Day 2

I had a hard time deciding what would be next. So let’s start with the basics. The difference between Type 1 and Type 2. As I said yesterday Type 1 is an autoimmune disease, my immune system got a little overzealous and attacked itself and the part of my pancreas that produces insulin, these little really important cells called islet cells that produce that o so important hormone called insulin. So Type 1 diabetics NEED INSULIN TO SURVIVE. That is right folks, without it we die. I am talking within a day or days… I am not saying this to be scary, this is just my everyday reality. There is no amount of cinnamon, pharmaceutical pill, or whatever herb that will replace insulin.. non… nada… zip!  Type 2 is a little different because it is an insulin resistance. Ok let’s say you have a nice fire that burns fuel, (your body breaking down food and carbs), and you keep putting way to much fuel on the fire, everyday, all the time. What happens when you add to much wood to a fire? It chokes out right? That is literally what happens with Type 2, people eat to much of low quality food chuck full of carbohydrates and their body just can’t do it. Their body freaks out and just can’t keep up and utilize the insulin that is being created. Also a lot of times, but not all the time, they live a very sedentary lifestyle, and we also know fires need air and air flow to burn. Our bodies sooo want to work and stay alive. They are hard wired to work, we if treat them properly and don’t have a disease. So a lot of times Type 2 can be controlled by diet and exercise. Please note not all Type 2 is caused by a poor quality diet. There of course other causes of Type 2, such as drug induced Type 2, and of course  gestational diabetes to name a couple.  So should they have different names so it would be less confusing? HELL YES! But that would cause trillions of dollars and everyone would just resort back to the latter…

30 Days with Type 1 Diabetes

So I began this as a tribute to November being National Diabetes Month. I jumped the gun a bit and began in October because a. I couldn’t wait, and b. I hoped if I began early may be more people would be a little bit more of aware of what life is like with T1D before November started. I am doing these posts on my FB and decided to open it up to more individuals and access through a blog. All of these posts have already been posted. I also plan on going more than 30 days here because there is no way I could ever compile it all in 30 days… ever. So I hope you enjoy it. Here it goes.

So I have been contemplating this for a while and some recent events have made me decide to start. So November is national diabetes awareness month. Yes, I know if it is only October but I really feel I need to start now. I have had Type 1 for almost 15 years, and still it amazes me how much people don’t know. I have had a friend with Type 1 go to the hospital 3 times in the last couple of days to be treated for DKA, which is when you don’t have a sufficient amount of insulin in your body and your body starts break down its own tissues for food and you build acid up in your blood. If it goes on for too long or your acid levels become too high you die. All 3 times she received inadequate treatment and checked herself out. SO, where am I going with all this? For 30 days I am going to share a fact about Type 1 and living with it. Some of the facts aren’t pretty, but this is my everyday reality. You don’t have to read these if you don’t want to but I really feel that I need to share.  Day 1, Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease, meaning I have a dysfunctional gene or genes that cause my body to attack the part of my pancreas that produces insulin. Autoimmune diseases are hereditary, but usually family don’t share the same disease, to name a few, Lupus, RA, MS, Parkinson’s, Hashimoto’s Disease.