Do You HaveDiabetes? Symptoms

It just occurred to me that I have never written about the symptoms of diabetes.  You know, it is a disease, so it does have symptoms - it can't exist without having an effect.  Symptoms are nothing more than the effects diabetes could be having on your body; these are effects that you will feel and/or know about.

Symptoms of diabetes (both type 1 and type 2) are:

• Fatigue.  Being tired pretty much all of the time.  Now, just because you are tired does ont mean you have diabetes.  You might be the parents of three children under five years old - you have a right and a reason (three of them) to be tired.
• Unexplained weight loss.  You can't process the food you eat correctly, so a lot of it just kind of goes through you without gaining any benefit. And, with this might come...
• Near constant hunger. If your body can't process the food you put in it, it will want more. It's just that simple.
• Excessive thirst.  I know about this one first hand!  I used to drink about two gallons of water a day.  Why?  Because my body could not deal with the sugar - could not process it -  which led to excessive urination which led back to thirst.  See a cycle here?
• Excessive urination.  See above.  I sued to get up five or six times a night to urinate.  You know, you'd think I would know something was wrong, right?  But, I worked hard, perspired and figured I was just putting water back in my body which led to the urinating.  Clearly, I'm not too smart.  Please be smarter than I was.
• Wounds don't heal very well.  You know the scratches and bruises you get from everyday life - that kind of wound.  High blood sugar does not let healing take place.

There are some others, but these seem to be the ones most people experience.  If you even suspect you might be diabetic, get tested.  Please get tested.

More on the symptoms of diabetes from The Mayo Clinic.

Did you know free diabetes screening is available?  It is.  Sam's Club locations have free diabetes screenings once a month.  Call your closest location to find out when it's going to happen and get screened.  The screening will tell you if you need to see your doctor for a more sophisticated test and treatment.  The next testing day is Saturday, October 13th from 11:00 to 3:00 pm.

Don't know where the closest Sam's Club is?  Check here.

If you know of anywhere else that offers free diabetes screening, please leave a comment, or let me know.

As always, thank you for reading and please feel free to leave me a comment.