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This is one of the contributions to:DIABETES ESSAY AND POEM COMPETITION 2009
Introduction
My name is David Grant and I am going to tell you a little bit about how I live with diabetes and what some of the companies such as diabetes UK and Juvenile diabetes Research Foundation have done to help me.
My life with diabetes
I have had diabetes since I was four years old, I got it eight years ago in August 2001. I go to Alder Hey Children’s hospital for the diabetic clinic and there are several nurses and doctors there to look after diabetic children like me. When I go there first they check my urine in a tube, then I go to get weighed and measured for my height. It is very important to keep an eye on your weight.
Then I go to get my blood sugars tested for my average blood sugar level. Usually it is something like eight point two, which is ok. Then I have to go and talk briefly to my nurse. After that sometimes I go and see my dietician about any thing as it is very important I make sure I eat lots of carbohydrates for my insulin and have a balanced healthy diet. Then after that I go and talk to my doctor about normal things such as height and weight, my insulin type and dosage compared to my blood sugars on a daily basis. At this moment in time I take Humalog fifty and Humalog twenty-five two injections a day at breakfast and dinnertime.
My nurse is called Catriona and she is very nice and she looks after me. She sometimes visits me at my house to help me change my insulin or insulin dosage if my blood sugars are too high.
I have been to do some training for carbohydrate counting with my dietician Francesca. Hopefully I would be able to balance my food and insulin. Today with my mum, dad and sister, I went on the lesson and now my plan is to learn how much insulin to take for the amount of carbohydrates. This will help me get a better control, hopefully. This also means me taking an extra injection called levermir which works overnight as a background insulin.
Recently I had very high blood sugars all the time, my nurse found out what I had developed some lumps in my left leg. She asked me to avoid injecting in this leg and use another injection site, my blood sugars readings then improved a little.
I have to watch my weight so I have to exercise when I can. I usually go on my bike at the end of the day, I go to play football with my friends in the park on a Saturday, I have a trampoline in my house, I also have a mini stepper, step thing and a exercise bike to go on. On a Sunday morning I go to have swimming lessons and than I have to walk all the way home too.
At mealtime in the morning and the afternoon I do my insulin. In the morning I do it in my leg, and in the evening I do it in my arm. When I take my insulin it is very important I have some carbohydrates and a balanced meal too, I eat lots of fruit and vegetables in my diet anyway so I would say I have a balanced healthy diet. My mum and dad help me inject my insulin but I do all my blood sugar reading and ketone tests myself.
In School
In my school, King David High there are two other people with diabetes that are older than me. I have a special box in the office which contains food and glucose tablets. I try to carry on as normal but most of the time I’m checking my blood and going out of class to go the toilet or to treat a hypoglycaemia. In school I still ignore sugary sweets I have and ignore other people eating them, other than all that, I lead a normal school life. If I am in a lesson I have to hold up a yellow card in class so I can be excused to treat my diabetes or visit the toilet.
Diabetes UK what they had done
Diabetes UK have given me too holidays so far and a very nice trip around Chester zoo, just recently I have been offered to go on a trip to Camelot. The first holiday trip was a family weekend to Macclesfield where each day in teams we did different sporting activities, my team got the gold medal of course with my brother’s team getting bronze.
The other holiday was on my own this time up north again to Giggleswick on a holiday like PGL lots of fun activities such as caving, climbing and high ropes, on that trip everyone was diabetic so I met lots of people so made two friends, Kyle and Jason. I enjoyed that holiday very much. The food on the holiday was very good too but very sugary.
JDRF-Juvenile Diabetes Research foundation What they have done
JDRF gave me a very good pack called kidsack, which included a chose of Rufus the boy bear or Ruby, the girl bear. I chose Rufus. They also gave me a booklet and a story about my bear, also in the pack was a ruck sac. Later on in the year I wanted Ruby the bear but they had stopped making her which was very disappointing. After that I was in luck, one company had some in America so I ordered Ruby on the internet, these bears are really special because they are diabetic so they have special sites marked on them for insulin and blood to be taken.
When I grow older I would like to be a chef, I would like to specialise parts of my restaurant for diabetic people and provide a healthy choice of food on my menu.
My family
My grandfather and his mother both had diabetes type two. I have a cousin who is thirty years old, he has had diabetes six years now, so I think that diabetes runs in the family.
This is my story about diabetes and I hope you have learnt lots and enjoyed it, thank you for listening to me.