Lifetime diagnosis: Seeing through the haze

Stopped for a picture overlooking the Neuse River

It was odd for me to say I was stressed at work because it is an oddity.  At this particular time I had several major projects in the works that all relied upon one another.  There was the production load balancer deployment, a complete replacement of our perimeter email system, and then a roll out of Microsoft Exchange 2010.  The due date for the load balancers and perimeter mail system as April 15th, tax day.  I was primary on 2 of those 3 projects and feeling the pressure.  Or at least I thought it was work pressure.

I began to notice my body speaking in ways it hadn't before:  I was super thirsty continually, and had to use the bathroom all the time.  Of course I looked at this as a cause and effect.  I took up a craving for lemonade and was drinking lemonade like tomorrow might never come.  But back to that day in the office...  It was a Thursday and my manager asked if we were stressed.  After responding in the affirmative he asked how I planned on handling it.  I in turn asked for the next day off, Friday, to just unwind and reload.  My request was granted.

I woke up Friday morning with the expectation of just kicking back and relaxing, which I did for the most part.  However; I noticed something a tad different about that Friday.  The world just didn't seem to be as clear as it usually is.  By clear I mean literally, it was a bit blurry.  I attributed this to wearing an old dirty pair of contact lenses so I didn't think much of it.  Friday night, I ditched those lenses for a fresh new pair.

Saturday morning was a bit more blurry than Friday despite the new eyes.  I gulped down my lemonade and went about life.  I was starting to get a tad worried because the stress just wasn't my lifestyle and now this vision thing, and my growing addiction to lemonade!  Gulp!

Sunday morning we woke up and drove to church.  On the way there I noticed that my eyesight had slipped to where I was having trouble reading street signs.  I was perplexed about how I could go from essentially 20/20 vision to being this bad off in a matter of a couple of days, it just didn't make sense.  On top of that, it was both eyes.  Very weird.

Knowing it wasn't safe to continue driving in this state I asked Suzanne to drive home.  It became real for me at that point because I had to confess, "I can't read the street signs anymore."  After a discussion about what was happening and my rapid vision deterioration the easy way to put it is we were both worried.  I wasn't convinced this was strictly a vision problem.  Gulp, aww, fresh lemonade.

There's an expression, "a case of the Monday's"  well I'd say I got more than a case.  I woke up Monday morning nearly blind.  I could see, but I couldn't read a laptop screen sitting right in front of me.  I couldn't read a book, I could barely read anything on the screen on my cellphone.  I was pretty much unable to see anything.

I had done some research on Sunday and we fairly certain I had self-diagnosed what was happening.  While we knew getting eyesight restored was important, I also knew there was more going on than just to my acute vision loss.  I scheduled a couple doctor appointments on Monday morning, first with my general practitioner to get blood work done.  That was kinda an awkward conversation...  Yes, I've been fasting and want to get blood work done.  Why?  Because I can't see and I'm pretty sure you're going to want blood work to help figure this one out.   Yep, they did, so I had blood drawn Monday morning.

The bigger reveal was at the eye doctor.  At that appointment we did normal eye doctor visit stuff and I was prescribed some new lenses that were MUCH stronger than my normal ones.  Yay!  I can see again!

I have a great eye doctor who was quick to recognize the symptoms and asked if I had used the web to try to determine what was going on.  Yep, you bet, I'm a techie.  We talked a bit more and it was no surprise when he confirmed what I had already suspected.  My vision loss was most likely an effect of diabetes.

My vision would return to normal once my glucose levels stabilized.  I was fitted with new lenses to help the transition and given an intermediary pair to help along the way.  It was about 2-3 weeks before my vision returned to normal.

At my regular doctor a few days later, I was met with the formal diagnosis based on my blood work.  It was at that point it was confirmed to me that I have Type 2 diabetes.

Very High Glucose Reading from 4/3/2011

Just typing that carries a lot of weight, even 4 years later.  It wasn't the end of the world then, nor is it now.  But in both cases, it is a reality that life couldn't and can't carry on the same as usual.  I've had to change aspects of my life to combat this disease.  Some days are better than others, but I know I am not alone.  I am not alone in living with this disease, nor am I alone in managing this disease.  While it is a diagnosis that will last a lifetime, even under control, hope allows us to see through the haze.

This weekend I'm riding in the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure.  A ride to raise money for research and education on diabetes.  This will be my first attempt to ride 100 miles in a single journey, but with your help and support my hopes are high that I can persevere.   You can view my personal page and leave a comment or make a donation using this link:  http://tour.diabetes.org/goto/hopkeno

--Jeremy