And then when I went to the, went back to the doctor for my results and he said to me, 'You know, you're diabetic.' And he said, 'Also you've got high cholesterol and you've got high blood pressure'. And [laughs] he said, and I just sat in a chair and thought, 'Oh no'. And he said to me,[name], you are taking it very well.' And inside I'm saying to myself, 'No, I'm not'. You know. It's probably just, I probably looked like I was taking it well but it was a shock, it was a shock, I just didn't know what to say. You know, all three at one hit.
And then about a week later my eyesight went, and I couldn't see, I couldn't read anything. I mean, I still, I went to work and I'd say to the girls, 'Come here, what's it say? What does this say?' And they said 'What's wrong.' I said, 'I can't see.' You know, because it just went, just like that. Even walking down the street was a blur. Everything was a blur. So my boss said, 'No I don't think you should be at work. You should, you know, go back to your doctor.' And they sent me to [the eye hospital] in London and they thought that the onset of everything just affected my eyesight. Yes, so before my boyfriend used to go work each morning, he used to say, he used to go to the shop and he'd bring me back the newspaper. 'Here, [name], here's the newspaper.' 'Why have you brought me a newspaper, I can't read.' You know, I couldn't read it. All I could see was the headlines, that was all I could see.
How long did that last for?
It lasted two and a half weeks.
Was that until the medication kicked in?
Yeah. Until that kicked in and then, yeah, that sort of helped. I had old glasses but didn't help at all. My sister went out, she bought me a little, you can buy a little magnifying glass that you can keep in your purse, she bought me one of those. So I had one of them. It was terrible. That is when it hits you as well, you think, you've got, you know, you're going to have to try and manage as best as you can.
That must have been quite frightening?
Yeah, because you know, my son and my partner, they became my eyes. You know, when we went shopping I'd say, you know, 'Read this, what does this, you know, what is this?' You know, they got fed up but, everything, I had to get them to read it. You know. Yeah.
Because then obviously I had to start being careful with my food. So, every, every time I go shopping now I read everything, see what the saturated fat is, you know, the sugar content. You know, it's all, that's all taken, that's how it's all taken over my life really. And I find it ever so hard. |
