“Your Daughter Has Diabetes!”

THE impact of those words from the doctor will not quickly be forgotten. My daughter, Sonya, was ten years old at the time. She had been the picture of health, full of energy—even to an excess at times. The last time she had been treated for an illness was when she was five.

However, the days just prior to this visit to the doctor were difficult. Sonya did not look well. She wanted to drink a lot, and when she did, she could hardly wait to go to the bathroom—sometimes every 15 minutes. At night she would get up at least three times. At first I tried to explain her symptoms away—it was just a bladder infection, and she would get better. But after a few days, I concluded that she probably needed an antibiotic to get the infection out of her system.

That is when I took her to the doctor. I explained what I thought she had. He asked for a urine sample, and I noticed that the urine in the cup was full of fragments, almost like small snowflakes. The nurse noticed it too. Their suspicions were confirmed by a simple blood test. She had Type 1 diabetes.

Sonya understood what that meant. Although she was only ten years old, she had learned about diabetes at school. The fear and devastation visible on her face matched my own. The doctor said that to avoid further danger, she needed to go to the hospital quickly. He made arrangements for her to be admitted to the intensive care unit at a hospital in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. Sonya was extremely angry that this was happening to her. She did not want to have to take shots to keep herself alive. She was crying and kept asking why. I was having a very hard time controlling my own grief. Then I could hold back no longer. So there we were, sitting in the waiting room, leaning on each other, sobbing and begging Jehovah to see us through this.

The Hospital Ordeal

The doctor allowed me to drive Sonya home to get a few things, call my husband, Phil, and arrange for someone to pick up our son, Austin, from school. Within an hour my husband and I were checking Sonya into the hospital. Immediately they started her on an IV to flush the excess sugar and ketones from her blood.a This proved to be an ordeal. Sonya had lost seven pounds of body weight from dehydration. Her receded veins were difficult to find. The nurse finally succeeded, and things calmed down—for the moment. We were handed a large book and many other papers that we were expected to read and understand before we would be allowed to take Sonya home.

There was a constant flow of doctors, nurses, and dietitians. We were shown how to draw up and give Sonya the two insulin shots that she would need each day from then on. We were taught how to do the blood test that Sonya would have to do four times a day to keep check on her blood-sugar levels. There was so much information to take in! We also had to be instructed on how to feed her. She would have to avoid foods high in sugar, and in addition to being properly balanced for her growing body, every meal would have to have exactly the right amount of carbohydrates.

In three days she was out of the hospital. She allowed me to give her the shots, but she would do her own blood tests. Within a month she wanted to give herself the insulin shots, and she has been doing so ever since. It was amazing to see her come to accept this disease and learn to live with it. She went from wanting to die and just wake up in Paradise to being aware of her body and feelings and limitations and being able to speak up when she is in need.

A Period of Adjustment

The first few months were very difficult. Each family member had to deal with an array of feelings. I was trying to do so much that it got to the point where I just felt like escaping. The rigid schedule was the hardest to maintain, especially when it conflicted with Christian meetings and our preaching activity—not to mention daily school routines and vacations. But with many prayers, my husband and I learned to take one day at a time and began to accept our new responsibilities.

We have found a wonderful doctor who specializes in endocrinology and who is always available to help with our concerns, even keeping in touch via E-mail. We make visits to his office a regular part of our schedule. Seeing him every three months for checkups not only lets us check on the progress of Sonya’s condition but also reassures us that we are doing all we can for her.

As could be expected, our son had a hard time coping with all the attention given to his sister. Others in the congregation as well as his teacher at school recognized this and helped him to keep busy and to see that adjustments had to be made. Now he has become a big help in keeping an eye on Sonya. As her parents, we sometimes had a tendency to be overprotective and to have exaggerated fears for her well-being. We have found that the best way to prevent these fears is to research the disease and learn what it can actually do to the body.

How Are We Now?

We often talk about Jehovah’s promises and about the time soon when sickness will be merely a distant memory. (Isaiah 33:24) Until then, it is our goal as a family to keep active in serving Jehovah, having as full a share as possible in speaking to others about the blessings of God’s Kingdom. We also try our best to be regular at congregation meetings.

A few years ago, my husband was offered a temporary, secular work assignment in Israel. In view of Sonya’s medical situation, we considered the move carefully and prayed about it. We decided that with proper preparation, including finding the correct diet for Sonya, such a move might even allow for spiritual blessings. For a year and a half, it was our privilege to be part of the Tel Aviv English Congregation. We enjoyed a completely different form of preaching, and it was a wonderful learning experience for our family.

The few simple words “Your daughter has diabetes!” turned our lives upside down. But instead of giving in to despair, we made the physical well-being of our daughter a family project, and this has brought us even closer together. Jehovah, “the God of all comfort,” has helped us to cope. (2 Corinthians 1:3)—As told by Cindy Herd.

[Footnote]

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What Is Diabetes?

Our bodies convert the food we eat into energy that we can use. This function is as essential as breathing. In the stomach and the intestines, food is broken down into more basic elements, including a type of sugar, glucose. The pancreas reacts to sugar by producing insulin, which helps the sugar pass into the body cells. Then the sugar can be burned for energy.

When a person has diabetes, either his pancreas does not produce enough insulin or his body does not utilize insulin well. As a result, the sugar in the bloodstream cannot pass into the body’s cells to be utilized. Explains the book Understanding Insulin Dependent Diabetes: “The blood sugar then rises to a high level and overflows through the kidney into the urine.” Untreated diabetics may experience frequent urination and other symptoms.

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Type 1 Diabetes

This type of diabetes was previously known as juvenile diabetes, since it is the type found mostly in children and young adults. But it can afflict people of any age. While the cause of diabetes is not known, there are various factors that some believe are linked to Type 1 diabetes:

1. Inheritance (genetic)

2. Autoimmunity (the body becomes allergic to one of its own tissues or types of cells—in this case, in the pancreas)

3. Environmental (viral or chemical)

It is possible that viral infections and other factors result in damage to islet cells (the groups of cells within the pancreas where the insulin is made). As more and more islet cells are destroyed, the person moves closer to having diabetes.

Diabetics exhibit a number of symptoms:

1. Frequent urination

2. Extreme thirst

3. Frequent hunger; the body is hungry for the energy it isn’t getting

4. Weight loss. When the body can’t get sugar into its cells, it burns its own fat and protein for energy, resulting in weight loss

5. Irritability. If the diabetic is getting up frequently at night to urinate, he cannot sleep soundly. Behavior changes may result

In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas is producing little or no insulin. In such cases, insulin must be taken daily, usually by injection (insulin is destroyed in the stomach if taken orally).

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Type 2 Diabetes

Not to be confused with Type 1 diabetes, it is a condition in which the body is not producing enough insulin or is not using it efficiently. It is the most common type in adults over the age of 40 and tends to come on more gradually. There is a hereditary component to this illness, and it is often worsened by improper diet or by overweight. In many cases pills can be used, at least initially, to stimulate the pancreas to make more insulin. The pills are not insulin.

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Dangers of Diabetes

The body needs fuel to keep it going. If it is unable to utilize glucose, it turns to body fats and protein. However, when the body burns fat, waste products called ketones are formed. Ketones build up in the blood and spill into the urine. Because these ketones are more acidic than healthy body tissues, high blood levels of ketones may lead to a serious condition called ketoacidosis.

It is also dangerous for a diabetic when his blood sugar falls below the normal range (hypoglycemia). The diabetic is alerted to this condition by unpleasant symptoms. He may feel shaky, sweaty, tired, hungry, irritable, or confused or have a rapid heartbeat, blurred vision, headaches, numbness, or tingling around the mouth and lips. He may even go into seizures or pass out. Proper diet and regulated eating times can often prevent such problems.

If the symptoms listed above do occur, taking in simple sugars, perhaps some fruit juice or glucose tablets, may bring the blood sugar back to a safer level until other food can be eaten. In severe cases, glucagon must be given by injection. This is a hormone that promotes the release of stored sugar from the liver, which will raise the blood sugar. The parent of a diabetic child would want to inform the child’s school and bus driver or day-care provider about the child’s condition.

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Long-Term Complications

A person with diabetes may experience long-term complications, including heart attack, stroke, eye problems, kidney disease, foot or leg problems, and frequent infections. These complications are caused by damage to blood vessels, damage to nerves, and inability to fight infections. Not all diabetics, however, develop these long-term problems.

Keeping blood-sugar levels close to the normal range may delay or reduce the harmful effects of these complications. In addition, keeping weight and blood pressure levels in normal range and not smoking may be very effective ways to reduce risks. The diabetic must get plenty of exercise, maintain a proper diet, and stay on his prescribed medication.

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The Herd family