Author of Help my child has type 1 diabetes

30/06/2022

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28/11/2018

It’s all about YOU!

Are you ignoring you? Are you so engrossed in your child’s care that you have lost your spark your va va voom? It’s not surprising, after all your child has a chronic relentless disease and you are responsible for managing it.When your child is diagnosed it is overwhelming. The responsibilities ...

15/06/2018

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19/04/2018

Written when my son was 8 years old.
Could you look after my diabetic child for one day?

I am always mentioning Diabetes and I guess people it doesn’t affect are fed up with it - sorry! Some people I know don’t think it’s that big a deal. Ok then try living with it for a day, I hand the whole responsibility of it to you for one day, could you cope?

I have type 1 and know what I am doing, should do by now have had plenty of practice! What I am proposing is you for you to take care of my son for 24 hours.

Eddie was diagnosed when he was only 2 years of age. He has been injecting for 10 years 4 times a day. He has tested his blood 6 - 8 times a day, he has to, it is his life.

Would you actually know what to do if I REALLY needed help? Do you know what type 1 diabetes is? Do you know why MY son developed Diabetes? Why some children and not others? Do you know that insulin keeps my son alive? Lots of questions but I am hoping you all know!

I can never ever have a day off from Diabetes, it’s my job 24 hours a day, no days off for good behaviour. If I lapse, Eddie and I would become ill, leading to serious life threatening complications, we could ultimately die if I neglected my duties!

Guess what I am having a day off and I am handing over the responsibility to you.

It’s 5 pm and you are giving Eddie tuna pasta bake for tea. So what do you have to do first? I think you know that one, yes test his blood sugar.

Now you have to count the carbohydrate in the pasta. Easy if on the packet, but you don’t know how much pasta there is on his plate. You have to weigh it infact most of the food Eddie eats has to be weighed.

So you now know how much carbohydrate is in the pasta, now you have to find out how much there is in the sauce. There are often hidden sugars in sauces but with this you can look on the jar and roughly work out how much he had.

You have finally worked it out, I bet you are feeling pleased but do you know how much insulin to give Eddie? Even if you did know believe me it is not that straightforward - what a surprise!

If Eddie’s level is high, you will need to give a correction dose, we correct by giving 1 unit to bring him down 3, so if he was 12, his correction dose would be 2 units to bring him down to an acceptable blood glucose of 6. We have not finished now we have to work out his ratio - What? Every child is different, Eddie is 1:7. To make it easy for you: if a child has a ratio of 1:10 then you give 1 unit of insulin to 10 grams of carbohydrate. Are you still with me?

So eventually you establish his ratio, I would have had to tell you that fact! You are ready to inject - not ready yet. When did Eddie previously eat? Yes it is important as insulin lasts in the body for approximately 3 hours - absorbing 1/3rd of that insulin every hour. Eddie tells you he ate an hour ago and had insulin so he still has residue insulin in his system. Take that into consideration, lower the insulin and away we go.

STOP!

I forgot to tell you, Eddie has football this evening. Exercise lowers his blood glucose and he’s training and playing a match. This affects his ultimate dose, so you would knock a unit off - how do I know? I just do!

Of course if he had had a low blood glucose reading before tea it would be completely different again.

Now do you see what us Diabetic mums have to contend with day in day out and God forbid if our children are ill! Eddie may have a fever tomorrow resulting in high sugars, or he may have a sick bug making his levels low, then there is the fear of ketones or dehydration - NIGHTMARE!

I am at the hormone stage with Eddie, we have had to adapt to another regime, but for how long? We are on the merry go round of diabetes with the added attraction of the see-saw. As long as we keep our balance and don’t fall off, hopefully we will be fine.

After all this, COULD YOU COPE? I doubt it. I have had ten years of experience, devouring endless books, looking online and meeting up with mums in the same boat.

So, hey, when you get fed up hearing about our diabetes, want to swap places for the day?

Any offers!!!

11/04/2018

I can't believe Eddie, my 19 year old son has had diabetes for nearly 18 years!
Having a child with type 1 diabetes taught me patience, gave me strength, and above all, gave me the wisdom to learn all I could.

Knowledge has been the key to ensuring I gave my son the best care possible. Together we have ridden the diabetes roller coaster. We certainly had a few bumpy rides and occasionally felt like we would fall off, but together we've held on tight and in doing so, we've discovered a very special bond.

Eddie was diagnosed when he was 2 years of age. In hindsight, it is very easy to spot the signs of diabetes, but when you are not considering it as a possibility, you can easily miss these symptoms. Eddie a happy and mischievous little toddler, experienced a gradual steady decline until one day he looked very ill. He was also listless, unresponsive and excessively thirsty. I will never forget that day.

Because I'm also type 1diabetic I had some sticks for testing the amount of glucose in the urine, which indicates the amount in the blood. A test of Eddies urine gave an extremely high blood glucose reading that was off the scale! I knew I had to call our doctor straightaway, and she came round immediately at seven at night,and said that Eddie would have to be admitted to hospital.

My husband and I were mortified, as ifs curse had been put on our son.

Once we arrived at the hospital Eddie's blood glucose level was higher than the highest reading on the meter - 30!!For comparison a person without diabetes will have a reading between 4 and 7. I cannot describe the emotions my husband and I felt to hear our child's diagnosis.

After the diagnosis and amidst the stress, a miracle happened, his sugar levels had lowered dramatically and Eddie no longer felt unwell. We got our smiling, cheeky little boy back and went away laden with insulin pens, meters and information. Our son's life with diabetes had begun and what a journey we have had!

Coping with this illness is scary as glucose levels fluctuate, sometimes becoming either too low or too high. We faced constant testing and worrying that Eddie's levels would go low in the night as he could go into a coma. Night time testing back then was paramount. It was relentless as you worry about exercise and levels. Sick days are a nightmare and a simple children's party becomes a major worry. Sleepovers, well they just didn't happen. Even going on holiday was a major ordeal.

It definitely hasn't been easy but Eddie now takes care of himself and his insulin pump is a Godsend.

Eddie has grown up healthy and has no psychological problems due to his diabetes.

So to all you new parents experiencing type 1 diabetes, my advice is learn all you can - knowledge is the key 😊