On August the 16th of August 2000 I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.
How this story starts is in January 2000 I noticed that I wasn’t feeling too good. I was feeling lethargic, feeling tired and sleeping at 12 pm every day. I was starting to eat less, I was drinking lots of water and feeling thirsty all the time, I had no energy, I felt like I was pulling a ball and chain all the time. I was feeling very weak, going to the toilet more frequently and having cramps in my legs.
I went to my GP in January of 2000 and said to him that I wasn’t feeling too good and I told him my symptoms and he just laughed at me and said I was fine. It got worse and worse and so I went back to my GP for a second time and he ran some tests and those came back negative, so my GP said I was fine. I continually got worse and so so I went back a third time and he just said I was fine and had nothing to worry about. I believed him and went back home.
I started to get worse within a month and so I went back to my GP again and told him I was feeling worse. He assured me that I was fine again and had nothing to worry about. This went on for 8 months and I was continually getting worse and by the third month I had worsening symptoms and was by then drinking 8 litres of water per day and going to the toilet more and more frequently. And getting up in the middle of the night. I was vomiting up all of my food and what I was drinking.
I kept on going back to my GP and every time he said I was fine and had nothing to worry about. By then there hadn’t been any tests done for Diabetes. By six months I was feeling so bad that I was vomiting just about everything I ate or drank. I was still going back to my GP and I was telling him everything that was going on. He was still reassuring me that I was fine. By the 7th month I was a lot worse and my GP was still reassuring me that I was fine.
By the 16th of August 2000 I was found unconscious and non-responsive by my dad. He had tried calling me at home and I hadn’t answered the phone and so he came home to find me unconscious on the floor of my bedroom. He called the ambulance and I was taken to hospital. In the ambulance according to my dad I was not responding to anything so they made the decision to get me airlifted to hospital. I was in a Diabetic coma for 6 months. The hospital doctors said that if I was 2 minutes later I would have been dead. They also said that I was clinically and biochemically in DKA. I owe a lot to my dad because if it hadn’t of been for his quick reaction to call the ambulance when he did he could have lost his one and only son me.
My dad helped to save my life back then on the 16th of August 2000. I just don’t want anyone else to go through what I did and I urge people to get checked out if they have the same or similar symptoms to what I had and if your GP says you’re fine please get a second opinion from another doctor because it could save your life.
