Fighting the Unseen: Life With Diabetes

Life with Diabetes.  Now, there's a loaded statement. 

 Is life filled with bruises from injections, highs and lows so constant that you don't even know where you are anymore, doctor's appointments, dentist's appointments, opticians, prescriptions, blood samples, fear of failure?  Sometimes it feels like you're at the doctor's office so much that they know more about you than your own mother.

Everyone around you knows what to do with your bloodwork, except you.  Your neighbor says to eat less potatoes, your brother says to exercise more, your boss says to use a different type of insulin, your co-worker says to not skip meals... but do they really understand what's happening to you?

Life with Diabetes.  It doesn't have to be hard.  We can help.  Here, we will offer the most up-to-date information available on findings of research for diabetes mellitus.  We have discussions where you can talk to each other and someone with diabetes can tell you how to help yourself, instead of hearing the solutions from someone who doesn't deal with the dangers every single day. 

Here, we will fight the unseen and find a cure.

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Type 1 Diabetes Symptoms

Type 1 diabetes takes only a few weeks to develop. The initial symptoms are:

• increased production of urine (because the body tries to get rid of the excess glucose in the urine, diluting it with water),
• excessive thirst,
• fatigue (because the glucose is not being converted into energy),
• loss of weight,
• increased appetite,
• feeling sick,
• blurred vision,
• infections

If type 1 diabetes is not treated at this stage, the body begins to produce chemicals called ketones that build up in the blood. This condition, diabetic ketoacidosis, causes additional symptoms:

• vomiting,
• stomach pain,
• rapid breathing,
• increased pulse rate,
• sleepiness.

Without treatment, diabetic ketoacidosis can lead to coma or death.

Signs and tests   

The following tests can be used to diagnose diabetes:

• urinalysis shows glucose and ketone bodies in the urine, but a blood test is required for diagnosis
• fasting blood glucose is 126 mg/dL or higher
• random (nonfasting) blood glucose exceeds 200 mg/dL (this must be confimed with a fasting test)
• insulin test (low or undetectable level of insulin)
• C-peptide test (low or undetectable level of the protein C-peptide, a by-product of insulin production)

(From the National Institute of Health and Diabetes UK)

[There is no cure.  Once diagnosed, Type One Diabetics must remain on daily (sometimes multiple per day) insulin injections to sustain life.  Food intake without insulin injection will lead to ketoacidosis and death within hours.]

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