How did my life journey with diabetes begin?

People always ask me how I can have diabetes, because I look super healthy, I've always been conscious about eating healthy, doing exercise, etc. Well, let me tell you my story...

I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in November, 2016 and how did I find out? Well, I felt extremely thirsty all the time and although I drank 5 liters of water every day, my mouth was always very dry. Something in my mind told me this could be the symptom of diabetes because for some reason, I had always been afraid of having diabetes and had read a lot on the subject. So, when I finally needed to go to the doctor, I asked her to check my blood glucose level, just in case. I will never forget her face when she saw the results. She literally looked like she saw a ghost. My fasting blood glucose level was 19,7 mmol/l which is extremely high (the normal level should be under 7 mmol/l) so she urged me to go to the emergency room right away. I thought I was going to collapse and started crying on the spot but, thank God my pregnant sister and grandmother were in the doctor’s waiting room, waiting for some medical prescription. It was great to have them next to me at that horrible time. I called my mum and I just cried on the phone for a couple of minutes without being able to say anything. As soon as she heard my voice, she started crying, too. Then I went home and she took me to the emergency room. I remember that my dad had just bought a very tasty sweet pastry covered with chocolate for me for breakfast that day, and it was just sitting on the table waiting for me. This is when my life changed; I wasn’t allowed to eat it anymore. So, I just stood there and stared at it with a growling stomach – trying to accept what was happening.

Back at the hospital, the doctors ran some tests including blood tests. They measured my weight, asked a few questions and they gave me a room because I needed to stay there for a couple of days to adjust my insulin level. They had no doubt that I had type 1 diabetes even though they hadn’t received the results from the LAB yet.

The causes of Type 1 Diabetes can be:

• Genetics

• Virus infection

• Stressful life events

What was the cause of developing Type 1 Diabetes in my case?

No one in my family had Type 1 diabetes before so I can’t attribute it to my genes. How about a virus? Hmmm… I don’t remember anything like that but you never know. Anyways, in my case, most likely stress played a huge role in developing this disease. Here’s why…

I got married at the end of May 2016 after being in a relationship for four and a half years. The Wedding was spectacular; I couldn’t have imagined it in a better way. 180 people attended, the ceremony was held in Hungary’s most beautiful and prestigious Cathedral, the dinner and the party took place at one of Hungary’s most reputable winery, the music was perfect, my hair and dress looked fabulous, the decor was on point and the party went on for three days …. You can imagine! Everything was just perfect and I was the happiest person on Earth.

That was until July 2016. Now, let me back track a little and give you a bit of context. In my life, I had this good friend (we’ll call him Pete) whom I had known for 5 years. We worked together in a Summer Camp in the U.S. in 2012 and we had kept a very close connection. We had a lot of fun together, then we became a “couple” but, the relationship simply didn’t work between us so we broke up after only a week. Despite the breakup, we remained friends just like before because we really enjoyed each others’ company.

Once I met my ex-husband I stopped seeing him as a friend because he was very jealous of all my ex-boyfriends. Even though this one lasted only for one week… But that’s beside the point. After the wedding, Pete contacted me to let me know that him and his friends wanted to host a party to celebrate one of his best friend’s New Born in my family’s B&B. (Background story: I grew up in a famous wine region in Hungary which is a popular tourist destination amongst wine lovers, where my family owns a Winery and a B&B.) So, they came to celebrate in my hometown and I obviously spent the evening with them. I brought them to our winery, we drank some wine and partied together. Suddenly, my husband (I’ll name him Greg) showed up at the party just as Pete put his arm around my shoulder. Perfect timing … right?! By the way, I usually hug my friends but this wasn’t even a hug. After seeing this, Greg went crazy and went directly to his parent’s house which is 300 km away from where we lived. I usually felt very bad when we had a fight but at that moment, I had no bad feelings at all. I didn’t feel guilty because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong. So, I thought to myself, he is going to calm down at some point and is going to come back home. Well, I was wrong.

The days went by and he still didn’t come home. We couldn’t talk this through because he started getting drunk 24/7. First I didn’t tell anyone that we had a fight because I didn’t think it was a big deal. But when my sister found out what happened, she became extremely angry with Greg. I didn’t understand why and first she didn’t want to tell me, but then she started crying and told me what she had found out about him. Greg had had an affair with one of his colleagues that had just ended right before the wedding. Greg discussed the details of his affair with his friends at his Bachelor party where my sister’s husband was invited. So, naturally he shared this story with his wife. Imagine my poor sister… What would you have done in her shoes? Being in a horrible situation, not knowing how to do right by me, whether I’d be better of knowing or not knowing. So finally, she decided to keep her silence because she knew I would crash if I found out. I was so happy and excited for the wedding, I was stunning, I already had everything all set, she didn’t want to ruin the best day of my life. She hoped this would end up being a one-time thing and that him and I would still have a beautiful life together. However, hearing how crazy my husband went because of seeing my friend embracing me, she couldn’t stay silent anymore. Long story short, we broke up after being married for one and half month. Even though I didn’t feel depressed and tried to look at it in a positive way; feeling grateful for finding out so early before even having children, deep inside, it did hurt me. Although I believe that everything happens for a reason, it was a huge shock for my body mentally and physically, too. So all of this happened in July 2016, I started feeling the symptoms 2 months later and I was diagnosed in November.

I am just one example, that stressful life event can cause type 1 diabetes, but I heard many life stories similar to mine, even in my neighbourhood. It is quite common that peope develope diabetes after they loose a very important person of their lives, no matter what age.