This is What my life looked like in 2008
I had started dating the love of my life
 |
| This is us at my 24th Birthday!! |
And these are my Parents
My mom the rock, the glue, our everything.
This was the calm. Since I was a little girl, I always knew that my mom, her mom, and her dad a diabetes.
I didn't know what it was, I just knew that they took medicine to take care of it.
Fast forward to early May 2008, my mom had a tear on her acl, no big deal Right?
Well She did get what we were told was a spider bite. However I don't know and will never know if that is what is was.
Slowly over the next few months her health was getting worse, she went to a wound clinic, bad idea for a diabetic by the way.
In July I got promoted at my job, I was now full-time, my relationship with my boyfriend was amazing.
the lone dark spot, my Grandfathers deterioration, due to Alzheimer's.
around the end of the month Life fell a part, you can read about it here.
It seems like every year after my mom lost her leg, that she was in and out of the hospital 2-3 times a year. I just remember how stressed and tired we all were. I do however want to point out how strong my mother was, she was always worried about us, never herself.
In 2011, mom was in the hospital, and we learned that her kidneys were failing and it was irreversible, she needed dialysis. She, as we would later learn, was not a candidate for a transplant.
I can't remember where I learned this, dialysis takes an estimated 20% of a persons life for every year they are on it. There is no hope. We all had heard that some people can be on it for 15 years, but the reality is not that. So our dad and all of us re-shifted our lives.
Going to and from a hospital several times a year and the stress of worry is a heavy load. I was changed from so many medications from my bipolar disorder, due to lack of sleep. I was on sleeping medications, I ate to feel comfort, I couldn't control my moods. I was in a dark dark place. so was the rest of my family.
I again want to point out HOW strong my mother was. She was in her late 50's early 60's, on dialysis (which was between 7:30 pm and 4:00), Then she would come home sleep for an hour, get up and go to work by 6:45 in the morning, and she did this 3 days a week. She was tired, but she was still, to me, super woman.
Throw in the house fire in 2012, living in a small rental house, moving and all of the above, her health was not her priority. We all got so busy.
All my life I have been told a few things, more frequently now, about how much our mom loved me and my sister, how she put Everything above herself, and that she never put up with stupid.
Her life ended on September 19, 2013, at 2:37 in the morning. She was 62. And diabetes made a huge hole in my heart.
So today on 2014 almost a year later, I sit here, writing with a purpose. I don't want anybody to go through any of this, The loss, the pain, the struggle to live, and the disease.
That's why I have started on the path, of health, of coaching. because this can be stopped.
Please visit the American Diabetes Association here.
