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Diabetes MellitusA Guide For The Newly Diagnosed
(In Plain English !)
Don't Panic Yet !
Yes, discovering you have diabetes mellitus is tough to take, and yes, until there is a cure, this will be a life long event.
But, it may not be as devastating a diagnosis as you think.
What! You say. My blood sugar is screaming through the roof. The doc tells me I need to loose 30 pounds. I can't eat what I want anymore. Everything I read about diabetes is either bad news or medical gibberish. I have a handful of pills I have to take now, and my fingers hurt from all the new blood sugar testing I'm required to do! Who are you to tell me not to worry?
Good question. And you might be right ... but bear with me a minute or two ...
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
Thirst! I woke up to a fabulous sensation. Ice water, kool-aide, soda, milk, gas station slushes ... wow, it all tasted fantastic. Never before had I experienced such pleasure. Never before had something tasted so good in my entire life. I simply could not get enough.
Constant trips to the bathroom were getting annoying, and it seemed odd that I could not sleep through the night, but ... yup ... a blissful cold drink of anything before I jumped back in the sack and I was good to go.
I got tired at work and could not seem concentrate. More to drink. More breaks to the bathroom.
Headaches came from squinting. My glasses weren't working, and when I had to turn them on edge to read the road signs, I started getting concerned.
I tried to cut down on evening drinks to stop the night bathroom trips ... but No Way. I had to have something - no, anything to drink. This had become a full-blown obsession.
By the time I realized this was trouble, I was one sick fellow. It took about all the energy I had left just to get to the waiting room. Even then I was only expecting a prescription for some exotic flu, with orders to stay in bed for a while. Never did I expect a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus.
You already know the end of the story.
One quick test strip in the old glucose meter ... "diabetes mellitus" was the diagnosis. I actually told the doctor that wasn't possible - pick something else. He just politely smiled and said he was sure.
... And that brings me back to the beginning. Who am I to tell you this might not as terrible or as frightening as you thought? I'm just a guy who was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus before you. I'm just a guy who a doctor told my chances of having a heart attack were as good as somebody who just had one, before he told you.
I was scared. I was angry, and looking at a two ounce chicken breast on my new 1500 calorie diet plan, I wasn't sure everything was going to be ok.
Like you, I went to the web. I found little to calm my fears, and I certainly got sick of seeing magic elixirs, cures for a fee, and medical jargon I simply could not understand.
It is my goal to fix that.
If you are looking for no-nonsense information on diabetes mellitus, be it type 1, type 2, juvenile or gestational - from what causes it, symptoms of diabetes and hypoglycemia, to diabetic diet plans and the glycemic index ... and how, maybe you too can beat the disease ... then it is my personal goal to provide that for you. Plain English, no magic elixirs, just info you can understand.
Take a learning journey with a fellow diabetic to see what happens next ... ?
You decide from here.
What's New?
What Causes Diabetes Mellitus is a plain English discussion about what causes the disease. Type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes are discussed, with a quick mention of diabetes insipidus.
Type 2 Diabetes attempts to answer the question what type 2 diabetes is, in understandable terms.
What Is Diabetes is a layman's guide to understanding what it is and how it affects the body. We didn't think a Phd was needed to answer that question, so we didn't discuss it in a way only a Phd would recognize.
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