Ello Lovies! The last 2 weeks have been hectic with life & me trying to get back on my gym game. I’ve been slacking, still trying to hold on to that summer Holidaze “feels” of chilling. As a type 1 Diabectic it’s essential for me to exercise as it lowers my blood sugars naturally & the less insulin (which is a protein that keeps me alive) I use, the better. I know I haven’t touched much on my condition but I was diagnosed a month before my 27th birthday for juvenile (or type 1) diabetes which is pretty old in age diagnosis. Some children get it as young as 3 years old but at almost 27 years it was rare & I’ve been living with this condition for 6 years (shhh don’t tell anyone my age ?). Firstly there are 2 types of diabetes if you don’t know. Type 1 is hereditary & Type 2 is not. Type 1 diabetes is an incurable condition that can only be managed & I do that by checking my blood sugar about 5 times a day, (pricking my finger with a lancet & placing my blood drop on a test strip that produces a reading) counting carbs I eat & calculating that by how much medication (insulin) to give myself to control it, exercising & trying to eat well. Doctors nicknamed my condition Type 1.5 (which is even more uncommon) as I got to lead a relatively normal childhood without syringes, blood tests, insulin & such…
This all came about when my Hubster Zack & I decided to take a trip to Las Vegas as we were promoting his Printing & Embroidery business in 2011 & after much debauchery of late nights, drinking, no sleep & eating all the wrong foods we got back home to Arizona & I found it hard to look at the television or images in general. My gym workouts were a struggle as I had no energy to run on the treadmill & was easily out of breath which was abnormal being an athlete my whole life.The real kicker came when I started to vomit everything I ate & in 3 days lost 15 lbs. My extremely worried husband took me to a random doctors office & after checking me out (with no blood test) told me I had a “cold” & prescribed me sugary syrup cough medications. BIG MISTAKE! (oh I feel like Julia Roberts in Pretty Women when she gets shunned by the snooty sales associates then goes back to said store with all her new shopping bags to tell them off !!?) After taking the prescribed medications I disintegrated further becoming disorientated & my Zack & mum-in -law Kris carried me to the hospital. The doctors & nurse did some blood tests & said a normal person’s blood sugar should be between 80-120 mg/dl, mine was tested at 1200 mg\dl. Firstly I was diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabectic (basically my God given pancreas stopped working) secondly I was entering a Diabectic coma, and lastly a couple more days going untreated & I would have been dead.
I was in the I.C.U for 3 days & the hospital for 5 more days after that…it’s a miracle I’m alive today.
Zack says he would ask me the days leading up to my diagnosis if I was awake or asleep & I would say disorientated shaking my head “I’m in between, I’m in between!”. We laugh about it now because we were crying at the time…what doesn’t kill you & all…literally! Very dramatic but there you have it with my diagnosis story. My pancreas was in a honeymoon phase & was producing insulin from somewhere nobody knows but it had a limited supply hence I was labelled a Type 1.5 Diabectic. It eventually shut down after our Vegas trip just before I turned 27! Happy. Freaking.Birthday.To. Me.
So exercise is a big part of my life like my condition I have to do it. Boxing, running, stepping, eliptical, cycling, weight & circuit training fitness, you name it i’ve done or am doing it 3-4 times a week. I want to live a long life & between seeing an endocrinologist ( my diabetes doctor) & dentist every 3 months I hopefully will! I now manage my condition with a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) and an Omnipod (wireless pump) personal diabetes manager, pre-filled flex pen with insulin & syringes & My last A1C (how i’ve managed the sugar in my blood for the last 3 months) was 7.3. (could be better & working on that but not perfect)
I find ways to incorporate my Diabectic style into my wardrobe by either hindering my pump (when I wore one) with fun & funky armbands to secure it for my workouts or swimming. Or just showing it off. My favorite experience was when a lady walked up to me at a supermarket & blatantly pointed at my arm & asked “what is that?” I replied it’s my outside pancreas! She looked appalled & started to walk away but I explained to her what it really entailed & she ended up offering to take me out for tea! Lovely jubbly!!☕️??
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed how I became “Le Diabectic” feel free to leave comments below, I welcome them! Catch you next time!
Cheers & Best Wishes,
Afi Like Taffy A.L.T
