It's so important to know the signs.....

Due the sad news that another young life has been lost to undiagnosed diabetes I feel that we need reminding what type 1 diabetes actually is and it's symptoms.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition. It is NOT caused by lifestyle habits and CAN NOT be prevented or cured by changes to diet or exercise.

A normal healthy body will keep blood glucose levels between 4 and 7 mmol/L (UK measurement) Insulin is the hormone that moves the glucose from the bloodstream into the cells where it can be used for energy. In type 1 diabetes these levels go outside the normal range. This is because there is either not enough insulin or none at all.
When these levels go too high the body will try and get rid of the excess glucose in the following way.
*The body will firstly try and getbrid of it by pushing it out in the urine, this results in the need to go to the toilet more often.
*Because of this there is an increased thirst.
*As the cells aren't getting the energy that they need tiredness occurs.
*The body still needs energy so it will begin to break down fat stores which results in weight loss.
*If this carries on for any length of time a build up of ketones occurs. These are toxic to the body and can cause the breath to smell of pear drops, stomach pains and ultimately loss of consciousness.

So, a recap... The common signs and symptoms are...

*Increase urination
*Increase thirst
*Tiredness
*Weight loss
*Ketones.

These symptoms occur rapidly, if left untreated death can occur, it really is as simple as that.
Numbers are rising at an alarming rate, with the fasted increase in the under 5s. More children are diagnosed each year with type 1 diabetes than meningitis...FACT..

Please learn the signs and you may just save a life!

World diabetes day....who knew?

Today is the last day of Novemeber, this means that Diabetes Awareness Month is drawing to a close. You know that well known cause that we all know so much about, the fact that World Diabetes Day, celebrating the birthday of Frederick Banting, the man that discovered insulin, was on November 14th. The day when public buildings we lit up in blue lights to show support and raise awareness.....
Yes, you're right it didn't really happen in the UK, and this begs the question....why not? Why does no one know about it? Everyone knows that October is breast cancer awareness month and we are all 'tickled pink'
I have a few American 'friends' on fb, and it was lovely to see buildings, and fountains in Florida all lit up in blue. Most of us within the online diabetic community changed our profile pictures, we posted 30 facts for 30 days, but it really is preaching to the converted. What can we do to change it? In all honesty I don't know the answer, I don't know why it is not recognised in this country. What I do know though is it needs to change, so we need some ideas.
If you did something for World Diabetes Day post a comment, as I am truly interested in what you all did.

Diabetes Awareness Month 2011...

The 1st of November marks the beginning of diabetes awareness month with the 14th being World Diabetes Day. Apart from the families that contend with this condition every day how many people actually know. If the truth be told we didn't know until our son was diagnosed and my husband has had type 1 for 15 years!

In order to do my bit for raising awareness I am now going to dazzle you with numbers.....

In one year alone Samuel will have had at least 1,460 injections of insulin. This figure does not take into account and correction dose or any split doses.
With only the minimum of testing, and by this I mean before breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime, he will have 1,460 finger prick tests. Add onto that tests when he doesn't feel well, or before exercise and the number is much higher.
If Samuel lives to 70 years old he will have had in his lifetime in excess of 96,360 injections!!

Samuel hardly ever complains about having his injections, and insulin is not a cure, it is life support, without it he would die. However, with every injection my heart breaks just a little, but I know I have to do it to keep him alive.
Please help to raise awareness of Type 1 diabetes, the numbers are rising......Hope is in a cure.

Why is there so much misinformation?

Every once in a while something comes up, or is said which upsets us parents of children with diabetes. Usually it is an off the cuff comment, such as 'is it the bad type of diabetes?' and we know that it is not meant with malace. However, if the person who said it stopped and thought about what they were saying they would understand why we get upset. That said it is apparent to me that the general population who don't live with this condition truly don't understand how serious the condition is, and actually it isn't really their fault. This is because there is so much misinformation out there in the public domain. You only have to think back to the recent diabetes awareness campaign where Llyods pharmacy failed to distinguish between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. What do you do though when your 8 year old child, who has diabetes brings home from school their reading book, and in this book there is a character called 'Sugar Free Sean.' The child in the book has diabetes, hence the name, and is bullied. He has his lunch taken away, and thrown down the toilet, and is kicked. If that wasn't bad enough, the book is full of medical inaccuracies, such as 'he was hypo on the toilet floor, so they fetched his insulin kit!!' If you give insulin to a person who is hypo you could kill them!!! Obviously the mother of the child, and the child himself were upset by what they were reading. So quite rightly have complained. It was also mentioned on a FB page and also on an e mail list. So, once again the CWD parents sprung into action. We e mailed our schools to ask if the book could be removed. We e mailed the publishers of the book and some contacted the author. This got me thinking, how did a book with so many inaccuracies get published in the first place. The author surely should have researched the subject. It must have been passed to proof readers, shouldn't they have picked up on it? What about the publishers themselves, surely Oxford University Press have a duty to ensure that the books that they produce are factually correct. In response to the complaints OUP are recalling the book, and are going to work with CWD to insure that they get the information correct, but what about the children who have already read the book to their parents? This is part of the reason why there is such ignorance surrounding type 1 diabetes. The general public are constantly misinformed. It doesn't happen with other conditions, and we really need to change that. So, I will continue to write this blog, and run marathons.....whatever it takes to get the message across.

D-GAP: The Results!

As I have mentioned in a previous post my girls are part of the D-GAP trial. I have also mentioned that Olivia, my oldest daughter tested positive for two or more of the antibodies, this means that she has a 1 in 5 change of developing type 1 diabetes within the next 5 years. Victoria and Elizabeth were both tested back in July, and I have been waiting for the results ever since. The results came yesterday........ Both girls........negative, this means no antibodies. Clearly this is a good result for them, nothing is ever certain, and we can never say never, but it's unlikely that they will develop type 1. However, the inner geek in me is fascinated by this result, because if the truth be told I was expecting them both to have at least one antibody. They all have the same parents, Olivia tested positive, Samuel has type 1, as does his dad. So the negative result surprised me. Don't get me wrong I am pleased with the result, but once again this has proved how complex the human body is, especially where genetics is concerned. Nothing has changed for me in the way I treat the girls, like I have said before, what will be will be, I will always be on the look out for it negative antibodies or not.

The reality of the first day back at school.

The children went back to school today, and they were ready. Actually they have probably been ready for about a week. For those of you that follow my blog you will have seen my post last night about getting everything ready.
Well this morning I have to say I was feeling prety smug, we were all up, had breakfast, teeth brushed, lunches made well within my 8:20 am deadline. Samuels blood glucose (bg) level was 6.6 all was good in the Warrington household. So, yes I was very pleased with myself as with four children mornings can be crazy. The only thing that dampened my mood was the fact that it was teaming down with rain!!The school run went smoothly, and I was soon back at home and catching up on Facebook. I was reading some of the threads in the type 1 groups that I am part of and people had been posting their children's morning numbers. Many of them were high, the parents concerned, so i was thankful for our level.
12 o clock arrives and my phone rings, I can see it is school, so I know there is a problem. 3.6!! As we have had almost 7 weeks off they were querying what to do. He had his lunch, we had a slight misunderstanding over juice, they didn't realise that juice in his lunchbox was sugar free. So at 12:30 he was still 3.6 so the phone rang again. We sorted it out and he was fine, and I am sure the only thing that would have worried Samuel was the fact that he couldn't go out straight away and play football.
Obviously we had a rebound level before dinner (15) but we had a rather lovely 8 before bed, back in range.
What today has showed is that diabetes is completely unpredictable, you can start the day with beautiful numbers but that doesn't mean it is going to stay that way. Maybe I won't be so smug tomorrow.

Back to school.

I am sitting at home, all four children are bathed and in bed (they have been since 7....result!!), on the evening before they go back to school after the summer holidays. The usual things are going through my mind, have I got all e uniform? Are the pe kits ready? Have I remembered everything? I know that every parent up and down the country is thinking the same thing.
Then there isthe group of parents whose numbers are unfortunately increasing who have an additional set of things to worry about. Is the care plan complete? Have I packed enough test strips, glucogel, needles, insulin, juice, biscuits and orange juice? Have the bg machines been calibrated? Are the batteries working? Has everyone at school who needs to be trained been trained. Have I forgotten anything? Probably!
Now, I thought that I had been fairly organised. I took Samuels hypo box for his classroom, and his machine and insulin for lunchtime into school this morning. Oh yes! A day early! Check me out! Mrs organised 2011!I was there for a breakfast to celebrate that the school now has academy status. Anyway, whilst I was there I spoke to Samuels teacher and the teaching assistant who is going to be in his class. All is good. I left school and went to the supermarket to get supplies for lunch, and a thought pooped into my head. Does Samuel get a morning snack now he is in year 2? Or do I have to supply one? Will he still go to lunch at 12? Now, knowing what my memory is like...(rubbish) I thought it best to go back to school to ask my questions, the answers were... Yes he will, no I won't, and yes he will.
So, my point......everyone has lots to remember for the first day back at school after the holidays, but spare a thought for us parents with diabetic children, because what we have to remember can have serious complications if forgotten.