I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about six years ago. I was at the doctor’s office because my thyroid was swollen, and he said my bloodwork showed very high sugar levels. My mother has diabetes, which started later on in her life, and doctors have said to me, “Well, either you, your sister, or your brother will have diabetes,” and I thought, “That will be me!” My sister’s is perfect, my brother’s is perfect, and of course I have it.
I went to a new doctor about three years ago and she changed my medicine entirely, because she wasn’t happy with my sugar levels and wanted to try something different. We tried one that made me feel really sick, but I’m on something different now that controls my sugar but doesn’t make me sick.
I test my blood sugar every day, once a day, usually in the morning before I take my medicine. I just had my A1C level tested and my doctor told me it was 6.1 — she said it’s perfect. I’m really happy about that because for so long my numbers weren’t where they were supposed to be. So I think the medication has really done it.
Besides taking medications, though, my life hasn’t changed that much. My diabetes is well managed and the medication pretty much takes care of it. Since my diagnosis, I’m not drinking sodas with sugar, you know, things like that, and not eating sweets. I look for sugar-free now, everything I get.
Sheila
My type 2 diabetes was diagnosed because I kept urinating. I couldn’t work; every five or ten minutes I was running to the restroom. I can’t say I was totally surprised because everyone on my dad’s side of the family has it – his mother, his siblings, and now me and my younger sister.
I knew that food habits had to change when I got diagnosed. My grandmother was a diabetic for 40 or 50 years, and she really took care of herself. When I would visit her in the summer she would teach me how to cook. She would say, “Fix my plate,” and she would hand me a cup, a drinking cup like a tea cup, and she would say “Put my peas in the cup. Don’t fill the cup up.” That’s how she measured her servings. And she was really good about it.