Saturday, September 8, 2012

Please know the signs!!

What do you do when your heart aches at hearing of a newly diagnosed child? What do you do when the parent of that child is one of the kindest most caring people you know, but have never met in person? What do you do when that newly diagnosed child is only 8 months old and her tiny little body is fighting DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis....please take a minute to google that term if you don't know what it means)? What do you do to let your anguish out in a productive manner? What do you do to figure out how to justify this news in your heart?
You write about it. You tell people. You tell them how the only blessing in this utterly tragic news is that this Mom was already one of us.....she was already a D-Mom. She has already lived through this moment once in her life because her son is also type 1 diabetic. Does that make it any easier on her? HELL NO! Does it offer her any comfort? I would assume not. The only blessing in this news is that because she already lives this life...because she knew the signs...because she had enough education on diabetes and enough experience in it that she had the foresight to know that she had to check her baby girl's blood sugar..........she probably saved her daughter's life tonight.
Why does the medical community not treat diabetes as a serious life threatening thing? Why do they not hand out information to each and every single doctor to pass along to their new mother's and patients? Why does the general public think that this disease is not a big deal? Why do they think that it is something that can be easily managed with simply cutting out sugar from your diet and exercising? Why do they not spread the word of just how serious this disease is? WHY NOT?
Because of ignorance. Plain and simple. Ignorance.
How do you cure ignorance? Through education.
So this post I am dedicating to my amazing friend and her beautiful family....
READ this...SHARE this...TALK about it...TELL everyone you know...because there is one thing and one thing alone that is certain about diabetes.........IT DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE! It does not only happen to families that have a history of diabetes. It does not only happen to people who eat too much sugar or feed their children to much sugar. It does silently come into your house in the middle of the night and invade your child's body and throw every single thing you know to be true right out the friggin window. It could happen. It could happen to any one of you. It does not care who it takes. IT DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE!
The following list are signs and symptoms of high blood sugar that would be a very real and very good indication of type 1 diabetes:

*frequent urination
*unquenchable thirst
*losing weight without trying
*weakness and fatigue
*increase in appetite
*dry mouth or throat
*diaper rash that doesn't improve with medicated cream
*heavy, rapid breathing

Read these signs. Know them. Share them. You could save or help save someones life if you do.
The only way to beat this is to do it together! Know the signs!!!

2 comments:

  1. Great Post! You said it well. Ive read about this little girl on Facebook, its sad. I really want to sit down and cry. Thanks for talking about this subject in a clear and forceful way. I love your blog. Its the best. Godspeed.

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