Good evening everyone – today we bring you our next diabetes blogger interview, with Sherry Roberts from Jenna’s Pet Monkey. Sherry has a young daughter, Jenna, with type 1 diabetes, and brings some very interesting perspective having worked as a registered nurse taking care of diabetes patients.
——————————————————————————————————–
In your “I Don‘t Get It” post, one of the things you share are your experiences as a nurse dealing with elderly patients with type 1 diabetes. Do you remember any talk in regards to a cure amongst these patients, or was that a far-off notion?
Given that most of the patients with type 1 diabetes that I cared for were elderly and had had diabetes for many years, a cure wasn’t their main focus, if it all. Having said that, I recall a certain degree of resignation to the likelihood that they would not see a cure in their lifetime, in spire of some reports of being promised by medical professionals that a cure was close.
In the same post you talk about the many misconceptions people have about the disease, and how frustrating it is for parents having to correct them all the time. Why do you believe there is still so much ignorance surrounding diabetes in particular?
I think there are two main factors at play causing diabetes to remain a very misunderstood disease: First the approach to managing type 1 diabetes has changed over the years. Gone are the days of strict dietary restrictions due to less effective insulins, and less frequent blood sugar testing. Insulins have improved and blood sugar monitoring has become far more user-friendly allowing people to test more often, not to mention technological innovations like the insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor. This enables people with type 1 diabetes to live a less restricted life where diet is concerned. However, many people are of the old mindset and believe people with type 1 diabetes are not permitted to eat sugar. They judge people with type 1 diabetes who indulge on treats on occasion to be neglecting their health and inciting complications — hence the judgment. Second, type 2 diabetes is far more prevalent and is on a marked rise. Since type 2 diabetes is associated with sedentary lifestyle and poor dietary choices and it shares it’s name with type 1 diabetes, people confuse the two diseases. Many people are shocked to learn that type 1 is an autoimmune disease, much like rheumatoid arthritis.
It can be frustrating at times to myself in a position to have to clarify certain aspects about this disease, dispel myths and defend my daughter or myself. However, I never back away from an opportunity to educate. It is in the best interest of my daughter and every person with type 1 diabetes for the public to know the facts about this disease.
How big of a difference did your experience with type 1 make when your daughter was first diagnosed? Was it any easier knowing the type of treatment Jenna would require, or was it scarier being aware of all the different complications diabetics are at risk from?
Both. When Jenna was first diagnosed I was grateful for my medical training. The anxiety most parents have with regards to giving their child and injection or learning about type 1 diabetes was something I was spared. However, I also knew more than someone who doesn’t have any medical training. I knew a bit more about the challenges. (I say “a bit more” because even with my medical training I really knew very little about the daily struggles a person with diabetes endures. This is something that must be lived on a daily basis to be understood.) I knew too much about the possible long term complications; I had seen the hooraying results of a lifetime of blood sugar turbulence.
What are the greatest challenges you face raising a child with type 1 diabetes?
There are challenges pertaining to the management of Jenna’s diabetes and there are challenges pertaining to educating the public. Sometimes these two challenges overlap.
Keeping Jenna’s blood sugar in an ideal range is a constant, day and night task and isn’t always easy. In fact, it often poises difficulties. When school is thrown into the mix the challenge is compounded. Jenna has just started full time kindergarten. The challenge of ensuring her safety at school and allowing her to have as typical an experience at school as possible is daunting. Educating teachings staff and support workers is crucial. Obtaining government funding for additional staff to train to assist in the classroom with monitoring Jenna for signs of a low or high blood sugar is vital.
For me, personally, as the mother of a young child with type 1 diabetes, I am constantly challenged to maintain perspective — to not let Jenna’s diabetes become all consuming — to ensure that life is balanced for my family without making diabetes too much of a focus of my energy. This is not an easy task, to say the least.
The JDCA aims to be an independent analyst of the type I diabetes philanthropic landscape. We are seeking to form a paradigm-shifting coalition of donors who will work together to facilitate a cure for type 1 diabetes by 2025. Two of our major tenets are the importance of defining a cure and establishing a cure-by date.
What is your definition of a cure? What restrictions would need to be lifted off a person’s lifestyle for you to consider something to be a “cure”?
In my opinion, a cure would mean that a person with diabetes would be able to produce insulin again. No blood sugar checks would be necessary, no subcutaneous injections of insulin and no carb counting.
Based on your interactions with the diabetes community, when do you think this will be achieved?
Based on my interactions with the diabetes community, it has become apparent that the promise for a cure has been broken time and time again. People in their thirties and forties recall being told upon diagnosis in their childhood by medical professionals that a cure was only five years away. This very claim was made to me by a family physician upon Jenna’s diagnosis three and a half years ago. In light of this, I have trouble believing a cure is close. I’m very cautious about allowing myself to become too hopeful that a cure will ever be found and yet I have to maintain some hope for the sake of my daughter.
Sherry Roberts
Advertisement
Eco World Content From Across The Internet.
Featured on EcoPressed
How an Artificial Leaf Could Boost Solar Power
