drips and monitors and all sorts
The drips and monitors and all sorts will not be a regular part of type 1 life provided some general rules are followed. I've been T1 for almost thirty years and the only time I've been on a drip was right at the start when a doctor misdiagnosed me and sent me home!
It takes time to learn the rules, and some mistakes will be made along the way, but you'll learn from the mistakes.Coming to terms with having to take injections for the rest of her life is a big thing to get her head round, but after the first few injections on her own, she'll realise with today's tiny needles that they aren't actually sore and just an inconvenience more than anything. By the way, make sure you don't make the mistake my dad did when I was giving myself my first ever shot - he was there doing the parental support bit, and then gave me a slap on the back
while the needle was still in my leg. I could have slapped him.
Sure, it is literally a life threatening condition, but only if it is ignored.Take no or too litle insulin for too long, and a T1 can die if they end up with too high blood sugars, leading to a condition called keto-acidosis. And take too much insulin, and there'll be an unpleasant reaction called hypoglycaemia where the blood sugar falls too low, although death by this is very very rare.
Now, that might sound grim, but the truth is neither of those things happen suddenly. It's not like people who are trotting along quite happily one moment and die of a heart attack the next. Blood sugar levels change gradually. With modern blood testing methods and especially continuous monitoring devices like Dexcom, Medtronic and Freestyle Libre, a T1 can see their sugars changing and take steps to fix it, either by taking some food or a little extra insulin, long before getting anywhere near any sort of danger zone. Fixing the situation in the case of low blood sugar normally involves little more than eating two jelly babies.
What your kid will need to learn is how to keep sugars within a certain zone, neither too high or too low. Her specialist diabetic nurse and doctors will teach her the ground rules and then she'll learn a few tricks of her own too. It takes a bit of juggling, and,yes, it is every day, which can seem overwhelming to start with, but it becomes second nature after a while.
She'll become familiar with hypos very soon, when the blood sugar falls too low. The dividing line between having sugar just right at about 5 or 6 is pretty close to it being too low at below 4 so the occasional hypo is inevitable even when well controlled. I'll not beat about the bush here, they can be unpleasant situations. They are not physically painful at all, it's more the fact that the low sugar makes the brain work differently, there's a lot of confusion of thought. Having a bad hypo, though, is a very good incentive to avoiding the situation. If you get her a Libre, she can more or less see a hypo coming and take some sweets to stop it happening. I've not had any really serious hypos since getting a Libre, the odd dip below 4, but nothing major. Costs a hundred pounds a month, so it's not cheap but in terms of being able to effectively "see" the future and take avoiding action before it happens,it's priceless. I'm convinced these'll eventually be on the NHS. Plus it can run from an app on a phone - she'll be the coolest kid in class: "oh, I think I'll check my sugar" and casually wave her phone at her arm!
If she's hypoing, you'll likely panic yourself. Remember that the low blood sugar will often make it difficult for her to talk, so don't go asking her lots of questions, like how are you feeling, are you better? I've had people doing this to me, and, frankly, questioning just makes it more difficult. Give her 10 to 15 grammes of sugar, and then just be patient, wait for ten minutes and test again, and repeat if still low. These can be distressing situations to witness, but if the person is still conscious and able to eat, these are absolutely not life threatening situations at all. If unconscious, well, that is more serious, but again, death from that is very very rare - the worst consequence is usually just a bad headache. Make sure you get a glucagon pen kit for that sort of situation.
At the end of the day, you'll end up worrying about it more than she does. I know my parents do - still remember the look of shock when I told them I was away backpacking for six months round Asia, had the time of my life. I've gone on to live a full and active life and don't feel T1 has held me back in any way at all, and there's thousands of people on here who've done the same. Protect her, look after her, but don't wrap her in cotton wool- she can do anything anyone else can (well, maybe not eat four Gregg's Yum-Yums in one go) , but just needs to plan it a bit more. If anything, it just makes us more resourceful, and that's a useful skill for anyone to have. She'll be fine.
