Why did the insulin die in my pancreas?

Lance and I are both keen and passionate recyclers.

I love to see him peering under bottles or on the back of packets looking for this symbol.

He will race straight to our recycling bin and tell me that he has saved a can or a piece of paper.

I am obsessive when it comes to recycling. I always feel triumphant when my recycling bin is brimming over and my garbage bin contains only household scraps.

Therefore, Lance and I were very impressed when we noticed “the symbol” on the packaging of something we have to have in our possession, like it or not.

An empty box of Accu Chek Performa Strips.

Not only that, but the plastic container that holds the strips can also be recycled!

In these photos are an empty vial and box from a used batch of lancets. Accu Chek packaging can be recycled, which means very little to the average person, but a lot to passionate recyclers!

Diabetes cost the Goverment billions of dollars each year. It is a small but positive step that drug companies are going green in regards to their packaging being recyclable. Some days it’s tough to think of anything good about having Diabetes, but my son and I were both excited about the “symbol” appearing on essential Diabetes equipment.

Insulin is not a cure.

I haven’t had a lot of time to post this week.

I have been furiously chasing colossal build ups of sugar from my son’s blood, or desperately trying to raise the starved levels. It’s been a numbers game this week, that’s for sure.

Earlier last week, Lance was talkative, happy, but his eyes looked heavy and weary and I had heard the toilet flush for the third time in about 40 minutes. It was enough to make him test himself. This is what was on the screen of his glucometer.

I was temporarily unable to breathe. I could feel my heart pounding in my ears and my throat. Stirrings of nausea washed over me. I looked incredulously at Lance, who was happily playing, singing to himself and showing no physical signs of hyperglyaemia. I immediately gave him two bursts of rapid and long acting insulin plus a litre of water to shoot this number down. These are the readings that notoriously spell out DKA. ( The next morning I discovered Lance had a gum infection. That’s the only good thing about hypers; there is usually a standout reason for why they happen.)

That feeling of panic and great distress reminded me of another infamous reading before Christmas last year. Chino was upset and droopy eyed. Lance was weak and pale, unable to use his cupped hands to grasp onto a handful of grapes. They scattered all over his face and down the back of his neck, promptly causing tears and pandemonium. Again I tested, and was left shaking as the glucometer flashed not a number, but a dreaded “word.”

That was a near glucagon incident, however, we were able to increase his unreadable levels up to 2.3mmol/L, 15 minutes later. An  hour later, he was still only 6.2mmol/L. He spent the rest of the day vomiting and unable to move off the sofa, too weak to walk.

In these photos are frightening examples of severe hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia. Both, left untreated, could cause unconsciousness, coma or death. The terror that lies behind these numbers is the speed in which a symptom will occur, and what little time you have to treat the problem. In Lance’s case, only a trained eye can detect when a situation is aboout to escalate into a serious diabetic emergency.

Diabetes isn’t just about having your insulin, exercise and modifying your lifestyle. Your child should know a finger prick is coming, just by hearing the machine slide out of the leather pouch, the click of the lancet in the lancet device, and your footsteps approaching them. Fingerpricking is the only way that you can maintain Diabetes at home. This is the side that people who assume Diabetes is a “lifestyle disease” never see. They will never feel that helpless panic, the fear of failure, or the guilt that is associated with taking care of your child who has Diabetes.

Insulin is not a cure.

Because I have Type 1 Diabetes, I used to get mouth ulcers, sometimes three or four at a time.

Then I’d have hypos, because my mouth hurt too much to eat.

That was until we learnt about how Zinc keeps mouth ulcers away!

Mum spoke our pharmacist, and he said that it would be really good for me to have a zinc tablet, with lots of other vitamins and minerals in it as well. I have been taking Multi-Vitamins for Kids for almost two years, and I hardly ever get sick, and if I ever get a sore or a bump, it heals super fast. I have lots of energy too from all the B Group Vitamins! With all the fruit and vegetables and nuts I eat, I must be healthy, because when everyone else has a cold, I’m the only one that never gets it, or if I do get it, it goes away in a day.

Just lately, I have had to start taking another tablet. It is only really tiny and white. In Queensland, they don’t put fluoride in the water, but Prime Minister Rudd is changing this soon. For now, I have to take fluoride tablets to keep my new adult teeth really strong and healthy.

I don’t mind taking tablets if it means that it is going to help my body fight infections and keep me strong and safe. I have to remember to be as strong as a warrior in my mind and think myself healthy. It really works!

Mum has my two tablets ready for me as soon as I get up in the morning.

In this photo, is the two tablets that I take daily to help supplement my diet and help protect me from Diabetic complications. People with diabetes have trouble healing well, getting rid of colds quickly, and mouth ulcers. Without taking a multivitamin everyday, I don’t think I would be as healthy as I am today.

Diabetes means more than having insulin and finger pricking. It affects every facet of your life. Any preventative measures should be taken to prevent complications in the future. Little things like protecting your feet, getting dental checks, annual eye checks and having check ups with a dietician are so valuable. Every parent dreads diabetic complications, so whilst your child is young, get them into good habits by teaching them ways they can fight major health problems caused by Diabetes for their future.

Insulin is not a cure.

It was about 5.30pm and I was preparing a healthy wheat free, low fat, vitamin packed meal for Lance and me. (It was Gluten Free pasta with spinach and cheese sauce, with a medley of colourful vegetables to accompany.)

Lance was building a Space Station out of Lego, and whilst I chopped, diced and stirred, he twittered away about how there was a friendly alien talking to him.

 “Oh really? What colour lego did you use to make him?” I asked playfully.

“Oh no, he’s not an lego alien. Is Lego called Lego because the man who invented it had an alien with legs?”he enquired curiously, and seriously.

I dropped my kitchen utensils and grabbed a popper from the fridge. There was Lance, slumped over, with a rainbow of Lego pieces surrounding him. He heard me coming, and he slurred, “You didn’t answer me!” Immediate tears.

 I opened the juice and told him that I was putting the straw to his mouth. His hand snapped up and flung the box out of my hand, covering me with juice..(again!) and sighed, “I am so tired of  poppers, Mum.”

I wiped the dripping juice off my chin,( I am going to start wearing a raincoat from now on..) and asked him if he would have it because it would give him power to build the best alien ever. He reluctantly put the straw to his mouth and I gently squeezed the box, as I wasn’t sure if he was lucid enough to know he had to drink. However, he started to swallow, so I knew he was receiving it.

It was usless, he was unable to sit without falling and hurting himself. I lifted him up and laid him on the sofa, propped up with pillows. I gave him one of his ”flavour-of-the-week” raspberry glucose tablets whilst I rubbed his hand and talked him through how sucking the tablet would soon make him feel better.

I used this opportunity to do a test and remove a lego piece that was painfully embedded in my thigh.

Hmm..1.7mmol/L. How on earth did that happen?? He was 12.4mmol/L only 70 minutes ago.And he had eaten the best part of a wheat free scone with jam!

He reached out his hand, feeling around for the other half of the glucose tablet.

These glucose tablets from America are so fantastic. He enjoys the flavour so much that even when he his levels are lower than a snakes belly, he is still willing to eat them.

I could see the glassiness fading from his eyes. He asked for the juice.

In this photo, Lance is barely able to lift his head high enough to reach the straw of the juice-the juice that is saving his life. He has very little physical strength left as a sudden and severe hypo has left him weak and listless. His blood sugar level is currently 3.4mmol/L.

Diabetes can be so infuriating. It made no sense that Lance had this hypo. I do all that I can to compromise and cooperate with Diabetes, but it doesn’t always repay the favour. Lance had no warning signs, I was only able to detect he was in grave danger from one nonsensical reply he made to a question I had asked. Not only was our dinner ruined, the smoke alarm was alerting and Lance had high blood sugar, as his insulin dose was about to run out, and from the sudden rush of sugar he was forced to consume. After a hypo, he often feels nauseated and doesn’t want to eat. Therefore, he wasn’t able to eat until 8.30pm, I had to make dinner all over again, and calculate what insulin dosage would be safe for him to have to see him through the night. Diabetes can change the entire workings of a home, and ruin any plans you have made within seconds.

Insulin is not a cure.

 I have many hidey-holes around my house where I have non-perishable snacks to treat a hypo.

I learnt long ago that a frantic dash to the kitchen or medicine cabinet whilst your child is skimming around 1mmol/L, screaming or jerking in a life threatening situation leaves you riddled with panic and unable to think clearly.

 I am a freak when it comes to glucagon, because I have seen how it restores my son’s blood sugar levels so that he is in a safe zone, and back from the extreme depths of hypoglyaemia.

I carry one in my bag, I have one under the cushions of my sofa, and lastly, I have even resorted to sleeping with one under my pillow each and every night.

In this photo, is the injection that has saved my son’s life too many times to count. When he was 3 years of age, I found my son with no pulse and miraculously revived him with CPR. He had fallen unconscious in his sleep due to severe hypoglycaemia. It scarred me so deeply that I feel anxious and unsettled without a glucagon kit nearby.

Diabetes leaves me tortured with worry and recalling past hypo memories during the night. I have learnt to sleep so lightly, I even wake up if my son rolls over. I exist on very little sleep, but there have been so many occasions that if I had been sleeping soundly, a tragedy could have easily happened. I know it borders on ridiculous to sleep with a life-saving injection literally under my head, however, the precious seconds that tick by when you are trying to reverse a hypo are crucial for recovery. Night time hypos are often more difficult to treat as the child is still sleepy and will not cooperate with food or drink consumption. That’s why I hold Glucagon’s reversal properties close to my heart, and head for that matter.

Insulin in not a cure.

Lance is recovering well from his first experience with blood, pain, medication and an invasive procedure.

He has had seven injections of insulin today, as his blood sugar is everywhere between the middle of the “normal” range, to 18mmol/L. This is only because he is required to have a diet of soft food only, which basically consists of jelly. mashed potatoes, yogurt, custard and smoothies-all High GI foods with plenty of carbs. At 2 am will be his 15th fingerprick in 18 hours.

He is taking a liquid antibiotic four times a day to give him a headstart with the healing process, and to fight off the threat of infection, which is a great worry as far as Diabetes is concerned. He has been very brave today and rejected pain relief, opting to tough it out instead.

He has begun iodine rinses, they taste absolutely putrid, but he is happy to swish and swirl it around his mouth, with the knowledge that it is going to help heal and get him back to real food quickly.

There was still some post-operative blood-stained drool on his pillow this morning, but the blood clots have formed very well.

Overall, he has had a positive experience from what so many people all over the world fear and dread-teeth extraction.

Even though the worst is over, a lot of care and attention is required at this point to assure that everything is progressing as it should. Diabetes often interferes with this process.

In this photo (1of 2,) are the remnants of Lance’s teeth, that were rotting, aesthetically displeasing to look at, and certainly painful-directly caused by Diabetes-related gum infections and absesses over the past 5 years.

These were the teeth that suffered nerve damage, causing the ends to turn black. The blood drenched gauze beside them were a few of many that were used to apply pressure to halt the bleeding.

In this photo (2 of 2,) is the assortment of medications that have been required to ensure that Lance’s Diabetes does not interfere with the healing process, or that infection does not interfere with blood sugar levels. Hyperglycaemia is notorious for causing any injury or post-operative wound to heal slowly, and also heartily invites infection.

Lance will now have to have 3 monthly dental checks to ensure that there are no further gum problems, or issues with  tany other of his teeth. Fortunately, he has a second chance, as his adult teeth ( he has 6) are all in perfect condtion.

Diabetes can cause devastation to many parts of the body. After his 5 year checkup, I consider myself lucky that there was nothing more urgent that needed immediate attention.

If my son was not fortunate enough to be in the situation where he had the best care possible and the problem addressed immediately, he would have had no choice but to be placed on the Queensland Health Oral Health Waiting List; currently, it takes two years for a child to get an appointment. ALL children, but especially those with medical conditions such as Type 1 Diabetes, need to have 2 dental checks a year, to avoid problems with their teeth in the future. Our Health Department needs to step in and take control of a problem that concerns all children, even those WITHOUT Diabetes. It is appalling what can happen to baby teeth that are neglected. The worst scenario in this particular situation is that Lance could have developed an absess on one of the extracted teeth, which easily could have turned into fatal blood poisoning.

Insulin is not a cure.

After I go to bed, my Mum and Aunty Liz often stay up late and chat away on MSN Messenger. Liz usually checks to see if I’ve been ok, and Mum checks to see if she and her husband, James are OK. James and I both have Type 1 Diabetes and even though he is a man and I am a boy, we have some similar problems with hypos.

My Mum and Aunty Liz both do the shopping when it comes to buying Diabetes supplies for James and me. They pick up our scripts and make sure we have enough of everything to keep our glucometers working.  Mum and Liz also give each other tips on how to treat a hypo. James usually has softdrink, milk or something High GI to eat, where as Mum usually gives me glucose tablets. There are only two types of glucose tablets available in Queensland and Tasmania, and maybe the whole of Australia. After 5 years of Diabetes, if I am really low, I HATE chewing these chalky white tablets. They are called Glucodin, and we have bought so many packets in my life that I could  draw the picture on the box! (The other ones are a big square shape and they are too big for me to eat; by the time I am finished eating one, my blood sugar has dropped lower.)

So Aunty Liz went hunting on the net. She found a place in America (!!!) called Fifty50 Pharmacy that sell different flavours of glucose tablets!! They have raspberry, grape, orange and even watermelon flavours!

This week, I ran out to get the mail. I found a strange package in the postbox; it was all lumpy and felt like it had little bottles inside of it. It had my name on it! I quickly rushed inside and showed my Mum. I looked on the back and saw that it was from Aunty Liz! I pulled really hard and found four bottles of RASPBERRY (my favourite) glucose tablets!!! They came in little tubes and when I opened each tube, the smell made my mouth water. Mum said that I was allowed to try half of one. Even if I didn’t have diabetes, I would eat these. They are just like lollies and it’s so exciting to have something new and yummy for when I have hypos. Aunty Liz bought some for James, too. She picked Grape flavour for him, so she sent some grape ones for me to try also.

I have had two bad hypos since I got them and they have helped me within minutes. They work so fast, and I can feel them pulling me out of the hypo. They don’t let me sink into it too far. Tonight, I was at the supermarket with my Dad and I crashed into a whole shelf of M&M’s. A sneaky hypo tapped me on the shoulder and made me brain send strange messages to my legs without me being able to help it. Dad quickly tested my blood sugar, and I was 2.2mmol/L. He popped open my glucose tablets and I crunched up two as quickly as I could. I felt better pretty much straight away. The funny thing about this hypo is that I was in the lollie aisle when it happened!

My Aunty Liz is so kind to me. I know it’s strange to be excited about glucose tablets, but the day I got them was a really good day.

In this photo, Lance is showing off his new hypo treatment. These raspberry glucose tablets were ordered from America, arrived in Australia and sent to my friend, Liz in Tasmania. She then sent Lance a package containing 50 of them to us in Queensland. Between currency exchanges, shipping charges and postage, it was a slightly expensive but highly worthwhile exercise.

There are 140 000 people with Type 1 Diabetes in Australia, and that number is rapidly growing. The general rule when diagnosed is to treat a hypo with 6 large jelly beans or 8 small ones. It’was only after a while that I discovered glucose tablets and was amazed at how well they worked in comparison to  jellybeans. Lance is prone to hypos where he is becomes very disorientated, scared and confused, and it is often a struggle to get him to eat anything, especially something that he has grown tired of.  One of these tablets will at least make him cooperate with me enough that he will  drink something sweet or eat something that will reverse the hypo.

 I find it stupendous that we have to resort to ordering child-friendly diabetes products from the US!!! People with Diabetes deserve a choice too, especially when so much of their lives revolves around flavour and taste! Jelly beans work for some people with diabetes, however, every person is different, they have different hypo symptoms and have different recovery times. Lance has symptoms that are very different to a lot of other children that we have met.  I am ecstatic that Liz bothered to research where we could order a different brand, and despite having to resort to ordering from America, I’m so glad she did, because three potentially difficult hypos were halted by these delicious discs of pure glucose.

Diabetes management isn’t an easy road to follow. It takes hours of research, hundreds of conversations and pages of reading to get current, helpful information and useful tips. I am so relieved that we have discovered something that is highly beneficial to assisting my son through these severe attacks, but there is also an element of sadness when I look back on his delight of discovering that he had aquired new glucose tablets. I found him that same night, studying a poster of the continents, and tracing his finger from the United States over to Australia. To order these 50 tablets cost approximately AUS$30.

I would happily invest every cent I owned into anything that helped or relieved his difficult and devastating days where hypoglycaemia sets in and drains his body of energy, leaving him with terrible headaches, fatigue and ironically, high blood sugar, a result from consuming so much sugar to reverse a hypo in the first place. It’s a horrible and exhausting vicious circle.

Insulin is not a cure.

 When Lance was diagnosed, I spent a few weeks in the Hospital Diabetes Clinic.

I kept hearing whispers of ”Glucagon this, Glucagon that.” I asked a parent sitting next to me what it was.

She said, totally deadpan, “It brings ‘em back when they are too screwed up to eat, or unconscious or nearly dead.”

“Oh right. Hmm. Thanks.” (Shudder.) 

I decided to approach the diabetes educator about it.

“Oh honey, you don’t need to worry about that yet. Concentrate on what you really need to know for now, ok?” She seemed convincing, but those words just kept reverberating through my head.

“Oh, it brings ‘em back…”

I asked another Dad what he knew about it.  I couldn’t believe the educator didn’t want me to know about it. I wanted to know everything.

He told me to follow him. We sat at a table together and he grabbed an orange. He took a bright orange rectangular box out of a drawer, and told me how glucagon was a hormone in the body, and how an injecction would stimulate the stores kept in the liver to be released, and increase blood sugar within 1o minutes or so.He told me how much I need to inject into a child of Lance’s body weight. I got the right amount and pierced the orange, imagining it was Lance’s thigh.

I got an appointment with my GP and asked more questions. The Dad at the clinic had given me a great head start. I didn’t know that I needed to get a glucagon kit on a script, so I promptly asked for one. We went through the instuctions step by step. He assured me that it was designed for emergency use, and that there was no assembling or stress in preparing the injection. He suggested that I carry it with me at ALL times. Especially with a child Lance’s age, nobody, not even he knew what was happening in his body.

I began carrying the kit everywhere I went, and hoped that I would never have to use it in public. I felt my heart in my throat at the thought of how I would be all fingers-and-thumbs the first time.

A few months past, and I was still carrying the orange box around with me, sleeping with it under my mattress, slipping it in Lance’s nappy bag.

Shortly after my birthday in February, I found out that my brother had terminal and aggressive stomach cancer. He was 43 years old, and we basically had to spend as much time with him as possible, as we were told that he could go at any day. It was so difficult to spend time with him knowing that it could be his last day on Earth, and then swallow back tears and remain calm for my baby. He was well and truly used to fingerpricks by now, and I was noticing that he was slowly stabilizing and his readings after meals were falling to lower numbers. I guessed that the remaining few beta cells were fizzling.

On the cold and foggy morning of my brother’s funeral, I asked Lance’s Dad, Scott, to take Lance away to a cafe and a nearby park. I didn’t want him to see his family upset and crying. My family decided on a Requiem Mass for my brother, which lasted for an hour. There was then a 30 minute drive to the cemetary and the priest concluded his procedings at the graveside.

Scott grabbed my attention and called me over to a nearby garden. I excused myself, and he told me that Lance was fretting for me, and that his BSL was 9,9mmol/L fivc minutes prior. As soon as Lance saw me, he leapt out of his father’s arms and snuggled into my jacket and grabbed his comfort strand of my hair. I stood away from the end of the ceremony, and had my own private words with my brother. I was all cried out, so I was happy to have to have my baby with me.

People started to walk away from the seating and surrounded me with their condolences and love. Lance was looking around wide eyed at all of the people that he didn’t know. Occasionally, he would catch a glimpse of my parents, or my nieces or nephews, and point, and call out to them. One of my cousins came up to me and gave me a huge hug. Lance was shy and put his head on my shoulder. I spoke to my cousin for about 5 minutes, he was in shock at how quickly the disease had ravaged my brother’s body and he reminisced fondly about him as a younger man.

“Aww…your little man’s asleep..he’s so cute.” my cousin cooed.

I was shocked. Lance wasn’t due for a nap..I took a peak at his face. He seemed unusually heavy.

His lips were blue and his face was almost translucent. I tried to yell for help but no words would come out. I raced him over to our car and laid him on the back seat. He had dropped to 1.8mmol/L in 30 minutes and was unconscious.

People started reaching for their mobile phones to call an ambulance. I announced that I had an injection that should get his level up. I had half of the vial implanted in his leg within 30 seconds. Screams roared from somewhere deep within me. Of all days, of all times, how could this happen now? Lance started to cry and thrash about. I told everyone that I thought he would be alright now. Two minutes after that he wailed and grabbed his thigh, tears spilling down his pale little face, sobbing uncontrollably. I had to leave my brother without saying goodbye or leaving him my tokens and rushed to the hospital to get him looked over.

His BSL was now 11.1mmol/L. He looked wide-eyed around the car, giving me huge grins and chuckles. I couldn’t believe that I was at my brother’s funeral, and my son’s life was in danger for approximately 10 minutes. A double tragedy was prevented that day.

Glucagon. I would NEVER be without it ever again. 

In this photo is a video supplied by Novo Nordisk about how glucagon works, when and how to use it. It is slightly confronting regarding the acted out hypo, but it shows exactly how a hypo can happen, and how blood sugar can drop within minutes to the stage where the person with Diabetes is unconscious.

Lance used to go through approximately 2 glucagon injections a week when he was small. I now have some that are out-of-date, because his control is tight and he is able to help me a lot regarding how he is feeling. We can usually stop a severe hypo with glucose drinks and tablets now, and without the ambulance hearing over their two-way radio that there was a diabetic emergency, and guessing that it would have to  Lance.

Diabetes that is well controlled can let  you live life with just a few hitches here and there. Some people with diabetes aren’t so lucky, There is no such thing as one person with diabetes being “worse” than the other; it’s just some people need extra or less food, or extra or less insulin or have faster metabolisms. It’s all a huge balancing act. We have spoken to people who have never used a glucagon kit,  some who don’t even know what one is, and even worse, some who have a script for one, but have been told not to “bother” getting it filled. Lance’s glucagon kit takes precedence over my wallet, my keys, my mobile phone-everything.

Lance can have a hypo within minutes, or drop 10 mmol/Ls in 30 minutes.This is highly stressful and disturbing; thankfully, most times he has no idea that it has occurred. Without glucagon, this project may not exist. This easily available injection has saved my son’s life on numerous occasions. I hope to make more newly diagnosed people aware that this kit is a must have item in their house, work, gym bags or belongings. Diabetes-you just never know….

Insulin is not a cure.

One of the most frightening experiences concerning Type 1 Diabetes, excluding severe hypoglycaemia, is Sick Days.

Lance has generally excellent health, he fights off viral bugs very quickly, and any sores or cuts heal in a matter of days. The only thing that I have NO control over is a vomiting virus.

We have had one severe vomiting virus each consecutive year since Lance was diagnosed. With each episode, I am totally pre-occupied with monitoring blood sugar levels, giving hourly shots of insulin, comforting my ailing patient, taking his temperature, administering Panadol or Maxolon Syrup, cleaning up projectile accidents, remaking the bed with all new linen, checking for ketones, offering jelly and ice blocks in a desperate attempt to get my son to consume some easily digested carbs, keeping in check with the doctor, getting the pharmacy to deliver  Paedolyte iceblocks because the stock I had on hand are out of date (arg).  Last year, I was as delirious as a cut snake, as a result of no sleep and very little food. I emerged looking like I had been a contestant on Survivor: The Australian Suburbs for a month.

I fight so hard to keep him out of hospital and put on a drip, because it distresses Lance so much with the drips and the injections and the bright lights. I can’t stand to see him so traumatised. So I put in the long hours and become a prisoner in my own house. My only source of contact with the outside world is the telephone. If I do use it, the conversations are to the doctor, the pharmacy or the Diabetes Educator-really stimulating and exciting people to talk to about such a riveting matter.

Recently, I found some new information in the Diabetes information section at the pharmacy. I was so ecstatic to find a comprehensive, foolproof guide about how to handle sick days from home! It talks about giving mini shots of glucagon if you are worried about a hypo as a result of lack of carbohydrates. It has suggestions for what to do if your child is 14mmol/L. Or 4mmol/L. It’s just an all round excellent piece of literature that everyone should own or know about.

In this photo is the fold out copy of Guidelines for Sick Day Management for people with Diabetes.

Diabetes is a risky and dangerous condition to have if you are sick with a virus, especially a gastro bug.  Blood sugar control is an additional worry to be concerned about, as it often becomes high and difficult to control when there is an infection or illness in the body. If  a person with Diabetes is too high for too long, or has minimal insulin in their blood, they are a high-risk candidate of a life threatening condition called Diabetic Ketone Acidosis. (DKA).

Diabetes Australia has produced and distributed a fantastic guide concerning how to care for somebody with Diabetes who is ill at home.

Organisations like Diabetes Australia make living with Diabetes so much easier through their information sheets and webpages. You can find out a lot of useful information just by making a phonecall or going online. Even a fold out piece of cardboard can be supportive and comforting when you have a sick child with Type 1 Diabetes. Every now and then, there is updated information or new innovations regarding diabetes care that is put out by DA.

For online information regarding Diabetes Australia, click on the link to find out a list of services and advice.

Insulin is not a cure.

Before his evening meal, Lance always goes through the ritual or injecting himself with his rapid acting, and his long acting insulins.

I let him take full control of unsealing the pen tops, screwing them on, and dialing up his doses. The only part I play is double checking that he is giving himself the correct amount.

In this photo, is the disposable waste (excluding the insulin pens) that goes in a yellow sharps bin after every injection. Over 12 months, every person with Diabetes who injects insulin would have a huge amount of plastic, protective post-injection litter to dispose of.

(We left the needles on the insulin pens on purpose so that you can see what I have to put into my tummy four times a day.)

Type 1 Diabetes is all about injections and how to give yourself insulin so that it is clean and sterile, and the risk of infection is barely an issue as a result of meticulous packaging from the manfacturers. We are fortunate to live in a country that ensures that every person with Type 1 Diabetes, receives syringes or pen needles  free of charge, thanks to the NDSS.

Lance is fortunate enough that he automatically qualified for a” Child Disability Consession Card” when he was diagnosed. This enables me to purchase the strips necessary to operate his glucometers for no more than $2.50 for a box of 100. (Without a consession card, you are looking at between $10-$20 every few weeks, which makes people less inclined to test frequently.)

However, Lance’s daily disposables equate to a bulging handful. The “sharp things” or anything that has been exposed to blood are placed in a sharps container, which we then take to the Hospital to be incinerated.  The two plastic caps that protect a pen needle and the safety seal have to be thrown away as rubbish. When you actually observe how much waste that gets thrown away every month-multiplied by 140 000 other Australians with Type 1 Diabetes, that’s a colossal amount of waste that has to be disposed of.

 It’s such a shame that the safety and well being of people injecting insulin has to be of detriment to the environment.

Insulin is not a cure.