Confusing and overwhelming
The moment I was diagnosed with diabetes was both confusing and overwhelming. I was 15 years old, and, like any teenager, my mind was preoccupied with school, friends, and the typical challenges of adolescence. I remember sitting in a hospital room with my mum and meeting with a doctor who explained that I had diabetes and would need to take insulin injections multiple times a day for the rest of my life. I didn’t understand exactly what diabetes was.
"It felt surreal, like something that wasn’t really happening to me. I had other things on my mind, and what the diagnosis meant didn’t sink in at the time."
In the days following the diagnosis, specialist nurses visited my rural home daily to ensure I was managing my sugar levels and insulin injections. Despite their efforts, I still didn’t understand the full picture. I didn’t realise that insulin was meant to balance my sugar levels or that those levels had to stay within a specific range. I simply followed instructions without a true understanding of what was happening inside my body.
It took me years to understand just how serious diabetes is. Looking back, there were clear signs that something was wrong even before my diagnosis. I had a viral infection months earlier, and in the summer leading up to my diagnosis, I lost a lot of weight, was constantly thirsty, and experienced muscle cramps, especially after dancing. However, as a teenager, the weight loss seemed like a positive change, and I didn’t think much about my other symptoms. My focus was on school exams, friends, and, at the time, getting my first mobile phone, not on the fact that I was developing a condition that, if not managed well, could lead to complications.
The seriousness of diabetes became more apparent later in life.