Can YOU survive diabetes?

So, are you up for a challenge? 

My son Jacob was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes November 9, 2007, at the age of 3 years, 4 months.  Since then, there has not been a single day when Jacob did not require specific treatment and care to survive until tomorrow.  Type 1 Diabetes doesn’t kill immediately, but it also never takes a day off.  For Jacob, and for his family, it is a way of life.  

Now to the challenge:

I want you to spend one full day – 24 hours – experiencing life as a Type 1 diabetic.  Follow the instructions below, and you will get a small taste of how life is for Jacob every day.  Once you finish the challenge, please comment to email and share how it went.  (And if you feel so inspired, you can help us find new treatments for Type 1 diabetes by donating to our Walk for a Cure team at: http://www2.jdrf.org/site/TR/Walk-OH/Chapter-NortheastOhio4496?pg=team&fr_id=1500&team_id=28834.)

Good luck!      

Your 24-hour Schedule with Juvenile Diabetes

For the next 24 hours, you have Type 1 Diabetes.   For this exercise, you need a nice, strong rubber band that you can wear around your wrist.  (If you don’t have a rubber band, you can use a pin or needle, but I think you will prefer the rubber band.)  Follow the schedule below and make sure that every time it indicates “Blood Glucose Check” or “Insulin Administered” you give yourself a good snap with the rubber band!  You will learn a lot about what it is to have juvenile diabetes, but there is one important difference:  at the end of the 24 hours, you can take off the rubber band and go on with your life.  We hope this helps gain a better understanding of life for the many people with juvenile diabetes, young and old, who cannot “take their diabetes off”. 

When the instructions say, “consume 1 carb,” that means eat something with ~15 grams of carbohydrates (1 starch exchange).  It doesn’t matter whether you are hungry or not, you have to eat a carb right then.  You can eat anything else at any other time, but you cannot eat any carbohydrates (i.e. must be less than 5 grams) except the amount specified at the time specified.  No cheating!  Good Luck!

Time            Action

7:30 a.m.    SNAP! - Blood Glucose Check (Reading: 269 – “High”) – Drink extra 16 oz of water

                     Eat Breakfast - consume 4 carb servings

                     SNAP! - Insulin administered

10:15 a.m.  SNAP! - Blood Glucose Check (Reading: 60 – “Low”)

                     Consume 2 carb servings for snack, PLUS eat 1 more carb serving for being “low”

11:51 a.m.  SNAP! - Blood Glucose Check (Reading: 106 – “Good”)

                     Eat Lunch (consume 4 carb servings)

2:05 p.m.    SNAP! - Blood Glucose Check (Reading: 167 – “Good”)

                     Eat snack – consume 1 carb serving

4:15 p.m.    Eat snack – consume 2 carb servings

6:00 p.m.    SNAP! - Blood Glucose Check (Reading: 109 – “Good”)

                     SNAP! - Insulin administered

                     Eat Dinner – consume 4 carb servings

8:10  p.m.   SNAP! - Blood Glucose Check (Reading: 280 – “High”) – Drink extra 16 oz of water

                     Eat snack – consume 2 carb servings

2:20 a.m.    Wake up feeling strange

                     SNAP! - Blood Glucose Check (Reading: 48 – “Very low”)

                     Consume 1 carb serving - Have snack whether hungry or not

2:40 a.m.    SNAP! - Blood Glucose Check (Reading: 70 – “Low”)

                     Consume 1 carb serving - Have snack whether hungry or not

3:00 a.m.    SNAP! - Blood Glucose Check (Reading: 125 – “Good”)

                     Now you can go back to bed.

If you have trouble getting back to sleep after that 3 am test, call us – we’ll probably be up!