T1D Complications. Complications may seem like such a mild word but in the world of T1D it is anything but. For me complications are one of the more serious and dire parts of this disease, with death being the worst of the complications. Ok, are you ready? Here we go. Let’s start with kidney disease and failure. T1D can be very hard on the kidneys. Any time the BG is over 250 it makes the kidney’s filter an abundance of blood. If they have to continue to work hard and they start to leak protein, which is then eliminated from the body through urine. Every 6-12 months a T1D has to have a urine test done to check for microalbumin levels, excess blood protein in the urine, to make sure their kidneys are functioning properly. Fun fact, if you go do this right after you exercise you might have some protein in the urine resulting from the exercise and then that create a false positive, then you get to do a 24 hour urine…. Meaning you get to collect ALL of your pee for 24 hours, in a jug, then return it to the lab. If you have never had the pleasure of doing this, man you are missing out on a good time.

Next, Diabetic Retinopathy, an eye disease that is the result of high BG. Again when your BG is high it weakens the blood vessels. This can cause the vessels in your eyes to swell, leak, close off, or cause new abnormal vessels to develop. This all affects your eyesight, with the extreme result of a detached retina. Social media has actually been very good and helpful in the T1D world. We can now reach out to each other, and tell our stories. I recently was reading a story a 25-year-old girl wrote about not controlling her BG and living/doing whatever she wanted. She has had T1D since she was young, and by the time she was 21 she had full-blown retinopathy and could no longer see. Yes, 21. This is happening more often than you would think. This is one of the many, many reasons why I decided to do this. We need to talk about these things, for other T1ds and also for everyone else.

Heart Disease is next on the docket. Though they are still unsure of why exactly T1D are at a higher risk of a heart attack, this is definitely the case. The fact that high BG weakens atrial walls, thickens the blood, and makes the blood kind of sticky doesn’t help. Also, as T1Ds we tend to create higher levels of cholesterol in our bodies to act as a “protectant” for our organs. There is also concern that if a T1D with poor BG control were to have a heart attack they may not even feel it do to neuropathy, which nerve damage.

So next is neuropathy. As I said neuropathy is nerve damage. It is most common to have foot neuropathy for T1Ds. This type is caused by high BG causing inadequate blood flow to the feet. Arms and hands are another common area for T1Ds to have neuropathy. Common symptoms of are tingling, burning, and numbness. It can also result in amputation. One of the reasons amputation may happen because if you have nerve damage and can’t feel if you have an injury, they injury may come infected and you don’t even know. The scary thing is neuropathy can happen wherever there are nerves… which is everywhere, your heart, lungs, digestive system, eyes, arms, legs, feet, hands.

Gastroparesis is next, and this is the slowing of digestion and emptying in the stomach. As you can imagine gastroparesis can cause all sorts of issues, like acid reflux, abdominal pain, weight loss/lack of nutrition, and elevated BGs. Yes it can cause your BG to go up.

Seizures. So as a result of very low BGs, a T1D can have seizures, and quite a few. The seizures usually happen either right before or right after they become unconscious from a low BG.

So there you have it and these are just some of the complications, not all. There are a couple of fun foot issues that can happen too, like Charcot foot. This is when the bone in your foot breaks and due to neuropathy you can’t feel it and continue to walk thus resulting in pushing joints out-of-place or bones out of the side of your foot. YIKES is right. The really crazy is as a T1D all of these complications are on my mind all of the time. Even though I take care of myself, it doesn’t mean I am immune to them. So. This. Is. Why. I. EXERCISE. This is why I work hard everyday. Again I just want to be able to live the best life I can live. I want to take care of myself so my loved ones don’t have to take care of me. I would be like to die of old age with all my fingers and toes. Pretty real shit huh?