Dealing with diabetes
Published Wednesday November 25th, 2009
Katie Chedore was two months shy of her 10th birthday when she got very sick one night. It took a trip to the emergency room and a number of tests before she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
"The only thing that I was thinking was that Stacey in the Baby-Sitters Club books had diabetes," she remembers. "I was also wondering why my mom was suddenly in tears."
While her mother knew the hard road ahead, Chedore had no idea what the diagnosis meant. Ten is young to have to come to terms with things like giving yourself regular needles and counting carbohydrates.
As she got older, she admits her anger at the situation grew. She wanted to be like everyone else and hated being singled out.
One of the best things to happen to her, says Chedore, has been her insulin pump.
"It just gives you so much freedom. I was up to five needles a day - and that was a lot, day after day," she says. The pump holds enough for three days. "So just one every three days, and then you have something that is connected to you. Plus the control, you get so much better control on the pump."
Recently, she says, she has been able to come to terms with having type 1 diabetes.
"I don't know if it's because I grew up, that I got older, but it's definitely God because it changed from my being angry at Him. I was mad for so long that He wouldn't heal me or why me, why did this have to happen, but it changed," she says. "This is who I am and I'm this way for a reason."
Chedore feels much lighter now than she used to.
"Everyone will react differently. But ultimately, the people I've talked to get to a place where (they think), 'This is who I am.'"
When others forget about her diabetes, she doesn't consider it a big deal - she never has - she just hates when people turn it into one.
"Me personally, I didn't ever like people making a big deal about it," she says.
"And questions are OK. People would always shy away from asking questions, but I love explaining it."
Despite the fact that diabetes is on the rise, Chedore finds that many don't really understand what having it means.
"People do not know very much about diabetes," she notes, and what they do know tends to apply to type 2 diabetes.
According to the Canadian Diabetes Association website, there are three main types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, usually diagnosed in children and adolescents, occurs when the pancreas is unable to produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that ensures body energy needs are met. Approximately 10 per cent of people with diabetes have type 1 diabetes.
The remaining 90 per cent have type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body does not effectively use the insulin that is produced. Type 2 diabetes usually develops in adulthood, although increasing numbers of children in high-risk populations are being diagnosed.
A third type of diabetes, gestational diabetes, is a temporary condition that occurs during pregnancy.
It affects approximately 3.7 per cent of all pregnancies in the non-Aboriginal population and eight to 18 per cent of all pregnancies in the Aboriginal population, and involves an increased risk of developing diabetes for both mother and child.
If left untreated or improperly managed, diabetes can result in a variety of complications, including heart disease, kidney disease, eye disease and nerve damage.
November is a great time to learn more about diabetes as this is Diabetes Month. This year's theme honours diabetes champions, says Jake Reid, regional director with the New Brunswick region of the Canadian Diabetes Association.
"We're trying to encourage people who we consider to be diabetes champions to talk about their stories," he says. "This includes people who have diabetes, family members, parents of children with diabetes, also donors and supporters of the organization, to tell their stories because that's part of that education and awareness about what diabetes is."
What better way to explain diabetes than to share the stories of those who have it or are affected by it, he says.
"There are over 55,000 people in New Brunswick that have diabetes. That number is increasing all the time. And those are just people we know that have diabetes," says Reid.
When he first came to work with the Canadian Diabetes Association, less than five years ago, the association was saying over two million people in Canada had diabetes.
"Now, as of today, over three million people have diabetes. It's increased that much in a very short period of time," he says. "That's why we talk more and more about getting the message out there, that diabetes is serious, that you can certainly live with it, but that more and more people are acquiring it, that more and more people need assistance."
It's a serious disease that needs to be taken seriously, he says.
"We're talking more about prevention, which is great, but I think we need to talk more about managing diabetes as so many people have diabetes now."
There are a number of reasons why diabetes is on the rise, including the fact that we have an aging population.
"Lifestyle certainly affects diabetes. If people have high calorie diets and are less active, we've got to turn that around," says Reid.
"And the other thing that probably goes unnoticed is that there are people who are more susceptible to diabetes, such as (those with) Asian backgrounds, Aboriginal backgrounds, African Americans. When we look at the number of new Canadians who are coming to this country, they are coming from areas that are more susceptible to diabetes."
We have to recognize these things and realize how it is impacting our health-care system, he says.
"But it's a quiet disease in some ways, especially type 2. Katie and people with type 1 are a little more vocal, but people who are a little older who get diabetes, I think there is a little bit of a shame factor, so it quietly moves through families," says Reid.
"The other thing is that people pass away from complications from diabetes, but we don't say that they died from diabetes. They die from heart and stroke, they die from kidney failure, they die from other contributing factors that are really as a result of their diabetes, so it doesn't seem like sometimes there is the immediacy of the seriousness of diabetes."
If you have diabetes, you can help raise awareness by sharing your story with others. A great place to do this is at www.worlddiabetes.ca, where there is a champion's gallery.
As for the general public, they can listen to these stories or they can support the association in other ways.
"Right now is when we regularly do our door-to-door campaign, so if people are at their door, we hope they contribute and support our cause," says Reid.
"We have lots of little things happening (this month). For example, here in Fredericton, Samosa Delight is giving part of the proceeds from the sale of their samosas at the market."
To learn more about diabetes, visit www.diabetes.ca or to read the stories of diabetes champions, visit www.worlddiabetes.ca.
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