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Islets of Hope real people - stories from others living with type 1 diabetes |
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..."I remember my husband and me looking at each other trying to figure out what we had done wrong. I just knew it was the candy I gave him during church to try to keep him quiet on Sunday mornings." Sound familiar? Many parents blame themselves when diabetes strikes, but it is not anyone's fault when a child is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. So what does cause type 1 diabetes? It is important for parents to understand that it is not their fault their child developed diabetes. Many people have the genes for type 1 diabetes but never get the disease. In fact,only a small percentage of those who have the genes actually become type 1 diabetic. It is now generally believed that people inherit a genetic tendency to develop type 1 diabetes, but that some other influence, like a virus, must trigger the onset of type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas fails to produce insulin, the hormone that allows glucose to enter the cells. This most often occurs as the result of an auto- immune process in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta islets cells of the pancreas. Without insulin glucose cannot enter cells and it builds up in the blood stream (hyperglycemia) and results in the body's cells starving to death. The body then begins to burn fat in an effort to supply energy and ketones are produced. When ketones are present in diabetes serious, life threatening complications can result. People with type 1 diabetes must take daily insulin injections in order to live and must regularly monitor their blood sugar levels. Insulin is not a cure. Can we predict type 1 diabetes? Bristol University is researching how genetic markers may help predict who might be likely to develop diabetes.
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Real people Hunter, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 2 "His appetite had actually decreased and all he wanted to do was drink, drink, drink...."
The weekend before, our friends had bought all of Hunter’s favorite foods, but still he just wanted to drink and barely ate anything. He even turned down his favorite, a McDonald’s chicken nugget happy meal. In addition, he was urinating all of the time. But, we just figured since he was drinking so much, he had to go more. It seemed like right after we would change him, he would go again. He was more fussy than usual. He cried more often over minor things that he didn’t normally cry over and was more, “clingy” to myself and his daddy than normal. Hunter was normally a really outgoing, friendly and very independent child, but he was not himself. Also, daycare kept telling us that he was not acting like himself and said much of the same things that we were picking up on at home such as, excessive fussiness, crying for no apparent reason, etc. They had even told us this before we went on our annual family vacation earlier that month. So, we had him to the doctor a couple of different times thinking he may be developing an ear infection, but his ears looked great both times. We didn’t understand it. When we went on vacation just 3 weeks before, he acted perfect. He slept, played in the pool and ate well.
When we went back in the office, they checked Hunter’s weight as they normally did at his appointments. He had lost a little over a pound. Then, they took a urine sample and Hunter had large ketones in his urine. All of this was foreign to us, but as the doctor explained it, which I now understand, that having a large amount of ketones in your urine is a very serious thing. He told us that he was going to get on the phone and call UK and the nurse would come in and check Hunter’s blood sugar. He explained that if it was above 200, we would know that it was diabetes. Sure enough, when the nurse came in and took it, his sugar was 479. I remember my husband and me looking at each other trying to figure out what we had done wrong. I just knew it was the candy I gave him during church to try to keep him quiet on Sunday mornings. But, as the doctor explained when he came back in the room, Hunter had Type 1 diabetes, which is not preventable. There was nothing we could’ve done different. We were overcome with emotion and fear. The doctor told us that we needed to head straight over to UK Children’s Hospital and that they would be expecting us. He told us we had to go then and that we didn’t have time to go home and get anything. Hunter needed to be there ASAP. I now know that the urgency was that Hunter could’ve been facing ketoacidosis at any moment. The drive to UK was a somber one. We had never been to the Children’s Hospital. I followed my husband and used my cell phone on the way to call our close family and friends and inform them of the painful news and to tell them that Hunter was going to be hospitalized for a few days. Once we arrived, we rushed Hunter inside. They took him right on back and did blood work. His blood sugar was now 499.
We are still adjusting, but we are very thankful that there is a treatment available for this disease. We met many children and families while at UK, and knew that while it was and still is hard to accept, there are worse things than diabetes. We just thank God that Hunter is alive and that there is a treatment available. We pray that one day during Hunter’s lifetime, there will be a safe cure found for him and the thousands of other children that suffer from this disease. Mikeesha Shelby
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