For most of a year, I was constantly thirsty.<\/p>\n
Not normal thirsty.<\/p>\n
I carried a water bottle everywhere and still felt like my mouth was made of sand.<\/p>\n
I was exhausted too.<\/p>\n
Some mornings, I would wake up tired.<\/p>\n
By ten o\u2019clock, I was fighting to keep my eyes open.<\/p>\n
I started taking naps before lunch.<\/p>\n
I was seventy-three, so when I told my doctor, he barely looked up from his computer.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoris, that’s seventy-three for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He smiled as if that settled it.<\/p>\n
I smiled back.<\/p>\n
But something inside me didn’t feel right.<\/p>\n
Then I started losing weight.<\/p>\n
Twelve pounds disappeared without me trying.<\/p>\n
My clothes hung loosely.<\/p>\n
My legs felt weaker.<\/p>\n
Even my dentures stopped fitting properly.<\/p>\n
My daughter kept telling me to get them adjusted.<\/p>\n
So finally, I made an appointment with a dentist.<\/p>\n
The hygienist was young\u2014probably younger than my own children.<\/p>\n
She examined my mouth, stopped, and looked at my gums again.<\/p>\n
Then she asked,<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long have your gums looked like this?\u201d<\/p>\n
I shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know. Is something wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n
She hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cHas anyone checked your blood sugar recently?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNever.\u201d<\/p>\n
She immediately stopped what she was doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to get the dentist.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, the dentist walked in.<\/p>\n
I expected him to look at my dentures.<\/p>\n
Instead, he looked at my chart.<\/p>\n
Then at me.<\/p>\n
Then back at the chart.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoris, I want you at the ER tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed nervously.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor my teeth?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice was serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour body has been trying to tell us something.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the hospital, they checked my blood sugar.<\/p>\n
The nurse’s expression changed when she saw the result.<\/p>\n
Then they checked it again.<\/p>\n
Within minutes, doctors were moving quickly around my bed.<\/p>\n
I was severely hyperglycemic.<\/p>\n
I had undiagnosed diabetes, and my blood sugar had climbed to a dangerous level.<\/p>\n
The thirst.<\/p>\n
The exhaustion.<\/p>\n
The unexplained weight loss.<\/p>\n
The dry mouth.<\/p>\n
The changes in my gums.<\/p>\n
My dentures not fitting anymore.<\/p>\n
They weren’t simply signs of getting older.<\/p>\n
My body had been waving red flags for months.<\/p>\n
I had just been told to ignore them.<\/p>\n
I spent several days in the hospital while they stabilized me and started treatment.<\/p>\n
My doctor came to see me afterward.<\/p>\n
He looked uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI should have investigated those symptoms more carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought you were just getting older.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo did I.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dentist visited me a few weeks later.<\/p>\n
He adjusted my dentures and checked my gums.<\/p>\n
Then he smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou came in for your teeth,\u201d he said. \u201cThey may have saved your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
I smiled back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose I owe that hygienist a thank-you.\u201d<\/p>\n
I did more than that.<\/p>\n
I sent her flowers.<\/p>\n
The note said:<\/p>\n
Thank you for asking one more question when everyone else had stopped asking questions.<\/strong><\/p>\n Months later, I felt like myself again.<\/p>\n I had more energy.<\/p>\n My thirst was under control.<\/p>\n I was eating normally.<\/p>\n And I no longer needed a nap before lunch.<\/p>\n But the biggest change wasn’t physical.<\/p>\n I stopped assuming every new symptom was simply \u201cwhat happens when you get old.\u201d<\/p>\n Age explains some things.<\/p>\n It does not explain everything.<\/p>\n And sometimes, the smallest appointment can uncover the biggest warning.<\/p>\n I went to the dentist because my dentures didn’t fit.<\/p>\n I left knowing something far more important:<\/p>\n Getting older is not a diagnosis.<\/strong><\/p>\n If something in your body feels different for months, it deserves to be investigated\u2014not dismissed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For most of a year, I was constantly thirsty. Not normal thirsty. I carried a water bottle everywhere and still felt like my mouth was made of sand. I was … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-honglay"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=172106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172156,"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172106\/revisions\/172156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/172107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=172106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=172106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honglay168.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=172106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}