I’ve always been the girl who had the easy life growing up. I was living in a stable environment and had parents that actually took time out just for me. I was even the leader of my basketball team and always kept my grades up. I was a good child that always stayed out of trouble, so I asked myself why this happened to me.

I had been experiencing a lot of fatigue, my eyes were always dry and watery, and I was going through at least five bottles of water a day. Of course, I thought “I’m just a teenager that’s going through my growth spurt, so it’s nothing to worry about.” However, my mother got worried so we went to the doctor to run some tests and find out what was going on.

I never liked going to the doctor because I would always think that I would receive some type of bad news. I was scared and confused as I waited in the cramped blood testing room. I had no idea as to why I was taking all of these tests, so I asked my mom and all she said was “It’s just another regular checkup. There’s nothing to worry about.” However, I knew something was wrong and I was determined to find out.

After the testing was done, I waited in the patient room with my mom waiting for my doctor to return with my results. For what seemed like a lifetime, there was an awkward silence between my mother and me. It came to the point where I couldn’t take the suspense anymore and I had to find out what was really going on. So, I began questioning my mom and I wasn’t going to stop until I had received the full story. My heart had dropped and it felt like time had stopped itself.

Apparently, on my dad’s side of the family, diabetes was genetically passed down. So many thoughts came rushing to my head at once, but what really mattered were the results that I would get from my doctor. I was becoming impatient, when my doctor finally walked through the door. It felt like she was avoiding telling me the test results, but I finally found out that I was diagnosed as a diabetic. I was so shocked. I kept thinking how much my life was going to change and the adjustments I was going to have to make. However, she interrupted my negative thoughts and said that I was actually lucky because I was on the borderline. Because of the fact that I was so physically healthy, I only had to eat healthy and watch my blood levels.
I cannot explain the relief that I felt when my doctor told me that I was only a borderline diabetic, because I know that the situation could have been a lot worse. I only wish that my mother had told me what was going on sooner, so that I could take precautions.