I’ll never forget being in the Emergency Room and seeing the glucometer read HIGH. From that moment on, I knew. The ER staff saw the reading and quickly brought us back from the triage room to a patient room. The whole walk back I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it. I looked at Frank and said, “he has diabetes”.
“My three year old has diabetes”, “how can my three year old have diabetes”, “this must be a mistake”.
Being an ICU nurse and taking care of DKA patients regularly, I was very familiar with what was happening. My three year old was in Diabetic Ketoacidosis and is now a diabetic. The thoughts still ran through my head, “This can’t be permanent, can this be temporary, can this be from an infection, some type of medication, it has to be”.
After three days at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, I soon became a novice expert of Type 1 Diabetes. I can’t believe how much I did not know about it, even being a nurse. Until you live it, it’s impossible to understand the full extent this disease effects every minute of your daily life, especially for a toddler.
What is Type 1 Diabetes?
Type 1 Diabetes is a chronic, autoimmune condition where your body attacks your pancreas and can no longer produce insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar. Without insulin, our body cannot use the sugar in our body for energy, which leads to medical emergencies and potentially fatal complications. It’s not preventable or curable, but with proper management and care, you can limit the detrimental effects and live a healthy life.
What causes Type 1 Diabetes?
Type 1 Diabetes, also referred to as Juvenile Diabetes, can be diagnosed at any age, even adults, however it’s mostly diagnosed at a young age. It is neither preventable or curable, and unknown what causes Type 1 Diabetes, though studies suggest T1D results from a genetic predisposition, typically combined with an environmental trigger.
What are the symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes?
There is currently no preventative testing for Type 1 Diabetes. Therefore, It’s important to recognize symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes to know when to get tested to prevent complications and medical emergencies. Symptoms that can be present when someone is undiagnosed or untreated include:
- Frequent urination
- Excessive thirst
- Extreme hunger
- Exhaustion
- Weight loss
- Blurry vision
How does Type 1 Diabetes affect our body?
Insulin is a hormone made in our pancreas by beta cells. Beta cells create insulin to regulate our blood sugar. When you have Type 1 Diabetes, your immune system attacks the beta cells in your pancreas, thinking they are foreign bodies and destroys them so your body cannot make insulin to regulate your blood sugar.
Beta cells are important because they help sugar from your blood, enter your body’s cells, a process that creates sugar into a source of energy for our body. Without insulin, the sugar in our blood cannot enter our body’s cells, causing it to build up in our bloodstream. This causes high glucose levels also known as hyperglycemia, which can lead to complications. Instead of using sugar as energy, our body resorts to breaking down bodily tissue such as muscle and fat stores to get energy. This can lead to a potentially fatal, medical emergency known as DKA, or Diabetic Ketoacidosis. DKA is an overload of sugar in our bloodstream due to the lack of insulin in our bodies.
How do you manage Type 1 Diabetes?
In order to prevent complications such as DKA, and the buildup of sugar in our bloodstream, our body needs insulin. Type 1 Diabetic’s must use insulin therapy to prevent these complications. Insulin therapy can be in the form of injections or an insulin pump.
Helpful Resources
Whether your’e a newly diagnosed T1D or someone looking to learn more about it, I hope you found this information helpful. Stay tuned to learn more about our experience with T1D and how my son was diagnosed! – Dana
T1D Sensory Squad 