Category: Diabetes

Diabetes

Recognize the symptoms. If you have any of them, please seek help.

Do you think you may have Diabetes?

According the DIABETIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOUNDATION  “In the last decade the cases of people living with diabetes jumped almost 50 percent.” 1

Here’s another startling figure from ACTIVE BEAT: “25 million people in the US have type 2 diabetes, however, the majority of individuals are not aware they have the condition.”2

To add to that, what they are experiencing are more like annoyances than the actual symptoms they are.

I am going to give you the shortened list of the ten most common symptoms:

  1. Numbness in extremities,
  2. Increased urination
  3.  Weight loss
  4. Increase in appetite
  5.  Blurry vision
  6. Itchy, dry skin
  7. Unexplained fatigue
  8. Unquenchable thirst
  9. Slow healing cuts or bruises
  10. Irritated gums

 

If you think you may have this illness, it is imperative you seek help to control the disease because the complications are severe.  In future blogs I will talk about testing, diet and complications.  The above mentioned websites are helpful in learning about diabetes.

 

1 What is Diabetes? Retrieved from: www.diabetesresearch.org/what-is-diabetes.

2 10 Common Symptoms of Type II Diabetes.  Retrieved from: http://www.activebeat.co/your-health/10-common-symptoms-of-diabetes/.

 

 

 

Living With Diabetes

In future blogs I will discuss how living with diabetes is possible. Please listen to your body.

Living with diabetes is not always easy but it is manageable.

You have to learn to recognize your highs and lows and how to respond to them.  I can only say this because I’ve lived with diabetes for almost 30 years. I didn’t start as a juvenile. Juvenile diabetes has its own set of problems and you will need a good physician to guide you through if you are a parent dealing with a diabetic child.

As well as controlling your daily blood sugars, it is also important to realize how this disease impacts the rest of your body. When I first became diabetic I knew only what I remembered from nurses training, and that was only that I didn’t want to have this THING.  After that thought, and my period of denial, I enlisted in a mini course at the local hospital and I have been glad for that ever since.

It made me aware that it was basically up to me to pay attention to the pitfalls accompanying the disease. In some cases it didn’t prevent me from some of the side effects of this invasive illness, but it made me more aware of the things I could perhaps prevent.

In short I had regular visits to the dentist, the ophthalmologist, the podiatrist, and my regular doctor. I often checked my bare feet with a hand mirror. I existed on diet for the first few years, but inevitably that was not enough. Then came the mediation, and then the insulin.