The Strangest Land

Skipping a month's worth of blogging was not my intention. I had posts planned about everything from a Miss Colorado recap to a day trip to Canada to the return of the Icelandic northern lights. Nearly every day for two weeks, I'd carry my laptop to a coffee shop, turn it on, and discover that I had absolutely no energy to blog. The lethargy wasn't just with blogging. I couldn't understand why I was so tired all the time and one night I slept from 6 PM until 11 AM the next day. Other weird symptoms started happening, like the painful swelling of both ankles, extreme thirst, and eleven pounds of weight loss. When I woke up every single day for a week, I became really lightheaded, sick to my stomach, and started seeing spots. When I looked up a list of symptoms for diabetes, I had every single one.

Eventually I went to a doctor, who told me I was young and healthy and fine. At my insistence, he signed for blood work. The day after I got the blood work, I got a call to go to the ER immediately, that my fasting blood sugar was at 19. Normal is 4-6. As soon I got the call, I knew what it meant: I have the life-threatening, incurable disease known as type 1 diabetes, sometimes called juvenile diabetes because it is usually diagnosed at a much younger age.

​Fortunately, I caught it early and it is manageable and treatable. I give myself insulin 4 times a day and check my blood sugar 5-7 times a day. After just a little over a week of treatment, my glucose levels have gone down drastically and I am feeling much better.

Aside from planning and carefully monitoring my blood sugar levels, diabetes won't impact my travels and I'll soon be exploring and posting as normal.