Posted by: Sweetsarabear
on May 11, 2010
Tagged in: Untagged
July 23, 1976 turned my life in a direction that I never thought that I would be lead down. I was 12 years old at the time and school had just let out for the summer. Pretty much like your typical 12 year old I was looking forward to summer break. I was very active but I was not into sports in school but enjoyed motorcycle riding with my father such as exploring ghost towns in Death Valley, California.
I remember begin tired with no energy. Then the thirst came that I could not quench. I would go to the refrigerator at home and drink milk like it was going out of style. All I wanted to do was sleep that was it. My mom sensed that there was something wrong but my father said I was just begin lazy which was not like me at all. I was taken to a doctor that my father had seen and a blood and urine test was done. Everything came back normal. The doctor said it was just the hot weather and it will go away. But it did not go away things became worse as time went on. I think it was about a week or so before I was taken to another doctor this is the one who brought me into this world Dr. Erickson. She took a blood and urine sample and I remember the exam room that I sat in along with my father that the door was left open. Across the hall was a small room that was used for a lab. I saw her drop her head and shake it. Right then and there I knew something was wrong. There was a bad strain of flu going around called the Asian or Hong Kong flu which was thought to have attacked my immune system thus ending in type 1 diabetes.
After a few minutes she came in and sat down. She said you have diabetes. Well as a 12 year old diabetes was not in my vocabulary and I had no clue to what she had just said to me. She asked me to go out into the waiting room while she talked to my father. I felt that my world had come to an end at that point in time. I scanned the waiting room and saw a vinyl couch that was not occupied by anyone and sat down picking up a Life magazine to hide my face while I cried.
