Diabetes and our Emotions…
I just found out something for real. January 1999 my diabetes was out
of control and I almost died. Thanks to God and a quick thinking
Diabetes team, they pulled my body systems out of shutting down one
by one. It took me 3 years to get well enough to work.
Then I was told, “Avoid stress as much as possible”. I said, “How?
Going to work each day will bring some stresses.”
Now I know why they said that. I worked at a job, where I did so well
I got a promotion to Headquarters office as Director of Routing &
Personnel. The job wasn’t hard, but required alot of thinking and
attention detail. While my mind loved it, my body didn’t. The doctors
had to increase my diabetes meds 4 times the amount, put me on 2 high
blood pressure medicines, and then my kidneys were having problems
and wanting to shut down.
What happens is the stress hormones effect your blood sugars, which
in turn effects also your blood pressure, your kidneys, your retna’s
and your eyes….
I got sick. Then they called me into the office and repremanded me
for being out sick so much, even with doctor’s notes. I continued to
feel sick, so left. Then I thought, “Let me try another job type to
see if that will work…” So within 5 days I got another job. Now, I
have worked most all my life. I am almost 50 years old. I started
working at 9 years old in a family run business. Anyhow, I lasted one
day at this new job. My feet swelled the size of Bigfoot, my legs
were swollen up to my thighs, and my back hurt and I was super
nauseated, even though I was taking anti-nausea medicines.
I told my doctor, “I can’t work. I need to function. I have worked
all my life, so this is weird for me. What does a person do when
their bodies refuse to let them work?” They are signing me up for
State temporary disability until they can hone in on what is wrong
with me, and as to whether I will get better or not. I don’t know.
But this is a living example of how stress effected my life. And as I
said, I wondered what a person does when they get to the point where
their body refuses to let them work or do anything stressful or
laborous? We all have bills to pay and survive. That is when I found
out about State Disability. And if after 6 months it isn’t better,
going on to Social Security Disability.
Just wanted to share this in case any of you go through this.
Sandy Abernathy