Wife_Mother_Diabetic
Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hello,
I was diagnosed with Type 1 on 27th December 2008. I’ll never forget this date as it changed my life forever.
I was re-diagnosed with Type 2 in 2019, nearly 11 years of living with what I thought was Type 1.
When I was diagnosed I rebelled, I was 21 and at university. I didn’t want the illness, hadn’t asked for it, and I didn’t want to live with it. I sporadically took my medication, sometimes not injecting insulin for days. I didn’t believe the horror stories and didn’t think it would ever kill me so I just got on with life like I didn’t have an illness that was threatening it. I then graduated university, got married and grew up!
In 2013 I attended the DAFNE course. My HbA1c was around 13 and I knew I had to do something about it if I ever wanted to be a mother, a healthy mother. I attended the course in July and in the October my HbA1c was just under 7. I was so proud of myself and I continued to follow the principles. I was pregnant by March, with a HbA1c of 5.9!!!
Fast forward a year and I now have a newborn baby who is taking all of my attention. I’m focusing on him and, at times, acting like I don’t exist. I’m forgetting my insulin doses, missing tablets and generally not looking after myself. My HbA1c is soon back to around 13. I knew this wasn’t good and I’d be no good to my son if I didn’t look after myself but I didn’t have the energy. In 2016 I finally asked to be seen by a consultant so I could have regular check ups and advice, something I hadn’t received since the pregnancy. I knew I could get my diabetes back under control as I had done it once before.
It didn’t happen. I dropped out of the clinic, stopped going to appointments and generally stopped caring about myself. The diabetic nurse at my GP left, someone who had encouraged me to go on the DAFNE and supported me through pregnancy and the months after. Someone I had come to trust, and like… I did not like her replacement! In 2018 this diabetic nurse made me question everything I had been told on my near to 10 year journey with Type 1 diabetes. She told me things didn’t add up, that my results at the time of diagnosis and my recent results (blood work I assume) didn’t match to type 1 and she thought I was actually type 2. I was in shock - all these questions floating around my mind; could I have avoided insulin, have I been managing with the wrong medications, could I have lost weight and been healthier years ago???
In 2019, after joining a new consultants clinic, I was tested and re-diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. I was already taking Metformin so nothing was changing there but I thought maybe I’d be off the awful injections as my body was showing signs of producing its own insulin. Nope, I was wrong - I am an insulin dependant type 2… so nothings changed, or so I thought.
I was no longer a priority for a pump, or other award worth technology that was being developed and targeted at Type 1 diabetics. I was still on insulin, and still at risk or hypos and hypers but I was being treated differently by lay people who didn’t understand the disease. I’ve had so many ‘but you’re type 2’ comments that it will take a lot of strength not to punch the next person in the nose!!
I have been some form of diabetic for nearly 14 years and I am as clueless as the day I was diagnosed. In all honesty, I’m not interested anymore. I wanted to get healthy so I could have a second child, but it’s been 4 years since they started investigating the change in classification and my HbA1c is still around 13. I’ve tried a number of different medications, alongside the insulin and tablets, but good control is not coming.
I want to give up. It’s quite clear that my son is going to be an only child - only child in the wider family too, not just our immediate. I desperately wanted to be a mother of 3, but my son is 7 now and I’m in my mid-30s. You’re supposed to work in life towards the things you want, and what I want most I can’t have.
I didn’t ask for this disease, didn’t ask for the confusion in diagnosis or for the resistance to insulin I’ve built up over the years. I didn’t ask for anxiety or depression. I did ask for the opportunity to have a large family, with kids I can support to grow and achieve.
I want to give up.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 on 27th December 2008. I’ll never forget this date as it changed my life forever.
I was re-diagnosed with Type 2 in 2019, nearly 11 years of living with what I thought was Type 1.
When I was diagnosed I rebelled, I was 21 and at university. I didn’t want the illness, hadn’t asked for it, and I didn’t want to live with it. I sporadically took my medication, sometimes not injecting insulin for days. I didn’t believe the horror stories and didn’t think it would ever kill me so I just got on with life like I didn’t have an illness that was threatening it. I then graduated university, got married and grew up!
In 2013 I attended the DAFNE course. My HbA1c was around 13 and I knew I had to do something about it if I ever wanted to be a mother, a healthy mother. I attended the course in July and in the October my HbA1c was just under 7. I was so proud of myself and I continued to follow the principles. I was pregnant by March, with a HbA1c of 5.9!!!
Fast forward a year and I now have a newborn baby who is taking all of my attention. I’m focusing on him and, at times, acting like I don’t exist. I’m forgetting my insulin doses, missing tablets and generally not looking after myself. My HbA1c is soon back to around 13. I knew this wasn’t good and I’d be no good to my son if I didn’t look after myself but I didn’t have the energy. In 2016 I finally asked to be seen by a consultant so I could have regular check ups and advice, something I hadn’t received since the pregnancy. I knew I could get my diabetes back under control as I had done it once before.
It didn’t happen. I dropped out of the clinic, stopped going to appointments and generally stopped caring about myself. The diabetic nurse at my GP left, someone who had encouraged me to go on the DAFNE and supported me through pregnancy and the months after. Someone I had come to trust, and like… I did not like her replacement! In 2018 this diabetic nurse made me question everything I had been told on my near to 10 year journey with Type 1 diabetes. She told me things didn’t add up, that my results at the time of diagnosis and my recent results (blood work I assume) didn’t match to type 1 and she thought I was actually type 2. I was in shock - all these questions floating around my mind; could I have avoided insulin, have I been managing with the wrong medications, could I have lost weight and been healthier years ago???
In 2019, after joining a new consultants clinic, I was tested and re-diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. I was already taking Metformin so nothing was changing there but I thought maybe I’d be off the awful injections as my body was showing signs of producing its own insulin. Nope, I was wrong - I am an insulin dependant type 2… so nothings changed, or so I thought.
I was no longer a priority for a pump, or other award worth technology that was being developed and targeted at Type 1 diabetics. I was still on insulin, and still at risk or hypos and hypers but I was being treated differently by lay people who didn’t understand the disease. I’ve had so many ‘but you’re type 2’ comments that it will take a lot of strength not to punch the next person in the nose!!
I have been some form of diabetic for nearly 14 years and I am as clueless as the day I was diagnosed. In all honesty, I’m not interested anymore. I wanted to get healthy so I could have a second child, but it’s been 4 years since they started investigating the change in classification and my HbA1c is still around 13. I’ve tried a number of different medications, alongside the insulin and tablets, but good control is not coming.
I want to give up. It’s quite clear that my son is going to be an only child - only child in the wider family too, not just our immediate. I desperately wanted to be a mother of 3, but my son is 7 now and I’m in my mid-30s. You’re supposed to work in life towards the things you want, and what I want most I can’t have.
I didn’t ask for this disease, didn’t ask for the confusion in diagnosis or for the resistance to insulin I’ve built up over the years. I didn’t ask for anxiety or depression. I did ask for the opportunity to have a large family, with kids I can support to grow and achieve.
I want to give up.
