an early lesson in diabetes
Being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 12 years old, it took me a while to fully understand everything about it. I remembered watching an episode of St. Elsewhere in which a boy around my age was shown how to use a syringe to inject insulin. On the TV show the doctor gave the boy a banana and a syringe for practice:
St. Elsewhere Explains Diabetes
I remember thinking this was cool for some reason, but I was 8 years old when this originally aired, so I also thought eating paste was cool.
Upon my diagnosis I was greeted by a wonderful counselor who did her best to explain the complicated ins and outs of diabetes management. It was over the course of two days in the hospital and Lois (my counselor) was fantastic. When I brought up the testing a syringe on a banana she didn’t understand. She pulled out an insulin syringe and showed me the pokie end:
She then gave a syringe to everyone in my family and told us all to pinch a little fat on your belly and stick it in. I was afraid, but we all did it. My mom went first. She closed her eyes and pushed it right in. She paused, opened her eyes and asked, “Is it in?” That helped me feel better about it. My mom couldn’t feel it.
My sister and Dad also did it. My family was both sympathetic and empathetic. For those two days in the hospital they were all very supportive (even my “too cool” 15 year old sister)
Lois, the counselor laid out all the diabetes facts without much sugar coating (what’s the point in covering it with sugar when that’s the main thing you should avoid?). At the time, SUGAR was the enemy of diabetes. Carbohydrates has taken over as the actual thing to watch out for, but in 1989 the focus was mainly sugar. Insulin is used to control the amount of sugar (glucose) in your blood. It is a hormone your pancreas creates. This is what she told 12 year old me:
* I have a faulty pancreas that has stopped producing the hormone, so I HAVE to inject it into my body.
* If I don’t inject insulin into my body, my blood sugar will rise, as will acids in my blood called KETONES.
* Testing your blood sugar level multiple times a day will keep you aware of your ketones. You don’t want them to build up in your blood.
* You can also check your keytone level by peeing on sticks like these:
* The build up of these ketones results in KETOACIDOSIS (which is what was happening to me before seeing my doctor).
* Diabetic Ketoacidosis will lead to death.
* So don’t be afraid of needles (syringes). Take your insulin.
Huh, I guess I have no reason to be afraid of needles then.
To look at it like that, it seems a bit heartless, but that is not how I took it. It is all the important and necessary information I needed to understand what was going on in my body. Hearing it effected my mom more than me. She is the one who started to cry. She knew it meant we had to change a lot of the ways we eat and would force us to actually prepare meals.
It was a lot of work, but she took it seriously and helped me to figure out my path along with diabetes.
