Today I'm joining other folks with type 1 diabetes to make a little noise about it.
This used to be called juvenile diabetes because most people were diagnosed before they ended their teens. But now it's clear that you can get it at any age.
When you get type 1 diabetes, your pancreas has stopped working properly. This organ contains cells that create insulin, glucagon and other hormones. The insulin is needed so the cells of your body can process the blood sugar created whenever you eat food containing carbohydrates. Without insulin your blood sugar increases and there's no way for your body to use it.
What are the symptoms for type 1 diabetes?
Extreme thirst. This is the most obvious one. My mother described it as "wanting to drink out of the toilet bowl". Think about drinking several glasses of water and still feeling thirsty.
Lots of peeing. That's because of the water and your body trying to get rid of the sugar floating around your blood stream. Your urine is actually sweet. Mellitus (as in diabetes mellitus, the medical term for type 1 diabetes) is the Latin word for honey.
Extreme loss of weight. You've got sugar in your blood, but your body can't use it. So it breaks down its energy reserves (fat). One of the by-products of fat break is ketones. The night before I was first diagnosed with diabetes I lost over 10 pounds.
Extreme hunger. Even though you've got all this sugar in your system, your body can't digest it so you feel hungry.
Blurry vision. The density of your blood changes. This changes how your eyes focus.
Slower wound healing. Instead of clearing up in a few days a small cut or scrape can take over a week, or even longer. When I was diagnosed I had a cut on my toe that was over three weeks old. Once I started on insulin it disappeared in about five days.
Fruity breath. This is from the ketones. It tastes fruity and the smell may remind you of nail polish remover. Dentists often diagnose diabetes due to this smell or .
Itchy genitals. That sugar in your urine can cause urinary tract infections.
Fatigue. The extremely high blood sugar can cause urinary tract infections.
If you see several of these symptoms please contact your doctor. Untreated diabetes can cause coma and ultimately death. This is serious business.
These days the tools for treating diabetes are pretty good. But it still takes a lot of support and help to really manage living with diabetes. Don't try to do this alone.
If you've already got diabetes there's lots of useful places online where you learn more about taking care of yourself and your diabetes. Try the Diabetes OC for a list of diabetes blogs. TuDiabetes.com is the first of many other social networking sites for people with diabetes. There's even a weekly television program for diabetes, dLife.
I created a diabetes search tool to make it easier to find diabetes information online. I use the advertising revenue to support the research by Dr. Denise Faustman into a possible type 1 diabetes cure. To date, I've raised about $50 for this cause.
If you've already got type 1 diabetes, today is the perfect day to raise awareness. Do people at work know how to treat you if your blood sugar goes low? Can you share information about living with type 1 on your blog, or maybe an article in your local newspaper? Do your best to spread the word.
For today, I'll be using Twitter every time I do something due to my diabetes. This way others can see what I do to control it, and maybe learn more to help themselves or others.
Have a wonderful Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Day.
And why not give a hug to anyone with type 1 diabetes today?
The second part of the blogger roundtable series has been published on the JDRF site.
This time we're all talking about insulin pumps. How we first got on an insulin pump, what the challenges were, and other things about being partially bionic. It's a great read.
Thanks to Allison for putting this series together.
In other news, next Monday is Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Day
This is the day where you try to tell others a little more about type 1 diabetes and what it's like to live with it.
Beth has put together a really nice diabetes handout. Maybe you can print up some copies to hand out to folks.
If you use Twitter, maybe you'd like to tweet about diabetes for the day.
Or perhaps finally tell that friend that yes it is okay for you to eat cake or ice cream, and explain why it's none of their business.
Whatever you can do to let people learn a little more about diabetes helps us all. And that may help you.
PARADE Magazine (which comes in some Sunday newspapers) is holding this contest where the 8 charities that attract the most individual donations will receive $50,000 and be featured in PARADE magazine article. This is a great opportunity to raise visibility for diabetes research.
To help you donate to JDRF through the Network for Good organization. Your donation can be of any size. You'll have to register with Network for Good to do this (I just did) and then you can donate via Paypal or with a credit card.
To me, this seems like a relatively inexpensive way to raise awareness of the importance of diabetes research and the search for a cure. I hope you'll agree because right now JDRF is not even on the top 10 list for this contest.
Yesterday was one of those excellent blood sugar days that I dream about. Here's the picture from the Dexcom software.
I can thank Symlin for the lack of any post meal highs during the day. The two horizontal lines are the limits (140 for a high and 80 for a low) that I like to use with my Dexcom CGMS. Trust me, I don't get enough days where the line stays within the limits so much. The big gap early in the day is when my 7-day sensor ran out. I had to reset it and then wait 2 hours to recalibrate. I'm now on day 9 of this sensor and so far it's still working well.
Diabetes365 is an idea that I got from Beth of insearchofbalance. She started her Diabetes365 photo project a few days ago and I couldn't think of a better way to inform people of what it's like to live with diabetes 365 days a year.
The idea behind this Diabetes365 project is that I'll take one picture every day of the year. I'll post it to the flickr Diabetes365 pool and blog about it briefly.
Would you like to take part in Diabetes365? You can join the flickr pool provided that you post a picture there each day (or wait a few days and post several pictures, one per day). Each picture must be tagged with diabetes365 and titled with the date taken and which day of your year of photos it is. If you'd like to blog your photos, feel free to do that also.
Let's see if we can't raise a little awareness about diabetes and what it takes to live 24x7x365 with this disease.
I've been wearing a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor for almost three weeks now. And you know what? I've now got this super power.
No, it's not X-ray vision.
Even better, it's a power that folks without diabetes don't have.
I can see my blood sugar readings. In fact, I can also predict them some. It's like I'm looking into my bloodstream at the molecular level.
And here's what it looks like as I'm writing this entry.
So what, I hear you say.
Well get this. If I'm about to get in my car and drive, I can simply take this out of my pocket and tell in a split second whether it's safe for me to drive.
If I'm running around with the kids, I can take a quick look and make sure that my numbers aren't dropping too quickly.
And if I've just eaten more than I should, I can keep an eye on this and correct before my numbers get way too high.
It's simply amazing to me. And I'm already seeing a benefit in my numbers. Less horrible highs and tighter control all round.
There are drawbacks. It's another gadget to carry around. And I don't yet know whether my insurance will cover it. But with the announcement from Medicare/Medicaid, I think it's only a matter of time.
In the meantime, I think I'm going to go jump over my house. After all, I do have super powers.
This evening I read Vivian's post that points to a video about people with chronic illness. As someone with two chronic illnesses, diabetes and asthma, I really struck a chord with me.
For the last few weeks I've been thinking about diabetes and those of us who live with this disease. A lot of recent posts in the OC-blogosphere has expressed the frustration that we all feel. That frustration seems to come from several sources
Insurance coverage struggles for diabetes (a chronic disease)
Difficulties of managing diabetes
Problems with our healthcare providers
I think a lot of the problems come down to the fact that our US health care system is more concerned with providing treatment for episodic health issues. It's hard to get adequate coverage for an insulin pump ($5,000) and all of the needed supplies($2,500 or so per year), but not for a foot ulcer ($27,987 for the 2 years after diagnosis) or dialysis treatment ($70,000 per year). The same is true for many health crises that can come because of the challenges of diabetes.
According to the video that Vivian pointed to, 75% of people over 65 will deal with at least one chronic illness. So why does it seem as if the various institutions involved (health insurance carriers, healthcare providers, etc.) don't seem to take this seriously?
What I'd like to understand is where to start influencing people to make a change. Should we (d-bloggers) be trying to speak to classes at Harvard Medical School? Should I be having regular conversations with my state and federal law-makers? How do we get the ball rolling?
Vivian, thanks for pointing out that video. I feel inspired by it to contact professors at Harvard and see whether I can't talk with a class about some of the struggles that diabetes represents.
What else might you do to turn this situation around?
Diabetes: technology, devices, software, and other stuff.
About Me
Name: Bernard Farrell
Location: Massachusetts, United States
I was born in Ireland and now live in the US.
I have had Type 1 diabetes for over 35 years. I struggle with my blood sugar, the same as most people with diabetes.
I wear a Cozmo 1800 insulin pump and a Dexcom SEVEN CGM to track my blood glucose levels. I also take Symlin to help control my post-meal blood sugars.
I'm blessed by God, and every day brings the possibility of a cure.
