I’ve read or heard them say many times something along the line of, ‘You think this disease is only for old people? Think again, I’ve had many patients as young as 30 years old diagnosed with it’. And my response to that was always ‘Yeah yeah whatever’. I just couldn’t care less. However, the next time I hear (or read) doctors saying that, I imagine my response will be different. Different in what way will remain to be seen but it will be different for sure. Because now, their ‘30 years old patient diagnosed with it’ in their stories is me, and ‘it’ being diabetes. I have just being diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 30 years and 3 months old.
Well the story is like this. I went for my medical check up this morning, for my new job. (Yes, I’m leaving GUP, alhamdulillah). The check up started with the nurse handing me a little bottle to pee in. I’ve always worried about this peeing in a little cup business. What if I peed too much I made a mess of it? What if I can’t pee at all? What if when I handed back the little cup filled with my pee to the nurse and she threw up because it is so disgusting?
But the nurse handed me a little bottle, not a little cup, and instantly I was convinced it will go well. So confidently I walked to the toilet to do my mission and I did it perfectly. Clean, tidy and fast. And when I handed the bottle back to the nurse she just took it like it was nothing. Pheww, no embarrassing moment there!
So I sat down waiting for my turn to see the doctor happily. Text (texted?) a few of my friends telling them that I’m having my check up. I have always told everyone that I hate going to the doctor because for me doctors are the bearers of bad news. So in texting my friends I acted happy and brave, just to let them know no doctors scare me at all.
When the nurse opened the door and called out my name, I stood up quickly, pushed my chest as far forward and lifted my chin as high as I can as if to say ‘right, let’s get this nonsense waste of time over with’.
The nurse weighed me (I’ve lost weight!) and measured my height. Then the doctor asked me to sit down and she started asking me questions.
Do you have any allergies? No.
Have you ever had any operations? No
Any disease? NO!
Do you smoke?
Err, yes.
The doctor then checked my pulse, my heartbeat and my blood pressure. Then she proceeded by trying to blind me with that ridiculously bright little torchlight and looking very carefully to my eyes. I was scared that the doctor would ask me about the blue ring that circles my eyeballs, but she didn’t.
She shifted her attention to my ears and I almost say ‘damn it!’ out loud because I forgot to clean them. I was so sure she’s going to say something about it, but she didn’t. Instead she poked some cold hard metal into my ears and I instinctively tilted my head away because it really tickled. “Relax”, she said and I relaxed, and she continued examining my ears.
She did the reflex test to my knee and elbow, asked me to lie down and checked my stomach, asked me to sit up straight and checked my back. And after all that she sat down, wrote a few things down and said ‘everything seems fine’. I gave her a smile, one of those smiles that say, ‘well duh, of course everything is fine!’
I was just about to say ‘are we done here?’ when she got up, walked to a desk at the corner.
“Now it’s time for your urine test.”
Sigh whatever lah, can we just get it done quickly?
“Let see here. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….eh, you have diabetes!”
Say what?
I look straight at her quizzically and she repeated, “You have diabetes.”
“What?”, I said automatically.
“Let me show you”, she said while showing me a piece of cardboard like test thingy. “You see here it says blue is for negative and brown is for positive. Look at yours, it’s brown.”
I must have this look on my face that said ‘well either you’re stupid or your test thingy is broken’, because she then said, “I tak tipu ok. Let’s sit and do blood test.”
She took my blood sample to check my sugar level and while waiting for the reading to come out she explained to me that anything above 7 means a mild case of diabetes and anything above 10 means, well, you are screwed.
And a few seconds later the reading came out, 8.6.
“Erm, so, what does that mean?” I asked stupidly.
“Well like I said, you have diabetes,” she replied, almost to the tune of ‘I told you so’.
“Do your parents have diabetes?”
“Yes”
“Do you pee a lot?”
“Yes”
“Do you feel thirsty most of the time?”
“Yes” Okay okay I get it!
She looked at me and said, “From now on you have to watch your sugar intake. Eat brown rice to replace normal rice. And brown bread as well. Bla bla, bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla, bla bla. Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.”
Whatever she said after that did not register at all. I just wanted to get out from there.
I didn’t see that coming at all. Diabetes, who would have thought? But to be honest it didn’t bother me that much, not immediately anyway. I mean it’s only mild diabetes, not heart problem, not lungs, not kidney, not cancer. Just a stupid annoying diabetes. What harm can it cause? As long as I don’t get some serious cuts or injuries I should be fine.
However, it did hit me later, when I was at this mamak place having my usual late lunch. I ordered roti canai with susu lembu coffee. (Highly recommended, brew coffee with susu lembu at Kanna Curry House Jalan Gasing. Believe me, it’s awesome!). As soon as the mamak walked away after taking my orders, I realised I’m not supposed to order it. Because I’m diabetic. Because I’m sick. A sad sick 30 year old with diabetes.
I’m supposed to watch what I eat and drink now until the day I die, because diabetes does not disappear. Once you have it you will stuck with it forever. And the big sacrifice with food and drinks is not to cure it, it is only to contain it. Now that sucks!
I’m not even one who takes lots of sugar, who like excessive sweet stuff. I barely eat ice creams. Ice creams are evil and I stay away from it most of the time but how come I still have diabetes? Maybe somebody injected me with sugar every night when I am deep in my sleep because I really do not understand how my sugar level is high!
Stop having a drink at mamak? You must be joking.
Stop having my favorite 3 in 1 Nescafe? Hell must be freezing over.
Brown rice? You can bet your bottom ringgit that I won’t even touch it!
And the thought that depresses me the most is, if I have diabetes now, what will I get in 5 years time? 10 years? 20 years? What other diseases will I get because of this diabetes? Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!
Can I still donate blood? If I go to the doctor because I have back ache, or dizziness, or even a simple flu or fever, do I have to tell the doctor straight away that I have diabetes? Does my insurance cover diabetic treatment?
I feel tired and sleepy most of the time, is that because I’m diabetic? (Actually, strike that off. I'm sure it's just because I'm a lazy bum)
Would my children get diabetes?
!!!!!
Huh, doctors, they are nothing but bearers of bad news!
