DISARMING DIABETES DAILY

Written by Vero Kange June 10 th 2018 was quite a day.  There are millions of things I can say about that day but to sum it all in one word; ANSWERS. On that Sunday evening, at Norvik Hospital, Kampala, I learnt why I had had tingles in my legs for a while, why I was easily losing weight despite my insatiable sweet tooth, why I peed volumes of urine all the time, why I was always thirsty, why I slept all the time, everywhere, you see, for a very long time, all these things bothered me and I had all these unanswered questions lingering on my mind. Quite often, I would actually promise to take some   time off and read on the possible cause of all these weird bodily characteristics I had developed but never really got around to doing it. Yes, feel free to roll your eyes like I've done countless times since. When I finally arrived at the answers though, my oh my, was I not prepared to hear them. Nonetheless, 10 th  June came, accompanied by information ov...

Written by   Benjamin Mafale from Zambia My name is Benjamin, a 19 year old type 1 diabetes patient living in Zambia. I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in mid-2016 at the age of 15. I came to know about my condition when I was in grade 11 in boarding at Kalomo secondary school. My experience started suddenly with some presentations of type 1 diabetes. In the unknown early symptoms of my condition polyuria (frequent urination), dehydration, extreme hunger and loss of weight. During that period, blood tests were carried out and when the results came out it was positive hyperglycemic (+++). This contributed to admission in the hospital for about 7 days for further investigations and monitoring of my blood sugars. While in the hospital I made some approach on diabetes management and got a nutritionist for diet advice. Later on after being advised on how to manage my condition with diet, medications and other ways, I was discharged to go home. Though it was somethin...

Written by Sharon Atim Before diagnosis I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes on February 27, 2013 at the tender age of 26. My immediate response was shock because until that day,  there was no one with diabetes  in my family. I'm still the only person living with it. Secondly, I did not know type 2 diabetes happened to people in their 20s when I was diagnosed. I thought it was something you got when you were a senior citizen over 60, so I felt alone for a while. I am sharing my story in the hope that someone out there will know that they are not the only ones going through this. I remember crying myself to sleep on many occasions asking myself how this monster disease could befall me; but I hope that I  can give someone else the comfort and courage they need, that I needed too, to keep fighting, for there is still so much they can do with their lives. My blood sugar was 27 mmol/L when I gained admission. I had blurred vision, frequent thirst and urination, ...

Written by Sarah Biyinzika, YLD Uganda representative, YLD Africa Region representative, 2019-2021 Talking about challenges faced in managing diabetes in my country Uganda Allow me take you through how I got to participate in the  International Diabetes Federation  (IDF)  Young Leaders in Diabetes  (YLD) 2019-2021 Program. After a spell of poor management and health challenges, I got involved in diabetes advocacy. In 2018, I started a blog called The African Diabetic (which will soon be changed to The Ugandan Diabetic) where I shared my stories, challenges and triumphs as a type 1 diabetic (T1D). I did this in an attempt to get back on the right track with my health as well as reach others that felt alone in the struggle. I also started my search for other Diabetics and that’s how I met Mukantwari Edith Prudence Sabiiti.  Not only was she a fellow Type 1 Diabetic diagnosed the same year as myself, she was also a nutritionist. Since nutrition was ...

Written by Taremwa Ian Mark My name is Ian and I am 22 years old. I am a known diabetic, to be more specific, Type 1 diabetes for the last 1 year. Unfortunately, I have lived a quite tricky and challenging life based on the fact that I have been brought up by a single mother. My father abandoned us; and by us I mean myself, my mother and my sister. But we managed to grow up. Talemwa Ian-Recently enrolled in the CDiC project The Lord has really been so good to me. I got diagnosed with diabetes on 23 rd of May 2018 and I was in Dubai at the time, where I had to work in order to try and fend for myself and my family. This was because after my secondary school, I wasn’t so fortunate to join university since the funds weren’t available. After getting out hospital, I faced a great challenge of denial of diabetes, I hated myself and thought I wasn’t good enough, I even started thinking maybe I was just born to suffer. Sadly, I had to return to Uganda because I had failed miserab...

Written by Edith Mukantwari Attending the SPICES project dissemination workshop on Thursday 29 th August 2019, was a truly life altering moment for me, in the best way possible. When I got the call to attend and give a talk on the patient’s experience, I was nervous. As always, I had too much to say and didn’t really know how to organise my thoughts. I’m always afraid that I’ll forget something very important and the pressure is high. When the day finally came though, I was very calm for the first time since I’ve been attending these events. The event did not disappoint and I am so happy that I get a chance to report about it so that more patients have a chance to know and keep up with ongoing developments in healthcare so they can get the best chance to get relevant care and interventions. Dr. Geofrey Musinguzi, MUSPH, presenting project impact and updates at the dissemination workshop SPICES is an acronym that stands for “Scaling up Packages of Interventions for Card...

Written by Sewanyana Rodney Alex November is diabetes awareness month and the theme this year is "The Family and Diabetes." As I tell you my story of living with type 1 diabetes, I hope you can tell how big of an influence family can have on how patients manage their diabetes and appreciate that our fellow diabetes warriors are a family as well. Facilitating an ice breaker session at an education class organised by Africa Diabetes Alliance 1 st November 2019 marked exactly 2 years since I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. At diagnosis, I didn’t have knowledge or any idea what I was going to have to deal with for the rest of my life. I remember the nurses trying to teach me the basic steps of managing diabetes which included which foods to eat, how to exercise and the amount of insulin I needed to survive for another day. However, the way the nurses were referencing each other, it was evident that they were sharing some hazy information. Being the new kid on...