You Just Don't Get It

Sorry for my absence, I have been very busy this weekend with homework. Today I am going to talk about something that applies not only to me, but to every diabetic everywhere. As a T1D (Type 1 Diabetic), diet soda is a staple in our diet. Besides water is is one of the only drinks we can have without it being full of sugar and affecting our blood sugars for hours later. Through the last six years of my life, I have had a numerous people in my life tell me that diet coke is worse for me than regular soda. That it is full of aspartame and how it will cause cancer or I will die. Well I prefer the chances of drinking the aspartame than going into a coma. I'm going to share an experience I had a few years ago involving a mix up of diet and regular coke.

A few years ago, I was out shopping with my mom and we went to Johnny Rockets for lunch and ordered vanilla Diet Cokes. We finished our meals and continued shopping for the next hour. As I picked out clothes I knew I felt wrong, like something wasn't right. Pushing it to the side, I focused on the clothes in my hand and headed to the dressing room. The feeling only got worse; I felt trapped, like the walls were closing in on me, and I was over heated to the point where I was sweating and panicking. I felt nauseous and had to get out. I grabbed my tester and it read "HI", which indicated a blood sugar over 600 and I needed insulin immediately. After correcting, 3 water bottles and a damp napkin on my forehead, it still would't read on my meter. It just said "HI". It took hours and countless injections to finally bring my blood sugar down. What caused this, was Johnny Rockets had given me regular coke with my meal, and so I wasn't able to give insulin for it. Diet Coke won't kill me, but regular coke almost did. I will take my chances with Diet Coke any day.