Diabetes  

I’d been looking forward to attending seminary in Israel for years, but I had no idea what would be in store for me. Almost immediately after my arrival, I began to experience constant headaches, nausea, and extreme tiredness or “heaviness.” But I was in seminary — little sleep, bad food — so I brushed it aside. As the weeks wore on, I had temporary blurry vision (the doctor told me it was nothing), unquenchable thirst (it was hot in Israel!), was going to the bathroom numerous times day and night (hey, I was drinking a lot of water!), and had lost a substantial amount of weight (I guess all the walking was paying off!).

At the end of November, my seminary took us on a trip to the South. We went on an intense hike, something I often did back at home, and about halfway through I was literally gasping for breath, unable to move. I needed my dorm counselor to push me through the last half of the trip. Then I began throwing up. It was clear that I could no longer ignore or justify all my symptoms, and I went to get some blood work done. On my way back to the dorm, I got the phone call: “Geveret, you have diabetes. You need to go to the hospital right now!”

When I got to the ER, I was told that my undiagnosed diabetes had led to me being in DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis), a potentially life-threatening situation. A few days later, my mom flew in to join me in the hospital, where we learned more about my new diagnosis.

Type 1 diabetes is a condition in which the body’s blood-glucose level is too high because the pancreas makes little or no insulin, the hormone that allows our bodies to break down and use sugar.  All of the food we eat is eventually broken down into glucose, or sugar. Insulin essentially acts as a key to allow glucose into the cells for energy.Since my pancreas was no longer producing insulin, I’d need to administer it myself, which I would do using an insulin pump. When there’s not enough insulin, there’s too much glucose in the blood, leading to high blood sugar; if I give myself too much insulin, I can end up with low blood sugar.