The Good, the Bad, and the UGLY!

It has been quite the past few weeks-and telling the story might take awhile, so sit back and relax and enjoy the randomness. So our good friend Kate, from Canada, was getting married and we thought it best to take a little road trip and go to the reception, and of course visit all the cousins, aunts, uncles, Grandma and Grandpa. Sure didn't know it was going to be a life changing experience.

So me, Brad and Jax decide to head out Thursday and travel up. Everything was great-car was working, tons of junk food and just plain excited to be going up to Canada. We get there and settle in and everyone was just feeling good. Friday night was the reception so we decide to hang out and catch up with everyone throughout the day. Before we head out to the reception my Grandma makes us all dinner. So to back up a little bit, I have been going to the bathroom about every 5 minutes, drinking gallons of water at a time, lost some weight and have been feeling extremely tired. Just thought the air was dry which led to drinking lots of water, and thought I was going to the bathroom every 5 minutes, because well..I was drinking lots of water. And the tiredness I just thought because I sit at a desk and stare at a computer screen for 8 hours a day for my job-and of course I thought I was losing weight because I went to the gym once a month and stretched on the mats for 10 minutes. This has been going on for the past 5-6 months I would say. Back to the story-so during dinner I drank 5 glasses of water and went to the restroom twice, just during dinner! My aunt noticed what the heck was going on and of course thought it a little strange. Her daughter has been Type One Diabetic for 18 years, so she thought these systems were a little familiar. She asked me how long this has been going on for, and I just said about 5 or 6 months. Just for kicks, she thinks of this brilliant idea for me to check my blood. She pulls out the needle to prick my finger to test my blood and I'm just freaking out because I'm simply petrified of needles. I suck it up for a second and she pricks it. The average person's blood sugar is supposed to be around 3-6 (this is the Canadian metric system we are using at this point) and mine is a good whopping 31.9. I have no idea what this even means so I just laughed and thought it was because I was horking down candy all the way up to Canada. My aunt is terrified.

At this point our ride is honking for us to all drive to the reception and so we just hopped in the car and drove off to the wedding. Had a wonderful night. It was great to see everyone and just sit around and catch up with people. Didn't think twice about my blood sugar being so high. So later that night my aunt calls me just worried sick. She says, "Melissa, I don't want to scare you, but you need to get to a hospital immediately!!" She of course explained why she thought I needed to be there and so we had no choice but to head over. I was feeling just fine so I skip into the hospital just excited to be there. I have never set foot in a hospital for my own health reasons, so I was thrilled. The nurse sits me down to take my blood and sees that its 31. Shes all of a sudden frantic to get me into an emergency bed and they send me on up to get into my little gown. I'm just having a great time sitting on the bed not really thinking that anything is wrong, because usually there isn't. The doctor comes in and sits down and begins explaining what is going on with my body. He said my body is going through what they call a "honeymoon stage". It's when the pancreas is trying to send out as much insulin as it possibly can but its basically dying. Usually when this happens, the pancreas dies and shoots off its last bit of insulin and the person falls directly into a coma. He said luckily you found out before you fell into a coma, but you are, in fact, Type 1 Diabetic and will be for the rest of your life. I'm just in shock. He keeps explaining what is going on and what my new diet will be like and the insulin shots that will be needed to be taken for the rest of my life before meals. By this point I'm just in shock and utterly pissed, not because I'm diabetic, but because I will have to start eating healthy for the rest of my friggin life.

I stay there for 24 hours so they can get me stabilized and get me back down to the states where I will have to go and be in the hospital for another 2-3 days. I get home and find a doctor, a diabetic doctor, and just start learning right from the start how to be a diabetic. TONS and TONS of things that needed to be learned, and still are learning to this day. It really is still sinking in that I'm a diabetic.

I'm sorry about this dang novel, but I thought it only appropriate to share my life change. Everything has been going great so far! Of course it gets extremely old not being able to eat sugar, pricking my finger every hour, and sticking a needle in me before every meal-and I swear on my life, my heart goes out to every addict, because my body, in fact, has been going through with-drawls for sugar..or just a doughnut. Brad has been the best of friend through all of this with me and literally being all of my strength. It's a new life style for the both of us. Its incredible the timing of everything, because I would not have been able to go through this without him. My life has taken a drastic turn, but I know through time, it will all become routine and I'll be able to live an absolute normal life. Of course during this chaotic time-sure didn't forget to take the pictures:)!!! WOOOOHOOO

Pictures of the beautiful bride and all the girls-it was so great to see them all again and it was well worth finding out I have a disease!!! I hope you all enjoyed my story and again I'm sorry for it being so long, but thanks to all of you who have been such great support, awesome friends and caring family!! I'm so grateful!!!