Sugar Challenged

Finally found a blog name that is available! http://sugarchallenged.blogger.com it is!

It’s been 2 and a half month since I was diagnosed with Type I diabetes. It was 9th of Jan, 2008. I was visiting my family in India and had just come back to Delhi from an awesome trip to Hyderabad. My brother (who is an orthopedic surgeon himself) was there to pick me up from the airport. I had gotten some routine tests done before going on the trip. He had their results for last few days but hadn’t told me anything about it. I just knew that my sugar levels were ‘a bit high’. In fact, he chose not to tell me anything when he met me at the airport. He took me straight to an endocrinologist. We had lunch on our way there. Mom had sent some healthy homemade food but I really wanted a McDonald’s burger. I thought I’ll definitely get one as soon as I was done dealing with the doctor. Just before we ate, we got a blood sugar test done in the car (and that was my first prick on the fingertip). It showed some insanely high number but I didn’t care at that time because I had no idea what that number meant. I didn’t know what diabetes was – no idea what blood sugar meant! And even if I had known, I had no idea about what it meant to be diabetic. I could not understand what this fuss was all about. Why did we have to see the doctor right away? But, I thought that my brother probably knew what was best for me. So, we went to see the doctor.

After a few minutes, we pulled into Gangaram hospital – a prestigious medical institution of Delhi. The doctor’s office was a small room with him, me, my brother, and a few other patients sitting and staring at him. He had some basic questions – weight, height, BP etc. Then I told him about my 20 lbs weight loss from a few months ago. After a few minutes of talking and perusing my test results, he casually broke it to me – “Ofcourse, there is no doubt that it is diabetes’. And then, he suddenly started talking about insulin, injections, pen and blood glucose monitoring! At first, I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation. I thought, “hmm, diabetes. Interesting. I have some fancy disease – that’s cool! So, doctor, please tell me how do I get rid of it?” But looking at the doctor’s and my brother’s face and trying to comprehend what they were talking about, the reality started to dawn upon me. And then, the doctor looked at me and said – “As you know, diabetes is a lifelong disease. Your lifestyle is going to change drastically.” Hey, I didn’t know that! and why the hell do you have to assume that I know anything about diabetes? He and my brother talked a bit about the type of diabetes it could be but none of that made any sense to me. He gave me about 10 minutes to digest what had struck me. 10 minutes – that’s all and we were done! We came out of doctor’s cabin and visited the dietitian. She gave me long list of what I should eat and not eat – not giving a single thought to the fact that she was dealing with type 1 diabetes . I couldn’t hear most of it because I wasn’t even listening. “Diabetes … insulin … injections … lifelong … ” – I had my own river of thoughts going on in my brain. So, we finished our business at the hospital, and got into the car. As I sank into my seat, I looked at my brother. He asked me – “So, how do you feel?”. And I just started crying. I couldn’t stop it. Cried like a baby. What seemed like an awesome vacation the same morning had just turned into a nightmare!

I was Sugar Challenged.

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