So what is diabetes?

There are two forms of diabetes - type 1 and type 2.

• Type 1 diabetes is caused by a problem with the body's immune system. In a healthy body, specialized cells (called beta cells) in the pancreas make insulin. Insulin is a hormone that enables the body to use energy from food. With type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakes the beta cells as invaders and attacks them. When enough beta cells are destroyed, the beta cells in the pancreas are no longer able to produce insulin and the symptoms of diabetes appear.
• With type 2 diabetes, the beta cells still produce insulin; however, the body's cells do not respond properly to the insulin or the insulin produced naturally is not enough to meet the needs of the body.

Learning you have diabetes can be quite a shock and hard to deal with. But with support from your family and friends and learning as much as you can about the disease, diabetes and its care will just become another normal part of your life (even though it may not feel that way right now). For example, one boy expressed the following things about learning how to deal with his diabetes. And this story is common among many boys and girls.

"At first I didn't want anything to do with the disease. I couldn't take care of myself, and I required my mother to do everything from planning my meals to testing my blood glucose to giving me injections. I was afraid of the injections and thought the testing (finger pricks) was a pain. I also thought the food I had to eat was disgusting and wanted to eat what I used to eat. I also felt that I now had to eat all the time. I was sure that my friends would never understand, and I didn't want to tell them about my diabetes. I knew that my life would never be the same, and I was sure that I would never adjust even though everyone kept telling me that I would.

But after awhile, with lots of support from my family, I slowly began to accept the fact that I had diabetes, and I learned to deal with the realities of that fact. I began to feel that the injections and finger pricks were a normal part of my life, and I wasn't really afraid of them any longer. I also started to learn how to do them myself so that I didn't require anyone's help. I also started to plan my own eating habits and learned that the good food I had to eat wasn't so bad after all. Overall, these things that seemed so scary and foreign to me became a normal part of my life and no big deal. I even started to tell my friends, and they either didn't think anything strange about it or even thought it was cool. But I was right about one thing - my life would never be the same - but that really wasn't a big deal, just different. I had adjusted and although my life was different from other kids, their lives were different in other ways as well."

So wherever you are in your journey with diabetes, use the support of your family and friends and get more information about it. We at EDCC can help. And we would be happy to assist you in whatever way we can.

For additional information, check out the following related website links.

Toledo Diabetes Youth Program:  http://www.dys4kids.org