The first discovery

Since graduating, I had worked in the computer industy for 28 years. The UK summer of 2000 was very hot and I'd developed a powerful thirst. The soft drink Sprite had been installed on draught in the works restaurant and beining ignorant of the consequences I started drinking it. Pretty soon I had a thirst that cound not be saited. The more I drank, the more thirsty I became, and then some. All this fluid filled my bladder every two hours - all day and all of the night.

Suspecting something was wrong, I typed these symptoms and a few others into an internet search engine. Pretty soon I realised there was the strong possibility that I had diabetes. That was a bit of a shock: illnesses were something other people had - or so I thought. I called the doctor's surgery to make an appointment.

It was one of those amusing conversations. The receptionist asked what was wrong with me. I told her that I had diabetes . She asked "has this just come on?". "No, but I've only just realised what the problem is." I said. "The doctor has no free slot for another week." "That's no go to me. I need help now!" I explained. "Well you can see the nurse, tomorrow.". So I settled for that.

The next day I arrived with my sample, which the nurse duly took. After a few minutes the nurse came rushing out. "Don't go!" she exclaimed. "You're not wrong. The doctor wants to see you as soon as he is free." The doctor said I must provide a blood sample, but in the meantime wrote me a prescription. He said "Your urine is full of sugar. When the blood sample returns you blood glucose will be mega-high".

Well he wasn't wrong either! When the results arrived. SBG, that's code for serum blood glucose, was 23 mmol/l. People immediately ask what should it be. SBG should be between 3.6 and 5.8 fasting and not over 8 after eating. So 23 is pretty high. The doc said "I've seen higher, but not often, and certaily not from many walking around!" In fact SBG can go upto 40+, but then risk of coma sets in. The UK BMA guidelines advise that a person with a level over 20 should be admitted to hospital immediately for observation.

There is a great deal to learn if you have diabetes and the fist thing is that in the UK, Canada and Australia they use the mmol/l (millimols per litre) measurement. In the USA they measure in mg/100 ml or milligrammes per decilitre. To convert to the USA scale multiply by 18. So the normal range in the USA is 63 to 144 mg/l (fasting 65 to 105). On this scale, my SBG started out at 414 mg/l.