This story is one of woe, and tragedy as well.  My name is Adam and I am a 24 year old server in Michigan.  Before being diagnosed with the disease, I was one of those individuals, (like most americans,) who didn't seem to care, or thought it would never happen to me.  I was a alcoholic and some what of a partier.  Basically at this age you think your invincible and can not be stopped.  For years before I have always had this feeling that something was wrong with me, something made me always unhappy, which resulted in the constant drinking.  I really never had the energy to do things that people would normally do.  I used to be a very large individual, I stood six foot five with a weight of 385lbs.  Last year I had a epiphany and decided to take some control of my life and lose weight.  I decided to take Hydroxycut and some other dietary supplies to assist me.  I ended up getting to 195lbs!  This was one of the best things to ever happen to me.  I had energy like I never had!  I had thought that I finally found happieness!  Unfortunately, with the positive aspects come the negative as well.  I started partying worse then I ever have before, I started doing more then just the drinking.  Around January of this year, my grandfather who had been there my whole life, and who had played the role of my father as well due to my biological one never there, was diagnosed with cancer.  This had devestated me to the extent that I may have started to think that maybe I may have not been this invincible man I had once thought.  Shortly after he had passed away.  My depression had hurt me so bad that I didn't care about anything.  I ended up getting a second job because idle time did not sit well with me.  Working 60+ hours a week is not good for anybody, yet I didn't care.  About a month ago, while doing my job as a server, I felt very odd this day.  When I awoke I felt so worn down as if a car had hit me the night before.  My knees, (which had been acting up for a while, along with constantly urinating as well thinking it was due to the GNC products,) felt very brittle and always hurt.  I personally just thought that it was restless leg syndrome, yet when I tried to eat something, I couldn't digest it yet alone chew it.  I blew it off like I would and went to work.  While at work my associates and I where working a banquet.  I could hardly move, I had to sit down every half an hour.  Everybody laughed thinking I was hung over and didn't think nothing about it.  After I made it through the 10 hour shift, I couldn't see right and on the drive home I had become extremely tired and decided to pull over on the side of the road to take a nap.  I awoke about 2 hours later, thinking everything was fine.  I went home, the next day was my day off, decided to go pay some bills and just do things like normal.  This day I felt 10 times worse than before, as if I was pushing myself to live!  I decided to go to the beach for a swim thinking that would clear it up, after about 10 minutes, I had to get out, I was seeing triple, my mind felt as if I could not concentrate, breathing problems, nausea, pretty much everything imaginable.  I felt I needed to go home.  On the drive home I thought I was going to pass out!  When I got to my house, my mother had stopped over there to see how I was doing.  I told her I need to go to the hospital right away, she was complaing to me, I told her that I don't think I can drive.  As she drove me, I kept fading in and out while talking to her.  When I got in the Emergency Room I don't remember anything.  I only remember waking up in the Intensive Care Unit and hereing people crying, I had a oxygen tube along with IV and being chained to wall with plugs.  My mother had told me that I had a severe diabetic coma, and that if I waited any longer I would have died.  My sugar level where at 1430!  You can go into a coma after 600.  My girlfriend could not stop crying, I sat there pondering about this disease not knowing.  As the doctor filled me in, I never thought I would ever be able to cope.  No alcohol, controlled diet, insulin injections, (I couldn't stand needles!)  I had also found out that when I was in the E.R. I wanted to go use the bathroom, when walking to it, I feel and had hit the back of my head bad, it has resulted in nerve damage in the back of my head.  I can tell the diffirence now, it is something that has to be acustomed.  While sitting at the hospital getting my fingers pricked every hour, insulin shot in me, the only thing that I could do was cry, this is something I haven't done in a long time.  I was ready to give up on life, my decision had been one of suicide, this to me was the only option at this point.  After hearing just the basics, I felt there was no way.  For I had spent so much time to lose weight as well that I thouht I was happy.  I was 156lbs. when I walked in the hospital, when I got out I was 231lbs.  I felt incredibly fat and unhappy, my depression had hit the all time low.  When I was in the hospital, I was treated terrible as well.  I did not get my injections on time as well as them putting me on a 100 carb diet!  All diabetics out there know that is just ludicrious!  Yet it happened, when I got home and I was sitting there shaking from the insulin, (my body had to get adjusted to it, and the side effects where horrible,) I sat there thinking about everything, planning to commit to the plan I devised when first told about the disease.  Then I did it!  I picked up the book and started reading, and reading.  I got on the internet and just started serching and serching.  I had a epiphany for the second time in my life!  That just because I'm not living the lifestyle I used to should not hold me back!!  The one positive aspect of the hospital is that they inspired me to go back to the college and understand medicine.  I had devised a workout plan that got my weight under control and dropped back to 210.  Not idel, yet so much better.  Work has been great too, people are so understandable, and nothing holds me back.  Life for the most part is going great, although I don't have insurance yet, and I pay everything I got for doctor visits and prescriptions, I have never been happier!  The moral of my story is that don't let anything stop you and keeping pushing.  If your young and diagnosed with such a disease, don't fret!  Things only get better when you get it under control.  I would like to thank those of you that have read my story and had been a inspiration to others about living life. 

                                   -Adam