Why my blood is so sweet?
Monday, March 31st, 2008For most people, (13 out of every 14 people) blood sugar issues are non-existent. They live their normal lives not concerned if they can or can’t eat sweets, carbs or other foods and drinks.
At 31 my body stopped working. To be more specific, it was really my pancreas. I had a sudden and noticeable issue. Within 2 weeks I had the following symptoms:
- an unquenchable thirst (drinking 1+ gallons per day)
- extreme weight loss (20 lbs. in 2 weeks without changing my eating habits)
- constantly needing to pee
- blurred vision after a while
- sleep, I’d nap at 2pm and wake up in the morning
Now I know that these are classic symptoms of Diabetes, but not then. In fact I kept putting off a Dr. visit not thinking that there was really a problem.
Finally, I went to my HMO when I fell asleep while driving home in the afternoon. Thank goodness for the speed bumps which woke me up. I figured I must be low on blood sugar so ate a candy bar. When I arrived at the HMO and told my GP this he decided not to check my blood sugar until I was fasting the next day. At the time a 30 second test would have shown my sugar was 3 times normal.
So why was my blood so sweet? My Pancreas seized. Insulin production became very limited and since insulin is required to unlock the door to the fat cells for sugar to convert to fat I had a problem.
I’ll post some other time about the HMO problems I had at the time, but if you have any of these problems and can see a specialist I’d highly recommend it. My family Dr. is great, but an Endocrinologist specializes in Diabetes. I’m lucky enough to have one that is also a Type-1 Diabetic. That makes a difference too.
How did you determine you were diabetic?