“Well. At least you know that all of the fizzy drinks and junk food eventually caught up with him…and now….Penny, Penny! Did you hear the latest? Poor Kate here, her young Lance, 1year old, and because of not enough fruit and veg and wholesome foods, and a little too much of the take away diet routine (ummm where did these ludicrous assumptions come from!), the poor little
baby has ended up with Diabetes. What a cross to bear!! Well, thank Goodness that we have such fantastic staff here at the hopsital, hopefully they will be able to get his weight down(!!!) and he won’t even have to take tablets. Oh your poor love. This it a hard lesson to learn but at least you’ll be prepared when the next one comes along!” Mwah, mwah, followed by a stiffened hug by Penny. They both sashayed away with the most extreme pity in their eyes, but with a slight ” serve yourself right” thrown in for good measure. I sat down on the floor of the hospital parents’ room and bawled my eyes out, my body involunarily jerking and the inablity to catch my breath.
Then I started to get angry…Lance was still breastfed! I didn’t drown his diet in preservatives..he had never tasted soft drink in his life!! He was bought up on fresh vegetables and fruit, bread, fish rice and the best cuts of meat. If I was going to be responsible for this little cherub for the next 16 years, I was determined to do a fine job of it. However, everybody else looked upon me with sorrow in their eyes, the corners of their mouths’ upturned.
It didn’t take me long to work out that in the “noughties” the term juvenile diabetes was axed and replaced by the World Health Organisation as Type 1 Diabetes. As with Mature Onset Diabetes; it became Type 2 Diabetes. It wasn’t until I spent a morning waiting for Lance’s endocrinologist at the Diabetes Clinic I had a practical experience in the differences between the two.
Specialists are often late,so I began chit-chat with the mother,who was very practised with trying to speak to me as she fought her teenage daughter for a finger prick and ingored her well-rehearsed ranting as she tried to get a blood sample. I felt tinglings of panic…
“Is she low?” I asked, on my feet about to get help.
“Well no, she’s probably high. She’s very angry.” replied Dr Mum.
At this stage I was very much on my L Plates, however, I used the opportunity to listen and watch carefully.
Dr Mum managed to get a blood sample. She was correct. 20.5mmol/L.
The girl sat with a scowl on her face and jiggled her foot up and down. He mother placed a small white pill into her hand, and got a plastic cup and filed it with mountain spring water. The girl shook her head vehemently from side to side, and began kicking the floor. I wondered why on earth that this mother didn’t have her insulin kit out! Half of this episode would be over by now!
A young intern-ish doctor came and gently placed his hand through the teenager’s, so that he was holding her inner elbow. The mother began to follow.
“TO hell with you!! You aren’t coming anywhere near with me! You make up lies!!”
Dr Mum busied herself by packing her daughter’s backpack. Out of the blue,she looked up at me and said.”Mine’s got Type 2 Diabetes. You won’t have to worry about anything like that.”
I nodded quickly and asked if she needed any help.
She replied that her daughter had always been overweight, and at 13, the blatant unmistakable Diabetes symptoms appeared. She started on insulin, and actually preferred it. However, a blister on her foot would not heal and she was still very thirsty and tired. The doctor’s reassessed her, and rediagnosed her with Type 2 Diabetes.
She was on strict medication, strict diet, and a strict exercise regime to lose to excess weight, all in an attempt to stay off insulin injections.
At that point, I realised that I needed to test Lance. 10.8. Fabulous, considering we were out of our comfort zone.
“10.8! That’s wonderful! How long has he been diagnosed?” Dr Mum asked with increasing interest.
“You know, you are going to cop a beating with the public thinking your little boy is a Type 2 Diabetic. You’ll get asked a whole range of offensive questions.”I relayed the ones that I had already come across.
“Tip of the iceberg,” she said. “You are up for much, much worse.”
The media’s passion for showing the typical person with Type 2 is wrong. There are many, young, fit. determined Type 2 ’s who happen to have a case of bad genetics on their side, are from a particular racial background, or just have a dodgy pancreas. I recently came in touch with Dae who is fit, young, brimming with energy and life and someone I hope to remain friends with. She is not your stereotypical Type 2 Diabetic, and I was so relieved when we found each other.
Recently, again I was heartbroken to learn that 2000 Australians diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes each year are children, and our nation has the highest rate of increased Type 1 Diabetes in the world. Yet, do we ever see an advertisement of a child or a young adult pricking their finger? What-to-do-in-a -hypo poster in a workplace? NO. 5 years on, and it’s still as hidden as it ever was. Little breakthroughs come and go, the media grab onto a cure story that has the Type 1 community at a standstill, but that soon fades into the distance when somebodys’ grandmother is diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.
“Get out there and tell the media about what it’s like to inject your son, have him fall unconcious on you in the middle of the street, how it would feel have your son turn blind when he was twenty, 1000 needles a year..that sort of news will soon get the phrase Type 1 segragated from Type 2. My daughter is of Aboriginal Descent. She always overate and ate rubbish, her grandparent’s are both amputees from Diabetes complications. She drinks, smokes…her life is a death sentence, and there is nothing anyone can do except her.”
I remember feeling a lot of fear and anxiety at this moment. I looked at Lance’s tiny foot, the size of Stuart Little and imagined it hacked off at the ankle. Diabetes Clinics are not enlightening places to go to when you’re a newbie.
Dr Mum leapt up as her daughter re-appeared. Her daugher hugged her Mum and said, “My levels are down and I feel really bad that I yelled at you. I just hate this place and I feel like a volcano is about to erupt in me when we are here.”
Dr Mum introduced her daughter to me, and she told her how Lance would be on insulin injections for the rest of his life. She was silent and looked away. After a second or two, she looked back and said “Aw poor little fella. How are you going to deal with that matey?”
She had tears brimming out of her eyes and she asked if she could hug Lance. She wiped her tears and held him on her hip. She held his little hand in his.
“You prick these little fingers?” she asked.
“Sure do honey, he’s only been diagnosed a few weeks so I don’t know where he stands at the moment.”
“And his needles? Where does he get those? In his arm?”
“No.In his tummy. Just a few centimetres away from his belly button.”
“OUCH! NO! I was getting insulin in my arm! Why do you give it in his belly?”
And so the questions went on. Two people, two different ages, two different races, two different conditions.
Yet if there was a News Camera, there, they would have been branded as “diabetics” or “Type 1 diabetics” or “Type 2 diabetics.” Is it any wonder that the likes of Penny and Co get mixed messages?
Mixed messages or not..it still hurts, even now, to be looked upon as if I caused this.
Who would possibly choose this life for their child? For their loved one?
Bite me, Penny.
Brian said,
22 December, 2007 @ 11:52 am
(((((((Kate)))))
This may not be my place, but let go of the anger. They’re not worth the words yu write. Ignorance is everywhere and you’ll never change anyone’s mind. You are responsible for Lance, no one else and as long as you do what is right, that is all that matters.
You know and I know that diabetes is genetic and the 1 and 2 is simply a label. I’m glad Lance has you as a mother because you understand the difference. Kate, you have our emails, if you need to vent or ask questions, then do so. It’s your choice to reach out to us, as it’s your choice to help Lance live the best life he can.
Love
Brian said,
22 December, 2007 @ 11:54 am
Lance,
Thanks for the comment today, it was very nice of you to take the time to say hi. I hope you have a great Christmas.
me = liz said,
24 December, 2007 @ 1:53 pm
Brian,
Just want to add my two cents. Firstly, this post doesn’t seem to be about anger – it’s more about being hurt that people may think that Kate caused Lance to have diabetes. Secondly, expressing anger in a positive and constructive way on a blog is a good way to help let go of it, or at least live with it.
Type 1 and 2 might simply be a label but the problem is that they are two different conditions, with different treatments and causes and this is not reflected in the names of the condition. The thing is that it hurts to have people assume that you ‘did this’ to your self (or your child), and it makes me angry that the media portrays all people with diabetes in the same way. This anger is ok as it is not all consuming, plus it spurs me on to raise awareness of the conditions and hopefully one day they will be considered and portrayed as two separate conditions. If I, and others, let go of this anger we wouldn’t get anywhere.
The generalization that all diabetes is genetic is actually one of the misconceptions that people have. 80% of people with type 1 diabetes have absolutely no family history of diabetes.
Liz
Kate said,
24 December, 2007 @ 5:34 pm
Thank you Liz for a perfectly constructed paragraph about the misconceptions of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. I am very proud that Lance is smart, sensitive, empathetic and so enthusiastic about life, and to have people SAY the words “too much sugar” in his presence is offensive to him. I quote JDRF: “Type 1 Diabetes is a condition where the sufferer is of no fault or did nothing to aquire the beta cell attack.” However, most people who know the word Diabetes conjure up the image of an overweight, alcohol swilling, chain smoking, lazy slob, who gorges on chocolate and runs pure sugar through their fingers like it is shavings of gold. THIS is what hurts me,when I, as a parent, am judged and looked down upon by my peers or anybody I come in contact with for that matter.
It is for these reasons that I am such a passionate advocate for creating awareness through the media and by supporting JDRF and Diabetes Australia. I cannot do enough for them. This blog is designed for me to vent my anger and frustrations about something that I have to cooperate with but doesn’t always cooperate with me. I am 30 years old and I find myself talking about Type 1 Diabetes to total strangers because it consumes my life totally. If I can get it out through words, and I know that other parents identify because I have heard the ” I am walking in your shoes” comment SO many times..then I feel so much more at peace. Happy Mum- Happy Lance. AND maybe in between, I can start getting my life back!!!!
Kate said,
24 December, 2007 @ 5:42 pm
PS Brian,..I do know how much you care and I appreciate that you know how much Lance means to me. You are right…I am responsible for him and him only. There’s a part of me that wants to let people know that even though he can lead a healthy, normal life, that he faces many obstacles and challenges daily. I want out ignorant government to know that little kids have to inject themselves..because they just don’t know. Ignorance is everywhere-you are so right. If I can change a handful of peoples’ minds…then I feel that I am fighting for my son and his future. I do have you email and I will certainly contact you about issues such as these very soon. They are neatly aligned in my head, I just need the time to share them concisely! Happy Holidays and hope that Diane is feeling much better. And enjoy a cold Xmas!!! We are sweltering down under!!!