When Michał, my son fell ill with her, I broke down. Today I know that you can live normally with this disease – says 55-year-old Irena from Bydgoszcz.
My only son’s illness first made itself known when Michał was 9 years old. Until then, he was a great developing boy. He was never sick. Even preschool infections and typical childhood infectious diseases missed him. Simply – healthy as a fish! At that time, I was working in a company that sent me on business to Italy. I left my children: two older daughters and Michałek, under the care of my grandmother. When I returned from the delegation, my mother told me: – Listen, Michaś drank a lot and was still peeing. Maybe you should check it out?
I didn’t think long. I took my son to the doctor. He had a fingerstick blood taken to check his sugar level. It turned out to be very tall. The nurse repeated the tests.
We were referred for further consultations to a children’s hospital. I couldn’t believe it could be diabetes! Back then, 12 years ago, it sounded like a sentence. Meanwhile, the urinalysis also confirmed the diagnosis.
– Does my son have diabetes? Are you sure? – I asked the doctors, terrified.
Today, in retrospect, I know that type 1 diabetes, which appeared in my child, is not a fatal disease and it is possible to live with it to old age. But then my world collapsed. I searched frantically for the cause. Some burdens in the family, poor diet. I had different thoughts. I did not understand why a healthy child became so seriously ill so far. I wondered where I went wrong.
Diabetes? Impossible!
Michał spent many days in the hospital. The diagnosis was unequivocal. Type 1 diabetes.
Diabetes is now considered one of the diseases of civilization, mainly due to the fact that it affects an increasing number of young people. There are several types of diabetes, but type 1 diabetes manifests itself most rapidly in patients up to the age of 30, causing certain symptoms and requiring insulin.
The basic symptoms of type 1 diabetes are usually quite recognizable, so there is usually no problem with its diagnosis. The sick person begins to suffer from severe thirst and frequent urination. There is drying of the skin and formation of seizures related to dehydration; the patient becomes lethargic and at the same time irritable and sleepy, which is an explosive mixture. Despite a strong appetite, weight can drop drastically. Type 1 diabetes requires immediate treatment, as otherwise it can lead to coma and, ultimately, death. It is especially dangerous when symptoms appear suddenly and insulin levels drop sharply. Treatment is entirely based on the implementation of the administration of such amounts of insulin that would replace the reserves produced in a healthy person. Exogenous insulin is given, usually before meals. Adjusting the dose level can go hand in hand with the implementation of a temporary or permanent diet for the sick person.
I rebelled, but didn’t have much time to ponder my regrets. We faced a huge challenge. I had to teach the child and myself a new way of life. From then on, every bite of the meal was carefully recorded. We counted nutritional units in foods. The amount of carbohydrates, proteins, fats. We were still wondering what to replace the meal with. We watched the body’s reaction. We consulted everything with the doctors. But the hardest part was making insulin injections. Long-acting insulin in the morning and in the evening, but during the day, consecutive prickles before each meal. We were exhausted. My son cried: – Mom, will I never eat sweets again? – and he was very afraid of subsequent injections.
– Basia, you look like a death on vacation – my friends talked to me, because I lost 11 kilograms from stress over the past few weeks. Before my son fell ill, I had no idea what the disease was and how to deal with it. I knew I couldn’t panic. Michał was still very small. He needed my support, not tears. So I gritted my teeth and entered the ward every day at eight in the morning with a smile, and left in the evening. I was with the baby, like other mothers, non-stop. Every hour I measured his sugar and wrote down the parameters. I used to get up at night. I think that psychological support and the provision of reliable knowledge about the disease by medical staff would be very helpful then. Those awful injections!
After returning home, a completely new chapter in life began for Michał and for the rest of the family. As the weeks passed, we managed to implement new eating habits. With time, I automatically started to buy the right products in the store and compose meals for Michał from them. The son learned to control what he eats and make sure that the sugar remains normal. He was prepared for its sudden decline and, despite his very young age, quickly learned to respond to signals from the body.
However, he still had a problem with the injections. He didn’t want to make them himself. So I went to school with him to do the needle stick and also asked the school nurse for it. The hardest part was at night. I got up at twelve and then at three in the morning to check if the sugar had dropped. I had a bottle of juice ready at the ready and sometimes I gave it to my son in his sleep!
One summer, Michał and I went abroad to one of my older daughters. She lived there with her husband. My son-in-law, then a very kind man in his twenties, did something for which I am eternally grateful to him. He taught Michał to make insulin injections himself! He said, “You have to lighten your mom, and it’s very simple and it doesn’t hurt at all.” We’ll try to do it together and then you show me how you do it all by yourself? Male authority has worked.
With a pump for your brother
Another important breakthrough in my son’s illness came when we received an insulin pump from the hospital. This device changed our everyday life by 180 degrees! Michał did not have to have 6-9 injections a day anymore.
An insulin pump is a device designed to continuously deliver insulin into the subcutaneous tissue from which it is absorbed into the bloodstream.
The pump is usually the size of two matchboxes and is constantly worn by the patient. It contains a container with insulin that flows through a plastic tube to a needle placed in the subcutaneous tissue. The needle (called a puncture) is a short plastic or metal tube.
Therapy with an insulin pump will achieve recommended blood glucose levels, but only if the patient is well trained and has frequent glycemic control.
After applying the pump, I saw my son come back to life! He was able to control his blood glucose levels without much trouble, though it was still associated with the hated stinging of his fingers. He could take care of himself. Before my eyes, he grew out of a tearful, sensitive and plump boy scared by his disease and became a spontaneous teenager. Sometimes I even forgot that he was seriously ill. I realized that type 1 diabetes, although very dangerous for the body, is manageable. You can function with it to the fullest!
Happy young man
Currently, Michał is 21 years old. He got a nice profession. Has a girlfriend. He is a handsome young man. He has been using the FreeStyle Libre system for several months.
Freestyle Libre is a modern blood glucose monitoring system that allows you to measure glucose without pricking your fingers.1 It can be used by adults and children from 4 years of age. glucose level. It is enough to put the reader close to it once every 2 hours to see how the sugars were formed around the clock. The measurement is discreet, painless and can even be done through clothing. The sensor is waterproof, you can bathe, swim and exercise with it.
It replaces traditional glucose measuring devices, which means goodbye to lancets, straps and pain. Reading the sugar level is possible by scanning the data from the sensor applied to the arm once every 2 weeks, even through clothing. Sensor automatically measures Michael’s sugar level. Also at night. In the morning, after waking up, it is enough to scan it with a reader and see a graph with the sugar level for the last 8 hours. The trend arrow is also important, and it is also displayed with each measurement – it informs you whether the sugar level is falling, rising or stable. Thanks to this, Michał feels safe and can react in a timely manner.
The disease taught him self-discipline and motivated him to take care of himself. I laugh that he could successfully become a dietitian, but he replies: – I’m too big on sweets! As a mother of a child suffering from diabetes, I can say that we went through very difficult times, but I am no longer worried about the health and life of my child. I can see how an adult son is coping very well with an illness that has long ceased to be God’s act for him and me.
In the text, I used information from the website about diabetes: www.ocukrzycy.pl, www.mp.pl/cukrzyca and www.freestylelibre.pl.