Monday 13th June 2022
Meet Georgia - Diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes
- Type 1 Diabetic - April 2021
- Diagnosis: April 2021, after 2 weeks of feeling nauseous and not eating Georgia desperately wanted her favourite food "Pizza, roast dinner, and a homemade victoria sponge cake!" After a weekend of "essentially carbo loading", the nausea kicked in again and by Wednesday night she was throwing up at work and sent home early. Georgia then spent most the night throwing up and slowly finding it harder and harder to breathe. By the morning she was in and out of consciousness, now really struggling for breath.
Because it was during the pandemic, Georgia's partner first got COVID-19 tests to see if that was the cause of the breathing issues. When the test came back negative and Georgia was beginning to slur her words and spend more time unconscious, he called 111 for help.
A few hours later, Georgia wakes up in ICU, after suffering severe DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis) with a BG level of 29, blood with PH level of 6.75 and pre-renal acute kidney injury. The doctors then explained the symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes, which made Georgia realise how many things she'd missed.
Here's her thoughts:
1. Thirst - I have always drank a lot of water, so had just put it down to not drinking enough. But in reality, even with drinking litres of water a day, I had dry skin and lips, headaches and was constantly thirsty.
2. Toilet - From around January I was starting to wake in the night to go the toilet. I had just put this down to trying to drink more water, and basically ignored that even if I avoided drinking for hours before bed, I would still need to use the toilet and would be insanely thirsty too.
3. Thinner - I had started to lose weight. In a typical new year new me fashion, I had started to be more conscious about what I ate. So I again just put this down to my healthier choices working.
4. The last obvious symptom isn’t part of the 4 T’s, but was so obvious that I should've gotten some help. My eye sight was starting to get worse... nothing too bad, but enough for me to notice and mention I should probably book an eye test. But again, I didn’t. I just hadn’t gotten round to it. But the high glucose levels in my blood was starting to change the shape of my lenses.
"As many as 4.8 million people are living with diabetes in the UK right now. That's why this summer I'm taking steps for my own body and for everybody living with diabetes."
Georgia will be raising awareness by taking part in her very own 'One MILLION step challenge'!
Raising Awareness and money for the Diabetes UK charity! Georgia will be taking part in her very own 'One MILLION step challenge'!
Take a look at her challenge here: https://step.diabetes.org.uk/fundraising/georgia-tuft2022
Georgia, taking on her one million step challenge for Diabetes UK. Instagram: @g.tuft TikTok: @laughiesaphie
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