wasn't a big thing to me because at least it's not cancer.

I thank god for diabetes and not cancer. It's one of the fastest growing diseases in the world but I believe soon there will be a cure.

I haven't had diabetes for a long time to tell you there's ups and downs. I have no problems, then again I only had it for 5 days its REALLY NOT THAT BAD..

Thank you for sharing Umm - I'm sure many young teens will appreciate your story and maybe realise they need help if they are displaying any of the symptoms you describe.

If you have a diabetic teenager in your family check this free publication offering tips for teens on how to cope with diabetes; diabetes teens

Also get them to read this story from Donna Dexford: Teenage Diabetics at Risk

Other free publications offering advice can be found at Free Publications

kind regards,

Carol Ann

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