Talking to the specialist made me think of my mum, she too had Type2 Diabetes, and it just showed me how little i really understood about this terrible illness.
When i spoke to one or two people about it, although i never told them i was diabetic, i was shocked by some of the remarks, one said, 'isn't that what fat people get?', another said, 'ah yes, that's the lazy disease, fat and lazy people suffer from that', i was quite amazed at the ignorance of peoples views about diabetes, when i stated that i had been diagnosed with it they quickly said, no you can't have it, you're neither fat or lazy!
So why is it people are so ignorant of what is potentially a life threatening illness? Is it stereotypical of peoples ignorance about illnesses in general? Or just that they aren't interested in something that doesn't scream out 'you can die from this illness?'.
By starting this blog i want to try to achieve two things, firstly to help both myself and fellow sufferers to cope better with the illness, and secondly, to try and change peoples views about Diabetes, after all this blog is here for all fellow sufferers, not just for my benefit, so i hope you post your comments and support, also share some of your experiences.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
A Little About Me!
Firstly, hello!
My name's Denis, i'm 56yrs old, and a little over 2 years ago i was dignosed as having Type 2 Diabetes.
So why has it taken me so long to start a blog about it? The simple truth is, i'm only just beginning to get to grips with the illness, it's taken me two hard long years to even begin to understand the illness and how it affects me(as well as my family) on a day to day basis.
It all started one lovely summers day, it was the weekend, saturday to be precise, i was out and about with my wife, window shopping and generally enjoying the fine day.
After about two hours though it all started to change, i felt extremely weak and tired as well as feeling very dizzy, all i wanted to do was sit for a while but at the same time had a craving for something sweet to drink. My wife bought me a cold fizzy drink, after drinking it and resting for a while i felt reasonably well again, so we decided to go home and see how i felt after a little lay down.
Sunday everything seemed fine and i felt my usual self, but my wife insisted that i go to the Doctors on the monday, which i duly did. After explaining all the symptoms etc, my GP asked me if this had happened before, and i had to say, that it had, but i just put it down to hard work and stress, at first she thought i may have suffered a slight stroke, she duly took some blood samples and decided that i should be checked over by several specialists(i live in Germany and we have to have medical insurance), after some humming and aughing on my part i reluctantly agreed, and off i duly toddled.
I visited a total of four specialists(all my appointments were within three weeks of seeing my GP), and my last visit was to an eye specialist, i took a test that determines if i'd suffered a stroke(where i have to look into a kind of white bowl and i had to click a button every time i saw a small pin of light at various points in the bowl, this showed up negative, so she proceeded to shine a very bright light in my eye and calmly stated, ah i see you're Diabetic! Which came as a complete shock to me.
Anyway, a day later i again visited my GP and she told me that it was all pointing to me having Diabetes so she made an appointment for me to see a specialist. Which was two days later, and it was confirmed that i was indeed Type2 Diabetic, so my journey into the unknown began.
My name's Denis, i'm 56yrs old, and a little over 2 years ago i was dignosed as having Type 2 Diabetes.
So why has it taken me so long to start a blog about it? The simple truth is, i'm only just beginning to get to grips with the illness, it's taken me two hard long years to even begin to understand the illness and how it affects me(as well as my family) on a day to day basis.
It all started one lovely summers day, it was the weekend, saturday to be precise, i was out and about with my wife, window shopping and generally enjoying the fine day.
After about two hours though it all started to change, i felt extremely weak and tired as well as feeling very dizzy, all i wanted to do was sit for a while but at the same time had a craving for something sweet to drink. My wife bought me a cold fizzy drink, after drinking it and resting for a while i felt reasonably well again, so we decided to go home and see how i felt after a little lay down.
Sunday everything seemed fine and i felt my usual self, but my wife insisted that i go to the Doctors on the monday, which i duly did. After explaining all the symptoms etc, my GP asked me if this had happened before, and i had to say, that it had, but i just put it down to hard work and stress, at first she thought i may have suffered a slight stroke, she duly took some blood samples and decided that i should be checked over by several specialists(i live in Germany and we have to have medical insurance), after some humming and aughing on my part i reluctantly agreed, and off i duly toddled.
I visited a total of four specialists(all my appointments were within three weeks of seeing my GP), and my last visit was to an eye specialist, i took a test that determines if i'd suffered a stroke(where i have to look into a kind of white bowl and i had to click a button every time i saw a small pin of light at various points in the bowl, this showed up negative, so she proceeded to shine a very bright light in my eye and calmly stated, ah i see you're Diabetic! Which came as a complete shock to me.
Anyway, a day later i again visited my GP and she told me that it was all pointing to me having Diabetes so she made an appointment for me to see a specialist. Which was two days later, and it was confirmed that i was indeed Type2 Diabetic, so my journey into the unknown began.
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