Being diagnosed with diabetes was a nightmare for me. I didn’t know what to do with the news. For over a year I even ignored the diagnosis and continued living life as I wanted to. Oh sure, I’d take my pills (at first I was diagnosed as a type 2), but I didn’t bother with anything else.

When I was almost 12 I saw diabetes kill my grandfather. I had practically been raised by my grandparents so we were really close. Losing him was one of the hardest things I have ever had to bear. I refused to believe that what had killed him was what I now had.

About two years after my diagnosis I decided I wanted to have a baby, went on insulin, and went forward from there. I started checking my sugars more than once a month. It was during my pregnancy that they changed my diagnosis from a type 2 to a slowly progressing type 1.

He came 3 weeks early but I delivered a big, healthy baby boy on Christmas Eve, 2009! That little man became my life!

Since he was born I have lost all control of my sugars. They go up and down all the time and so does my mood regarding diabetes. Some days I feel like I can take on the world and there are other days when I would give anything to not have to deal with it anymore.

I was hospitalized for three days for diabetic ketoacidosis (not fun) and have since been struggling to get my A1C below 7%. 9.0% is as close as I have come. But then three months later it always seems to creep back up there.

I want another baby badly and am ready to get my life sorted out so that can happen. I want to be pregnant before December 31, 2012! It’s time for me to lose weight, get exercising and start eating healthier food choices. It’s time I got my sugars under control and got on with my life!

I am ready to start making the changes I need to make now! I will no longer let this hold me back from living the life I want to live! This is me! This is my journey!