Growing up Diabetic

As a child I was diagnosed with Type I diabetes and so my adventure began.....................

My mom, being the ever observant mother, noticed that I was drinking a lot of water, of which I had always hated and going to the bathroom a lot, she went to my great grandpa's home and borrowed some urine test strips just on a hunch, when she tested me, I showed the darkest color the strip could turn and she and my dad were on a rush trip to the nearest emergency room, in the emergency room they ran numerous blood tests including glucose tests which came back with blood sugars of over 1006, they came out telling my mom and dad they were going to transport me to US Davis in Sacramento right away. Now, Please keep in mind that at this point, I didn't feel bad, I just was really really thirsty and needed to use the restroom a lot, I didn't understand what was going on, after all, I was only 7 years old.

My mom and dad drove me to US Davis that night and I was admitted and put on an IV drip of insulin right away with a diagnosis of Diabetes Type I. My poor mom and dad was overwhelmed with information about the disease and were told that they wouldn't be able to take me home until they could get my glucose levels under control and were able to teach my parents how to do daily injections of insulin to help keep my sugars stable. It was two weeks of a lot of confusion and a lot of anger.

The morning after they admitted me into US Davis a physician walked into my room that unknown to me would end up changing my entire life. At age 7 I was told that I would have to let my parents stick me with a needle every day to inject medicine in my body to keep me alive, I couldn't eat sugar or candy anymore, only "healthy" foods and I would need to eat three meals and three snacks a day. I just remember sitting there and looking into that doctor's eyes not knowing what to say or do or how to handle it.