Diabetes: My Survival Story

Chapter 1: Basics

You hear a lot about Cancer. How they found some other product that will give you kidney cancer when you turn 27, or non-smokers protesting for laws to prevent smoking so you don't develop lung cancer.

What you don't hear, is a new type of diabetes, or a cure in progress, often. And what you do hear about diabetes is not what the disease is. No no no no, that would be too easy. They just give you products that will help in nothing of a normal diabetic's life. It's all cheap crappy junk trying to make a few bucks.

You wanna hear the real story? What exactly we go through then gather around children because here is my story. How I am going on each day with this disease. And heck, maybe you will learn something that is worth shareable around that family dinner table.

Let's start with the basics shall we.

-------------What is Diabetes?----------

When you are being announced as a Diabetic it could be two different reasons. One, where your organ called the Pancreas has stopped producing insulin for what ever reason it is for you. Insulin, is a thing that takes the sugars from your blood, breaks it down to simple sugars called glucose, and brings them to other parts of your body in need of "energy." It's basically food for your body in a way. All that us just Type 1, Type 2 is a totally different issue.

Type 2 is when your pancreas still produces insulin, but your body doesn't always use it to the best of its ability. But most of the time, you live a normal life. It's just a few rare times where your blood sugar could drop to an extremely low amount which is dangerous and I'll explain why later.

And when they say you have a chance of developing diabetes when you're obese, this is the Type your gonna get, Type 2 which is sooo much better then Type 1 so consider yourself lucky.

--------------How do I get it?-------------

Whether it is Type 1 or Type 2 you will most likely get it from genetics. It's not contagious, if I sneeze you wouldn't get the disease.

--------What are Highs and Lows?------

It's the amount of sugar in your blood. When I say "My blood sugar is low." It's literally the levels in my blood stream are low amounts. And that can be dangerous if it goes to low, even when the amount is just 70 which is not bad, but I still feel weak, I have a headache sometimes, sick to my stomach, and just overall don't want to move or I'll feel like I will break something. And the range of where I can feel that is between 80-10. I have never been down to 10, but I have gone down to 23, and I was really close to passing out which is not good for anybody. In an emergency for my numbers to go to low, they can use a glucose pen. A glucose pen is just sugar in a syringe and they stab me with that and my number should rise pretty quickly. Luckily, I have never had to do that.

Now when I say "My blood sugar is high." It again is literally high amounts of sugar in my blood. And if it stays there for too long I could have long term health affects. Like Heart Disease, Kidney Problems, Liver Problems, and basically I would have a even more sucky life. Now when I feel high I can't always tell until I am in the 300 range. Which is worse, but when I am there I could have a headache, be really really thirsty, go to the bathroom A LOT, and just feel like I got a stomach virus. The range where I can be high is 190-600+. If I reach 600+, I better hope I can bring it down fast or better believe the chances of those long term problems rise.

Now you're going "So all the time you can either feel low or high?" No, lucky for me, most of the time my numbers are normal where they are not low and not high, but in the middle, average. which can range from, for me, 90-180. And I'll explain later why this range is great for me.

--------How do I take "Insulin"?-------

When I started out I was given it by a shot in my arm. It sucked. It would hurt if you hit a nerve, I've got scaring all over my arms, and it just the idea of a metal point object going into your skin makes my skin crawl. I hate needles and I will always hate them now and forever.

Thank god my parents knew I hated this when they signed me up to get a new insulin pump. A pump is basically an outside pancreas. It's a little device that holds the insulin, calculates the amount it should give me when I put in the blood sugar number and the amount of carbs.

Oh yeah carbohydrates. That's the "sugar" insulin needs to break down. Carbs is the short term, and it's in all of our food. If you look in the Nutrition Info on the side if a box, look at where it says "Total Carbs" that's the amount of sugar in your food.

Anyway I put the two numbers in and it gives me the amount of insulin it's gonna give me. I hit Act and it gives it to me in a long plastic tube connected to my hip. The thin tube goes to an infusion set and that is a ever thinner plastic tube that goes through my skin and is in my blood stream. I don't feel the tube I sometimes feeling the insulin going in, but it's great I feel no pain. I just have to change that every 3 days. So it can be a inconvenience at times, but it's much more worth it then basically 4 shots a day.

And when you are taking the shots you have to be on a "diet." It's a schedule because if you want to snack you need another shot, and that's not worth it for a small piece of chocolate, but with the pump, I just whip that thing out boom boom boom done. I get that piece of chocolate in a flash.

---------------Is there a Cure?-----------

Unfortunately, there is not. They are, however, working on one. So far all I have heard about it is that might be able to take insulin from a pig's pancreas and put it in mine. Which could "restart" the pancreas giving it a "recipe" to use to create the insulin. I would have pigs genes in me. Doesn't excite me that much, but I would be cured so I guess it would be worth it. They told my parents when I was diagnosed that I would most likely see a cure when I was in my mid 20s. I'm 14 now, but I'm excited for what my future will bring.

--How do I check my Blood Sugar?---

I first wipe my finger to clean the spot, I then use a gaze pad to clean off the alcohol from the wipe, I then take a device with a tiny needle inside and prick my finger, and I use the blood from the spot and take another device called a tester and in 5 seconds the tester reads the amount of sugar in my blood. I repeat that process at least 5 times a day. I have a lot of scaring on my fingers.

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These have been the basics of Diabetes, and now I tell you my story of being a

Type 1 Diabetic.