What was I like before diagnosis? Did I have any warning signs? When my doctor measured my blood glucose, did I expect it to be high?
In the months leading up to diagnosis, I wasn’t feeling great. There was nothing specific, just a general feeling of tiredness. February wasn’t too bad. It just felt like a regular, grey, February. By March, I was having a lot of headaches. This was nothing out of the ordinary for me. I have had migraines my entire adult life, and they are always worse in March. It was odd that the normal migraine treatment (Sumatriptan) wasn’t working as well as it normally works, and on some level I thought I should see my GP about it. My swimming performance had plateaued in February, and by March I was losing a lot of the progress I had made.
Nights were strange. I have had prostate issues, on and off, since I was in my early 20s. Because of that, I always drink a lot. I started needing to get up in the middle of the night to pee. At first it was only a couple of times a week. Then it was every night. By April, it was starting to be a couple of times a night. I have always taken a minimalist attitude to nightwear1, and on one relatively mild night I was freezing cold, so I ended up putting on the pyjamas I normally only wear when there is frost and snow outside.
In April, the headaches were almost continual. When I had the energy to swim, I was swimming very badly. I was struggling to get one length done, and my coordination was so bad that I found it difficult to synchronise my breathing in with my face being above water. Lack of coordination is a typical symptom of migraines for me, so while I was frustrated I wasn’t worried.
My work was suffering too. My eyesight was getting very blurry, which I attributed to needing my glasses changed, and I was making a lot of typos as a result. My boss commented that I seemed to be having a lot of headaches.
My Whoop was recording poorer-than-average recoveries for the few weeks before diagnosis as well. I wasn’t too worried by that, but it did feel a little odd. No matter how long I slept, how early I went to bed, my recoveries weren’t good.
There was none of this that I couldn’t attribute to existing conditions – migraines, prostate issues, needing my glasses changed. In fact, I was feeling so tired but so unconcerned that I nearly cancelled the appointment I had made to see my GP. I was only seeing her about a routine prescription review for something trivial, and I thought that all the other symptoms would pass.
I really had no idea I was unwell.
- I previously mentioned that the first thing I do when I get out of bed is put flip flops on. It feels very silly to be in one’s bedroom, naked save for a pair of flip flops. Calling them “sliders” makes it feel a little less silly. A little. ↩︎