I will start off by saying that living with diabetes is hard. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 13 years ago when I was 29 years old. It is very hard for me as I really enjoy good tasting food and drinks.
I remember the day I was diagnosed, I woke up one morning with a very sharp pain in my left side that was not getting better so i laid in bed thinking if i just lay still it will go away but it only got worse and I could barely move so I went to the E.R and they did some tests and said I have kidney stones in my left kidney and sent me home with some pills to help dissolve them. I took the pills for 3 days and by the 3rd day the pain was getting worse and was now also hurting on my right side and I began running a high fever of around 103 degrees fahrenheit. I went in to see my regular dr and he told me I needed to be admitted in the hospital so I go to the hospital and when i got there my husband helped me in a wheelchair and wheeled me to checkin where i immediately vomited all over the floor. They put me in a room and began running more tests on me and told me I had a fist full of kidney stones in both kidneys, it was on my 3rd day in the hospital that they informed me I have diabetes, my blood sugar was 380. I ended up being in the hospital for a total of 9 days sicker than a dog feeling like i was going to die.
Ok so I met with a nutritionist in the hospital who told me how I have to start eating, it was definitely not the kind of food I enjoyed eating. I found this all very hard to absorb, I was put on metformin which my body didn't react nicely to so I had to be switched to other medicines. Here I am 13 years later after basically not following a very good diabetic friendly diet because
I enjoy too much being able to eat what i like eating. Now it all comes crashing down on me and I just got told by my dr that I am in the early stages of kidney failure, I am 42 years old. My dr told me I am too young for this and I need to change my diet now or I will be on dialysis pretty quickly. My dr placed me on insulin which is the one thing I never wanted to have to resort to. Just the thought of my kidneys failing me has woken me up and I am trying very hard to make diet changes and I believe I am doing real good so far. Basically my diet has changed as in I have cut out all sugar and my meals and snacks are baked or grilled meats not fried, nuts, cheeses, vegetables and diet sodas instead of the normal sodas I use to drink, I also enjoy water more these days as well as crystal lite. This is all very very hard for me but I am doing it so my advice for all of you who are living with diabetes and enjoy good tasting food is please consider what my dr told me, diabetes is a degenerative disease, you may not be falling apart now but if you don't take care of yourself and follow a low carb and 0 sugar diet then it will catch up with you and you will wish you would have thought of these things sooner.