Sport and Sugar

As a kid I was quite active. I would play around a lot. I was a fast kid so I enjoyed running fast, I did track later on, I tried rollerblading, I would bike through forests and go off of dirt jumps. I really enjoyed a lot of sport and activities with my body. I joined soccer when I was in grade 3, which I enjoyed a lot because I could run a lot and use my speed to my advantage, and attempt to win. From the age of 4 or 5 until I was 10-11 I was very active, most days doing something. I was also heavily, not addicted per say, but participated in video games and television…actually yes I would say I was addicted. When I was younger I remember on the weekends always renting a video game, wanting to beat it quickly I would wake up really early, and basically play it the entire day, with periods of activity in between, that was the majority of my time. I would also come home and sit down for hours watching television and being influenced by that. Luckily the activity that I did was a balance with my sedentary lifestyle.

My diet consisted of candy, and carbohydrates. Fruit and vegetables was rarely in any of my meals, I was brought up on grilled cheese, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, cereals, and whenever I could get my hands on candy I would consume it until I was ill. I remember being given the opportunity to go down to the store and buy myself my own cereal. Previously to this I had wanted the most sugar infused cereal possible, always being denied getting it as many parents do in the grocery store. Now I was free from parental supervision, and I was able to get what I wanted. So I got cereal that I saw as loaded with sugar, looking for the words chocolate and a picture of a cereal that had candies embedded in the cereal as well. All of this food was not balanced through the intake of fruits and vegetables which would give me fibre to assist in breaking down the extensive amount of carbohydrates that I was eating. The fiber would have created somewhat of a balance to the food that I was eating and stop the excessive carbohydrates that I was eating. My addiction to sugar was extensive as well. My relationship with sugar has always been a reward system and I associated sugar with happiness, so if I was feeling down I would turn to sugar to keep myself happy, I allowed my world to revolve around sugar, and through the influence of media with kid shows demonizing vegetables…"Ew, Broccoli" I decided in that moment that I as well didn't like broccoli, then with the constant commercials supporting high sugar food and candies I started to want those too. Understand that my mother was a single mother, and living in a suburban neighbourhood I was easily susceptible to these things. She had to have time to herself to, she could not easily manage 2 kids, a full time job, and then her other responsibilities on the side, so I was left to find my own way basically. Then with the media's influence on children I became a violent, sugar abusing, little shit that wanted what I wanted without compromise.

In sports as well they would give out the majority of the time popsicles, candy, other various frozen treats, and when they did give fruit I did not like it so much because it wasn't candy. So eventually I ended up quitting soccer because I was not winning as much, in that looking for another happiness source to maintain the influx of happiness, in which I turned to more sugar, and more of a sedentary lifestyle wherein it was easy for me to win at videogames so I started to play them more and it was easy for me to generate emotions and feelings when watching a television show so I started to do that more, still playing with friends from time to time, but we would then mostly play video games together. My diet stayed the same, mainly carbohydrates and candy, rarely eating fruits and vegetables, not getting the necessary fiber that I needed.

All of the carbohydrates that I was taking in had a massive effect on my body and it took 2 years for it to manifest into diabetes. Too many carbohydrates meant that my pancreas was producing an extensive of insulin in order to maintain my blood sugar at the levels that they are supposed to be. Over time breath by breath the amount of carbohydrates became too much and the body started to react to the insulin that I was producing because with all the food that I was consuming with less and less activity the cells has an enormous amount of energy that they could use but weren't so the body saw that the insulin was damaging the cells through being a transmitter of the glucose in the blood stream to the cells and since there was no activity to use up the glucose in the blood stream the body said, what the fuck is going on?, and decided to attack the insulin producing cells in the pancreas to stop the harm that I was doing to the body, causing the sugar in the blood stream to build up causing a physical consequence that I could see with me being thirsty and having to pee at an alarming rate.

So here are the factors that was involved in me being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Take into consideration what children are doing to their bodies with the sugar intake and consider what influences them in their food intake. The media is a terrible fucking perpetrator in the push for more sugar consumption, and look at all the foods that are designed for children, they have outrageous quantities of sugar in them. Diabetes will become more of an epidemic than it is now if things are not changed, because we are getting more sedentary than ever before.

The Ambulance Ride

My sister  wakes me up at 3 in the morning telling me that there is a police officer at the door. In my childhood, I was a little shit sometimes, so I quickly check if there was anything wrong that I have done recently that would involve the cops. I don't see any reason for them to be there regards to my `bad` actions, so I put on pants and walk confidently down the stairs to see what was going on. The police officer says that I must come with him to the hospital and that was all that was said to me. I wasn't informed of what was exactly going on. I knew it was a big deal because this was far out of the pattern of my routine life, but I could not figure out exactly why this situation was presenting itself. I walk upstairs put a shirt on, walk out the door to see an ambulance sitting in the driveway with its lights flashing. My initial reaction was of shock. I thought that I would be traveling with the cop, never considering that an ambulance was sent to the house as well. I walk into the ambulance alone, while my mother and sister follow in the cop car, sit down on the uncomfortable seat being told to buckle up…not understanding that I would have to buckle up for the remainder of my life, riding the ups and downs of my blood glucose levels.

In the ambulance the paramedics were asking me questions: "Did you eat anything before you went to bed" "2 pepperettes" I told them as they were taking blood from my finger and placing it on a machine. They wait a bit and the one says to the other "He is still at 32", ignoring the fact that I am there to. By the way I still had no idea what the fuck was actually happening , so for a note to paramedics who may read this who may be in a similar situation, EXPLAIN what is going on to the patient instead of leaving them guessing for the entire time allowing fears and ideas and beliefs pop up in their heads. As they said that I was still 32, in my mind I was hoping that I was supposed to be at 27, in hopes that I was not as fucked as the situation presented itself to be. To calm my fears I start small talk with them, like why can they not wear seatbelts but I have to? Was eating pepperettes a bad thing? I did not want to be in that situation at all. I wanted to carry on with my life ignorantly of anything, not having to deal with reality as shown in my previous blog, where I did not consider the reality of the physical body and the effects my eating habits were having on the body. The paramedics and I sit in silence for the remainder of the ride.

When we get to the hospital, I sit in the ambulance while we wait for the patient ahead of us in the ambulance queue to be processed. This gives me time to mull over thoughts in my head about what exactly is going on. There is a lot of fear within me, but I have placed trust within the paramedics, believing that they know how to take care of me, which helps suppress the fear a bit. I get out of the ambulance and meet up with my sister and mother before the hospital entrance. With a minimal understanding of what is going on we walk straight into the ER. We walk past the front desk where the nurses and doctors are stationed, and as I walk pass the doctor was in surprise that I was walking on my own two feet. She expected me to be unconscious in a diabetic coma telling me that when I got my blood tested that afternoon I was up at 57…later I find out that my cousin, who is also type 1, was carried into the hospital in my uncles arms unconscious when she had a similar ordeal. After I walk in I am lead to a room in the ER, laid down on a bed and was hooked up to an IV to give me the necessary help to help calm my sugars and restore my body to the normal functions of the body. As I laid there I wasn't aware that that night was the first night of being a diabetic for the rest of my life.

For others who may go through similar processes, ask what is going on, if you are unaware of the situation ask questions until you understand. Surprisingly children are quite intelligent despite what adults may perceive them to be, so explain to them what is going on, they will understand.  I will blog about how sport and my sugar intake as a kid assisted in the development of type 1 diabetes.

When I Fainted In Class

I was in grade 8 at the time of the incident, making me 14. I had been drinking excessive amounts of liquids. I would drink a litre carton of juice in 15 minutes and pee it out in the next 15 minutes. The thirst that I has was unquenchable, and I tried fucking hard to quench it. My family first noticed this when I was out for dinner with my father. I told him that evening that I had been incredibly thirsty for quite some time so I would like a large drink. Usually I would never finish my drink when going out on the weekly dinner with my father, but this time it was the first thing I finished. We went driving around for a bit and I asked if I could get some water went to a coffee place and got a cup of water that tasted like it had coffee in it. I didn't care though I drank that as fast as I could, to which he replied "Wow you really are thirsty today". Nothing was questioned in this moment, all I knew is that I was incredibly thirsty and peeing a lot. This was, of course, a major difference in my body function and at that time I was assuming that it would eventually go away, which it did not. This thirst lasted for, from what I can remember a bit over a week, until I fainted in class, when my world changed.

That day we were dong a morning exercise, that we had recently set up as a class, to get our bodies flowing in the morning. I pushed myself quite hard in the physical exercise as I have always done with physical activity. We then were in the cool down period, standing breathing, taking a rest, so that out heart rates would calm down appropriately. I was standing against the blackboard with my friend next to me, and all I remember is black going limp and then waking up on the floor with everyone in a circle around me. Through stories shared by my friends, I leaned on my friend who I was standing beside, whom was quite a large fellow…possibly I thought that he will be able to handle me as I went unconscious into blackland. During this my other friend started to yell "Woah, WOah, WOAH!," as he watched my body collapse onto my one friend. Then I woke up, was a bit dizzy then got up and felt fine after 10 or so minutes. I had no consideration if anything was wrong with my body, I felt fine so I assumed everything with me was fine. Later that day I went and got blood work done, needle in blood comes out into tubes and off I go. Little did I know that my life from then on would involve needles on a daily basis. I went home after that and was still drinking a large amount of liquids. I have a specific memory of my feet being propped up on a desk watching television with a carton of juice to my side and a bag of cinnamon hearts in my lap, getting up every half hour to take a piss.

To my knowledge everything was fine, I was only drinking lots and having to pee out lots. I was still functional, I was still breathing, I was still alive and that’s all I considered. That was the problem that lead to all this, I did not consider my human physical body at all. I did not consider what I was putting into my body, I liked sugar and that’s all I cared for, I liked eating what I wanted, when I wanted, that's all I cared for. I did not consider that my human physical body is life itself, I did not consider that this physical reality has manifested consequences through actions, I did not consider that what I put into my body and what I did with my body had a lifelong effect. I did not consider that my human physical body can be fragile to what I put in it, I did not consider that all the candy that I was eating was having a detrimental effect on my life, I did not consider myself as life in fact. So that night I ate 2 pepperettes before bed, went to sleep feeling fine to my consideration.

The next thing that happens; I am woken by my sister telling me that there is a cop at the door for me.

I will continue in the next blog.