Tick
Footballguy
Our son was diagnosed with T1D about 1.5 years ago, when he was 6. The best guess is that when he had strep throat, his immune system got confused and killed his pancreas's beta cells. He hadn't peed his bed for a few years, then did it about four straight nights. Wife took him in to see if he had a bladder infection, and he got the diagnosis of T1D. I knew virtually nothing about it (isn't diabetes what fat people get?), but had a crash course.
Type 1 Diabetes (formerly called juvenile diabetes) is dramatically different from Type 2, which is the type most people are familiar with. Something like 10% of the people with diabetes are Type 1. They come about in completely different ways - Type 1 is an autoimmune problem - it has nothing to do with diet or lifestyle. The body stops making insulin, which is needed to get sugar out of your blood and into your cells. It is not preventable or curable.
My boy will have it the rest of his life. It was rough at first, when he was fighting against all the needles (minimum of 5 blood sugar tests per day and minimum of 4 insulin injections per day). Then that became routine, as well as the math involved to dose him properly. Then, he got a pump, followed quickly by a continuous glucose monitor. We were lucky - that pump isn't approved for kids his age, but our insurance company paid for it anyway. Even with that, I'm guessing we're down something like $10k, and that's with my wife battling insurance and a Michigan medicaid thingy all the time.
The pump and monitor are great, but it's still something that changes everything we do. The pump has to be calibrated multiple times per day, meaning a blood sugar test. The monitor is nice, but isn't accurate enough to replace blood sugar testing. The pump injection point has to be moved every 3 days and the monitor puncture point has to be moved every 7 days. We need his blood test kit at all times, plus carb snacks and a glucagon needle that's required if he goes so low that he's unable to function.
School snacks and lunches could have been rough - we're lucky in that our kids are in a hippy school where he'll have the same 3 teachers through 6th grade, and they are enthusiastic helpers, along with the school secretary (no nurse at the school). My wife gets called around 3 times per week for advice/help from the school. Kids that young shouldn't be managing their own blood sugar (they're liable to be eating boogers), so the school support has been a big relief.
Are there any T1D people on the boards? Any parents of T1D kids?
P.S. Jay Cutler is T1D. He developed it after making the NFL. I know he's considered a doosh by many sports fans, but I now root for him.
Type 1 Diabetes (formerly called juvenile diabetes) is dramatically different from Type 2, which is the type most people are familiar with. Something like 10% of the people with diabetes are Type 1. They come about in completely different ways - Type 1 is an autoimmune problem - it has nothing to do with diet or lifestyle. The body stops making insulin, which is needed to get sugar out of your blood and into your cells. It is not preventable or curable.
My boy will have it the rest of his life. It was rough at first, when he was fighting against all the needles (minimum of 5 blood sugar tests per day and minimum of 4 insulin injections per day). Then that became routine, as well as the math involved to dose him properly. Then, he got a pump, followed quickly by a continuous glucose monitor. We were lucky - that pump isn't approved for kids his age, but our insurance company paid for it anyway. Even with that, I'm guessing we're down something like $10k, and that's with my wife battling insurance and a Michigan medicaid thingy all the time.
The pump and monitor are great, but it's still something that changes everything we do. The pump has to be calibrated multiple times per day, meaning a blood sugar test. The monitor is nice, but isn't accurate enough to replace blood sugar testing. The pump injection point has to be moved every 3 days and the monitor puncture point has to be moved every 7 days. We need his blood test kit at all times, plus carb snacks and a glucagon needle that's required if he goes so low that he's unable to function.
School snacks and lunches could have been rough - we're lucky in that our kids are in a hippy school where he'll have the same 3 teachers through 6th grade, and they are enthusiastic helpers, along with the school secretary (no nurse at the school). My wife gets called around 3 times per week for advice/help from the school. Kids that young shouldn't be managing their own blood sugar (they're liable to be eating boogers), so the school support has been a big relief.
Are there any T1D people on the boards? Any parents of T1D kids?
P.S. Jay Cutler is T1D. He developed it after making the NFL. I know he's considered a doosh by many sports fans, but I now root for him.