This page is dedicated to you, my visitors. I have asked you all to share your stories with me and all who stop by in hopes that we may help someone to see that they are not alone and that Diabetes is something we can live with and still have normal lives.

I have had to add a second page to hold all the stories you have been so kind to send, Please follow the link below to read them all.

Please take some time to Rank My Site from the GeoGuide above.

Tierzas'
Story:

Although I am a Type 2 diabetec myself, I choose to write about my niece, Tierza Rae.

Tierza has been a diabetec since she was 4 years old and is now 12. This past year has brought many trips to the hospital with Tierza having siezures and many more side effects like yeast infections, pancreas problems, open sores on her bottom, and more. Her diabetec specialist is at a lose on what to do for her so she will be going to The Mayo Clinic this coming weekend to see if someone there can help.

My grandmotherhad diabetes for over 40 years and died at the age of 70 of cancer. My sister-in-law, Paula, got it when she was 15 and died of a grand maul siezure when she was 28. And now Tierza and I have it. I guess what I want to say is, your life is what you make it to be but sometimes even when you do everything right, things still happen to interfere with it.

You can't run away and hide but instead have to face it and deal with it. I think the saying: "The good Lord helps those who help theirselves" is about the best way of phrasing how a diabetec can live a normal life.

Nobody can do it for them...it has to be from theirselves. We all need help sometimes though, as in Tierza's case. I pray to God everyday that someone will find a cure for diabetes so that all the children like Tierza will truly, be able to lead a normal life and not spend most of it in a hospital hanging on to life by a thread

Melissa Morrows
Story

Though I am not diabetic, my aunt is. Her name is Lisa and she is the strongest person I know. She was diagnosed with diabetes at an early age. Through the years, she has had some rough times.

She got pregnant, though her doctors warned her not to, and the baby was still born. She has had more surgeries than I can count.

About two and a half years ago, she had a pancreas and kidney transplant because of kidney failure. We were happy to find out that she could also get a pancreas transplant at the same time. I was unaware that it was even possible. She has done great with her transplant and has amazed us all. But that's not the end.

The last surgery she had was a leg amputation. They took her leg right below her knee because it was infected. This was the hardest surgery for her. I had never seen her depressed before but it's a totally different ball game when a part of your body is taken away.

Since then, she has bounced back and is now walking with prosthesis. She is an amazing woman with more strength than I've ever seen in any other human being. I just want you to know how wonderful it is to see a site like this that talks about how to get through diabetes with a positive attitude.

You are a very neat person and I thank you for making a web site like this.
Good luck with it in the future.

Judys Story:
Hi,

My name is Judy and I'm the mother of a diabetic child.In fact, Mary Brown, the creator of this web page is my daughter.

Little did I know that I had a roller coaster ride ahead of me as the mother of a diabetic chid. Her insulin shots had to given twice a day but she was too small to understand that she needed the shots to live so she would run & hide when it was time for her shots. Let me tell you,I had lots of days I just sat & cried.

During the years from childhood to teenage years, I dealt with insulin reactions,high blood sugars,rebellion by Mary over having diabetes, and school officials who had no idea what a diabetic child needs to do to maintain a fairly normal life like their classmates. All this probably seems like the worst thing that could happen to a child but let me tell you that I thank God that diabetes can at least be controlled with insulin. So many diseases are fatal and you can do nothing about it.

I always encouraged Mary to not feel sorry for herself. I treated her as I would a child with no physical problem. Going to the Diabetc Camps taught her to take care of herself & control her diabetes instead of letting her diabetes control her.

Mary is now 30 years old,has a son who is 9, and a wonderful husband who has learned all he can about diabetes so he would be prepared for any emergency. Mary has had some complications from diabetes over the years such as retinopathy,and her blood sugars still go up & down but she never loses her positive outlook on life. She believes that life is a gift from God and that you can either make your life good or bad depending on your attitude. I can tell you that as Mary's mom, she has been an inspiration and a joy to me and all the ups & downs we had when she was growing up has brought us closer than most parents & kids will ever be.

Diabetes DOESN'T have to control your life or ruin your life.Thank God for your gift of life and stay close to your family for support. If any moms would like to chat about a diabetic child, my e-mail address is:frogeyes@webtv.net

Rons Story:
Hello,

My name is Ron. I came into Mary`s life a little over ten years ago, when I started dating her mom. Her mom and I got married and I would like to say it has been one of the best days in my life. Enough of that.

Mary is one of the most positive and fun loving people I have ever met. She has brought a lot of joy and happiness into my life. She doesn`t dwell on things that bring you down,illness etc.,or say why me? She is thankful every day for what she has. A loving husband and a great little boy.

I have been there when she has had some rough times with her diabetes,but she always keeps a great attitude. I feel that the good Lord did a great thing for me when He brought Mary into my life. She is more of a daughter to me than most natural parents have. I thank God every day for the joy her and her mom have brought into my life. Let me finish by saying,read her story and keep a positive attitude,and things will work out.

Catherines Story:
Hello,

I have a "sugar baby"who is 12 years of age. My daughter has had diabetes since the age of 8. I can tell you that although it has not all been easy i am truely optomistic about what the future holds for our young diabetics.

Why? Well even in the past 4 years I have seen alot of change in the treatment of diabetes. Change for me means positve steps towards either a cure or at this point very good control of blood sugars. Today the form of treatment that my daughter is recieving is the use of Humalog Insulin during the waking hours and Lente while she is aleep. I wonder how we did it only a short while ago with the other insulins.
I have to tip my hat to Humalog we all love it because of the flexability that it allows. It also has had great results with keeping blood sugars within the normal range. It's that what every diabetic wishes for?

We live in Canada and if anyone would like any further conversation on how we manage diabetes I would be more than happy to share the counting of "carbs" incorporating sugars,and for children getting the odd treat in there without seeing to much change in the blood sugars.
So, for all the newlly diagnosed diabetics and the parents of the "sugar babies" please don't feel despair things are happening every day in the medical area of JDF and we will stick together and we will be just fine. I can be reached at my email addressCatherine@efn i.com Mom (Cathy)

Dougs Story:
Hello Mary,

I am doing this not only to help other diabetics, but because I value your friendship so much.

I was diagnosed with type two diabetes in 1990. After collapsing on the job from what I thought was a heart attack, you know chest pains, shortness of breath, cold sweats.
Anyway after being transported to a local hospital, it was determined I had diabetes. They explained to me what happened is what's called acidosis, in other words I was very close to going into a diabetic coma. My blood sugars were 735!!! I received an IV then given insulin, within an hour by blood sugars had dropped to 110.

It's been a battle with this disease, but I refuse to let it win! There are several different drugs I use with diabetes. Of course the insulin. Started out with humiln type"R" and type"N" 3 times a day. Then later down the road came some of the not so major problems of this disease. I had terrible heartburn and nothing would help it. I was put on Prilosec and propulsed! turns out it was neuropathy I have it mostly in digestive track, you see diabetes slows down the bodies digestive rate which in turn causes extreme build up of acid these drugs help avoid that to a point. Believe me wrong food too much fried food or greasy and you pay for it.

Now I use Humalog, which is an insulin used everytime at meal time. I use approximently 20-25 units. In the morning I mix the type "N" with it to cary through the day the "N" is a longer working insulin. Then they added a drug called glucophage, which is like a backup to the insulin helping the body burn up excess sugar. Now the rollercoaster is going again, this has been a continous problem for me I level off have good control then bingo the blood sugars go through the roof for no apparent reason.

It gets so aggravating, At times I feel like just throwing in the towel as I'm sure many of us with this disease feel like doing at times. I also have had Laser surgery on both eyes and so far that has no longer been a problem. But remember one thing please don't give up no matter how frustrated and angry, there are any people ready to help Dr's diabetic councelors, dieticians etc. There are programs not only for the diabetic but for family and friends to help them understand this disease. to enable them to know we are not some kind of freak. To know and support us in living as much of a normal life as possible.

Please help together as a group we can get our congressman, and senator's to see that more money is put towards research and finding a cure for this thing called diabetes.

I would like to thank Mary for this oppurtunity to share with everyone, and remember don't throw in the towel if you do it will win!! Doug Hagerman Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Joes Story:

Heres my story.
I discovered I had diabetes just by accident. I went to the Dr. for a sore throat. I had lost about 25 pounds and thr Dr. asked if I had been on a diet. I hadn't. I told him that it must have been all the water I had been drinking lately, I explained to him I couldn't quench my thrist. I also told him that was the reason I was going to the bathroom every 2 Hrs. I mean EVERY 2 Hrs. , even in the middle of the night, I would have to get up and go pee!

After hearing all that he took a sample of my blood, and in just a couple of min. he came back and said he thought that I had diabetes. After that he sent me to a specialist and he confirmed that I was indeed a diabetic. He perscribed Diabeta and it worked that very night, I didn't have to get up and go use the bathroom !!

About two weeks after that my vision became blurred, Man I was Freakng, I went to the eye Dr. and he said my eyes had not been damaged by the diabetes and what was making my vision blurred was that my sugar was coming down so rapidly. Once my sugar leveled off my vision got O.K. That was a BIG relief! I had to go to about four classes to learn how to eat and what to watch out for with this disease. Like dieting, which I still don't like to do, but it beats having to get up in the middle of the night.

All of this stuff happened to me when I was 39 years old. I'm glad of that because I had actually became Domesticated already. It had been awhile since my partying days with a lot of drinking booze and eating everything that was bad for you. Now I'm 45, I know what I can and cannot eat or drink, I try to find time to excersise and check my sugar often.

Well thats about it .
I still have FUN, Diabetes is not the worst thing that can happen to you. But you MUST take it SERIOUSLY !! This I have found out. I've met people that have had their feet and toes cut off because of diabetes!! I don't plan on that happening to Ol' Joe, so I take precautions, like wearing some old shoes on the beach, and stuff like that. I hope if any one reads this and has the same symptons as I did , you'll go and get your sugar tested; It may add years to your life.

Well there you have it Mary, " The Adventures of Joe & Diabetes". Hope this was kinda' what you wanted.

Randys Story:

Hi im Randy, and about 5 yrs ago the doctor told me I had TYPE-2 diabeties (non insulin dependant) and prescribed glucaphague to take. I had trouble for 4 and a half years struggling to get my sugar below 200.

The doctor suggested I take a vitamin so I researched vitamins and found out that the ones sold in stores and drug stores under brand names where no good. They had sugars and startches and other bad additives. So i went to the health food store and with their help purchased a good multi vitamin.

Well wonder of wonders after taking the vitamin awile my sugar level droped 100 points. I cut out eating any sugar at all and just took the vitamin. I was doing so well i checked into other supplements to add to my diet which im now taking regularly. They have helped so much that I have lost 32 pounds and have stopped taking the psych meds I was taking and I feel great. My sugar level stays at 100 even if I eat sweets once or twicw a week. I just saw the doctor recently and he says im doing great and he's glad i dont take those psych meds anymore.

He told me to keep taking my vitamin and other supplements as my blood test is great and I have never been heathier.I did alot of research on dietary supplements and herbs and incorperate them into my diet. Im a living example that they work. I have even got my wife taking a supplement for her artritis and its working great.

So thats it. Hope I help someone. Visit Our Site

Melissas' Story:
As told by her dad Dennis

My story is the same as many parents of children with Diabetes.

A few years ago during a hot summer in New Hampshire, my beautiful, blond, blue eyed princess was starting to complain about being tired and thirsty.We were to leave for two weeks in Aruba so my wife took Melissa to the Doctors for a check up to see what was wrong. The doctor felt the thirst and tiredness Melissa was experiencing was from the hot summer days.

Another week passed and Melissa became more tired and thirsty she went to the doctors again and again she was fine. ( No blood test was done for Diabetes because that test was done a month earlier during a yearly physical) Melissa had good days and not so good day ,we assume it was a cold or flu, so off we went to Aruba. During the trip I noticed she constantly would say, "Daddy, I'm tired can you carry me." I did carry her a lot throughout the airport and during our Aruba trip. At one point we thought she just wanted to be carried because she was jealous of her new baby brother we just adopted. So, I started to say you can walk more times then not. (I didn't know she had Diabetes, but I can say of all the things I wish I could take back in my life, is not carrying her each and every time.).

When we returned home from our trip Melissa was lying in bed and told me everything was blurry, I told her it must be from the long trip and sat with her until she fell a sleep. The next day we kept a good record of her fluid intake and it was over a gallon of fluid and many trips to the bathroom. My wife called me at work that day and told me she looked up the systom's in a medical book and it sounds like Melissa has Diabetes. She told me to stop at the pharmacy on the way home and get a test kid to check her urine for glucose.  We did the test and she was off the scale for glucose in her urine. We called the doctor and we discussed her symtoms and what we felt she had. We agreed to let Melissa sleep since she didn't appear to have high ketone levels and get her in the doctors office early in the morning.

I stayed home with my son and my wife called fom the doctors and said, " Melissa's glucose level is 350 she has Diabetes, meet us at the specialist office." I hung up the phone and cried like I never cried before, because I spent the night reading about Diabetes and its painful course it would take. I felt at the moment I failed to protect my daughter from this horror of life, I fail as a daddy!

I can still remember the first shots, her screaming and crying. I knew her life was altered, that my little girl would grow up fast. That the "Beast"  Diabetes would be with us every day as we fought  each day for close to normal glucose readings. Time has past the pain is the same, but one gets use to pain. My life is not the same,  Melissa's life may never be the same. To remind myself of what she deals with I have her practice giving me shots and blood test, at least once a month.

When you finish reading this story , I can only ask you to mutter these few words...." A cure dear God a cure for our children."

Annettes Story:

Dear Mary,

I am also a diabetic of 26 years, since 5. but I was sick for almost six months to a year before i was diagnosed. (Dr.s wanted to do kidney surgery and mom fought saying she didn't believe that was the problem...SHE was right) anyway I grew up much as you did, until my Mom was diagnosed with diabetes, thenmy world turned upside down. She had to take care of herself and with doctors telling her a diabetic has to be responsible for themselves and her being young she turned it around to "You are responsiible for you" and since I was responsible for me. I did as "I" wanted. I learned at 18 that it wouldn't work anymore, when I moved out of Mom's house and HAD to be responsible for the first time work, bills, money. NO time for hospitalzations. I was sent to the Clara Barton Camp for girls with diabetes from the time I was 6-17 usually two sessions a summer (a month).

I have had two pregnancies and two children, not bad for a girl who has been told since she was 13 that she would be in a wheelchair by the time she was 30. LOL I'm still walking:-) Like you they consistently spoke of high sugars and I suffered lows. black outs became second nature with the added adventure that my mind would leave, but my body funcioned. like a person being hypnotized I would come out of it not knowing what I had done or where I had been or why I did it...Once it happened hen I as driving to an appt. and I snapped out of it just in time to see a wall two feet in front of me WHOA. Luckily this all happened during my first pregnancy, so the second pregnancy was a little more restricted to being alone and driving. Basically I was afraid to leave the house. both of my children are healthy and beautiful girls. If they get diabetes I'll deal with it alot better than my mom did, but I hope they don't get it for the sake of an easier way of life. It's not something I would pass on with pride.

The other thing I thought I should mention for all of you who have just gotten diabetes or have had it and heard all the threats and horror stories let me tell YOU. don't listen to them, I've heard them all you'll go blind, kidney failure, neuropathy, retinopathy......GUESS WHAT I have NO complications to date. I had a pin point of retinopathy when I was pregnant with my second daughter. after her birth, a second examination showed that it had GONE. I get tired sometimes with two little ones and dont always stick to a schedule due to normal motherhood issues ie: up all night with a sick baby, sleeping late because the five year old wanted to stay up half the night, or waking two hours early because the two year old is up and nothing is making her happy.

The hardest part of being a mom I think is the early years, when my baby would cry to get out of the crib and I would feel like dirt sitting down to eat listening to her cry knowing that if I got her I would possibly drop her or pass out and she would be unattended. so I would eat and listen to her scream and try to talk to her from the other room telling her mommy's coming wait a minute, both of my children are grreat when it comes to it, they know the do's and dont's and when I need something for me the 5 year old takes over and matures way beyond her years, watching her sister and getting me what I nned to come out of a reaction.

Imagine a 5 year old knowing where the bucket of candy is, never touching it and yelling at her two year old sister NOT to touch it because it's mommy's and mommy may need it. My kids keep me healthy, fit and happy. I do more for me now, because of them. than I ever did for me, for myself.

Good luck all, stay young, stay happy, stay healthy. and always remember Doctors only practice medicine they learn from a book. ONLY you know your body.   ~Annette

Earls Story:

Hi MaryLee!!

It is I, Earl Davis.Ha! Ha! I sent you a post this morning by E-mail. I am a diabetic, and have been for about ten years. I am 63 years old, (young) and trying to enjoy life as much as possible. My late wife passed away a few years ago from cancer. I have since remarried, and have really been blessed with a wonderful lady. She really takes good care of me as far as the diabetes, among other things. When I start to get out of line with with my eating (which I am sure we all do at times) she really cracks the whip on me. No not really. She is very good about the problem. I do know that I have to be very careful.   Thank you for letting me tell my little story here.

Teresa's story:

Hi my name is Teresa and I am 36 yrs old and just last Dec."98" I was told that I had diabetes.

I was so shocked but then it all started to make sense to me I had all the symptoms that were listed and then some, it wasn't till my heart doctor ran some blood tests that we found out that my sugar levels were at 545 I was immediately sent to my family doctor. I was put on insulin shots,prandin,glucaphage and of course a strict diet it took 3 months but I was able to get off the shots.

Giving myself the shots was very hard as I was and still am terrified of needles when the doctor had suggested she put me in the hospital to bring down the sugar levels I flat out refused it was just more than I could deal with. My husband Scott is wonderful for the first week of my shots he stayed home from work cause he was afraid that I wouldn't be able to give myself the shots and when he gave them to me he would have tears in his eyes because he didn't want to hurt me.

Unfortunely for me most of the damage that could have been prevented wasn't because I must have had the diabetes for at least 3 yrs we figure that is about when I got it because thats when I started having a lot of problems such as the numbness and loss of feeling in my feet and toes, rapid wieght loss, lightheadedness,nausea,heart problems and being tired all the time.

I now have to have echo cardia grams done yearly and face the possibility of needing a second open heart surgery in the future if the leak gets worse than it is in the valve. I now have to live on medicines I take somewhere in the neighborhood 18 pills on a daily basis and do feel sick quite a lot of the time in fact it has made living a normal life hard cause from one day to the next I never know how I am going to feel.

I hate that this is the case and I am still learning to cope with it and make the most out of my life I am just bo thankful to the Lord that he has blessed me with a very supportive husband who really cares about me and makes sure that I follow my diet and take all my medicines. I am very glad that I found this web site because at least I am able to read about others who have this disease and am able to learn more about it and how to live with it and have a normal life so thank you for making this page and God Bless you and your family.

Teresa

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