Understanding the Campaign

One morning, in October of 2014, I was getting ready to leave my home to meet my family for a professional photo session. With breakfast, I poured myself a small glass of orange juice and sat at my kitchen table to enjoy it. About an hour after sitting down, and drinking my juice, I woke up face-down on the table after passing out. Over the next few months, I noticed several issues with my body like chronic Urinary Tract Infections and a sporadic loss of vision. In January of 2015, I went to the doctor with complaints of painful urination and was told that my blood glucose level was extremely high. Shortly thereafter I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes Mellitus.

When I was diagnosed, the doctor’s only advice for me was to lose a significant amount of weight. In the first eight months of diagnosis, I lost 100 pounds. The diabetes did not get better. Over the next several years, I felt worse and worse every day. I was seeing new doctors, staying on top of the medication prescribed for me and, still, nothing about my health was getting better. A ‘normal’ blood glucose range is anywhere from around 80-120 and I was averaging around 340. I was taking two oral medications and, eventually, insulin as well. Still, I felt horrible. I will never forget the day I pleaded with my doctor for a referral to an endocrinologist and was immediately shut down. “You don’t need an endocrinologist, you have Type II Diabetes, not Type I” she said.  This was the third doctor who seemed to dismiss the fact that the medical treatment I was being given was not working. They continued to encourage a healthy diet and plenty of exercise, which I followed for a long time.

Finally, in October of 2019, I was able to find a new primary care physician. This time, I went in for the first time, told my story, and was answered with “You need to see an endocrinologist. I am not specialized in Diabetes—they are.” From that moment forward, my life changed. I told the endocrinologist that I believed that I might have Type I Diabetes instead of Type II, and though she doubted me due to age and other factors, she ran a blood test to confirm. THERE WAS A SIMPLE BLOOD TEST THE WHOLE TIME?! Much to her surprise (not mine) the test concluded that I do, in fact, have Type I Diabetes and that the medications I had been taking for the past almost five years were not going to help me. I was put on an insulin pump, and within three months, my diabetes was controlled, and my quality of life was significantly improved.

The years of being rejected proper care by doctors have caused life-long damage to my body and to my mental health. I am distrustful of many medical professionals upon first meeting them and am traumatized from being ignored for so many years. I also have kidneys that only function at about 65% because, if you didn’t know, high blood glucose levels cause irreparable damage to one’s organs.

My name is Candyce Strickland. I am the creator of Self Health, and the intention of this campaign is to encourage people like me, who feel they are being ignored or are a victim of medical negligence, to learn self-advocacy in medicine. This is my story.