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Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes are not different levels of diabetes. Once you are diagnosed as either one or the other, you stay with that type of diabetes. No switching can occur.

If I had a nickel (well $20.00 bill) for every time I heard someone say, “Well so-and-so was Type 2 but now they are on insulin so they are Type 1,” I would be rich. Or at least be able to take my family out for a great dinner and some really good ice cream sundaes with all the trimmings, of course. This is just not possible or true.

MedicineNet.com explains both types of diabetes with great clarity. Type 1 diabetes is “an autoimmune disease that occurs when T cells attack and decimate the beta cells in the pancreas that are needed to produce insulin, so that the pancreas makes too little insulin (or no insulin). Without the capacity to make adequate amounts of insulin, the body is not able to metabolize blood glucose (sugar), to use it efficiently for energy, and toxic acids (called ketoacids) build up in the body.”

It goes on to explain Type 2 diabetes as, “one of the two major types of diabetes, the type in which the beta cells of the pancreas produce insulin but the body is unable to use it effectively because the cells of the body are resistant to the action of insulin. Although this type of diabetes may not carry the same risk of death from ketoacidosis, it otherwise involves many of the same risks of complications as does type 1 diabetes (in which there is a lack of insulin).”

Let me explain these definitions rather quickly.
Type 1=Autoimmune disease…Type 2=not Autoimmune disease.
Type 1=Body has NO insulin…Type 2=Body still makes it’s own insulin
Type 1=Death AND complications…Type 2=Death FROM complications

When a person is diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, they are usually given exercise advice, nutritional counseling, and possibly a medication to help their bodies start using their insulin properly. Over time, their doctor will check their glucose levels and determine how this plan of action is working. If it is not working, then the doctor may prescribe insulin as a way for the patient overcome their own body’s insulin resistance.

This in no uncertain terms means the person has switched to having Type 1 diabetes. It simply means they are a person with Type 2 diabetes taking insulin as part of their plan to help stabilize their blood sugars. It is actually an insult to my five year old insulin dependent son to assume that anyone on insulin has Type 1 diabetes. He was not given the option of exercise first. There was no meal plan he could follow. He didn’t get to try any other drugs before insulin. He became insulin dependent the minute his sugar was over 1000 in the pediatrician’s office.

If you have Type 2 diabetes or you know someone with Type 2 diabetes that is taking insulin to help stabilize their sugar, then that is exactly what it is. You are, or they are, a person with Type 2 taking insulin to help stabilize their sugar.

There is no switching of the two diabetes (no matter what crazy Halle Berry said). You can bet if there was, I would sell my soul to switch my son from Type 1 to Type 2 diabetes so that he could exercise and eat his way to healthy stabilized blood glucose level.

A person with Type 1 diabetes is a person first, a diagnosis should not change that.

For the first 4 years of my son’s life I watched him grow. It seemed he grew taller everyday. His brown eyes grew deeper, and his eye lashes seemingly grew longer as he slept. His blonde hair only got blonder in the summer sun. He laughed. He cried. He ran, played and jumped every second of every day. He was unstoppable. People would call to ask what he discovered that day, or what new phrase he learned. People stopped their conversations to hear one of his 4 year old knock-knock jokes. He could make his little sister laugh just by looking in her direction. He was the king or our world. On July 25, 2007, his diagnosis day, that all changed, except not in the way that you are probably thinking.

All the things I told you about my son were still there, shining brightly as ever. He still grew taller and stronger everyday. His brown eyes were still as chocolaty as Hershey Kisses. His lashes were still the envy of most supermodels. He still ran, jumped and played every second of every day. He was still our king. But what did change were the conversations about my boy. People didn’t call to hear him tell a joke. People didn’t call to find out what he discovered that day. People called to talk about his diagnosis and his numbers.

“How was your son’s day?’ became “How were his numbers?”
“Did he do anything funny today?” became “Did he go too high today?”
“Here, try this, it’s delicious.” became “You can’t have that you have diabetes.”

Not only was I mourning the fact that my baby was diagnosed with a disease that he would carry with him for the rest of his life, I was mourning how the world looked at my son. It broke my heart every time it was glossed over that he was just a boy and not a ‘big bad case of diabetes’.

Sure, there was a huge learning curve for everyone in our life. We weren’t that close to anyone with Type 1 diabetes, so we really knew nothing about it. The curve, however, was the biggest for me, I was his mom. On July 24, 2007, my son didn’t have a chronic disease, and on July 25, 2007 he did. But I never once forgot that my son was just a boy, my baby, who happens to have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

We are all on the same page now. When my son gets home from school, I know when the phone rings to find out about his day, it will be just that. A question about a 5 year old’s day in Kindergarten, not a question about the numbers of some kid with a ‘big bad case of diabetes.’

There is no cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

There is no cure for type 1 Diabetes. Yes, I know I repeated that sentence, because even I don’t believe it sometimes. You may or may not know this. I know I didn’t know this when my son was diagnosed over 18 months ago.

About five days before my son was diagnosed with Type 1, I knew something was wrong. He was peeing, drinking and eating alot. I don’t mean he drank alot, like 2 cups of water, I mean 15 glasses of water in one day. Peeing alot. Peeing 7 times in one night. I knew in my mommy heart that something was not right. For some reason, the first thing I googled was ‘diabetes.’ I knew he had diabetes. I didn’t know anything about Type 1 (Juvenile) diabetes, or even that there was a Type 2 diabetes. I just knew that when I was teaching we were told to watch for kids that peed alot, because they may be developing diabetes. I’ll get back to that load of misinformation that was laid on me, but in reality, that tidbit ultimately saved my son’s life.

Fast forward to the hospital room when they told me my son had Type 1 diabetes. I wasn’t in shock, because I was the person that diagnosed him. I told the peditrician to do a urine check for sugar in his urine (I remembered those from when I was pregnant). But what did hit me like a ton of bricks was how the rest of the conversation continued.

I nodded my head at the nurse at her telling me of his diagnosis, then proceeded to ask, “Well where do we go from here, how do we cure him?” She smiled. She was a very compassionate woman to whom I will be forever grateful, and she said, “There is no cure. We will teach you how to give him shots to keep him alive.”

This is about when I lost my mind. Alive?! No cure?! I am embarrassed to say this now, but I actually said to the nurse, “But we have insurance, what do you mean there is no cure?” She said, “There is no cure for anyone. It doesn’t exist.”

And that was it. That was the moment, that the perfect little love of my life, would need insulin shots and finger pricks to keep him alive. There was no cure. That was the day that I needed to prove that I could give my baby a shot…many shots, and check his sugar…many checks, and count every carb that he was going to eat, just so we could be released from the hospital. There was no cure. There is no cure. That was it. The first day of the rest of our lives.

We don’t live our lives waiting for a cure, but one sure would be nice.