Silent and deadly, that is diabetes.
Morbid, I know, but true. Cancer gets so much attention and so many people do fund
raisers and awareness because it’s a disease that people see. There is the well
known Komen foundation, people change
the color of their Facebook profile picture for cancer awareness, there is
Cancer awareness day, there are pink ribbons, high schools have pink games for
football and the like, and the list goes on and on. I’m not saying that any of
this is bad, I get it it. I’ve had family affected by cancer, friends and their
loved ones, I’ve done the Komen walk myself. I’ve seen too many people die of
that disease way too early and it breaks my heart. I hate it, hate it, hate it,
hate it.
With all that being said………Diabetes, not so much. Yes, there
are the great organizations like JDRF and American Diabetes Association, that
have fund raisers and walks. However Diabetes does not get the research funding
that other diseases receive. How often does anyone really see much in the news
about awareness or fund raising for research for a cure for diabetes? Specifically Type 1? Outside of the
diabetes online community, you don’t see people wearing blue ribbons, or
wearing blue for Blue Friday, or changing their Facebook profiles pictures to
blue or the blue circle that symbolizes awareness. Yet, this Type 1 diabetes
needs to be seen for what it is as well, deadly.
Although it is “manageable”, that term is somewhat frustrating.
I mean, yes, I’m thankful that I am able to “manage” things on my own on a
daily basis, otherwise I can’t even imagine what life would be like. Before
insulin and even once insulin was available and barbaric glass needles were used, before test strips, meters and pumps it was pretty much a death sentence.
It was, in my opinion just as bad as or even worse than cancer. Depending on
how soon after symptoms would show and a diagnosis was given, death was sure to
follow within a years time. A few years before the discovery and production of
insulin those that were more well off would spend their last days in a clinic
like facility given a very special diet of very few carbs, and a certain amount
of fats in order to try and prolong their lives. But they weren’t living much
of a life. Living with no energy, and pretty much malnourished there was not the
luxury of being able to “self manage”. This disease is still a death sentence for
children all across the world in most other countries due to the fact that all
the tools, supplies and much needed insulin is not available to them and their
parents.
Silent and deadly….
I can’t think of another disease that a person comes as
close to death on almost a daily basis as type 1. BG lows are close to death.
That reality has hit closer to home in the last few months after reading about
several deaths over the past year of people with T1D that have passed away
because of a BG crash. Reading those blogs and articles is what prompted me to
get a Dexcom CGM. Reading these stories is what has made me realize how close
it comes. One thing I honestly have to say that I hate to hear people tell me
is, “But you take really good care of yourself, you have tight control.” I hate
that term, because I bet some of those people that I read about had tight
control, (and I use that term loosely because tight control pretty much just
means keeping BGs out of the high numbers a lot), they took care of themselves.
It doesn’t matter how well your control is, how much you take care of yourself,
a low can happen for no good reason, and a lot of times, the better control a
person has the more often they will have BG lows. That in turn can cause hypoglycemia unawareness. That is a terrifying thing for all of us with T1D,
even if we haven’t developed it, feeling hypoglycemia a scary feeling. Sometimes it is absolutely
terrifying. I have lows more often than I care to admit. Yes having a CGM has
helped a lot, but sometimes a low comes on too quickly for a CGM to catch. Or,
for instance you are busy and in the shower or something and not paying as
close attention to the receive as you would if say you are sitting on the couch
watching TV. There was one night recently, I was in the shower and Lexie (this
is my name for my Dexcom), starting screaming at me. I was getting out of the
shower anyway and I have a jar of glucose tabs that I keep within arms reach of
the shower just in case. I remember downing four tabs and went about my after
shower routine. But then things got scary. I started to sweat, feel the foggy dizziness
and confusion, overly emotional wanting to crumple into a ball and cry because
I was scared. I walked out of the bathroom, grabbed juice and went and sat on
the couch in just my bath towel next to Brad. That’s not normal, he knew right
away by how I was acting and the look on my face and in my eyes not to mess
with me. He just held me and I tried not to turn hysterical. This is a good
example of being close to deaths door. I really don’t remember what number I
got down to, I don’t remember much else than what I have told here about that
low.
Insulin, such a life saving beautiful thing. It is what we
as T1Ds need to survive, but it in turn is deadly. Too much through an
injection or insulin pump, a miscalculation of carbs, or packing with the wrong
carb count is deadly. Insulin is what I need to survive, but then in the same
breath is what has brought me to awful hypoglycemia as I talked about above
after the shower. It’s such a life saving/life threatening drug.
Type 1 is silent and invisible, unless you are around a
person enough to see the signs of the “sickness”, you will miss it. Because
people don’t see the ins and outs of living with this and don’t see us as “sick”
no one really gives it a second thought. If a person with T1 passes out from a
low and ends up in the hospital, people think it’s that persons fault, not the
disease itself. If someone has any sort of health related problem, it must be
their fault because they didn’t take care of themselves, they don’t blame the
diabetes. It’s the diabetes, not a person’s fault. Yes, taking care of myself
will help my chances, will give me greater odds of living a healthier life, but
that doesn’t mean that diabetes won’t take over no matter how hard I fight it.
So what can you do to help? I mentioned earlier about
children in other countries not having access to the things here in the states
that I am so fortunate to be able to have. Valentine’s Day is coming up in a
week and a half, and the Spare a Rose, Save a Child initiative is going on. Check
out this link Spare A Rose, Save A Child to find out all the details of how you
can help give a month of life to child with diabetes in another country who
otherwise will not have that chance. Just the price of one rose is enough to
give a child a month of life saving supplies.
If you are interested in other information regarding projects
for helping children with diabetes in third world countries or info regarding
organization here in the states that are helping Type 1s or research being done for a cure below are
some links. Check them out!
Spare a Rose, Save A Child:
http://www.p4dc.com/spare-a-rose/
JDRF:
http://jdrf.org/
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