Welcome to my page! 2021 has been quite the year; A never ending global pandemic and a doctors call I will never forget…

I was diagnosed with Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA, also known as Type 1.5 diabetes) at 28 years old following a routine annual physical. It was the additional bloodwork required by an insurance incentive that uncovered my disease and I could not be more thankful. Shout out to @BlueCrossBlueShield. Sure, I would have eventually discovered my LADA but the circumstances would have been much, much worse.

As my PCP reviewed my bloodwork with me over the phone, I froze. Thoughts raced through my mind, Wait…what? Are you looking at the correct patient chart? I had a big lunch before the bloodwork, it must be the sandwich and chocolate chip cookie throwing off my numbers. How can something like this happen to me? I thought I was “healthy”? I quickly learned that one heavy meal does not affect your A1C and mine was over 14% at the time of diagnosis (!!!!!!).

Helpful context: An A1C is a three month average of your blood sugar levels. A normal A1C for a non-diabetic is under 5.7%.

Walking around with an A1C over 14% meant that I must have been experiencing some symptoms, no? The short answer is yes, of course. However, I never would have thought that I had diabetes. That seemed like a crazy Google search result that couldn’t possibly be true. I quickly rushed to the Diabetes section at Barnes & Nobles (yes, there is an entire section!) to purchase as many books as possible to become an “expert” on what my body had been experiencing over the last few months:

• Frequent urination
• Quench of thirst
• Unexplained weight loss
• Stomach/digestive issues
• Stubborn Yeast Infection

I innocently thought it was the Summer heat causing the increased intake of water. Plus it made sense, if you drink more water you obviously would need to wake up in the middle of the night multiple times to use the bathroom!?! My new Pilates and Peloton workout routine was shedding off the quarantine pounds I may have gained!?! See.. it all made sense, until it didn’t. Until all the symptoms together were a very clear, and obvious diagnosis.

It has been 5 months since I learned of my diagnosis and started managing my new routine. I think the hardest part so far has been the immediate health and life adjustments. I was living a healthy life before knowing my fate but now am even more intentional and thoughtful of many day-to-day choices that I used to never even think about. It can be exhausting. I am unbelievably lucky and fortunate to have a husband who has been incredibly supportive as we navigate managing my health and our life together.

This page is not meant to be a pity party and let me make clear that I am certainly not pretending to be a doctor or a health professional of any kind. I am simply sharing my journey to joy with latent autoimmune diabetes.

-mn

But, what if I like to sprint marathons?

The truth is I have never run a marathon, but I would imagine sprinting 26.2 miles is not the best strategy. Such a long distance requires pacing to prevent burnout.

When I was initially diagnosed with diabetes I didn’t fully appreciate how my day-to-day life would change. At my first Endocrinologist appointment the doctor gave me terrible advice , “you need to eat low carb”. What does that even mean? I never once looked at a nutrition label or counted calories, let alone macro nutrients like carbs. I followed up asking her several questions trying to figure out what this all meant. I even gave examples of some healthy meal ideas. Her response, “I wouldn’t recommend an apple with peanut butter as a snack”. WHAT! In this moment I became even more overwhelmed, confused, emotional, and drained. There are tons of issues with what this doctor told me, most notably is that it directly led to me restricting all carbs. I left the doctors office determined to learn and change everything I previously thought about healthy eating. My blood sugar levels were regularly over 450, with an A1C of 14+%. I needed to take control and get sh*t done. I went into full perfectionist mode, full sprint ahead. I completely turned over my pantry, good-bye to my favorite cereals, Swedish fish and my favorite hungover greasy snacks. I immediately cut back on my alcohol intake and removed nearly all carbs from my diet. I could do this, this will be easy, whatever it takes to help my body. As I look back on this time now I am reminded of how it would be nearly impossible to keep up this limited bland diet. I have never been a diet fanatic, so why was I starting now? This isn’t a diet, it is my life!!!!!

Sure, the low-carb diet helped bring down my blood sugar levels BUT my body was now missing important nutrients. For the first time in my life I was “afraid” to eat certain foods because I didn’t know how my blood sugars would react. By not trying and testing foods I was doing more harm than good. It wasn’t until I switched doctors and started talking to more diabetes experts that I learned that there is a way to eat tons of carbs with stable blood sugar levels. I am still only at the beginning of this journey. In the last few weeks I have had to remind myself to be kinder and more forgiving on this marathon called life.

This is hard work. Give yourself credit! There will be highs and lows (quite literally ha!), just remember to have fun along the way.

Be kind to yourself.

-mn