 |
Honey Syphon: Many people have diabetes without knowing it because the symptoms are so mild they don't notice them, or they assume they are caused by something else. This is particularly the case with older people. My assumption when I started to feel under the weather was that it my age (nearly 40 at the time), my size (huge) and general unfitness (very), maybe the start of the menopause (early but possible). These are the symptoms that I ignored, or dismissed, until they got so bad I couldn't ignore them any longer.
At first I thought it was because of the hot summer - I have never been a person who likes the heat. But then I realized I was drinking around ten cans of soda a day, which is excessive (not to say expensive). Sometimes I was drinking diet soda, but a lot of the time it was sugary drinks, which was making things worse.
Suddenly I found I couldn't go more than an hour without needing to piss, which meant my life revolved around making sure I was never too far from a toilet - bit of a cramp to my social life! I also had to get up several times in the night to go to the loo. Not surprising with the amount I was drinking, you might think! Actually, the cause and effect were the other way round; in a desperate attempt to get rid of the excess sugar in my blood, my kidneys were working overtime to piss it away, drawing moisture out of my body, hence the thirst.
Well, who isn't in this hectic stress-filled life? But then I started to need a nap every afternoon, and some days I didn't feel I had the energy to walk across the room.
It's a bit like athlete's foot, but in a more embarrassing place. Thrush is a vaginal yeast infection. It makes you itch. A lot. A whole lot. There are various creams and pessaries that treat the symptoms, but it just kept coming back. It seemed to love the overly-sweet environment of my body.
Tingling or numbness in the hands and feet. Pins and needles, that kind of thing.
I had more colds than usual. I found small cuts kept on getting infected and not healing properly. And I'd always been such a healthy person!
|
 |