Bairum was always a chubby kid, to begin with, but It all started in the year 2003. His family & he had gone for summer vacations to New York, USA. Since then he was a very active child in sports and other activities and never noticed his frequent thirst and urination that was being triggered; because of this neither did anyone of his family figure that something was wrong with him.

In May, when he had to travel back to Bahrain, every day was getting more and more hostile, the frequent thirst in the middle of the night, every night continuously, and as a result, the frequent bedwetting had begun. Bairum being a kid aged 7, his parents didn’t think it was a problem, probably because it was one of the things little kids do often due to lack of bladder control.

“It was all going unnoticed till the dizziness and lack of energy in my body started to alarm my parents and elders that something might be seriously wrong”.

It was all going fine till one day his grandmother told him to get him checked out at the Doctor, but it was seemingly too late as they were going to travel back home the very next day.

Upon returning home and visiting the Doctor my very first Blood sugar test was conducted and I still remember that the glucose meter just said HI, no number was shown on the display, then another test, then another test all from different glucometers and they all showed HI.

Then came the most horrifying things that were going to change Bairum’s life forever, it is when his doctors said that

Bairum may have Diabetes, we pray that he may get Type 2 so he doesn’t have to take injections… 

But it wasn’t type 2. It was type 1 and so began his journey of injections every day for the rest of his life. After about 2 years there was a glimpse of hope when his sugar levels started sustaining by themselves without any insulin. They being rather unaware of the situation thought that he has been cured by the mercy of Allah SWT, but then the doctor revealed that it was just a honeymoon phase that was likely to last a year or so, which it did. After about 14 months Bairum started getting the same symptoms again similar to his initial diagnostic and his levels were skyrocketing once again. 

“Thankfully we caught it early this time and didn’t end up in the Hospital”.

In the winter break of 2009, Bairum started his diet and rigorous sporting activities to lose weight, he was losing so much weight by the second, that he pretty much stopped taking insulin because his levels were great and he barely ate anything. To his horror, this wasn’t another honeymoon phase.

“It was the beginning of my very first Ketoacidosis attack. Within days I lost almost 16kg feeling so weak that I could barely stand or walk, and so I ended up in the hospital and I remember the doctor telling my father that if he had been a day or two late they might have lost me”.

After he felt better, life just continued in the same way, 4 Injections daily (5 if he was feeling rebellious to eat more food) for the next few years. 

I started University and graduated first in my class in Mechanical engineering, we then moved back to Pakistan and I did another bachelor’s degree in Business and Management from the University of London.

In my last year of B&M in 2017, I had another Keto attack, and I always like to give credit to Dr. Atif Munir who saved my life while being in Omer Hospital’s emergency room.

No one in the hospital was able to diagnose what was wrong with Bairum till Dr. Atif showed up, and Bairum owes his life to one of the renowned endocrinologists in Pakistan Dr. Atif Munir. Following that Keto attack, it took him a long time to recover, and while he was recovering he started having problems with his right eye.

When I finally went to my Ophthalmologist, he said that I will need a vitrectomy and that I had taken too long to visit him, and because of that injections alone won’t be able to save my right eye from losing its vision.

In August of 2018, Bairum had his vitrectomy. He only has about 7/10 vision left in it, but thankfully the doctor was able to save his left eye and he is doing great with it.

He has faced a lot of discrimination by people due to diabetes. He also faced a lot of heartbreaks because of this reason but he is thankful for every hardship, it only made him stronger.

Diabetes in Bairum’s life has by no means been an easy adventure, 18 years later, he is sitting here, alive, well, and strong as ever.  

Alhumdulilah for these ups and downs. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to it anymore but it’s always a likelihood and we diabetics must always be cautious.

Bairum gave a message to all the young kids and newly diagnosed to hang in there;

Only the first year is most difficult, things don’t go right always but, you just become insanely strong, more than you could imagine!

I cannot be more thankful towards my parents, all those late-night sugar checks, treating hypos, comforting me when I was sick, and secretly crying so that I don’t lose hope… It is because they were there for me, that I’m still here. Thank you to all the parents in Meethi Zindagi for your struggles for type 1 kids, you are all truly a blessing for us and no words can measure that.