If you were to look at me, you would think nothing different about me. I am a relatively fit, active and smiley 32-year-old, Yes, my friends slag me off for being so pale but that is more my avoidance of too much sun and my Irish skin, not sure why I decided to live in the desert! This month will mark my 20th year anniversary of living with a long term invisible illness, also referred to as a disease. I suffer from Type 1 Diabetes; one of my biggest frustrations of being a person with diabetes is that people group diabetes as one. My family even being one of them. I remember being questioned by my sister as to why had I lost so much weight. I was 12 and in my own little world, I had no idea that I had lost any weight. My brother had been diagnosed with diabetes a couple of years previously. I remember hearing, “He drinks too many sugary drinks and this is what may have caused it”. This wasn’t the case, he just happened to develop Type 1 late in life as it is generally seen in younger children. When it was discovered that my blood was reading high, I remember thinking and feeling that I must have done something to cause this and what had I done, I felt my life was over.
Continue reading “The world of invisible illnesses”
