How would you like to have your finger pricked ten to twenty times a day? Or how about taking four to five shots a day? My guess is that you wouldn’t like it at all, but this is what diabetics are put through every day. When someone has type one diabetes their pancreas does not produce insulin. Everyone needs insulin to get energy(carbs) into the cells of the body. All cells in your body need energy to function properly. They have to worry about too little or too much insulin, count carbs, and pay riduiculous prices for supplies and medicine needed for survival. Not to mention all the young diabetics who need someone to help take care of them.
Do you remember that feeling when you’re sitting in a doctor’s office and you know you’re about to get a shot? How you’re stomach turns and your heart beats faster than usual? Imagine getting that feeling every day. Shots are needed with every meal and most snacks. Some diabetics have to take non-peaking insulin. Non-peaking insulin is supposed to help keep your blood sugar on track throughout the day. My little sister tried it but it didn’t work very well for her.
Luckily diabetics have the option of using a pump, a device that delivers fast acting insulin to the body through a tube. All you have to do is put in the amount of carbs you have consumed and your starting blood sugar and the pump figures up how much insulin your body needs depending on your basal rate. It’s always good to double check the amount the pump wants to give you because getting too little or too much insulin can result tragically. Not enough insulin can make your blood sugar run high which can result in ketones. Ketones are when there is too much sugar in your blood. Ketones cause headaches, fever, throwing up, and horrible stomach pains. While having not enough insulin is bad, too much is also bad. Too much insulin causes your blood sugar to run low. Low blood sugar can result in seizures which in severe cases, can cause blindness, memory loss, and if not treated quickly, even death.
You think your clothes cost a fortune? Imagine paying hundreds of dollars a month for diabetic supplies. There are many things needed for the survival of a diabetic. Things likeblood glucos meters, which read your blood sugar, and test strips for taking blood. Lancets are also needed for the lansing device or “finger pricker” and that’s not even half of it! Diabetics usually use ten to twenty test strips in one day and one vial of strips usually only has twenty-five test strips in them. Test strips are a dollar each, so that makes it twenty-five dollars a vial and 3 viles are usually needed for one week. Insulin is probably the most costly though, one vial of insulin cost around $300.
So as you can see, life as a diabetic is quite hard, but as long as you have someone right by your side helping you, it can be managable. Type one diabetics carry this disease forever, but hopefully with the help of scientists there will one day be a cure.