This is a bit of a long one so bear with me!

I'm not putting this up as a sob story nor do I want sympathy from anyone, I don't need it, my kids don't need it, it doesn't help and quite frankly we don't want it lol I don't open up about this very often, I cope by telling myself and others that it's not that bad and tell my kids the same so as they learn to live with it thinking it's not such a big deal but I feel like I should share a little bit about what my kids go through on a daily basis and what they deal with so as you all know why we are raising money for juvenile diabetes 

Insulin injections 

- Shanelle and Gaz both inject insulin every single time they eat. It's not just a case of giving an injection and that's it (I wish!) we have to calculate every carb that that they are eating and work out how many units of insulin to inject (not easy when you're maths is as rubbish as mine!). Both kids are on a different ratio and these ratios change constantly! Kids need more and less insulin according to how much they are growing at the time, their mood (if they are excited happy, upset or nervous this all affects their blood sugar levels), the weather, how much exercise they are getting and hormones amongst many other things so getting it right is a constant battle. 

They also have a long acting insulin they inject before bed to keep night time sugars under control. This is also tricky to get the dose right. We have to wake them up Upto 2/3 times in the night/early morning to make sure this is right when changing the dose otherwise they can drop too low resulting in diabetic seizures (Shanelle has suffered with these a lot) and if left can leave them to fall into a diabetic coma which they may never wake up from.

Finger testing

- Both kids have to test their finger 4 times a day minimum. It's essential they do this to stop low/high blood sugars occurring. Low sugars can result in seizures and diabetic comas and even death, as I said above. High sugars cause damage long term. Both kids have to have regular eye tests as high sugars can cause blindness. It can also cause problems with the teeth, and bad control can result in limb amputation and kidney failure. Childhood diabetes is different to adult diabetes and a lot harder to control. Gaz recently had to have a chip inserted underneath his skin to monitor his sugar levels constantly for a week to see why his aren't right, sometimes you can do everything the doctors tell you and the control still isn't there which is a worry. We are still waiting on the results. Both Shanelle and Gaz have routine appointments at the hospital every 6 weeks if all is well but more frequent if their blood sugar levels are not right.

My kids will never be able to experiment with alcohol or just go to the pub with their mates and get drunk the way that they do. Alcohol in diabetics can be fatal as it makes the sugar drop when they're asleep resulting in sudden death. 

If they are ill and be sick more than 4 times they have to be admitted to hospital to be put onto a drip cos they can't fight the illness without food or insulin inside their bodies. If they don't get to a hospital they could die of low blood sugars. They don't fight off illnesses as well as a healthy child which makes them more vulnerable to things like flu and food poising. I can't book a holiday without checking food ratings/hygiene or facilities first. I am constantly at school trying to teach the staff to look after and monitor them properly, (I was once called into school as Shanelle wasn't acting right to arrive and find her having a diabetic seizure on her own in a corridor as the teacher didn't want to disrupt the class) I go on every school trip, have to arrange every meal and calculate every dose for trips away such as stubbington so as they don't miss out. I would do this and more ten times over to make sure my kids are safe and happy but just wanted to open up a little bit on what we go through. 

JDRF is a research fund into finding out what is the cause of diabetes in children and also to hopefully one day find a cure. 

 

Thank you for taking the time to read #teamgutsll