Really is it that bad being a Diabetic?

I was thinking today that this month has been rather overwhelming with it being Diabetes awareness month.

Everybody showing how great they all are for having survived and continuing the battle against diabetes. Yes, don't get me wrong we are all great, but do we really have it as bad as people make it out to be?

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder , so I decided to look into other Autoimmune disorders.
The definition of an Autoimmune disorder is that it occurs when the body's immune system attacks and destroys healthy body tissue by mistake. Did you even know that there are over 80 types of Autoimmune disorders including Type 1 Diabetes?

 The white blood cells in your body help protect against harmful substances e.g Viruses and toxins. These harmful substances contain antigens. When you have an autoimmune disorder your body does not distinguish between the healthy tissue and the antigens, as a result your body starts destroying the normal tissues.

Areas affected by autoimmune disorders include:

• Blood Vessels
• Connective tissues
• Endocrine Glands such as the thyroid and pancreas (My problem child.)
• Joints
• Muscles
• Red Blood Cells
• Skin

 Here are some Autoimmune Disorders:
(I really don't know many of these disorders and did you ever hear about a Sjorgen Syndrome awareness month?)

• Addisons Disease - Damage to the adrenal glands
• Celiac Disease -  inflammation in the small intestine, and damage in the lining. This prevents important components of food from being absorbed. 
• Graves' Disease - over activity of the thyroid gland
• Multiple Sclerosis -  affects the brain and spinal cord
• Sjogren syndrome-  glands that produce tears and saliva are destroyed. 
• Systemic lupus erthematosus - It can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, and other organs. 
• Type 1 Diabetes

The most important thing I have noticed by taking a small look at these other disorders are that as a Diabetic unless I am uncontrolled and develop complications, I am not really experiencing daily pain as so many of these other disorders cause.

Maybe it is due to the higher amount of people living with Diabetes that we have more awareness months, more research being done and more medical advances taking place.

 These are some US statistics for Type 1 Diabetes:

Type 1 Diabetes Statistics

Number of Americans with T1D: as many as three million⁴
Number of children diagnosed with T1D in the U.S. each year: more than 15,000⁵
Number of adults diagnosed with T1D in the U.S. each year: more than 15,000⁵
Percentage of people in the U.S. living with T1D who are adults: 85%⁴
Percentage of people in the U.S. living with T1D who are children: 15%⁴
Increase in the prevalence of T1D in people under age 20 between 2001 and 2009: 23%⁶
Healthcare costs of T1D in the U.S. each year: $14.9 billion<sup>7

Statistics regarding some of these other diseases are not as great but:


Graves Disease - 5 in 10,000 people
Multiple Sclerosis -It's</sup> estimated that more than 400,000 people in the United States and about 2.5 million people around the world have MS. In the United States, about 200 new cases are diagnosed each week.
 Sjogren syndrome - 1 to 4 million people have the disease (This must me world wide.) (It is a rare disease.)


 We all deal with what we are given some days better than others, I must admit but if I had not said okay lets do this and I had decided that I was not going to inject regularly or eat correctly I would not have been sitting here now typing this blog or have the wonderful children and family that I do have.
Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it.

Every one needs to keep their spirits up by reminding themselves every now and again that we really don't have it as bad as some people. 

I would like us all to remember in our thoughts today every one who suffers with any type of Autoimmune Disorder give them strength to live each day to the fullest however hard it might be.

Please take a look at this article about a teenager with MS.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/21/kayla-montgomery-runner-teen-with-ms_n_6200754.html

It is 30 days today until Christmas, In my next blog I am going to write about my Christmas plans and how I intend on enjoying myself , during Christmas which is not always the healthiest time to be a T1D.

Bye for now

Kim

P.S. The guys at Insulcheck rock and I will also update you on our progress with me getting a better memory with the assistance of Insulcheck.

My Diabetic Diagnosis (Part 2)

Just to recap,this is where we left off in my last post about my Diabetic Diagnosis.

He told me to come back in a months time. (I thought he had gone off his rocker.) He did explain the reason so maybe he was not so crazy, he told me my Diabetes is going to go on Honeymoon. (Do I or Do I not have Diabetes?) He told me that I still had Diabetes but it will go away for awhile and then come back to stay FOREVER!...........

Here is a picture of the Hospital.

After the honeymoon I was admitted to the Rand Clinic. I remember that in my ward was one other Diabetic, whom relatives would come and visit, bringing with them food items, they once bought her Grapes and her next Blood Glucose reading was sky high and the nurses gave her hell for eating so many grapes. Funny things that you remember. Next to me in the ward was a lady that was suffering with depression and kept on crying even in the night. I remember on the first day or so while I was there that I reached to get something off the night stand and fell off the high hospital bed ouch.

I do not recall exact day spans it was 30 years ago but one morning the nurses came in and said now it is time to inject yourself. I don't know why but I had been expecting that I would first practice on an orange or a doll not go straight in. Number one thank you Dr D for not doing that it would have been of no use. I can say that because I just worked out maybe an estimate and not exact because when I started injecting I was not on 4 injections a day but 365 days a year x 4 x 30 = 43.800 times that I have injected myself since then. It feels like way more times actually. Those where the antiquated days of using a vial and a syringe. You had to flick away the air pockets in the syringe with your finger. My night time injection I had to use 2 vials and self mix my medication in my syringe, wow we have advanced. Thank you Nova Nordisk for the disposable pen and many other items you have developed to make life a little less difficult.

I can also remember in the beginning having a blood glucose monitor that came with a smaller strip attachment that you could replace the original with and then take each strip and use another device and a craft knife to cut the test strips in half. That sounds more than crazy now.

My Mum phoned the hospital to talk to me that day and tell me when she would be there to visit and the first thing I said was I have just done my first injection. She sounded a bit shocked, her child was not crying or sounding upset, I actually was quite proud of myself. This was the way it was meant to be, if the nurse had tried to inject me I would have been upset, If my Mother had tried to inject me I would have screamed blue murder, but I did it myself and I was way chuffed. I hear you saying didn't it hurt, to be honest falling off the bed hurt way more.

They had to work out a dosage for me of the insulin and then I was discharged to go home and start my journey as a Diabetic.

Just as a small footnote: This morning I could not remember if I had injected myself, not the first time I have forgot. My family are used to me saying did you see me inject myself.  I suppose that it has become as habitual as brushing your teeth you are thinking about other things and you forget. Unfortunately you don't have the minty fresh breath to remind you afterwards. I have often said to Mr.P that there should be a device to tell you when last you injected. I went to collect my insulin from Dr.X today and I was looking at a Diabetic magazine in the waiting room and I found the devise I have been looking for all these years, purely by accident. I need to still do more research as on line you can only buy in pounds and then it needs to be sent to RSA from the UK and our postal service has been on strike for roughly 6 months. This is pure genius and with comments like "the best part about it is the simplicity of it." on their Facebook page. I am definitely going to add this device to my essentials shopping list. Ha just remembered my brother in law is coming out from the UK in December maybe I can get a personal delivery man.

This is their video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxLvbMK2c38

And their Website:

 http://www.insulcheck.com/

  

This is the simple little gadget.