Type 1 Problem

HER STORY

It all started out when she was standing at the sink constantly drinking water.  She would drink 4 or 5 huge cups of water before sitting down on the couch.  She would hardly move from that spot all day during our last days of summer.  She was starting her freshman year in high school and my whole family just thought that she was really nervous for the new school year.  When classes finally started, volleyball started too.  The first few days were rough because we were so soar from practicing and playing so much.  I remember her barley being able to climb the stair case to get to our early morning classes. Then, she started to lose a lot of weight and we all thought it was because of volleyball. Finally, after a two weeks she told my mom that something was not right. She was thirsty for water all the time and she could barley walk because she was so exhausted.  That was the day that my family's life got flipped upside down.  

My mother took her to the emergency room and they took a sample of her blood.  When the nurse came back she took my family that my sister's blood glucose level was in the 500s.  That is extremely high because a normal person's blood sugar should be 70-100.  The doctor and nurses concluded that my sister had Type 1 Diabetes.   

The first few days were awful.  She had to learn how to inject herself with a needle and give herself the right amount of insulin. There are different ratios and mathematical problems that need to be solved before giving yourself insulin.  Over time, she was able to use a pump which injects insulin into the blood without using a needle every time.  The pump is easier, but there is still an issue of regulating how much insulin to administer, and keeping track of highs and lows. 

THE PROBLEM

The problem with this disease is that teenager need a way to track their daily carbohydrate intact and the insulin they give themselves.

Here is some advice from the American Diabetes Association: “It really helps to sit down and look over your blood glucose record at the end of every week. Keeping daily records is best.  Reviewing your records is the key to improving blood glucose control.”  

Items that need to be recorded are:

• Blood glucose checks 
• Carbohydrate amounts 
• Carbohydrate doses 
• Correction doses 

There needs to be an easier way for all diabetics, especially teenagers, record all this information and send it to their doctor.  This tracking will help them catch patterns and see if a dosage adjustment needs to be made.  With high school and college, the teenage years are very difficult. Diabetes puts more stress and responsibility on the teen and it makes their lives so much harder.  Youth Health Talk concluded that "Most of the young people we talked to said that they had found it very difficult to control their diabetes when they were teenagers. They said that their control often went haywire during puberty because their hormones were 'all over the place' and also because they didn't want to have to think about diabetes all the time.” If we can find a way to keep young diabetics organized, then their stress levels will decrease and they will be able to manage their disease better.

KNOW THE SIGNS

• Urinating often
• Feeling very thirsty
• Feeling very hungry - even though you are eating
• Extreme fatigue
• Blurry vision
• Cuts/bruises that are slow to heal
• Weight loss - even though you are eating more

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