Mickayla's Story
Hi. I’m Mickayla, I'm 22 years old and I live in the greatest city in the Midwest, KCMO. I grew up in a little bitty town where the number of cows definitely exceeded the population. I am a Northwest Missouri State University grad, where I studied communications, specifically, public relations. Nowadays, I am a travel consultant for a healthcare company. So, I go on adventures while trying my hand at the improvement of healthcare, pretty cool, huh? I am the mom of the cutest little shih tzu, Bennett. He’s either sleeping or keeping me on my toes. Whatever the case may be, he’s my whole world. Recently, I have become a Dunkin’ Donuts enthusiast. I would go there twice a day if it were acceptable to spend rent money on coffee. I love music and my continuous commitment to being mediocre at playing the guitar. Seriously, it’s a lot harder than I expected, but still a rad pastime. I live with my best friends and their cute doggie, Gus. He’s Bennett’s best friend. Not only do I have the most wonderful humans as roommates, I’m willing to argue that I have the world’s greatest friends. I’m thankful that they never shut down my wacky ideas and that they never fail to help me keep my head up when life isn’t so favorable. My family is too loveable; although, they are incredibly good at being embarrassing, I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Oh, and I forgot to mention one thing, my life is this great without a functioning pancreas. My name is Mickayla, and I have type one diabetes.
3.8.12.
I remember it probably better than I should. Sweats pants, that’s the only thing I would wear. For two reasons. One, I was so tired, no matter how much I slept, it was never enough. Two, I had lost so much weight that none of my pants fit. So, here we have the first of the symptoms. Weight loss and extreme fatigue. It was actually pretty funny that I was losing weight, cause boy, could I eat. And I mean eat. The day that I was diagnosed, I had eaten two big macs and a large fry in one setting... and I peed my pants on the way home. I’m telling ya, not some of my proudest moments folks. But let’s tac on a few more symptoms to that list; uncontrollable hunger, and frequent urination. I was drinking so much water that I’m lucky I didn’t drown. My mood was so touchy, even more than what was expected of a 17 year old girl. The big list: rapid weight loss, extreme fatigue, uncontrollable hunger, frequent urination, extreme thirst, and irritability. Like any concerned individual would do, www.webmd.com, and that pretty much confirmed it for me. My mom, not so much. After checking my blood sugar and getting a reading of over 500, she decided to believe me. After that, she did the mom thing - called everyone she knew, and I was admitted for a 4-day stay.
On 3.8.12, I became a type one diabetic. This day was nothing that I expected it to be, yet everything that I could have hoped for. Wait, what? I like having diabetes? Yeah, I do. Through the highs and the lows, most literally, my diagnosis has made me more in tune with my body than I ever would have been. I appreciate the littlest things and I have met some of the greatest people. People search their whole lives to find their passion; I am fortunate enough that mine was handed to me. You see, life can be funny, and sometimes it’s the things that we can’t change, that change us and we end up changing the world.
Mickayla Irwin