Monday, April 6, 2015

How becoming a mother saved my life

            As many of you know I became a mother at a very young age. Was this my plan? No, but it happened. If I could go back in time and tell myself anything, I would have told myself to respect myself more and tell my boyfriend I'm waiting tell marriage. And that is the best advice I could give you as well. Sometimes it takes people who learned things the hard way or even the wrong way to give others the best advice. And through my life experience that would be my advice to all young girls. PLEASE RESPECT YOURSELF AND WAIT TELL MARRIAGE. It will save you a whole lot of stress, heart ache, trouble, and the way people view you. 

      At the age 11 I was diagnosed with something that forever changed my life. Type one diabetes. For the rest of my entire life I will have sick days, have to take 3-6 shots a day to even stay alive, check my blood sugar 5-8 times a day and so on. WHAT? I remember thinking that day. I have diabetes. Cool As long as Im alive.... My whole middle school years were a blur and full of a lot of sickness. I didn't care to take care of myself and it was a miracle if my sugars were under 400. 500 was my normal and I learned to live with it. I have little memory of sitting at the doctor MULTIPLE times and him telling me, "your just killing yourself". But since my sugar was 500 at the time, how was I supposed to understand what he was saying? I walked out rolling my eyes. I notice my eyes would sting a lot and I was losing my eye sight. I noticed I went from being the best in the gym to someone who was too weak to do a cartwheel. This wasn't me but my mind was functioning so improperly I couldn't stop it. I lost my brother who had downs syndrome in the eight grade and my way of handling it was to let my blood sugars go as high as possible so my mind would be too dumb to think about it. You know how that works, some people handle it by drinking, doing drugs.. It was my high. It was my new way of handling life. 

    I continued this for years and one day met this ornery, but cute man. And yes shortly after meeting we found out we were having a baby at the ages of 16 and 17. My sugars still running high I will never forget the doctors telling me at my first app. "If you continue this life your living, this baby of yours will die, and soon you will too. You will go blind, and start losing limbs, feet, legs, hands, than your life". The next room a lady doctor told me it might be ideal if I just go ahead and get an abortion. That would have been the LAST thing I would have done. The part about myself wasn't so scary but killing someone else... Like... MY OWN CHILD, was terrifying. Not only was I about to become a mom at 16, I had to completely change my way of living and watch my every move of what I stick in my mouth. Not to mention if you've ever been pregnant you know chocolate and carbs in general become a lot more appealing than they were before. It was a hard time in my life. Josh didn't know how to grow up just yet and I was working, going to high school, and cosmetology school at the same time. I would check my sugars every two hours and my last hour of school was an athletic hour so I would run a mile everyday tell five and a half months pregnant than I would power walk. This was a way to keep my sugars under control. I couldn't believe how well I could focus in life. I couldn't believe how good I felt and how I had more energy being pregnant than I did not being pregnant. I thought when your pregnant you become more tired, more non focused, more miserable.  Long story short I watched my sugars like a hawk and on September 9th had a beautiful baby boy and named him Gannon Dewayne McKee. Yes it was a high risk pregnancy and he was born almost 5 weeks early weighing 9 pounds 7 ounces. BIG BABY. but he was alive and healthy. 

        I remember nursing my baby boy one night shortly after he was born and starring down at him and instantly start bursting into tears. I had realized that all though I was only sixteen and having an unplanned baby at this age was very frowned upon, but this little boy saved me from death. How was I ever going to learn how to take care of myself and why it is so important. Yes I took very good care of myself while he was still in my belly to keep him alive, but now he is here, I am his mother, and I must take very good care of myself to stay alive for him. He truly changed and saved my life. 

      My baby Gannon is 3 years of age now and since then me and his daddy got married and had a baby girl who is now 1. I will never go back to the awful and careless way I was once living. I will always do my best to take care of myself. There are days when my hormones are changing, my body is preparing to get sick, or my blood sugars just don't wanna behave that day, but I always strive to keep a good blood sugar. Having this disease has defiantly been a rough ride,  but has made me who I am today. This is the reason I strive day in and day out to live a healthy life style and help others to. 


19 comments:

  1. This is so inspiring to me! I have been a type 1 diabetic since I was 6 and now I'm 23 and I never took care of myself until I was about 20 and started having so many complications from diabetes. I recently just got married and was always so scared to have children and often wonder if it's even possible for me to have them because of being such a brittle diabetic. You have been an inspiration to me over the past few years and it gives me so much hope that one day if The Lord allows me to have children they will be perfectly healthy! Thank you for all that you do!

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  2. wow, that comment truly made my day. This is my dream in life to reach out to others who are struggling with the same things i have been struggling with. Best of wishes to you and your husband

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  3. I think the story is very inspiring. It amazes me that you were able to be so selfless at such a young age and begin making better choices. And how courageous you can be in sharing your story of your illness and your past. It's truly amazing. Never stop sharing your story.

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  4. Wow.. I can't even describe how inspired I am right now. I look up to you ad hope to one day be in as good of shape as you are. I am so lazzy and I look at your Instagram posts and I am like I should really stop laying here and go do something like run or work out, and sometimes I do just because I keep in the back of my mind one day I could look as pretty as she dose, one day I will have a flat stomach like she dose, one day people will notice me like they notice her. Keep up the good work you are truly inspiring

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  5. I am inspired by you. I have loved you ever since your episode on 16 and Pregnant and through out Teen Mom 3. Thank you for making this blog and posting all you do on Instagram. You are truly a great mother, wonderful wife and cherished woman of God.

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  6. Almost teared up reading this. I can relate, I've been diabetic 16 years, am now 26 and I didn't start taking care of myself till I was pregnant. Now I have a 3 year old and wonder how I was ever so careless with it. Still making changes toward healthier living but so much better than I used to be! You're blog is so helpful and inspiring to be better. Although am very curious what your a1c is?? Keep fighting xxx

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  8. This inspires me in so many ways, I am 16 years old and have been a type one diabetic for two years now. It's never been easy fore to deal with, my sugar is hard to control. I've never been the one to make a huge effort on keeping it where it needs to be. However reading your story makes me want to do better, it lets me know that I still have what it takes to keep my sugar under control so that one day, when the time is right I can have beautiful Healthy children just as you did. You are a wonderful mother with a beautiful family. Thank you for sharing your story(:

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  10. i love you Mackenzie and your beautiful babies:)

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  11. You are so inspiring. I cried reading this because it is identical to my story. I'm a type 1 diabetic for 10 years now. I recently had my first child. She was born at 39 weeks weighing 7 lbs 14 oz and is perfect and healthy. I tested my blood sugar 10-15 times a day while pregnant and carried an A1C of 5.5-5.7 all throughout. I am scared to death that I'm not going to be around for her and am striving to be the healthiest me I can. I love watching health journey. Keep it up!

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