ue TAKING CONTROL

My life with diabetes

By DIANE BRANCH
Diane Branch is a diabetic, She
lives in Terrace,

My twelfth birthday ~ present

poe. WAS diabetes «a thing that would
- change the rest of my life.

A’ week before I turned 12, I

» vc Was a sick litle girl, | was vomit-
| “ing and had wasted away to a
~ Skeleton, 1 had this incredible

_2thirst.that nothing. could quench,

- I drank anything and everything

_..in sight from canned milk when I
~~ couldn't. find anything in the

_ i fridge to a 24-pack of pap.

“everyone

TD kept falling asleep in class and

_- ifT wasn’t falling asleep I was in

_ the. bathroom urinating, My
Rights were plagued with leg
me cramps every time I dared to

“move,
We were living in an isolated

logging’ camp at the time and
; my mother

-thought I had the fy. But when
~ she thought it was diabetes it was
~ time to fly into town.

except

As soon as I got to town we

-went Straight to emergency, I was
. immediately hooked up to an in-
_travenous drip. [ had a sweetish

odour to my breath that you could

“smell-two feet away. They kept
- saying I just had the flu,

_ After five hours in emergency, I

“was taken up to a room and told I

had diabetes. [ knew a little about

the disease because my uncle had
- it I knew it meant taking needles, -
“but I didn’t know how many or
‘why. They. kept taking my blood
_ and giving me injections. I was
. scared.
| The next day I was introduced
to the diabetic teaching nurse.

- She gave me lots of information

and told me what I had was for
life, but that it could be contrel-
led. I. thought I could take a
needle and everything would be
okay. I] still had a lot to learn.

My life became a rigid regime
of balancing food, insulin and ex-
ercise. Everything J did had to be
planned ahead. I had to test my.

“urine four times a day, measure

_ -all-the food I ate, learn exchanges

and plan when I was going to ex-
ercise.. ys. :

]. had ‘to learn what happens:
with ‘an insulin reaction if I ex-
ercised and didn’t eat extra food,
or ate a meal late or took too
much insulin.

I accepted my new way of life -

but always felt like I was Diane
the Diabetic. I stuck io my
restrictions and really worked at

good control.

The came the teenage years --
the years of rebellion: ‘“Why

- ean’t I have that chocolate bar? It

won’t hurt me,”’
Wrong. It did hurt me. Or:
‘Why do I have to eat? It won't

"matter ifT don’t eat.”

“Wrong again. Through trials
and. tribulations I found out the

~ hard way .all the things that did

hurt me, T was in and out of the
hospital all the time. Just the
hormonal changes of puberty

would send me back into the hos- -

pital: without the added things I
played around with.

Once C decided I wanted to be
skinny so I refused to take my
needle. ] got skinny alright -- and
almost killed myself doing it.

I hated being different from all
my friends, They teased me all
the time and ] laughed, but really
it hurt a lot. ] resented having to
be different, so I tricd to be like
everyone else, and paid the price.

I grew. up and had to take re-
sponsibility again for my disease,
especially now that I was ihe one
paying. Diabetes is very ex-
-pensive. I pay $80 a month to test
my blood, about $100 a month
for insulin, and $260 every month

_ and a half on insulin pump sup-

plies...

After’ I had my son J couldn’t
scem to get any kind of control
no matter what I did, so I went to
Vancouver and was put on an in-

_. sulin pump. The pump cost me
- $3,500 but it was worth every
penny I paid. I’m in excellent
_control now and plan to stay that

way,
Having. diabetes makes you

prow. up fast. Something like the

common cold can send your
diabetes out of control for weeks,
“As you get older, the risks of
complications -- such as kidney

disease, blindness, poor circula-

_ tion, heart disease and nerve dis-

. orders ~ -- increases.

vs scary: to know you may

“> have-to face these some day. The
bad thing about diabetes is you

: “don’t feel the effects of the com-
' . ° plications immediately -- it’s later

“in life when they show up. If you

have poor control for a long time,

~~ yow ll fecl the effects a lot

sooner,
When I was first diagnosed
with diabetes and they were
regilaling me, I lost much of my
vision from having too much
sugar in my eyes. Is a scary
feeling.

. There are so many emotions in-

volved with having diabetes.

Anger, resentment, acceptance,

‘fear, self-pity, depression.

On the positive side, if you
have diabetes and have good con-
trol, you are probably healthier
than the average peson. You
have to eat right and exercise,

Diabetes has taught me to be
disciplined, organized, and to
have a good outlook on life, You
have to take contro] of the disease
not let the disease take control of
you,

Diane Branch

Tevrace Standart Wainesty, May 27, 1992 — - Page B5

Workshop to

give

help for diabetics

Diabetics here are urged to take
in a daylong workshop Saturday,
May 30, to learn more about the
disease they live with.

Sponsored by the Terrace
branch of the Canadian Diabetes
Associalion, the Diabetes Spring
Symposium will be held at the
Terrace Inn,

Five doctors will be there to
speak, including Dr. Hugh

Terrace Co-op Fabric.

Department

0°

OFF

Regular Price

COLOURED TAG
Fabric Sale
Thursday, May 28 to
‘Saturday, June 6

Tildesely of St. Pauls Hospital’s
diabcies teaching centre.

Registration is at 8:00 am. The
topics for discussion include:
diabetes complications and
avoidance (8:30 a.m,), diabetes
and pregnancy (10:15 a.m.),
diabetes) and proper foatcarc
(1:30 p.m.), and management of
diabetes in children and adoles-
cenls.(3:15 p.m.),

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| All Yellow Tags

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| Green Tags

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