"You have diabetes." I’ll never forget the day my doctor told me the dreadful news. A week before my sixteenth birthday, I went in for my yearly check-up, with a friends no less and without my parents. The day started out like any other ordinary day, didn’t expect anything grand or unusual to happen. "Well um, something seems off with your urine sample so we’re going to do a couple more test" the doctor said ,but assured me not worry. Thirty minutes later they called my mom to come in and diagnosed me with type one diabetes. My ordinary day turned not so ordinary after all.
Most kids get a car for their sixteenth, or a sweet party, I got a disease. Just imagine instead of a car parked in front with a huge bow and my name on it, I run down stairs and find a years supply of medical equipment. A box full of needles is every teenagers dream birthday gift (sense the sarcasm).I mean I did get a car, it just isn’t how I picture my sweet sixteenth. Then again nobody plans for these kind of things to happen.
Then the whole other ordeal, adjusting to the disease. Able to eat whatever I want for sixteen years of my life, never a special diet or any other added responsibility. One day you wake up and all the sudden you start watching what you eat and taking shots of insulin. A little difficult to adjust to, not to mention I had an extreme fear of needles. Looking back at the first time I had to give myself a shot seems hilarious to me now ,but at the time it might as well have been a death sentence. I had the shot in my hand all ,ready to go in, looking at the huge enormous needle for the longest time, thinking about putting the long painful object into my stomach, even imagined the process going through my head, but didn’t dare actually go through with the action for the longest time. Two hours later, after a substantial amount of tears shed, I gave in. Now that’s no that bad I thought until realizing that for the rest of my life I had to do that every time I wanted to eat. Total bummer, so I attempted to swear off all food and try to pull a Gandhi until I got want I wanted and the disease went away. That didn’t last very long, I got hungry.
Seeming like the world ended, and everything in my life, a total mess, I made a trip to Children’s Mercy Hospital to become better educated in my new disease. This trip changed my outlook on everything. All I remember is riding in the elevator up to my schedule appointment, and this moment will stick with me forever. I was throwing myself my very own "pitty party,"the poor me, everyone has it better off, nothing ever good happens to me, pathetic thoughts like that going through my head. While all that mess, going through my head, in walks a boy with his head shaved and a face mask on, Leukemia He had his high school letter jacket on, filled with a multitude of patches, he had been quite the athlete and he had leukemia. The boy around my age and on the verge of death. My so called "pity party" went to a dead halt and stopped from thence on.
Diabetes taught me a bunch of valuable life lessons. Forced me to grow up quicker. A new responsibility, and must follow through or loose my life. Made me realize everything in my life to be thankful for and that things could always be worse off. I appreciate doctors and what they do a lot more, and that they are there to help. Plus modern medicine is always advancing, and many people dedicate their life to finding a cure or something to make my life, as well as others easier. There’s hope out in the world and I’ll cope with this disease just fine and dandy along with all the future events here to come.