Type 1 diabetes is an auto immune disease. Essentially, one day for reasons no one yet knows, my immune system decided that my beta cells - those that produce insulin (insulin takes sugars from the blood to the muscles which are essential for respiration and other important body function stuff ) - were alien. With their new orders my white blood cells - Pac Man - marched towards my pancreas with their sole aim: destroy all beta cells - the yellow dots.
Mission complete - yellow dots eaten = Kate Evans - Type 1 diabetic.
So what does being a diabetic actually mean?
All the food that you eat contains carbohydrates. These carbohydrates are broken down to sugar in the intestine and are circulated in the blood waiting to be taken for whatever the body needs them for. Insulin acts as a go between, allowing the sugar to pass into the muscles. Without insulin the sugar just stays in the blood building up in higher concentrations.
At this point, the body has no fuel for respiration so starts to use fat - think Atkins but on a larger scale - but respiration of this type results in ketoacidosis - acid blood. Yep - it's as bad is it sounds. Without medical intervention at this point we're talking coma central here.
To prevent such dyer consequences, I have to inject my own insulin. This can cause equally scary and equally dangerous problems as high blood sugars. I am not as cleaver as a fully functioning pancreas. I don't know how much to inject. I don't know how my body will react to food and I sure as hell cannot take into consideration every feasible permutation of every minute detail in my daily life to accurately control my disease. Thus on occasion, I can have a 'hypo' a.k.a hypoglycemia. This is where too much sugar is taken from the blood usually because too much insulin has been injected. This is serious. Low blood sugars = no sugar to respire = coma = death. Seriously. Let's just thank the God's that be for Coke; the hypo diabetics best friend. 100ml of the stuff has enough sugar to move me straight from hypo in the time it takes to make a cup of tea.
Two important points can be drawn from the above:
1. Diabetes is a serious condition. I may look healthy and be able to cycle but without extreme analysis of my blood sugars and the continual, every minute of every day, first thought of every thing I ever do, considerations I have to make regarding diabetes, I can suffer from serious life threatening complications. I know this may sound extreme but I think it's important for people to understand that when I say things in my life have been affected by my condition, it genuinely has and I am not making excuses.
2. As an extension of the first statement, diabetes is my life. I eat, sleep and live the disease. I cannot go anywhere without first thinking about how it will affect my blood sugars. I cannot eat without first calculating what dose of insulin I need to inject and I cannot go anywhere without my supplies.
BUT - I can prove that diabetes isn't an obstacle to living a normal life; I can do what I want, when I want and I will not let it stop me going where I want - I just have a few more things to think of first before I make those jumps!
