Lisa, Mum of 6-year old Cody, was heavily pregnant with her second child when Cody started showing the symptoms of type 1 diabetes (T1D).
“There were a lot of symptoms that we should have picked up on,” she says. “He got sick with a bug at 14 months old, lost weight, drank two sippie cups worth of water at a time, his nappies were always full, and he was always irritable.”
“Looking back, you can see the weight begin to drop off Cody in photos from January to May of that year, when he was finally diagnosed. It wasn’t until I came home from hospital with his little brother though, that we realised exactly how serious it was.”
By the time Cody made it to hospital, his blood glucose levels had skyrocketed to 41mmol/l.
“The doctors told me that that had we waited another 12-24 hours, he would have gone into a coma. So many families we now know had similar scary experiences, with diagnosis only happening after the child had fallen into a dangerous coma.”
“We ended up spending two days in hospital adjusting to our new life. It was a huge mix of medical jargon, do’s and don’t’s, and information overload to keep him alive and well. With no past experience or family history, we were thrown in the deep end with two days to learn nearly everything about T1D. It’s still a learning experience now, and every single day is different. To see him doing all the things every other child is doing though, gives us strength to carry on every day.”
This year during National Diabetes Awareness Week (13–19 July 2014) JDRF is focused on raising awareness of the symptoms of type 1 diabetes.
Too often, the symptoms of T1D are recognised only when a patient becomes seriously ill.
We have created brochures about the symptoms of T1D, which will begin to be distributed in a number of GP clinics around Australia, with thanks to the support of Infomed. We hope that increasing awareness of the symptoms of T1D will encourage patients to ask for a fingerprick test early on, reducing the likelihood of dangerously late diagnosis.
We have a number of additional brochures now available for distribution, and we are asking for your help in raising awareness of T1D.
- Approach your local GP clinic, school, pharmacy, or other community health centre, and ask for permission to put brochures on display
- Contact achan@jdrf.org.au with: your full name, postal address, contact phone number and the locations where you have received permission.
- Wait for us to post a supply of brochures to you for distribution!
Your involvement in this awareness campaign could help to reduce the incidence of dangerously late diagnoses of type 1 diabetes. Get involved today!