I Lived Through It But You Don't Have To!

By Christopher Elliott

In this book, I want to help as many people as I can make better choices and live a better life as a diabetic based on my life story and the things that I went through. I dealt with so many illnesses and went through so many things because I just did not do right. I did not eat the right things and did not manage my diabetes like I was supposed to. I also wanted to educate, inspire, and motivate as many people as possible through my life story and let them know that if I made it through all my problems and all the illnesses, then they could do the same.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781098006273

Book preview

The Day That Changed My Life Forever

I believe it was the early fall of 1991. I was a young boy playing recreational football for the Hiram Cougars. On this particular Saturday, I became exhausted and fatigued on the field. I was extremely tired and could not regain my energy and strength. I continued trying to play, but I just did not have it in me.

It seemed like, out of nowhere, I was hit by a bolt of lightning.

I fainted and blacked out, and my father rushed me to the children’s hospital which was named Scottish Rite at the time. After being admitted and placed into the intensive care unit where I almost died, I was then diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes, and was hospitalized for at least two weeks. There I sat in the hospital bed with an IV in my arm, trying to figure out what happened to me.

With a sense of desperation, I was trying to answer the questions, Why me? Why did I have to be the one who got diagnosed with diabetes?

It seemed to be so unfair that I had this awful disease and no one else on either side of my family for generations—neither aunts, nor uncles, nor grandparents—had ever had the disease. As the days passed, there were many visitors who came to see me including my family, my friends, and my football team. Despite their words of encouragement, I had become so downtrodden that I was on the brink of depression. Not too long after that, I was released from the hospital. It was then that I was truly hit with the painful reality: I was officially a diabetic.

The next summer, I turned nine. My birthday was coming up, and I, as most children with a perpetual sweet tooth do, really wanted an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. After begging my mom for one, she finally gave in and brought a Barney the dinosaur sheet ice cream cake. Of course, I was only allowed to have one piece on my birthday but no more thereafter. Can you imagine? Here was this large, scrumptious ice cream cake that I could not enjoy because of my disease. It was so hard watching my mother, father, brothers, and sisters savor my birthday cake. The temptation to indulge in yet another piece had become so strong that I could not take it any longer. I broke down and decided to sneak a piece whenever the opportunity presented itself. If my parents were either asleep or at work, then the cake bandit would strike.

It seemed like having cake, or any other type of dessert around the house for that matter, was a regular occurrence, seeing as I had such a big family with three brothers and three sisters. In general, it was tough growing up in a family where I was the only diabetic, because most of the food, if not all of it, catered to my father’s tastes, which were definitely not diabetic friendly.

My mother, of course, did her best by buying all of the sugar-free foods and diet drinks I needed. As you can imagine, however, even though I had the right foods in the house, I always seemed to lean toward the nondiabetic foods.

As this disease was so new and unexpected to us, we had to learn everything we could. Some lessons were easier to learn than others. It was quite an adjustment to take my blood sugar three times a day, take my insulin shots twice a day, completely change my diet, go to the doctor every three months, and go to diabetic camps. There were long days and even longer nights.

Going to the doctor, which had always been hard for me, became even more dreadful. At each visit, they drew blood to see what my blood sugar was for the day and to check my A1C, which was my blood sugar level over the course of three months. This, of course, meant that they had to put a needle in my arm! Do you know how frightening that was for me? No matter how many times I had my blood drawn, I never got used to it.

Having my mother there made the process easier to get through. As the nurse came with the needle and syringe and prepared to stick me, I would hold her hand, shed a tear or two, and look at her for comfort until the nurse was finished. The diabetic camp that my parents enrolled me in was enlightening, but it was also something new that I had never encountered before. Leaving my parent’s for a week and being away from home for the first time was very difficult. It seemed like from the time I arrived until the time I left the camp, I was made fun of. Even though all the campers were diabetics and around the same age as me, they still made fun of how short I was and how big my lips were.

I did have some fun, though. While learning more about diabetes, like what I could and could not eat and what I could and could not drink and how to manage the disease in my daily life, I had chances to go horseback riding, canoe, pan for gold, create art, and do archery.

I can remember an instance where I was confronted because I had a diet lemon lime soda at camp. My counselor took it from me and told me that I should not be drinking it. I can’t remember exactly what the reason was; it was either because it was nighttime at camp and I should have been sleeping or because it was bad for diabetics. I was hurt because it seemed like what I thought was right in fact turned out to be wrong.

As camp came to an end, I was so excited to leave and see my parents again. I was thankful for that opportunity and that diabetic camp, but don’t get me wrong—I did not ever want to go back. The experience that I had was not a very pleasant one. Even though I learned many things I did not know about being a diabetic, the confrontations and conflicts that I had with my counselors and the other camp members really struck a nerve and left me with hurt feelings. As time went on and I got back into a routine at home, there were quite a few lessons I had to learn the hard way.

The Only Diabetic in My Family

Being the only diabetic in my family meant that there was no one who could understand what I was going through. It meant that no one could relate to all the things that I had to deal with, especially as a child and young teenager. No one could understand what it felt like to have low blood sugar, to feel disoriented, to begin having a cold sweat and one’s body beginning to shake. It was an out-of-body experience, and I, like most diabetics I know, would do whatever it took to get the glucose to a normal level again. No one knew what it felt like to feel so weak that one’s legs would feel like noodles. I am thankful that my family tried and cared for me the best that they could. But as hard as they tried to understand, they just simply could not.

I can remember there had been quite a few nights that I had cried on my mother’s shoulder, wondering and asking, Why me?

I did not understand why out of all of my brothers and sisters I had to be the one child with diabetes. That question is a question that I have asked over and over from then until now.

It seemed unfair.

Here all my brothers and sisters were almost completely healthy, and I was the one diagnosed with diabetes. It was difficult not being able to eat or drink the things that my family could. I remember that when I was growing up, they would always tell me what I could or could not eat, but much to my disdain, I would always see them eating those exact foods in front of me! Sadly, there never was a great example of how to eat right as a diabetic by my family—because they were not diabetic, eating a diabetic-friendly diet was not anything they had to worry about. There was temptation around me all day, every day, whether it was cake and ice cream or a cookie cake. Imagine all of that sugary goodness I could not fully enjoy!

Growing up, it was hard watching other diabetics that had to have amputations to their legs or arms. No matter how much I tried to keep from thinking about it, it was something that crossed my mind from time to time. In my mind, I realized that this was something that could happen to me as a diabetic if I did not eat right, exercise, and take better care of myself.

Of course, these were things that I had to hold myself accountable for as my family did not understand what it was like to be this sick. No one could understand what it felt like to check my blood sugar three times a day. No one in my family could understand what it was like to take insulin shots at least twice a day. Sure, they could sympathize, but most, if not all of them, could not empathize. According to GoBoldly.com, there are 1.25 million type 1 diabetics. In the United States, there are about forty thousand new diagnoses each year. The American Diabetes Association tells us that type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults. Only 5 percent of people with diabetes have this form of the disease.

With type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin, a hormone that the body needs in order to get glucose from the bloodstream into the cells of the body. As a diabetic, I have to take insulin to aid in this process. With the help of insulin therapy, I was able to live a better life and not die at a young age.

There were times that I could have some desserts if my blood glucose number was at a good level (typically between 80 milligrams per deciliter to 120 milligrams per deciliter). If that was the case, then I took an extra shot of insulin with the treat. I knew it was wrong, but I started lying to my family about my blood glucose numbers. I would tell them it was at a good level just so I could have some dessert. Eventually, lying about my blood sugar became habitual. I tried to do the right thing, but the temptation to do wrong was just too strong. There were other dessert alternatives we tried along the way such as frozen sugar-free yogurt and angel food cake. Nothing would taste quite the same as the real deal. Looking back at my childhood, if I knew then what I know now, I would have stayed with the sugar-free alternatives.

Fussing Is Not Effective Lead with Love, Care, and Compassion

As a child growing up in a household where I was the only diabetic in a family of nine, it was tough enough trying to eat right. Having family members fussing at me and telling me what I could or could not eat has always made me want to retreat to something sweet. I listened to other families and friends talk about how they dealt with the diabetics in their life, and the response would always be the same: They would fuss and yell at them just the same as my family fussed at me when they found me enjoying something that I should not be eating. And of course, the result would be the same—the diabetic would rebel and find a way to get that sugary snack or beverage, anyway. But as I know now, rebelling had far worse effects on me than any other child without diabetes. Eating and drinking those sugary foods did major damage to my blood vessels and arteries, something that would have lifelong consequences.

I have learned in my time as a diabetic that it is better and much more effective to have a heart-to-heart conversation with the other person, revealing how much you care and love them. It is so important to let your loved one with diabetes know that you do not want to see them continue to harm themselves by eating all the wrong things. If they were like me growing up, many diabetics probably had an addiction to some sugary snack or beverage.

For any diabetic to have success in controlling and managing their diabetes, there must be an example set of the right thing to do and the right way to live. How important is this especially as a juvenile diabetic! For many young people, it is so easy to get offtrack and do the wrong thing. Having someone show them how to live well would be a much more effective teaching tool than simply giving him or her a list of what to eat and what to stay away from but then turning around and consuming the wrong things right in front of them! For us to get the diabetics and people in general to change, we must be the change we want to see in them.

Diabetes is a disease that affects the whole family, especially when a child is diagnosed. Whether you’re a parent, sibling, or other family member, your support and understanding can make all the difference.

After many nights spent questioning why I was the one with the disease, I prayed and prayed about it and came to the realization that