Finding out the hard way... 5 minitues left

by Miss Madyson B.
(Michigan)

Well... where to start? To start off I am a sixteen year old girl who has a lot going on in her life. Right now I am a junior in high school and also take classes at a community college. I play basketball, have lots of friends, and love music. It all started the horrible Easter break of my third grade year. I was having flu like symptoms, and diabetes never came to mind. In fact the only other person in my family that had it was my great grandfather. Anyways... one morning my dad came into my room to tell me goodbye as he left for work, as I was left laying in bed sick. At this time my mom jumps in the shower. When she is done in the shower she comes to check on me. My eyes had rolled back in my head, my cheeks sunk in, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't move or speak. Like any other mom she knew something was wrong and carried me to the car and took me to the ER. They had no idea what was wrong and the last thing I remember was them trying to get me to stand on the scale so the doctor could get my weight. After that I slipped into a coma and became unresponsive. Well my mom told me what happened so, they called an ambulance and the ambulance took me to another ER, they also told my mom they had no idea what was wrong, so they sent me to Childrens. So the third ambulance ride was a charm and at Childrens they immediately checked my blood sugar which was 998. After I was stabilized they told my mom if she would have blow dried her hair which would be around 5 mins that I would not be here today. After 4 days in a coma I was able to pull through. I got my own hospital room instead of being in the intensive care unit and after 2 days I went home on shots. It was all a shock to me and with all the nutrition classes that followed really confused me on what exactly was going on. After 7 months on the shots and 4 months on the pens I received the insulin pump. For all the people who are not sure if they want the pump listen to me it was the best decision I have made to date. It makes it so much easier. My blood sugars are much more controlled, and the only problem that I have had is that when I go swimming I have to make sure the site that the catheter is at doesn't come off, other than that it is great. I would love to start talking to people about diabetes and help educate people so that someone else doesnt have to find out the hard way like I did :)

Madyson