How Type 1 Diabetes Changed My Life

In today’s world, parents have an abundance of worries when it comes to their children. Drugs, bad grades, and pre marital sex are just some things that may plague a parent with sleepless nights. But even on the worst of those nights of worry, most parents can’t imagine that their child could face an illness. Not just a runny nose or seasonal flu, but an illness that would affect their child throughout his or her entire life. Diabetes is a disease without a cure, and one that more, and more children have to live with.

The body does not produce insulin so a person who has type 1 diabetes must take insulin daily (hypoglycemia).

Right when we heard those life changing words, “He has diabetes,” we knew our lives, especially Billy’s, had changed. My mom started calling my dad to meet them at DuPont and my grandparents to watch my brother, Matt, and me. When we got home, my mom started rushing around the house making sure she had enough stuff for the hospital for that night. Billy, who was eight years old, had

Insulin is a crucial thing in a Type One Diabetics life. It is the only treatment for them. Not to confuse you, but insulin is no cure by any means. Their pancreas has stopped making insulin, so they must inject themselves with insulin several times each day in order to stay alive. They also must check their blood glucose levels at least every five hours throughout the daytime to make sure it does not go to high or low and before each meal. The only real treatment for Type Two Diabetics is eating healthy foods and exercising daily. They also must check their blood glucose levels regularly, but not near as often. Some people do take insulin for their Diabetes to help their pancreas produce a little more insulin, but it is only required if food, exercise and medicine (pills) are not working.

My life wouldn’t be considered normal. My parents were immigrants from Pakistan trying to create a better life for them and their children, and they’re the only ones from their families to move to America. They moved from New York, to Richardson, and lastly to Rockwall, Texas in 2005. I was born in 2000 but when events in my life truly started shaping me was in the summer of 2004.

You will be given oral medications to reduce the glucose level in the body. Insulin will be needed for type 1 diabetes and this will be taken for life. Insulin is also used in type 2 diabetes along with oral medicines.

On July 14th 2010, when I was twelve years old, I was rushed to the hospital because my blood sugar levels were 407. Before my mom had observed that I was rapidly losing weight, drinking a great amount of water, and was continuously tired. My mom was worried that I had type one diabetes because others in my family has diabetes.

There are many types of diabetes. The two I will be discussing are type 1 and type 2. Type 1 generally affects young people and requires treatment with insulin. Five to ten percent of Americans with diabetes have this type. People with type 1 diabetes do not produce insulin and need regular shots of it to keep their blood glucose levels normal. People who are at risk for type 1 are those who have a family history of the disease,

Living with a chronic condition not only effects the individual, but it effects the entire family. An adolescent living with a chronic health condition not only depends on their family for support, but also on support from their friends, classmates, and healthcare team (Rostami, Parsa-Yekta, Najafi Ghezeljeh, & Vanaki, 2014). Supporting an individual with a chronic disease leaves an emotional impact and can be financially straining as well. Families living with a sick child must find strategies to cope. Whether the coping strategies utilized are positive or negative, they leave a lasting effect on the entire family, as well as the child living with the condition (Woodson, Thakkar, Burbage, Kichler, & Nabors, 2015). Involvement of the parents in this situation is vital to the child’s future success in managing their illness (Landers, Friedrich, Jawad, & Miller, 2016). This paper will explore one family’s story of living with, and coping with, a child who has recently been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D).

They took me to a room in the hospital to start an IV and blood work. I was terrified of needles, so this was a very difficult process. They ended up having to get multiple people to hold me down and get two IV’s. After they drew blood, the doctor came in and told me that I have Type One Diabetes, and I was in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Because of that, they had to send me over the mountain to another hospital because they didn’t have a pediatric endocrinologist at the hospital I was at. I was scared; the only diabetes I knew was my grandpa’s diabetes, and I still didn’t know what that was. All I could think was “Am I going to die?” and “What’s going to happen to me?” I had so many questions, but I had to wait until we got to the other hospital, which was an hour drive. They, of

Diabetes is a major problem in our society today. Many people have heard about the disease; however, they do not know too much about its complications. Diabetes is a chronic, progressive and lifelong condition that affects the body’s ability to use the energy found in food (WebMD, 2016). Many new cases are confirmed every year and unfortunately, many go undiagnosed for years. Diabetes is a serious disease and need to be taking seriously. The disease can lead to many other health problems such as blindness, nerve damage and kidney diseases. The more the community understand and made aware of the seriousness of the disease, the better it can be control and or prevented.

There are over three million Americans that have already been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and another 15,000 children and 15,000 adults being diagnosed each year. Although frequently overshadowed by the better known type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that is not caused by “being fat” or “eating unhealthy” as many would ignorantly infer. Type 1 diabetes, however, is caused by the attacking of the immune system on the pancreas, denying it the ability to carry out its most important function, producing insulin to help control one’s blood glucose levels. For over a decade now, biomedical engineers, scientists, and doctors have been working diligently and effectively on creating a closed-loop

Breathe in, breathe out. My lungs rattle as I gasp for air in the humid afternoon. The sun beats down on my forehead as sweat drips onto the blistering tar. My jersey sticks to my skin as I clench my fists. Breathe in, breathe out. My legs flood with lactic acid, but I march ahead. Coach’s voice interrupts the pounding of my feet, urging me to fight on. I feel a sudden burst of adrenaline rush through my body and I drive my legs up the hill. Breathe in, breathe out. Midway, my vision begins to blur. Numbness diffuses across my arms until I’m left paralyzed. I realize my blood glucose is dangerously low but I still push forward. My body stiffens and I collapse onto the dehydrated grass beneath me. I stare up at the sky and see the sun begin

I know that you are trying to help, but I need you to know that my life is much more complicated than the aspects that I let you see. Diabetes can be a very degenerative disease. Insulin helps us survive, but it doesn’t cure us. If we don’t live the textbook (nearly impossible, saintly) life of a diabetic, the consequences can be devastating. One-third of our lives could be cut-off. We can lose circulation in our feet and hands. Our organs can slowly corrode, and blindness is an imminent dread for 1 in 10 diabetics who don’t keep their blood-sugar under constant control.

Diabetes is a systemic disease caused by a decrease in the secretion of insulin or reduced sensitivity or responsiveness to insulin by target tissue. (Beale, et al., 2011) The incidence of diabetes is growing rapidly in the United States and worldwide. An estimated 347 million people around the world are afflicted with diabetes. (Whalen, et al., 2012) According to World Health Organization (WHO), Diabetes prevalence among adults over 18 years of age has risen from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2014. It is the major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and limbic amputation. World Health Organization (WHO) projects that diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death in 2030. It is a complex and costly disease that can affect nearly every organ in the body and result in devastating consequences. The leading cause of non-traumatic lower extremity amputations, renal failure, and blindness in working-age adults, diabetes is also a major cause of premature mortality, stroke, cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, congenital malformations, perinatal mortality, and disability. (Cefalu, 2000) Insulin therapy and oral hypoglycemic agents have demonstrated improvement in glycaemic control. However, Insulin therapy has some disadvantages such as ineffectiveness following oral administration, short shelf life, of the need for constant refrigeration, and fatal hypoglycaemia, in the event of excess dosage.