What is going on with my 7 year old little girl? She is complaining of seeing “dots” and she can’t sit through a movie without going to the bathroom 5 times! She even started wetting her bed again. Her teacher asked me if she had a “small bladder” and the Pediatric Youth Clinic must have wrote her weight down wrong as she is 15 pounds less than she was last summer! The year was 2005 and I was about to take a trip I did not plan.
Though I am a nurse, I missed all the classic signs of Type 1 diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association the signs and symptoms of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) are vision changes, frequent urination, excessive thirst, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, and nausea. The thought of diabetes did cross my mind, but I was sure I was going off the medical deep end as we did not have any Type 1 diabetes in the family. However, I would soon learn that 90% of newly diagnosed T1’s have no family history. Rather, it is an autoimmune driven disease where the body attacks its own insulin producing cells and quickly takes away a person’s ability to make this life saving hormone.
Insulin is made by beta cells located in the pancreas. Potentially, an environmental trigger, like a virus, sends a body into an autoimmune response that sets its sights on these cells. A person’s ability to make insulin quickly starts to decrease provoking the above symptoms and the ultimate diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes. Researchers have also identified certain genetic combinations on DNA strands that seem to make people more susceptible, but not all get T1. So here we are in 2024 and many are still studying and making educated guesses as to the root causes of T1D.
However, I can confirm that Leah did not get diabetes due to eating too much candy or being overweight. She was a healthy, super active little girl! After her diagnosis another mom said to me, “how did she get diabetes? She’s not fat.”. Since diet and lifestyle are widely known as management strategies for diabetes, lines get crossed as to true causation. So all you moms out there don’t threaten your kids with diabetes when they eat all their Halloween candy! If their pancreas makes insulin they will be fine! Maybe the Cavity Monster will visit though!
A diagnosis like Type 1 can hit like a ton of bricks, but it can be managed. With effort, education, and lots of support a person can live a long and healthy life with few barriers. That little girl I brought home from the hospital on multiple daily insulin injections now lives in Australia! She utilizes Diabetes tools that makes her life as simple as possible. Leah has a heart to help others do the same. That is why she is starting One2One Diabetes. She wanted to create a functional yet stylish way to simplify travel with diabetes. I, for one, am on board!
- Stacey Fox BSN, RN is a Diabetes Nurse Educator for the University of Colorado Health system. She is the proud mom of Leah, founder of One2One Diabetes.