World Diabetes Day

Tomorrow is World Diabetes Day. I didn't actually realize there was a World Diabetes day until JoyFM listeners, Kim and Kamryn Lampfert asked me if I would wear a blue circle with them. I also didn't know that the blue circle was the symbol for diabetes awareness. I told the Lampferts I would be happy to wear one of the pins. I will be traveling tomorrow so unable to share this on the air but thought I'd share it here. The Lampferts also sent me a list of  facts about type 1 diabetes these are good for people to know.

1. Type 1 diabetes has no known cure. It is an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks beta cells in the pancreas.
2. When a person's blood sugar is low it's difficult for them to think. During a low blood sugar, the brain literally doesn't have the fuel it needs to function properly. 
3. When a person's blood sugar is high or low, they may also have extreme emotions such as crying easily and being short tempered. 
4. People with type 1 diabetes do not make their own insulin and must it via injection or insulin pump. They would die without it. 
5. Insulin is not a cure for type 1 diabetes. It keeps people with diabetes alive, but it does not make it go away. 
6. In many parts of the world a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in a child is a death sentence. Access to insulin and testing supplies is limited in some developing nations. 
7. When at a birthday party and guessing carb counts, an average homemade cupcake or 3" piece of cake has approximately 30-35 grams of carbs. 
8. Diabetes is just one aspect of a child with type 1. Of course take care of medical needs but try to make them feel like a kid first and foremost. 
9. The cupcake is the unofficial symbol of the diabetes community. Why? Because people with type 1 diabetes CAN eat them as long as they have insulin. 
10. Minimally, a person with type 1 diabetes checks his/her blood sugar 4 times a day. That's more than 1,460 painful finger sticks a year. 
11. In one year, a person with type 1 diabetes (not on a pump) will give him/herself a minimum of 1,460 injections
12. Type 1 diabetes was formerly called "juvenile diabetes," a misnomer because children don't outgrow it when they become adults.

Thanks to this family for making me aware about the Blue circle and effort to educate people about this Chronic disease that takes more lives each year than the more colorful diseases.