27th September 2011, the day our lives changed forever.

Our son Ty was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes age 3 1/2. At the time he appeared to have a bad cold, was lethargic, thirsty, drinking lots and therefore visiting the toilet frequently (other symptoms include tummy pain and unexplained weight loss). Hardly life threatening...... or so we thought.  We couldn't have been more wrong.  Thankfully a simple urine test at the Doctor meant Ty was diagnosed in time before Diabetes became life threatening, sadly this is not the case for everyone.  

Ty was very poorly the day he was diagnosed and was immediately admitted to the High Dependency Unit at Aberdeen Children's hospital. Those days and nights in hospital were terrifying for both him and us. He had tubes sticking out of his hands and feet which were changed frequently causing him great pain and distress. Hearing him crying and begging us to help him even though we could do nothing, was heart breaking, and it was just the beginning of our lives with Diabetes.

Our stay in hospital was a whirlwind of information overload. We learned that to keep Ty from becoming ill he would need a minimum of two insulin injections every day, (although this has now increased to 5 per day),  he also has around 8 finger pricks per day to test his blood glucose, (even more during periods of illness or when exercising) and we have to carefully control and monitor his diet counting out the carbohydrate content for everything he eats and matching the insulin dose accordingly, not always an easy task and particularly tricky when eating out in restaurants.

We've learned the scary stuff about diabetes, the dangers of - hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) and Hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar), and the long term health complications that diabetes can cause if not carefully controlled, such as decreased life expectancy, blindness, limb amputation, increased risk of heart attack and stroke, also diabetic coma and even death.

The day to day risks are just as scary! for example, most parents can put their child to bed and sleep soundly - for us we always have the fear that without warning Ty's blood sugar could drop dangerously low through the night potentially sending him into a diabetic coma.   Because of this we must check his blood whilst he is sleeping, sometimes having to feed him in his sleep to raise his blood sugar enough to keep him stable until morning, although there are never any guarantees that it won't still drop suddenly without warning.

Just about everything affects Ty's blood sugar......, excitement, stress, illness, growth hormones, exercise even the weather can send his blood sugars too high or too low making him feel a whole range of emotions and symptoms...... from shaky, drowsy, hungry, pale, dizzy confused and upset with low blood sugar, to thirsty, nauseous, tired, dizzy, tummy pain, angry, agitated and unable to concentrate with high blood sugar.  This makes diabetes difficult to manage and Ty's educational years and concentrating in school extremely tricky.

Since Ty's diagnosis he has had to endure thousands of injections and finger pricks. Most of the time he copes really well and is very brave, but he is still only six years old and some days he says "I hate being diabetic, when will I not be diabetic any more? and we truly feel our hearts break for him.

Type 1 Diabetes is an auto immune condition and despite misconceptions is not caused by diet or lifestyle choices.  Alarmingly cases of Type 1 Diabetes in children are on the increase, currently with no known cause or cure. JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) are working hard to change this by using donations to fund research into new ways to treat and possibly even cure this life long chronic health condition.

This September we will be taking part in JDRF's sponsored walk to cure Diabetes at Drum Castle.  It's a walk that our whole family can participate in, including Taylor, Ty's 2 year old brother.  It's an event where for one day Ty can feel that he is not alone with diabetes.  We would really appreciate if you could show your support by donating via this justGiving page.

Please take a moment to watch this video disregarding the text donations part at the end.  Any donations should be made via my Justgiving page.  Thanks.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkRqT0BvtU 

You can donate by visiting my Justgiving page via the link or by texting

MMTT60 £amount

to telephone number 70070

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please donate whatever you can.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.