Juvenile Diabetes/Type I

It's hard to believe that it's now been almost two years since my youngest son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, yet it has. The memories of the fear and uncertainties of that night are just as vivid as if it had been only yesterday. When a loved one, particularly a child, is diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, we are hit with waves of questions, fears, and emotions that we try to resolve by tackling immediately. One of my first questions to the diagnosing doctor was "Can it be controlled by diet and exercise?" Of course, like most people that have no contact with the disease, I had no idea that there are actually two types of diabetes, type I and type II. Type II, also known as 'adult onset' diabetes, can sometimes be controlled by a modified diet and exercise and often with oral medications to lower blood sugar levels. People with type II diabetes often still have healthy insulin secretion but for different reasons, often obesity, they become resistant to the insulin that their body produces causing their blood sugar levels to spike. People with type I, or juvenile diabetes, no longer produce enough or most often, no insulin, and must rely on injected insulin to control their blood glucose levels. My son, I was told that night has the rarer form, type I and would need daily insulin injections for the rest of his life in order to live.

The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation gives the statistics that there are approximately 10 million people in the United States that have been diagnosed with diabetes, and there is another 5 million people that have the disease but haven't been diagnosed as of yet. Of the 10-15 million people in the United States with diabetes, only 1 million of these children and adults have the rare form of type I diabetes.

My son's diagnosis that night had been a result of a freak accident at home that sent us to the emergency room to have an eye injury checked out. His eye was not seriously injured and they were about to have me sign the discharge papers before they sent us home. As the nurse handed me the clipboard to sign the papers, my son began pleading for a drink of water as he had been doing often during the past few weeks. I had not really thought anything of it as it was May and the weather was warming up but thankfully, the nurse was alert, asked me several questions, did a quick blood check, and that night out lives changed forever. Hours later after we arrived at the local Children's hospital, the admitting physician told us we were very lucky as most kids are much more seriously ill when they are diagnosed, some often brought in after slipping into a coma.

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