09/08/2024
Back to School Type 1 Diabetes edition. Look at all these needles and drugs and devices one child needs on hand at school to stay alive. Just look at it. I can’t believe it, either.
Of all the things I worried about when I had our first baby - making sure I fed him enough and the right things, making sure he got enough sleep, to use Tylenol or not, is he water safe, what is this virus, is he walking/talking/potty trained on time, could he choke, and on and on — I never ever once thought our child would one day develop Type 1 Diabetes. Please, I barely knew what Type 1 or any other kind of diabetes meant.
And one day in May of 2020, I learned. That a viral or environmental event had caused my child’s immune system to attack every cell in his pancreas that makes insulin. A hormone we all need to survive. A hormone needed not just for food — a hormone that’s involved in regulating over 42 factors that impact blood sugar. My child no longer has this hormone and would not survive without receiving insulin through shots or a medical device, many many times daily.
Sure it sucks, I really sucks, when people think my child has this disease because of food or lifestyle choices. Nothing to do with diet or exercise caused this, and no adjustment in those factors can cure it.
My son George, and our whole family, are part of a club we’d never choose into. One of disability. One of limits.
And yes I am so grateful we can treat him with drugs and devices. That he can study and play sports and in theory do everything he would otherwise do, maybe even with more strength and maturity.
But this I also want to keep it real. This disease stinks. There is no cure. Pediatric trials have largely dried up as medical devices sales have sky rocketed.
If you know someone who has or cares for someone with Type 1, please know there is so much more to it than they show you. They are carrying a mental, emotional, and physical load they wouldn’t wish on anyone.
And I beg of anyone in a position to make change: insist on a biological cure. Kids deserve to live carefree lives. And wearing two medical devices + a smartphone isn’t the answer.