Four years ago, I was diagnosed with diabetes. Since the
disease was asymptomatic (meaning, it doesn’t have much symptoms), I never even
knew I had it, but I had type II diabetes and it was irreversible. How did I found
out I had diabetes? It was simple. My right eye bled (out of too much stress at
the time) from my previous work and my ex narcissistic boyfriend. I had to
undergo pan retinal photocoagulation (that’s eye laser for you) twice and to be
honest, my eye doctor explains, “Parang
winelding lang natin yung retina mo. Sunog na yung lahat ng bahagi niya. So you’re
not allowed to do anything physically exhausting like jumping, running and
carrying heavy objects—otherwise, your retina might get detached and you might
go blind.” Can you imagine how I felt after being told I have proliferative
diabetic retinopathy? I was also told that if my lifestyle will not change, I
might eventually go blind even before I turned 50. If you were in my shoes,
what would have been your reaction then?
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| Glucometer is every diabetic's best buddy |
Sadly, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), one
out of every five Filipinos has diabetes. By the year 2030, WHO predicts that
the Philippines will be among the top 10 countries with the most people
suffering from this chronic disease. So I had to learn to live my life with
maintenance medicines at the age of 35. I even had an expensive eye drop (an
anti-glaucoma) which I had to use twice a day to make sure my eye pressure won’t
go that high.
