The wonderful thing about growing
up in my generation is our access to the Internet. When I don’t have the answer I go straight to Google. My boyfriend and I will have disagreements
from time to time and they are most often settled by a few simple touches of my
phone. It’s mind-blowing the
amount of information that is literally at our fingertips. I don’t know about you, but I
also find it incredible how many people have the same questions as me; whether
its problems with computers, how-to’s, or health issues, the question I have
has been asked before. Luckily for
me I always find that I’m pretty normal.
A month and a half ago I about hit
rock bottom. I was in the middle
of spring semester of my sophomore year of college and it felt like school was
never going to end, my boyfriend, Rutledge was 2500 miles away from me, my
family was 500 miles, and it felt like my body was falling apart at age
20. It all started out as a sinus
infection, and then turned into a yeast infection and blurry vision, and within
two weeks I was drinking two liters of water a day and running to the bathroom
every hour. As everyone knows, it
was driving me nuts!! Having so
many question about what was going on inside of me, I googled my symptoms. I
found that a lot of people have had the same symptoms and their cure was
insulin cause they were diabetic.
I truly didn’t believe I had diabetes, but I thought I could feel better
if maybe I just ate healthier.
That mindset however did not fly with Rutledge, he argued for two days
that I needed to see a doctor, but I didn’t believe there was anything that
wrong with me. Thankful of his
persistence, I found out on March 28 in the Health Services of College of
Charleston that I did in fact have Type 1 diabetes.
Immediately after hearing the news,
I was taxied to Roper St. Francis emergency room. I was in the ER for a lovely six hours and my boyfriend’s
mother stayed by my side the entire time.
I was comforting to have someone there asking all the questions while my
brain was still in shock. I moved
to my hospital room for the night, but that didn’t stop my roomies, Mary
Crawford and Clair and I from having a movie night, sleepover and skipping class
the next day!
A few hours before my dad heard the
news he had told my brother he wasn’t planning to come visit me any time
soon. Little did he know that he
would be flying up to Charleston the next morning, sitting in a hospital room,
and watching me learn to inject insulin into my stomach. It’s amazing how quickly your life can
get turned around, but I am so thankful for all the people who have been with
me along the way.