The Emotional Impact of Diabetes

Unless someone is diabetic, or very close to someone who is, they do not realize how life changing this disease can be. I believe one of the reasons this is, is because so many people are diagnosed with diabetes; that somewhere down the line, the seriousness of the disease, in people's minds, have diminished.

Diabetes is a very serious and scary chronic illness. It is totally life altering for those diagnosed. Eating becomes literally a matter of life and death. And the way a person is use to eating is usually changed drastically.

The emotional stress one goes through seems to get ignored and lost in the endless information and directions of how to now live your life. This is not just merely staying alive -- it's trying to stay alive without ending up blind, on kidney dialysis, with severe nerve damage, or amputation, etc ...

My life was drastically affected by diabetes twelve years ago when my son, who is now 23, was just eleven years old, and diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.

He has always been hyperactive, so even when he was sick, he was active. I started to notice he was looking a little pale and losing weight, even though he ate constantly. I made him a doctor appointment for the next opening, which wasn't for a month away. All of a sudden he started wetting the bed. The urine had a very strong odor. He also started complaining of headaches. At first I thought the complaints were just an excuse for the eleven-year-old to stay out of school. But when they became so severe, I knew they were real. The second day his headaches were so bad, he stayed home from school. He presented no other symptoms, but he slept all day. This was enough to definitely make me realize something was extremely wrong. I got out my diagnosis health encyclopedia books and after a few hours, I came down to two diagnosis, kidney trouble or diabetes (this was before I became a nurse, so I was going only by his symptoms and the words on the page). It was about 6:30 at night when I told my husband something was terribly wrong and I was taking our son to the emergency room.

Author, Tracey Wilson

Credit: Tracey Wilson

Copyright: Tracey Wilson