Going Through Changes

As with anyone who is diagnosed with diabetes, my life completely changed on that day that I heard the news. In a matter of three days, my priorities completely changed. Instead of eating because I was hungry, I had to focus mainly on maintaining my blood sugar. Instead of exercising to just stay fit, I was exercising to control my blood sugars. Everyday I was checking my sugars and my mind was consumed with sugars and insulin. Of all these things, these are all changes that diabetics go through. This is the things that we have to deal with in life, and I am perfectly okay with it. As you can probably notice by now, I have a very positive view about my condition and these negative changes do not phase me at all. This fact may stun some people, but the reason for this is because my diagnosis was one of the best things that has ever happened to me in my life. Some people may be scratching their heads but let me explain. My whole life I have been interested in health care. My mom is a nurse and as is my grandmother and I knew since a very young age that I wanted to do something in that field. Although I did not know what career I wanted to enter, I would change everyday about what I was interested in, like most 15 year old kids. When I was admitted to the hospital in Boston I had many nurses and doctors running in and out of my room, but I can not remember what their names were, or what they looked like, that is except for one of them. On my final day in the hospital I had a nurse named John. When John came in my room, he completely lifted my spirits with his attitude. On top of his positivity, John educated me on how to test my blood sugar and inject my own insulin so I could get prepared to go home. Although these things are minute now, they completely changed my life; because of John I am now studying nursing myself in an attempt to have that type of an influence at some point through my career. Now that I look back, I can say that diabetes completely changed my life, and that change is for the better, because it has truly shaped my life.
Although the choice of my career was the biggest changed in my life, the other change that I have noticed is my role as an educator to people around me who have become curious about diabetes, especially my insulin pump. I explain how everything works for me at least once a week, and it has become something I love to do to help people better understand. Although I love helping people explain my care, I would even more so enjoy helping people enjoy my cure. The only way we are going to get there is by raising the money necessary to do the research. So please, if at all possible donate to the Joslin High Hopes fund here http://www.joslin.org/giving/high_hopes_fund.html. Thank you to everyone for reading and have a happy thanksgiving.

PS: Sunday is my 7 year anniversary of being a diabetic, and I couldn't have made it here without the care provided by Joslin, so a big thanks to all my doctors and nurses for keeping me healthy.

Have a great thanksgiving,

Pat

Story from the Beginning

For this week, the prompt Joslin asked us all the write about was a story from when we were first diagnosed. When I started to think about what to write I realized that the diagnosis was such a life changing traumatic event to me that I have blocked out much of what happened on those first few days. When I was diagnosed I was 15 years old and I was a freshman in high school. More over than just being a freshman, I was a freshman athlete. When I was in football training camp, I felt myself getting weaker everyday, going from being competitive on the field to not being able to even make it through drills in full. After practice each day I would return to the locker room with my teammates and start drinking water, and I could drink almost all of my gallon cooler at a time, which I never thought anything of. Over time, I began to get weaker and weaker and assumed that football was just not for me, because I could not hold my own at all, and I wound up quitting a sport that I waited my whole life to play. A few weeks later, my mom, who is a nurse, noticed me loosing weight and drinking and sleeping too much, and that is when I finally got tested, and my life officially changed. When I returned home from the doctors to get my belongings and head to the hospital, I remember my older brother and his friends being in the basement and three of them chuckled when they heard the news, but one of them, Scott, was the only one besides my brother that showed genuine concern, and fate have it we are still great friends to this day. But as I get into the real story, it all started when I got to the hospital in Boston. I was depressed, I knew that this is the reason football had ended, I knew that I wouldn't be ready for basketball tryouts the next week, and I knew that my whole life was going to change upon leaving that hospital. Once my blood sugars began to stabilize, I was able to walk around the unit and observe what was going on around me. It was the day before thanksgiving in 2005. Every other child leaving the unit was younger, and was going home with a terminal illness for potentially their last thanksgiving with their families. There were patients with cancer, still smiling and just being happy to be with their family, and once i returned to my room my Mom said the line that has changed my life since that day. My Mom looked at me and said "Patrick, it could be a hell of alot worse." As tough as that may be to hear, it is only the truth. In a few days I would be walking out of that hospital and just have to check my sugars, give insulin, and make a few lifestyle modifications and I could live a perfectly normal life. From that point forward I have always lived by that quote. I see people with cancer, with other illnesses and I just thank God that all I have received is diabetes. As badly as it sucked in the beginning, I am alive, I am living a good life, and most importantly I am achieving my dreams. And as I mentioned in my last post, none of this success would be possible without the support of Joslin Diabetes Center, so please follow the link at the bottom of my post and learn more about Joslin, and please make a donation to Joslin as we strive to reach our 5,000 fundraising goal.

Thanks Again!

Pat

Joslin Blog Project - National Diabetes Month - Joslin Supporters - Joslin Diabetes Center

National Diabetes Month

Hello Everyone,

The month of November is national diabetes month, and being a diabetic and a nursing student, I have a strong interest in helping find a cure in anyway that I can. This month, I have decided to participate in a blog put together by Joslin Diabetes Center, one of the world wide leaders in diabetes care and research, and where I receive my personal diabetes care. Through this blog, we are looking to raise 5,000 dollars overall to help support the Joslin Hope Fund, which helps support the research toward the cure done by Joslin. Everything that I have accompished since I was 14 years old would have not been possible without the care and support provided by Joslin, and I will do whatever I can this month to help reach that fundraising goal. So please, take a look at the link in the bottom of this post, see what it is all about, and I look forward to sharing my journey through life with diabetes with everyone over the next few weeks.

-Pat

Affiliated with Harvard Medical School, Joslin Diabetes Center is the world's largest diabetes research center, diabetes clinic, and provider of diabetes education. Please consider making a gift today at www.joslin.org/hope.