Type one diabetes is an autoimmune disease.It is also called juvenile diabetes but it can also develop in adulthood. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you should know I have a son who has type one diabetes. This auto immune disease causes antibodies to attack the insulin producing parts of the pancreas.

Type one diabetes is an autoimmune disease where antibodies can be tested for. It does not tell you if you have it but if you have a chance of getting it. It can be triggered by an illness or virus.

What happened?

As many of you know, about 1.5 years ago our whole family had covid. This was before we were all vaccinated. This was before potato was born (fun fact: her mother was covid positive when she was born and she was covid negative).

A few months after we all recovered from COVID, my partner went for his normal yearly bloodwork. He logged in and asked me to read bloodwork. It showed his glucose was high. I saw he had diabetes before the doctor did.

Soon after the bloodwork came back, he talked to the doctor. The doctor told him that he had borderline type 2. They did not want to hear that his biological brother has type 1 and there is a high chance of siblings having it if one already did.

The doctor put him on a medication called metformin that decreases insulin resistance. He checked his blood sugar daily and changed his eating habits. They refused him a referral to an endocrinologist.

His blood sugar was still running high and they were ignoring him. One doctor at the practice even told him its because he is overweight. He isn’t even that much overweight. He saw that the doctor was little on the heavier side too. “You don’t have room to talk.” The doctor went silent and left the room.

He just had his bloodwork done last week, and his fasting glucose was over 300. They called him for an appointment right away. A different doctor saw him. HIs first reaction was “what did they do?” A few of the tests that were supposed to be done were not done. They told him he may have type one because the medication was not helping with his blood sugar at all.

My partner asked,”You going to send me to an endocrinologist NOW?! I don’t want to sit on it any more.” The doctor thinks this was triggered by COVID.

They wrote him the referral, sent out for more blood, but the soonest appointment for that is in two weeks. This infuriates me because there is a lot of kidney failure in his family. His mom, his father, brother and grandfather. Our son N was born with VUR.

After the appointment,he told me he lost 20 pounds in 2 months, have been really thirsty and urinating a lot. He told me the first thing he will say to the endocrinologist is that he wants a deacon because he doesn’t want finger sticks. I laughed a little. He also told me he has been checking ketones regularly because he has seen how sick A has gotten in the past.

Since we have to wait 2 weeks for the bloodwork, he is monitoring his blood sugar and ketones until he can get to an endocrinologist and get what he needs. I will update as things progress.

The Signs of Type 1 Diabetes

• Increased thirst
• frequent urination
• bed wetting in children who previously didn’t wet the bed
• Extreme hunger
• unintended weight loss
• irritability and other mood changes
• fatigue and weakness
• blurred vision

Please if you have a combination of these, get checked. Looking a this list of symptoms, he has had most of them. Type one diabetes is a fatal condition, if not properly treated. Thank goodness that we have experience with it to keep my partner safe until he can get to a specialist. I would hate to know what would happen with people who had no idea. The fact that they let it go for so long with no specialist is scary.