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I was in a Wal Mart store when I discovered I had diabetes. I had had my semi annual blood work done two days before and my doctor was calling to tell me that my blood tests showed that my blood sugar level was a little over five hundred. I knew this was something serious because he had never called me before about anything! Calmly I asked him what the normal reading should be and he said around seventy. I hadn’t realized that I was sick!

Actually, I hadn’t been feeling so great for the last month. I was unusually tired all the time, even when I had had a restful day. My energy was gone and I couldn’t figure out why. Little did I know that my blood sugar was way out of range.

My wife had told me to see a doctor just the week before. It wasn’t my physical help she was concerned about at the time, but my mental state. She said that my mood swings were driving her nuts. I argued of course, there wasn’t anything wrong with my moods. I thought I was always on an even keel emotionally, all sweetness and understanding. She thought otherwise. Looking back, I can see where I had begun showing symptoms of diabetes, but at the time I didn’t take them seriously.

One problem I had was frequent urination. It was driving me nuts, because it seemed like I was going to the bathroom every twenty minutes, whether I had had anything to drink or not! It was worse at night. I was getting up in the morning already tired from lack of sleep the night before. Also I was losing weight even though I was eating more because of the late night snacks when I got up to go to the bathroom at all hours of the night.

Another symptom of type 2 diabetes, or adult onset diabetes, is that any cuts or sores you have on your body are extremely slow in healing. About a month before my visit to the lab for blood work, I had had dental surgery. A month passed and I was still hurting and having infections. I was visiting my dentist at least once a week. The antibiotics he prescribed were not working and the pain pills kept upsetting my stomach. The dentist couldn’t understand why I was not healing, but he must have suspected something because he asked me one time if I was a diabetic. At the time, I told him I was not!

My biggest concern at the time was with blurred vision. I thought it was because I hadn’t had my glasses changed in about 2 years and it was time I visited the eye doctor. Later my family doctor explained the problem in language I could understand. He said, “When your blood sugar is out of range the sugar crystals adhere to the lens of your eyes, therefore blurring your vision.” I’m sure the medical interpretation of my problem would be a little more precise, but that was enough to scare me into taking him seriously.

Diabetes is not something to take lightly. It can get ugly pretty fast. There are other warning signs such as itching of the skin usually around the groin or vaginal area, impotency dry mouth. If you are having some or all or these symptoms, hurry to a doctor. Diabetes can be a nasty disease, but it can be controlled. Look for the symptoms.