"I was twenty-five weeks pregnant when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Still working, still showing up, still dreaming of a gentle homebirth. We had an event at work that day, and I had to walk to it. I remember feeling so out of breath that I had to stop every few steps. Walking upstairs became impossible without pausing. Something wasn't right."
"That dream came crashing down the day my husband looked at me and said, "You need to go to the doctor's. You look like death." I thought it was something minor-maybe my lungs, a chest infection? I popped into the clinic with a sample pot of urine (standard pregnancy accessory in the UK), and after the doctor tested it, everything happened fast."
A pregnancy at 25 weeks was interrupted by a sudden diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. Breathlessness and unexplained weight loss, particularly sunken cheeks, signaled a serious problem. A routine urine test at a clinic led to rapid escalation: senior doctors, an ambulance, and emergency admission. Emergency staff warned of imminent coma due to dangerously high blood sugar. The condition proved to be autoimmune type 1 diabetes rather than gestational diabetes. Hospitalization lasted seven days during which learning to inject insulin and to scan blood sugar became essential. The diagnosis transformed birth plans and imposed immediate self-management and medical monitoring.
Read at Tiny Buddha
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