Dealing with Diabetes: part 3 of 6
| December 21, 2021Kids with type 1 diabetes monitor their blood sugar with finger-pricks and a tiny device (glucometer)
What is type 1 diabetes?
There are two basic types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. Type 1 is the one seen mainly in kids and teens. With type 1, the pancreas produces little to no insulin (an important hormone). When you eat, the sugar in the food rushes into your bloodstream. Insulin helps get the sugar from the bloodstream into the cells, where it belongs. Not enough insulin = too much sugar in the blood. Kids with type 1 monitor their blood sugar with finger-pricks and a tiny device (glucometer). They also use insulin pumps, which provide them with artificial insulin. Newer glucometers monitor 24/7, removing the need for frequent finger pricks.
Tell us about how you were diagnosed
Ephrat
I was ten years old when I started feeling tired all the time. I was drinking a lot, too. My mother is a nurse, but she’s not the type to always be diagnosing her family members, so she didn’t do anything about it right away. After watching my increasing exhaustion, constant drinking and bathroom trips, she took me to the clinic where she worked. She pricked my finger to check my blood sugar level. I hadn’t eaten anything, but my blood sugar was 280 (it’s supposed to be under 100 before eating). We went straight to the hospital.
Shalom
When I was twelve, I needed to go to the bathroom constantly; I was drinking a crazy amount. My aunt was diagnosed with type 1 when she was five, so my mother recognized the symptoms. She took me to the doctor, who sent us straight to the hospital. My blood sugar was 708. I wasn’t sure what was going on and felt a sense of dread. A doctor told us that I had diabetes. I’d never heard the word before and didn’t know what it meant. When he said I had too much sugar in my blood, I was worried that I’d eaten too much sugar. I was assured that eating sugar doesn’t cause type 1.
The doctor told me that I would need to take medicine every single time I ate. I was upset to hear that. Then he told me that the medicine wasn’t just any medicine, it was a shot — for every meal! And that I had to check my blood sugar by pricking myself, multiple times a day. I was horrified.
Malky
When I was two and a half years old, I was drinking nonstop. Eventually I started feeling unwell. My parents kept taking me to the pediatrician, but he repeatedly told them that I was fine. One afternoon I had trouble breathing, and my mother rushed me to the doctor again. He sent us to the hospital. I lost consciousness as we arrived; my blood sugar was 1,500. I was in intensive care for a few days in critical condition.
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